Theresa May: Britain’s new PM is all set for day one

Her low profile during the intense Brexit debate has helped to propel Theresa May into No 10 Downing Street.

Theresa May has fulfilled the difficult role of Home secretary for six years. s

After all the larger-than-life characters who dominated the contest to become Britain’s next prime minister, the winner turned out to be an understated — though rather Helen Mirren-esque — workhorse with a low profile on Brexit.

Theresa May is not well known internationally, but she has served for six years in one of Britain’s toughest jobs, that of Home Secretary, and has played a vital role in the country’s counter-terrorism policy. The 59-year-old May will now take charge of delicate negotiations to separate Britain from the European Union.

She was less visible than Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and former London mayor Boris Johnson, but she proved to be the stealth candidate, outmanoeuvring both in the intense competition to follow David Cameron at 10 Downing Street.

During the referendum campaign, Osborne was passionate about remaining in the EU, and lost his leadership hopes when voters turned the other way. Johnson led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU, but never formally entered the leadership race because of dwindling support among Conservative MPs.

By contrast, May stayed largely out of the referendum fray. She tepidly backed remaining in the EU in a single speech, then remained largely out of sight as the behemoths of the Conservative Party — including Cameron and Justice Secretary Michael Gove — did each other in.

“We do have this remarkable situation in British politics now where the people who led a fantastically successful campaign that got 17 million people to vote to leave the European Union have all but disappeared,” says Anand Menon, professor of European politics at King’s College London.

May’s triumph is no surprise to colleagues, who say she is cool and calm under pressure. She has grown in confidence and stature after six years in the limelight, projecting authority in front of television cameras that once made her nervous. She is not flashy, does not call attention to herself (with the possible exception of her shoes), and had seemed content with her public role as a loyal Cameron backer.

There is no doubt she has her critics. Conservative Party elder statesman Kenneth Clarke last week called her a “bloody difficult woman” in an unguarded moment when he didn’t know he was being filmed.

Others praise her open-minded approach.

Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat in the House of Lords who played a key role in winning support for same-sex marriage in Britain, says May at first opposed the measure but eventually helped make it the law of the land.

“Theresa May changed her view and by the time I authored same-sex marriage law she backed me all the way — unsung hero,” Featherstone tweeted on Monday.

May has long seemed aware that the Conservative Party is saddled with an elitist, out-of-touch image. Serving as party chairwoman in 2002, she warned that the Conservatives had become known as “the nasty party” and needed to change their ways and broaden their appeal.

In her brief, successful leadership campaign, she took a more populist stance somewhat at odds with her “law-and-order” image. She emphasised the need for more equal opportunity and fairness in Britain.

“Right now, if you’re born poor, you will die on average nine years earlier than others,” she said. “If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white.

“If you’re a white, working-class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else to go to university. If you’re at a state school, you’re less likely to reach the top professions than if you’re educated privately.

“If you’re a woman, you still earn less than a man.”

As Home Secretary, May has earned a reputation as a reliable, even-tempered minister who capably ran a sprawling department responsible for counter-terrorism policy, policing, immigration, border control and drug policy.

She was criticised at times for problems with border staffing but generally got high marks from politicians and the media while taking a hard line on national security matters and calling for easier deportation of extremists.

She took steps to limit the “stop-and-search” powers of police — seen as unfair to young men from minority communities — and criticised police and firefighting departments for lacking diversity.

At the same time, she has ­spoken out about unchecked ­immigration into Britain, stating that current levels are too high.

May ran a largely scandal-free department and managed to keep her personal life out of the news — the only exception being a slight media fascination with her impressive collection of shoes. She has spoken out at times about living with diabetes and colleagues say they don’t believe the illness will have any impact on her ability to serve as prime minister.

May is a vicar’s daughter who came up through Conservative Party ranks, working behind the scenes at her local Conservative Association before becoming a city councillor in a London borough, then entering parliament in 1997. Her position within the party was helped when she served as its chairwoman in 2002 and 2003. Like several other top leaders in her party, May was educated at Oxford, where she was introduced to her future husband, Philip, at a disco. The pair bonded over their mutual love of cricket.

May worked at the Bank of England and later as a financial consultant and international affairs adviser at the Association for Payment Clearing Services before entering politics.

She married Philip in 1980. The couple did not have children — which was briefly a bone of contention during the abbreviated leadership campaign when her rival in the two-way vote for the job of prime minister, Andrea Leadsom, suggested having children made a person better qualified to serve as prime minister.

May is known as a private person who does not easily bare her soul in public.

She has only rarely spoken about her father’s death in a car accident one year after her marriage or the disappointment of not being able to have a child.

Stressing her extensive experience near the top of government, her campaign for the top job was launched with the slogan “Theresa May is ready to be prime minister from day one”.

Day one will be today, when she is expected to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace before assuming her formidable new role.

BREXIT THE MAIN DISH ON A FULL PLATE

When does the handover of power take place?

David Cameron was due to do a final prime minister’s questions today and then go to Buckingham Palace for the last time. Theresa May will make her way to the palace to have the office conferred upon her.

When will a new cabinet be formed?

May will need to appoint a chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary to be ready the moment she enters No 10. Other senior ministers should come tomorrow.

Will there be an election?

May has said that there will not be an election before 2020. However, if Jeremy Corbyn stays as Labour leader pressure will quickly build among Tories for her to go to the country. There are lots of possible excuses — in particular seeking a mandate for her Brexit negotiations.

When do Brexit negotiations start?

EU countries say that no negotiations begin until article 50, the formal mechanism for exit from the union, is triggered. In practice, May has already been having talks with French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and others. She already has an outline agenda for what she wants to do next with the EU.

When will she trigger article 50?

May has said that this will take place next year. Brexiteers will remain suspicious unless she does so. However, the real tests are likely to be different: will she end the right for EU citizens to work in the UK and will the UK pay for access to the single market? UK Independence Party donor Arron Banks has already decided that the country will be betrayed.

What are May’s first foreign challenges?

The first major foreign trip scheduled is the G20 in China in September, which Barack Obama will attend for the last time. However, May is likely to want to do a series of European bilateral meetings before then. Given the scale of the challenge facing Ireland and the border, she may wish as a matter of urgency to reassure Dublin she is making that relationship a priority.

What does this mean for the union?

May’s most important domestic political priority will be to hold together the union. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland face uncertain futures after the Brexit vote, and there are dangerous political undercurrents. She will need to forge strong relations with their leaders.

How far will May shake up Whitehall?

She is going to create a Brexit department. Conventional wisdom is that this could be a challenge to the power base of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In practice, it is much more likely to be a legal hub to guide Brexit through Whitehall as well as serve as a front door to Britain’s embassy network overseas. Beyond that May showed little enthusiasm in the past for re-merging the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. Changes to the machinery of government would cause massive civil service uncertainty at a time when stability is the watchword.

AP