Theresa May is the last woman standing in the Conservative leadership race and is now moving in to 10 Downing Street to take the top job in British politics.
She is the second woman to jump into the hot seat as Prime Minister – the first was Margaret Thatcher, also a Tory.
Besides having gender, job and the Conservatives in common, the comparison ends there.
Theresa May has enjoyed a long career in politics without event – remarkable as the longer someone spends at Westminster, the more likely is someone will dig the dirt or stab them in the back.
May is regarded as a safe pair of hands for the Tories.
What she has to do
Experienced, tough and capable are the words bandied about by her supporters.
She comes to the job unopposed with a huge pile of urgent papers stacked in her inbox.
- First is as a leave campaigner, uniting her party behind her standard.
- Next she has to tackle the economy in the wake of the Brexit referendum
- Then, she has to scrutinise the thousands of rules generated from the European parliament to decide what to ditch and what to keep – a mammoth task for any politician
- Last and by no means least, she has to trigger Article 50 to uncouple Britain from the European Union and negotiate trade deals with our former partners and the rest of the world
Somewhere in there she has to pick a cabinet and make the decisions necessary to run the country.
Private life
That’s what she has to do, but what does the world know about Theresa May?
She has sat as MP for Maidenhead, Berkshire, since 1997. In 2010, she was appointed Home Secretary and has remained in the post until her elevation to Prime Minister.
She is 59, born in Eastbourne and a graduate who studied geography at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Her father was an Anglican priest
May is married to Philip, an investment banker, and has no children.
Besides minor roles as a shadow minister, she chaired the Tory Party in 2002 and also held the role of Minister for Women and Equalities.
