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Theresa May Poised to Be Britain’s Next Premier as Andrea Leadsom Quits Race Theresa May Is Poised to Be Britain’s Next Prime Minister
(about 4 hours later)
LONDON — Theresa May, a relative moderate who has served for the last six years as home secretary, suddenly emerged victorious on Monday in the race to succeed David Cameron as Britain’s prime minister, bringing to an accelerated conclusion a political drama set off by the nation’s vote to leave the European Union. LONDON — After an abrupt end to a dramatic leadership struggle, Theresa May, the home secretary, emerged on Monday as Britain’s next prime minister, winning responsibility for negotiating the nation’s withdrawal from the European Union, addressing deep political and social divisions and managing a slumping economy.
Mr. Cameron said that the transfer of power would be completed by Wednesday evening. Ms. May would be the second woman to lead Britain, after Margaret Thatcher, who served as prime minister from 1979 until 1990. Her victory came on another day of rapid developments in British politics and set in motion a process that officials said would put her in 10 Downing Street by Wednesday night, succeeding David Cameron as prime minister. Ms. May, 59, would become the second woman to lead Britain, after Margaret Thatcher, who governed from 1979 to 1990.
In another day of fast-paced developments, Ms. May’s only rival to become leader of the Conservative Party and successor to Mr. Cameron, Andrea Leadsom, abruptly pulled out of the contest, saying she did not have sufficient support from the party’s members of Parliament. Ms. May is set to take over at a time of immense upheaval for Britain. The nation must not only negotiate its withdrawal from the European Union, a process fraught with economic and political risks, but it must also hold itself together amid a renewed clamor from Scotland for independence. Early signs are that Britain’s economy has already taken a substantial hit from the exit vote, or “Brexit.”
Ms. Leadsom withdrew after a weekend in which her candidacy was all but consumed by remarks she made in an interview suggesting that she was better qualified because she is a mother, which Ms. May is not. A Conservative like Mrs. Thatcher, Ms. May has won a reputation for steeliness in her tenure as home secretary. She has pledged to negotiate a deal to leave the European Union that reasserted Britain’s ability to control immigration, a central issue in the referendum on June 23 on whether to leave the bloc.
Conservative leaders quickly coalesced around Ms. May, ruling out the possibility of reopening the race to give the party’s rank-and-file members a choice. Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative lawmakers, which sets the rules for party leadership contests, said that there was “no need to rerun the election,” and that Ms. May was now the only candidate. But unlike Mrs. Thatcher, Ms. May is seen as a relative political moderate and on Monday she promised to address inequality, give workers greater representation on corporate boards and limit tax cuts.
There appeared to be no hurdles to her ascension, especially after the two most prominent Conservatives behind the victory of the campaign to leave the European Union — Boris Johnson and Michael Gove — signaled their support for her. Ms. May said that she was “honored and humbled” to be chosen for the job, promised to get the best deal over Britain’s exit from the European Union and vowed to create an economy that works not for the “privileged few,” but for all.
Ms. May, 59, is now set to take over at a time of immense upheaval for Britain. The nation must not only negotiate its withdrawal from the European Union, a process fraught with economic and political risks, but it must also hold itself together amid a clamor from Scotland for independence. Early signs are that Britain’s economy has already taken a substantial hit from the exit vote, or “Brexit.” The British referendum on June 23 plunged the European Union into crisis. It left Britain rudderless as the pound sank in value and both the governing and opposition parties engaged in fierce and acrimonious leadership battles. Mr. Cameron, who had supported remaining in the European Union, said after the referendum that he would resign once the governing Conservatives selected a new leader, a process that he had expected to last until September but that was drastically accelerated on Monday.
“The economy and businesses in UK and around the world need certainty so it is in everyone’s interest Theresa takes over as PM in coming days,” George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote on Twitter. After making a brief statement describing his successor as “strong” and “competent,” Mr. Cameron was caught on a microphone humming as he returned to his office.
Hours before Ms. Leadsom, the 53-year-old energy minister, announced her decision to leave the race, Ms. May, who had supported remaining in the European Union, set out her governing vision in a speech in Birmingham. Mr. Cameron’s statement completed a day of high political drama in which Ms. May’s rival for the Conservative Party leadership, Andrea Leadsom, the energy minister, withdrew from the race. Leading party members quickly coalesced around Ms. May, insisting that the contest should not be reopened. A party committee agreed.
She indicated that there would be no reconsideration of the vote to leave the bloc, and that her priority would be reclaiming greater power for Britain to control immigration, even if it meant sacrificing access to the Continent’s single market for goods and services. Ms. Leadsom had already faced accusations — which she denied — of embellishing her curriculum vitae, but her campaign ran aground over the weekend after The Times of London published an interview in which she suggested that she was a better candidate because she is a mother, which Ms. May is not.
But she also presented herself as a “one nation” Conservative who would seek to address the needs of the poor and of minorities. She called for greater worker participation on corporate boards, and she suggested that there had to be limits to tax cuts if society was to meet the needs of all of its people. Surrounded by supportive lawmakers, Ms. Leadsom on Monday made no reference to that issue, but said that she was quitting the contest and endorsing Ms. May, and that she hoped to see her installed as prime minister “as soon as possible.”
Mr. Cameron said that he would step down by the fall after British voters decided to leave the European Union in a referendum held last month, setting the stage for the battle to replace him. Although Ms. May backed continued membership in the bloc, she did so quietly, and she was not a prominent figure in the campaign. The turn of events meant that Ms. May would become prime minister without a general election and without completing the campaign she and Ms. Leadsom had been waging for the endorsement of the Conservative Party’s rank-and-file members.
Mr. Gove, the justice minister who finished behind Ms. May and Ms. Leadsom in an earlier round of the Conservative Party race, said that she had his “full support,” the BBC reported. Last week, the former Conservative cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke described Ms. May as a “bloody difficult woman,” noting that he had worked for another female politician of similar temperament, namely Mrs. Thatcher.
Mr. Johnson dropped out of the race when Mr. Gove, his partner in leading the “Leave” campaign, said he would seek the top position. But on Monday, Mr. Johnson said that Ms. May was the right choice for the country. Far from being insulted, Ms. May used the comment to suggest that her negotiating stance with European officials would be as tough as that of Mrs. Thatcher, who famously went into battle on the Continent, particularly over British financial contributions to the bloc.
“I have no doubt Theresa will make an excellent party leader and prime minister, and I’m encouraged that she’s made it clear that Brexit means Brexit — that we will leave the E.U.,” he said. “Ken Clarke might have found me to be a ‘bloody difficult woman.’ The next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker,” she told fellow Conservative lawmakers, referring to the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, ITV reported.
Chris Grayling, a Conservative lawmaker and leading supporter of Ms. May, paid tribute to Ms. Leadsom, and he said that Ms. May was “enormously honored to have been entrusted with this task by so many of her parliamentary colleagues.” But in a speech on Monday, Ms. May outlined an economic agenda unlike that of Mrs. Thatcher, calling for new mechanisms to curb executive pay and warning big multinational companies that they must pay their share of taxes.
“Theresa will do everything she can to equip our country for the challenges that lie ahead,” Mr. Grayling added. Ms. May has also been compared to Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany who, like Ms. May, is the daughter of a clergyman and is known for her no-nonsense, methodical and pragmatic approach.
Ms. May was expected to make a statement later Monday after returning to London from Birmingham, he said. The post-referendum turmoil in Britain has also gripped the opposition Labour Party, prompting a challenge against the leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has been accused of not campaigning hard enough against British withdrawal from Europe. There were growing fears on Monday that the party might split because of the bitter dispute.
Tim Farron, the head of the Liberal Democrats, however, expressed objections to Ms. May’s becoming prime minister without a popular vote. Nevertheless, opposition politicians called for a general election and questioned Ms. May’s democratic mandate, since she will assume the job on the basis of an internal transfer of power within the governing party. So far, Ms. May has rejected the notion of a quick general election.
“With @TheresaMay2016’s coronation we need an early General Election,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Tories now have no mandate. Britain deserves better than this.” Her top priority will be to frame a negotiating strategy for leaving the union, after the referendum in which she sided with those who wanted to remain.
In announcing on Monday that she was abandoning her pursuit of the Conservative Party leadership, Ms. Leadsom said that she would support Ms. May. On Monday, Ms. May insisted that “Brexit means Brexit,” as she sought to reassure right-wingers that she was committed to the policy, adding that “there will be no attempt to remain inside the E.U. There will be no attempts to rejoin it by the back door, no second referendum.”
“The interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported prime minister,” she said. But, while 52 percent of voters supported Brexit, they did so for differing reasons, including reasserting national sovereignty and opposition to migration from within the bloc, which guarantees the right to live and work within any member nation.
Ms. Leadsom’s campaign hit trouble on Saturday after The Times of London published an interview with her in which she said that having children meant she had “a very real stake” in Britain’s future. Ms. May is expected to take a tough stance on immigration in part because she is politically vulnerable on the issue. As home secretary, she failed to fulfill a Conservative manifesto to control the number of people arriving in Britain. The numbers persistently exceeded targets and included arrivals of non-Europeans, which the government had the power to curb.
The newspaper reported Ms. Leadsom as saying that, while Ms. May “possibly has nieces, nephews,” she herself had “children who are going to have children” who would be directly affected by what happened after Britain’s exit from the European Union. Ms. May has signaled her intention to restrict migration from Europe, even if doing so hurt Britain’s position in negotiating a new trade deal with the bloc. She will also be under pressure from big business to secure the best possible access to Europe’s single market, which normally entails accepting the principle of free movement of workers across national frontiers.
Ms. Leadsom initially challenged the newspaper accounts, but she later apologized. Ms. May said on Monday that she had accepted the apology. One important question for Ms. May is when to invoke Article 50 of the European Union’s governing treaty, which starts the withdrawal procedure. That effectively sets a two-year deadline for a deal to be struck. She has suggested that she intends to wait until her government has settled on its negotiating stance before invoking the article despite pressure from Europe’s leaders to act more quickly.
Even before that, Ms. Leadsom had been accused of exaggerating or embellishing her experience in financial services before becoming a lawmaker in 2010. On Monday she said more about her wider political agenda in a speech that offered plans to address some of the economic and social inequalities evident in Britain. Those include populist resentments thought to have motivated many pro-Brexit voters in area that are depressed economically outside London and in the affluent southeast of England.
Ms. May, the longest-serving home secretary in half a century, earned a reputation for seriousness and hard work, while avoiding the intrigue and treachery that has gripped her party. “There is a growing divide between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation. And there is a gaping chasm between wealthy London and the rest of the country, she said, positioning herself in a centrist tradition of “one nation” Conservatism.
Her tenacity has brought comparisons to Mrs. Thatcher, and she is one of an increasing number of women playing prominent roles in British politics. (The announcement from Ms. Leadsom came on the same day that Angela Eagle said she would challenge Jeremy Corbyn to lead the opposition Labour Party.) Speaking in Birmingham, England, Ms. May also called for efforts to increase productivity, for employees and consumers to gain seats on company boards and for votes on executive pay to become binding, rather than advisory. Big multinationals should pay their share of taxes, she said, adding: “Whether you’re Amazon, Google or Starbucks, you have a duty to put something back, you have a debt to your fellow citizens, you have a responsibility to pay your taxes.”
Ms. May became home secretary in 2010, when the Conservatives were returned to power as part of a coalition government.
As the head of the Home Office, she resisted pressure from the United States to extradite a Briton accused of computer hacking, citing human rights concerns, but she negotiated a treaty with Jordan that allowed for the extradition a radical Islamic preacher, despite concerns that he might face torture there.