A political era ended Monday – unexpectedly and without an election – as Prime Minister David Cameron said he will step down in two days in favor of Theresa May, a senior member of his Cabinet who will become Britain’s second female leader.
Cameron announced his resignation last month because he backed the losing side in a referendum for Britain to leave the European Union. So did May – but infighting, bad timing and cold feet among leaders of the victorious “leave” campaign means that she will have the task of leading a divided country out of the EU.
The latest chapter in the political turmoil spawned by the EU vote moved with breathtaking speed.
On Monday morning, there were two candidates to lead the governing Conservative Party. At noon, Andrea Leadsom stepped down, making May leader-in-waiting. By late afternoon, Cameron had announced that May would be moving into 10 Downing Street within 48 hours.
Cameron, who has governed since May 2010, said he would offer his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday after attending a final session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. The monarch will then invite May – as leader of a party with a majority in Parliament – to lead a new government.
Speaking outside Parliament surrounded by Conservative colleagues, May said she was “honored and humbled” to have been chosen the party’s new leader.
May, 59, is one of the most experienced ministers in Cameron’s Cabinet, serving for six years in the notoriously difficult job of home secretary, akin to the interior minister’s post in other countries. She has a reputation for solid, unflashy competence and for prevailing over her rivals. Former Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke was caught on microphone last week telling a colleague, “Theresa’s a bloody difficult woman – but you and I worked for Margaret Thatcher.”
May’s honeymoon may be short-lived. She faces the possibly insurmountable challenge of negotiating a new relationship with the EU that can satisfy Brexit-supporting Britons, disappointed “remain” voters and the 27 remaining members of the bloc. She will have to balance access to the EU’s single market, which the economy has come to rely on, with immigration controls that the “leave” campaign promised.
“She is in a position of leading a country which wants to have its cake and eat it – which wants to leave the EU but yet have access to the single market without free movement of people,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. “The idea that she is going to be able to satisfy everybody I think is far-fetched. That reckoning is two years or so down the line, but it is a reckoning that will eventually come.”