Just when it seemed Westminster was settling into a long summer of party-elections, Andrea Leadsom, one of the leadership contestants, withdrew from the race to succeed David Cameron, making Theresa May the only and the final Prime Ministerial candidate.
As we went to press on Tuesday, Asian Voice learnt that Mr Cameron will attend his last Question Time as the Prime Minister of Britain and then head to the Buckingham Palace to hand over his resignation to the Queen.
The Queen who is currently staying at Sandringham is due to be back in London on Wednesday by 1pm, delaying the meeting with Mr Cameron for the formal handover. She has to appoint the new Prime Minister to lead her government and once Theresa May takes over, she would be the 13th Prime Minister under the Queen's reign.
This makes Theresa May the second woman PM Britain will have and from the Tory party.
Now constantly compared with Britain's first woman PM, Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving Home Secretary, Ms May promised to build a "better Britain" as the PM and has pledged to “forge a new role” for Britain outside the EU. Speaking outside Parliament, Mrs May said she was "honoured and humbled" to succeed David Cameron. A Remain camp supporter her statement 'Brexit means Brexit'-has been the first clear leadership message after the EU Referendum.
Andrea Leadsom who initially had an edge above Mrs May stood down allegedly after her comment in Times about children misfired, though she claims she was misquoted.
After she meets the Queen, PM May will:
Appoint a Cabinet: One of Mrs May's first steps will be to appoint her top team. It will be interesting to see if she offers Andrea Leadsom a role in her Cabinet.
Mrs May aides said her chosen cabinet would be about “unity and stability”. The Telegraph pointed out, Leading Leave campaigners including Liam Fox, David Davis and Chris Grayling are expected to feature prominently on the new cabinet. Chris Grayling will likely be rewarded for chairing Mrs May’s successful campaign by replacing her as Home Secretary.
George Osborne is not expected to continue as Chancellor and Michael Gove will likely be pushed to the back benches after his failed leadership bid. He could still see him offered Hammond’s position as Foreign Secretary or possibly Business Secretary.
Many believe Mrs May will make history by appointing Britain’s first female Defence Secretary. Likely candidates include Amber Rudd, Anna Soubry or Penny Mordaunt.
Current education minister and Brexiter, Priti Patel, is also expected to feature prominently in May’s cabinet.
Stephen Crabb is also expected to land a top cabinet position. Despite being an early leadership rival, Crabb was quick to drop out and back May’s campaign.
The political fate of May’s other short-lived leadership rival Boris Johnson also hangs in the balance.
As the face of the Brexit campaign – alongside Nigel Farage – he would be a valuable ally for May.
Other key members in her campaign include Alan Duncan, Brandon Lewis, Michael Ellis, Gavin Williamson, Sam Gyimah, Richard Harrington.
She is also expected to create a dedicated Brexit minster to assist with negotiations.
Getting on with Brexit: Although Mrs May has said that she would not trigger Article 50, the formal process for leaving the European Union, until 2017, she has to now initiate the process of Brexit. The prospect of Prime Minister May is the best news Brussels has had since June 23.
The power vacuum that opened up in Britain in the week after the Brexit vote gravely alarmed the 27 remaining members. The deal will not be easy, but they are desperate for assurances that an agreement can be achieved that does not result in a messy and economically ruinous exit from the EU.
The exit process will be terrifyingly fast - just two years to cover the full breadth of EU law and trade policy - and will see Britain negotiate from a position of weakness with the clock against it.
Theresa May is known in Brussels - as the former Home Secretary, as she has attended regular justice and home affairs summits for six years.
Renewing Trident: One of the first major jobs of her government will be to carry out a parliamentary vote on the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent on Monday July 18 before Parliament breaks up for the summer recess.
Call a snap general election? Theresa May has previously said that she would not call a snap general election but she is already facing calls from every political party for one. They argue that she does not even have the mandate of Conservative Party members, let alone voters.
Ms May and India relationship
Theresa May visited India only once in 2012, but she is already well known in the country for her strict immigration policies for the UK. During her visit, she addressed the top officers in the National Police Academy in Hyderabad in November 2012, mentioning how she incorporated the lessons of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in Britain’s security forces.
Mrs May is expected to continue Cameron’s focus on India, particularly given that the Brexit camp promised trade ties with India, China and the Commonwealth after leaving the EU.
Conservative MP Alok Sharma told Asian Voice: “Prime Minister David Cameron was responsible for successfully taking the UK-India relationship to the next level and I am absolutely confident that under Prime Minister Theresa May the special relationship between the two great nations will grow and prosper further. Theresa May is a hugely respected and experienced politician who recognises the fantastic potential for significantly increasing bi-lateral trade between the UK and India. In Theresa May, India will find a very good friend and speaking partner with a real ‘can-do’ attitude.”
Though Mrs May has not engage much in Parliamentary debates on any issues related to India, in 2013 she infuriated the Indian government by including India in a list of five countries whose citizens were to be subjected to a visa bond of £3000 for as tourists in the UK, to be refunded after they returned to their countries. The scheme was dropped in November 2013, after much backlash.
In April 2012, she closed the post-study work visa, which was popular among self-financing Indian students, resulting into a sharp drop in the number of Indian students coming to the UK.
She received much praise for closing down bogus colleges that allegedly enrolled a large number of Indian and other non-EU students and has since resisted much pressure from universities and others to ease curbs on student visas. Her imposition of salary thresholds for those seeking permanent residence after a five-year stay, and for British nationals seeking to bring non-EU spouses to the country are currently facing legal challenge.
Thousands of Indians were also affected when her department took action, after flaws in an English-language test centre were applied to all who had taken the mandatory exam for visa purposes, and cancelled their results. This was ultimately struck down in court.
Earlier this year, Mrs May dropped the pro-Khalistan International Sikh Youth Federation from the list of banned organisations in a move that “disappointed” New Delhi, while she continued to delay deciding on the extradition of wanted Indians such as Tiger Hanif.
Besides politics, Mrs May and her husband Philip John May are known to be keen cricket fans. They were introduced at an Oxford Conservative disco by former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1976, which was May’s first year at university. Ms May is believed to often quietly attend Indian festivals in Maidenhead- her constituency.
Quick glance at the new PM's bio:
- Theresa May was born in the seaside town of Eastbourne to a vicar, Reverend Hubert Brasier, and his wife, Zaidee.
The Daily Express wrote that the Home Secretary said that her upbringing gave her a sense of public duty that continues to be a key driving force for her.
She said: “I grew up the daughter of a local vicar and the granddaughter of a regimental sergeant major. Public service has been a part of who I am for as long as I can remember.”
- Mrs May studied at a local grammar school before going to Oxford University and working for the Bank of England for a number of years.
- She has long been the most powerful Conservative woman in British politics. She is one of the longest-serving home secretaries in history.
- She first developed a passion for putting policies into action after being elected to Merton Borough Council in 1986.
- The new Prime Minister was first elected as MP of Maidenhead in 1997 after previously failing to win seats in Durham and Barking.
- The MP was quickly appointed to William Hague’s shadow cabinet and she became the first female chairman of the Conservative Party in 2002. She famously told the Conservatives that they had to change their ways in order to stop being the “Nasty Party".
- The Tory MP met her husband, Philip May, a Conservative Association dance while studying geography at Oxford University.
- She has spoken about their heartbreak over the fact that they cannot have children, adding: "You have to accept the hand that life deals you.
- Mrs May, who has Type 1 diabetes, has to inject herself with insulin twice a day but says it is "a case of just getting on with it".
