However, the Labour leader, a veteran socialist, retains support among the party’s ordinary members, leading some lawmakers and commentators to speculate the leadership contest may split the party. Theresa May will on Wednesday become the prime minister who leads Britain’s into Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly.
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Midland Tory MPs have given Theresa May their backing as the new Prime Minister, saying she was the right person to handle Britain’s exit from the EU.
“We will have a new prime minister in that building behind me by Wednesday evening”, Cameron said in a brief statement outside the leader’s official London residence.
She has said Britain needs time to work out its negotiating strategy. Cameron had announced he would resign by October shortly after the June 23 referendum supported a United Kingdom exit, or Brexit, from the 28-nation European Union.
May will come under immediate pressure from European Union leaders to set out a timetable for Brexit.
The Conservatives aren’t the only ones thrown into turmoil by the referendum, which has also sparked a leadership struggle in the main opposition Labour party.
He said: “We’re not going to have a prolonged Conservative leadership election campaign”.
“For me it’s bigger than the Conservative party”, she said.
May supported remaining in the European Union, but has promised to give prominent “leave” campaigners key Cabinet roles in a bid to heal the party’s longstanding split over Europe.
May wants to begin formal talks to leave the European Union by the end of the year at the earliest despite pressure from Brussels to speed up.
May, who has served since 2010 as Britain’s Home Secretary, faces major challenges when she takes the reins at Downing Street.
Whitman said after May’s audience with the queen, she will then be taken to Downing Street where she will assume the role of prime minister.
Many British newspapers welcomed May’s coronation.
The Guardian hailed May’s “fast track to No 10” in its front page headline.
The Home Secretary will attend, just a day before she replaces him as Tory leader and becomes Britain’s second female Prime Minister.
One by one, figures within his party who had campaigned for a Brexit and were seen as potential successors to Cameron were knocked out of the running: MP Boris Johnson, Justice Secretary Michael Gove and Leadsom.
May announced her run for party leadership in late June. But May’s support for the “Remain” campaign had been muted, and she has pledged to implement what is expected to be a drawn-out and messy divorce from continental Europe.
May has her work cut out for her since Scotland is now demanding a second referendum for independence.
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“For many of them, it was a howl of pain”.
