The Baroness May of Maidenhead | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
| In office 13 July 2016 – 24 July 2019 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| First Secretary | Damian Green (2017) |
| Preceded by | David Cameron |
| Succeeded by | Boris Johnson |
| Leader of the Conservative Party | |
| In office 11 July 2016 – 23 July 2019[nb] | |
| Preceded by | David Cameron |
| Succeeded by | Boris Johnson |
| Home Secretary | |
| In office 12 May 2010 – 13 July 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | Alan Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Amber Rudd |
| Minister for Women and Equalities | |
| In office 12 May 2010 – 4 September 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | Harriet Harman |
| Succeeded by | Maria Miller |
| Chair of the Conservative Party | |
| In office 23 July 2002 – 6 November 2003 | |
| Leader | Iain Duncan Smith |
| Preceded by | David Davis |
| Succeeded by | |
| Assumed office 21 August 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament for Maidenhead | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 30 May 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Joshua Reynolds |
| Shadow Cabinet portfolios | |
| 1999–2001 | |
| 2001–2002 | Transport, Local Government and the Regions |
| 2003–2004 | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs |
| 2004–2005 | Family |
| 2005 | Culture, Media and Sport |
| 2005–2009 | Leader of the House of Commons |
| 2007–2010 | Women and Equality |
| 2009–2010 | Work and Pensions |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Theresa Mary Brasier 1 October 1956 Eastbourne, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Relatives | Alistair Strathern (first cousin once removed) |
| Education | Wheatley Park School |
| Alma mater | St Hugh's College, Oxford (BA) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Official website  |
| n.b. ^ Acting: 7 June – 23 July 2019 | |
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Home Secretary
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
First ministry and term (July 2016 – June 2017)
Second ministry and term (June 2017 – July 2019)
Bibliography
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Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead, PC (/təˈriːzə/;[1] née Brasier; born 1 October 1956), is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since August 2024. May is the second female Prime Minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative.
May grew up in Oxfordshire and attended St Hugh's College, Oxford. After graduating in 1977, she worked at the Bank of England and the Association for Payment Clearing Services. She also served as a councillor on Merton London Borough Council. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she was elected MP for Maidenhead at the 1997 general election. From 1999 to 2010, May held several roles in shadow cabinets and was Chair of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003. Following the formation of the coalition government after the 2010 general election, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, giving up the latter role in 2012. Re-appointed Home Secretary after the Conservatives won the 2015 general election, she became the longest-serving Home Secretary in more than 60 years. During her tenure as Home Secretary, she pursued reform of the Police Federation, implemented a harder line on drugs policy and further restricted immigration. She oversaw the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners, the deportation of Abu Qatada and the creation of the College of Policing and the National Crime Agency. Although she supported the remain campaign, May supported Brexit following the victory of the leave campaign at the 2016 referendum. Also after the referendum, she was elected Prime Minister unopposed, succeeding David Cameron.
As Prime Minister, May began the process of withdrawing the UK from the EU, triggering Article 50 in March 2017. In April, she announced a snap general election, with the aim of strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations and highlighting her "strong and stable" leadership. This resulted in a hung parliament with the number of Conservative seats reduced to 317 from 330, despite the highest vote share since 1983 and the largest increase in electoral support enjoyed by a governing party since 1832. The loss of an overall majority prompted her to enter a confidence-and-supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Following the 2017 election, May's premiership continued to be dominated by Brexit, in particular by her government's negotiations with the EU, adhering to the Chequers plan, which led to a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. Other events that occurred during May's premiership were terrorist attacks in Westminster, Manchester Arena and London Bridge, the Grenfell Tower fire and Windrush scandal. Her government announced the NHS Long Term Plan and was responsible for negotiating and approving the near-entirety of the UK's terms of exit from the EU.[2] May was also a prominent figure in leading the international condemnation and response to Russia over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018. May survived two votes of no confidence in December 2018 and in January 2019, but after versions of her draft withdrawal agreement were rejected by Parliament three times and her party's poor performance in the 2019 European Parliament election, she left office in July and was succeeded by Boris Johnson, her former foreign secretary.
May remained in the House of Commons as a backbencher until she stood down at the 2024 general election. She was elevated to the House of Lords later that year as Baroness May of Maidenhead. In historical rankings of prime ministers, academics and journalists have ranked May in the bottom fourth quartile.
- ^ Ball, James (17 July 2016). "This Is What It's Like To Work In Government For Theresa May". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ Holder, Josh (18 October 2019). "How much of Johnson's 'great new deal' is actually new?". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2023.