It had been expected that a new prime minister would not be in place until September or so. Some newspapers obsessed over Mrs May’s quirky shoe choices. She must also attempt to unite a divided ruling Conservative party and a fractured nation in which many, on the evidence of the vote, feel angry with the political elite and left behind by the forces of globalization.
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Like Thatcher, May was educated at Oxford University, where she majored in geography, and worked in banking before she won her first election to a council seat in the London borough of Merton. “I think she’s a cautious person, and the British political establishment needs to come to terms with this massive decision”. One of the prizes at a Conservative party fund-raising event was an afternoon of shoe-shopping with her.
When then leader William Hague departed, his successor, Iain Duncan Smith, appointed Mrs May as shadow secretary of state for transport.
Her style was calm, collected and, as the “nasty party” reference suggests, not afraid to point out uncomfortable truths in order to help her party win power.
But she urged all colleagues, whatever the outcome of the reshuffle, to be “incredibly supportive” of the new prime minister, saying a “stable government” was needed.
He will be replaced by May, the outgoing home secretary who became Conservative leader on Monday after her sole contender for the job – Andrea Leadsom – dropped out of the race. But as he turned around and returned to his erstwhile residence and the soft purrs of the cat that his government acquired in 2011 to deal with a rat problem, he hummed a mysterious little tune.
However, many prime ministers have not held more than one of those positions, and some have held none.
Opposition members of parliament, responding to the impending appointment of May, demanded a general election.
But the Prime Minister started his day yesterday confident that he still had nearly two months to spend changing the way people will remember his premiership. In modern times, only Jim Callaghan (1976-79) and John Major (1990-97) had fulfilled the traditional apprenticeship of government.
Although liberal commentators argue that these policies illustrate an authoritarian streak, May is broadly in line with mainstream conservative opinion. Observers are keen to see if she appoints former London Mayor Boris Johnson or Justice Secretary Michael Gove to new jobs.
“Brexit means Brexit, and we’re going to make a success of it”.
“She’s been pretty explicit about not wanting to trigger it immediately, despite the Europeans wanting it to be right now”, said Ryan Myerberg, a portfolio manager at Janus Capital in London. She will need to live up to that reputation in a political environment that is unpredictable and tumultuous.
“That’s very sensible. It will ensure confidence among those in the party who did campaign to leave that they have a champion who believes in what they campaigned for”, Grayling said.
“Welcome news we have 1 candidate with overwhelming support to be next PM”.
She has been a chairman of her party, minister for women and equalities and until today was just three weeks short of becoming Britain’s longest-serving interior minister for 100 years. Conservative Party elder statesman Kenneth Clarke last week called her a “bloody hard woman” in an unguarded moment when he didn’t know he was being filmed.
She is also expected to take calls from a number of foreign leaders. “But, in and of itself, it’s not enough”, she said.
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The sadness in those few notes springs from the lost opportunity to use the premiership to talk about issues other than Europe, issues that could have meant not being remembered exclusively for losing the referendum he called.
