The UK’s new prime minister Theresa May has vowed to lead a “one nation” government that works for all not just the “privileged few”.
Advertisement
British Home Secretary Theresa May waves as she arrives July 12 to attend the last Cabinet meeting hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mrs May was summoned to the Palace following David Cameron’s resignation, and was asked whether she could command a government.
The former home secretary has become Britain’s second ever female Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher was the first.
Cameron, who announced his resignation after losing the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union, was to stay on the job till September till the Conservative Party chose a new candidate for the office.
Cameron, 49, will be the youngest prime minister to leave office since the Earl of Rosebery in 1895.
Theresa May has promised to “build a better Britain” as she officially becomes Prime Minister. The mood was light and Cameron joked about how he was sad to leave the house cat at 10 Downing Street and the divisive political climate.
The prime minister later did an American accent imitation and compared the leader of the opposition to a character from Monty Python. “My only wish is continued success for this great country that I love so very much”. She has the tough task of calming the country and global financial markets after the upheaval that has followed Brexit vote.
Only an hour or so earlier, Cameron had stood at the same spot, with his wife, Samantha, and their three children. May is expected to unveil the new Cabinet lineup, including a minister in charge of implementing Brexit.
The former PM is moving out of Number 10 to make way of Theresa May, who was elected as the new leader of the Conservative party this week.
“But I do believe that today our country is much stronger”, he said, surrounded by his wife and children.
Mrs May inherits a government transformed in less than a month by the referendum vote for Britain to leave the European Union which lead to her predecessor David Cameron resigning as leader.
Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, offered his congratulations to Mrs May but warned she would have to deal with the “enormous economic uncertainty and insecurity” caused by leaving the EU. Royal officials released a photo of May curtseying to the monarch and confirmed the queen had “requested her to form a new administration”.
Advertisement
Cameron said the government was working hard to ensure that an estimated 3 million European Union citizens can stay in Britain, but this would depend on reciprocal rights for Britons in Europe. Florence – you once climbed into one, before a foreign trip, and said “take me with you”.
