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Theresa May to appoint Brexit minister after taking reins from David Cameron

Mr Cameron will hold his final weekly question and answer session in parliament before tendering his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

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While May supported Britain staying in the bloc, she cut a low profile during the referendum campaign and insists she will honor the popular vote, stressing on Monday: “Brexit means Brexit”.

A spokeswoman for Mrs May said: “Civil servants have already been charged with finding a building to house the Brexit department – an indication of Theresa’s commitment to get on with delivering the verdict of European Union referendum”.

Home Secretary May, the interior minister, was declared the new leader of the governing center-right Conservative Party on Monday after junior energy minister Andrea Leadsom, her only remaining challenger for the post, withdrew from the contest.

David Cameron chaired his final Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after six years as Britain’s prime minister, with incoming premier Theresa May preparing to form a new government to deliver Brexit.

Cameron will step aside on Wednesday after losing the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union.

May, who has been interior minister for six years and is seen by her supporters as a safe pair of hands to steer Britain through the disruptive process of leaving the European Union, will become Britain’s second woman prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher. Mr Cameron had expected a nine-week farewell tour. He will chiefly be remembered for proposing the referendum in the first place and then spectacularly failing to clinch it.

Cameron told The Daily Telegraph it had been “a privilege to serve the country I love”.

The vote exposed deep inequalities in British society which Ms May has promised to address and upended the political scene, sending her Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party into turmoil.

The issue of Brexit though will loom large throughout her premiership.

David Cameron will be appearing before Parliament as prime minister for the last time before handing over to successor Theresa May. “Not an easy challenge, but that’s what you do if you’re prime minister and I’m confident that what we’ll see over the next 48 hours as she becomes prime minister, and of course you can’t have cabinet reshuffles until the new prime minister is indeed prime minister”.

May worked in finance, including at the Bank of England, before being elected as MP for the London commuter town of Maidenhead in 1997.

“She will get this country back on its feet”, said 69-year-old Jim Charlesworth, a neighbour of Ms May and her banker husband Philip. “She knows her stuff”.

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She shows a flash of flamboyance with a colourful shoe collection – particularly her leopard-skin heels – which has become famous in the British press.

Theresa May will become Britain’s new Prime Minister on Wednesday