Brexit brings down May, Johnson stakes leadership claim

PM Theresa may

Theresa May is the second woman to serve as prime minister of the U.K.; the first was Margaret Thatcher. May took over from David Cameron in 2016. She was previously the home secretary, serving in the post from 2010 to 2016.
Take a look at some career highlights from the political stalwart's life.

May was born to Church of England Vicar Hubert Brasier and his wife Zaidee Mary on Oct. 1, 1956, in Eastbourne, England. She went on to study geography at Oxford University and started working for the Bank of England. She was introduced to her future husband, Philip May (pictured), at a Conservative Association disco at Oxford. The two wed in 1980 and have no children.

She began her political journey in 1986, when she became a councilor for the London Borough of Merton. She also contested the 1992 general election - from a Labour Party seat in North West Durham - in which she lost. However, she was elected Member of Parliament for Maidenhead in the 1997 election and focused on improving local train services and the town center.

May joined William Hague’s front-bench opposition team as a Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women, holding the post from 1998 to 1999. She was made a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 1999 and, till 2010, held positions like Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment and Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government, and the Regions.

In 2002, she became the first female Chairman of the Conservative Party. At a conference speech, she called for the party to broaden its base, saying, “You know what some people call us — the nasty party.” Her stint as party chair was not long. She was replaced by Lord Saatchi and Liam Fox in 2003, to which she joked, "Yes, it takes two men to step into the shoes of one woman.” The same year, she joined the Privy Council, a formal body of advisers to the Queen.

In 2005, Cameron (pictured) was elected Conservative Party leader and appointed May as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. She climbed the ranks of power in the party and by 2009 assumed charge as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

After the 2010 election, then-prime minister Cameron appointed her as home secretary, making her only the second woman to hold the post and the fourth to take charge of one of the four Great Offices of State in the U.K. Her time in the Home Office was marked by reforms in immigration policy and national security and a hardline drug policy.

May promised a crackdown on immigration and even rejected a mandatory European Union refugee quota system. During her tenure, a billboard campaign that warned illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest” was met with severe backlash.

It was with the Brexit vote to pull out of the European Union that May climbed another political high. After Cameron – who campaigned to remain in the EU – stepped down as prime minister in 2016, May became leader of the Conservative Party and was chosen to succeed Cameron as prime minister.

At age 59, she was the oldest leader to become a prime minister after James Callaghan, who was 64 when he took up the post. She is also the 13th prime minister during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II since her coronation.

Though she supported the Remain campaign (which favored Britain’s continued membership of the EU), after becoming prime minister she confirmed the country’s departure from the union. "Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it. There will be no attempts to remain inside the EU. No attempts to rejoin it by the back door. No second referendum. The country voted to leave the European Union, and as prime minister, I will make sure we leave the European Union," she said.

Although the official residence of the prime minister is 10 Downing Street, May has followed the trend set by her predecessors – Tony Blair first made the swap in 1997 and ever since subsequent leaders have followed – and moved into the bigger apartment, 11 Downing Street.

In April 2017, she announced a snap election even though she had previously ruled out its possibility. However, the move backfired and the Conservative party lost its overall majority in the Parliament. Later, she said they lost as they weren’t ready for it.

A staunch feminist, she co-founded Women2Win, a campaign to elect more Conservative women to the Parliament, with Baroness Jenkin in 2015.
(Pictured) With members of England women’s cricket and rugby teams in London on Aug. 29, 2017.

As a politician, May has come to be known for her stylish dressing sense and her love for kitten heels as much as for her policies. She has admitted, "I like clothes and I like shoes. One of the challenges for women in the workplace is to be ourselves and I say you can be clever and like clothes. You can have a career and like clothes.”

With an impending Brexit looming over the U.K., on Dec. 10, 2018, May announced the postponement of a parliamentary vote on the Brexit deal negotiated by her with the EU. Such a delay triggered a vote of confidence in the Conservative Party on Dec. 12, 2018. May won a vote of confidence in her leadership by 200 to 117.

On Jan. 15, 2019, British lawmakers rejected Theresa May's Brexit deal, by 432 votes to 202. CNN noted that the record-setting margin of defeat means the Prime Minister now faces a deep political crisis with no clear way forward. Following the defeat, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a no-confidence vote in May's government, which the Prime Minister survived by a 325 to 306 majority on Jan. 16.

(Pictured) Prime Minister Theresa May sits down in Parliament after the vote on May's Brexit deal, in London, England, Jan. 15, 2019.

On March 12, 2019, a second parliamentary vote on May's amended EU withdrawal deal suffered a defeat after MPs voted 391 to 242 to reject it. The following day, MPs voted against the idea of leaving the EU without a deal, by 321 to 278. 
(Pictured) Anti Brexit demonstrators protest in the rain ahead of the meaningful vote in Parliament on March 12 in London, England. 

On May 27, 2019, May told Conservative lawmakers that she would step down if Parliament approved her plan for withdrawal from the European Union. “I know there is a desire for a new approach, and new leadership, in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, and I won’t stand in the way of that," the prime minister said. She did not specify when she would step down. 

On May 24, 2019, Theresa May declared in a statement in front of 10 Downing Street that she would step down as Prime Minister on June 7, 2019, amid increasing pressure from the Conservative party and frustration over her inability to deliver on Brexit. "It is a matter of great regret for me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit" she said, adding; "it has been the honour of my life... to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love".

LONDON (Reuters) - Fighting back tears, Theresa May said on Friday she would quit after failing to deliver Brexit, setting up a contest that will install a new British prime minister who could pursue a cleaner break with the European Union.
May’s departure deepens the Brexit crisis as a new leader, who should be in place by the end of July, is likely to want a more decisive split, raising the chances of a confrontation with the EU and potentially a snap parliamentary election.
Former foreign minister Boris Johnson, the favourite to replace May, was first out of the blocks, saying Britain should be prepared to leave the EU without a deal to force the bloc to offer a “good deal