Theresa Mary May, Lady May (;
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 in
David Cameron's
cabinet as
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
from 2010 to 2016, and has been
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Maidenhead in
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...
since
1997. May is the UK's second female prime minister after
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, and is the first woman to hold two of the
Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May identifies herself as 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
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
and the
Association for Payment Clearing Services. She also served as a councillor for Durnsford in
Merton. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the
House of Commons, she was elected as the MP for Maidenhead at the
1997 general election. From 1999 to 2010, May held several roles in
shadow cabinets. She was also
Chairman of the Conservative Party
The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office.
When the Conservatives are in government, the of ...
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 but gave up the latter role in 2012. Reappointed after the Conservative success in the
2015 general election, she became the longest-serving Home Secretary in over 60 years. During
her tenure she pursued reform of the
Police Federation, implemented a harder line on drugs policy including the banning of
khat and brought in
additional restrictions on immigration. She also 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.
May supported the unsuccessful
Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the UK to remain in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
.
May stood the
Conservative Party leadership election to succeed Cameron, who resigned following the success of the Leave vote in the
2016 referendum. She began the process of
withdrawing the UK from the European Union, triggering
Article 50 in March 2017. The following month, she announced a
snap general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, with the aims of strengthening her hand in
Brexit negotiations and highlighting her "
strong and stable" leadership.
This resulted in a
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legis ...
in which the number of Conservative seats had fallen from 330 to 317, despite the party winning its highest vote share
since 1983. The loss of an overall majority prompted her to enter a
confidence and supply arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...
with the
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by ...
(DUP) of
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
to support a
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
.
As Prime Minister, May carried out the Brexit negotiations with the European Union, adhering to the
Chequers Plan, which resulted in the
Brexit withdrawal agreement
The Brexit withdrawal agreement, officially titled Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, is a treaty between the European Uni ...
. She also oversaw a £20 billion increase in funding to the
National Health Service through the
NHS Long Term Plan, established the first-ever Race Disparity Audit and launched a 25 Year Environment Plan, amending the
Climate Change Act 2008 to end the UK's contribution to global warming by 2050.
Unemployment in the United Kingdom fell to record lows, the lowest jobless rate since 1975.
May survived two votes of no confidence in December 2018 and January 2019, but after versions of her draft withdrawal agreement were
rejected by Parliament three times, May announced her resignation in May 2019. She left office on 24 July and was succeeded by
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Fo ...
, her former
Foreign Secretary. May remains in the House of Commons as a
backbencher
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the ...
, and is viewed unfavourably in
historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers.
May's premiership was dominated by Brexit, in particular by her negotiations with the European Union of a Brexit withdrawal agreement, and her attempts to gain Parliamentary approval for this agreement. Other events during May's premiership included terrorist attacks in
Westminster,
Manchester Arena
Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. The arena has th ...
and
London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It re ...
, the
Grenfell Tower fire
On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. 72 people died, two later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 es ...
, the
Windrush scandal, and the
poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The UK's official assessment of this incident was supported by 28 other countries, who expelled an unprecedented total of 153 Russian diplomats. This was considered to be one of the highest points of May's premiership.
Early life, family, and education

Theresa May was born on 1 October 1956 in
Eastbourne,
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, May is the only child of Zaidee Mary ( Barnes; 1928–1982) and Hubert Brasier (1917–1981). Her father was a
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
clergyman (and an
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...
) who was chaplain of an Eastbourne hospital.
[Brasier, Hubert, '' Crockford's Clerical Directory 1977–79'', ]Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
He later became vicar of
Enstone
Enstone is a village and civil parish in England, about east of Chipping Norton and north-west of Oxford city. The civil parish, one of Oxfordshire's largest, consists of the villages of Church Enstone and Neat Enstone, with the hamlets of Ch ...
with
Heythrop and finally of
St Mary's at Wheatley, to the east of Oxford.
May's mother was a supporter of the Conservative Party.
Her father died in 1981, from injuries sustained in a car accident, and her mother of
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. Thi ...
the following year.
May later stated she was "sorry they
er parentsnever saw me elected as a Member of Parliament".
May initially attended Heythrop Primary School, a state school in Heythrop, followed by St. Juliana's Convent School for Girls, a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
independent school in
Begbroke, which closed in 1984.
At the age of 13, she won a place at the former Holton Park Girls' Grammar School, a state school in
Wheatley. During her time as a pupil, the Oxfordshire education system was reorganised, and the school became the new
Wheatley Park Comprehensive School.
May attended the
University of Oxford, read
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
at
St Hugh's College
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accep ...
, and graduated with a second class
BA degree in 1977. She worked at a bakery on Saturdays to earn pocket money and was a "tall, fashion-conscious young woman who from an early age spoke of her ambition to be the first woman prime minister," according to those who knew her.
According to a university friend, Pat Frankland: "I cannot remember a time when she did not have political ambitions. I well remember, at the time, she was quite irritated when
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
got there first."
Early career
Between 1977 and 1983, May worked at the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
, and from 1985 to 1997, at the
Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), as a financial consultant. She served as Head of the European Affairs Unit from 1989 to 1996 and Senior Adviser on International Affairs from 1996 to 1997 in the organisation.
Entry into politics
Councillor
May served as a councillor for Durnsford ward
on the
Borough Council of the
London Borough of Merton
The London Borough of Merton () is a borough in Southwest London, England.
The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Mert ...
from 1986 to 1994, where she was Chairman of Education (1988–90) and Deputy Group Leader and Housing Spokesman (1992–94).
Unsuccessful candidacies
In the
1992 general election May was the Conservative Party candidate for the safe Labour seat of
North West Durham, placing second to incumbent MP
Hilary Armstrong
Hilary Jane Armstrong, Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top, DL (born 30 November 1945) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Durham from 1987 to 2010.
Early life
Armstrong was born on 30 Nove ...
, with future Liberal Democrat leader
Tim Farron
Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, before which he worked in ...
placing third. May then stood at the
1994 Barking by-election, which was prompted by the death of Labour MP
Jo Richardson. The seat had been continuously held by Labour since it was created in 1945, and Labour candidate
Margaret Hodge was expected to win easily, which she did. May placed a distant third.
Election
Around 18 months ahead of the
1997 general election, May was selected as the Conservative candidate for
Maidenhead, a new seat which was created from parts of the
safe
A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and d ...
seats of
Windsor and Maidenhead and
Wokingham
Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell.
History
Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may a ...
.
She was elected comfortably with 25,344 votes (49.8%), almost double the total of second-placed Andrew Terence Ketteringham of the Liberal Democrats, who took 13,363 votes (26.3%).
Despite this, her party suffered their worst defeat in over 150 years.
Early Parliamentary career
Having entered
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. T ...
, May became a member of
William Hague
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...
's front-bench
Opposition team, as Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women (1998–1999). She became the first of the 1997 MPs to enter the Shadow Cabinet when in 1999 she was appointed Shadow Education and Employment Secretary. After the
2001 election the new Conservative leader
Iain Duncan Smith
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was S ...
kept her in the Shadow Cabinet, moving her to the Transport portfolio.
May was appointed the first female
Chairman of the Conservative Party
The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office.
When the Conservatives are in government, the of ...
in July 2002. During her speech at the 2002 Conservative Party Conference, she explained why, in her view, her party must change: "You know what people call us? The Nasty Party.
In recent years a number of politicians have behaved disgracefully and then compounded their offences by trying to evade responsibility. We all know who they are. Let's face it, some of them have stood on this platform." She accused some unnamed colleagues of trying to "make political capital out of demonising minorities", and charged others with indulging themselves "in petty feuding or sniping instead of getting behind a leader who is doing an enormous amount to change a party which has suffered two landslide defeats". She admitted that constituency selection committees seemed to prefer candidates they would "be happy to have a drink with on a Sunday morning", continuing to say, "At the last general election 38 new Tory MPs were elected. Of that total, only one was a woman and none was from an ethnic minority. Is that fair? Is one half of the population entitled to only one place out of 38?"
In 2003, after
Michael Howard's election as Conservative Party and Opposition Leader in November that year, May was appointed Shadow
Secretary of State for Transport and the Environment.
In June 2004, she was moved to become
Shadow Secretary of State for the Family. Following the
2005 general election she was also made Shadow
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. After
David Cameron became leader, he appointed May as
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Shadow Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet responsible for working with the Leader of the House in arranging Commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all ...
in December 2005 and as
Shadow Minister for Women and Equality in July 2007. In January 2009, May was made Shadow
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
On 6 May 2010, May was re-elected MP for Maidenhead with an increased majority of 16,76960% of the vote. This followed an earlier failed attempt by the Liberal Democrats to unseat her in 2005, as one of that party's leading "decapitation-strategy" targets.
Home Secretary

On 12 May 2010, when May was appointed
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
and
Minister for Women and Equalities by Prime Minister
David Cameron as part of his first Cabinet, she became the fourth woman to hold one of the British
Great Offices of State, after
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
(
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
),
Margaret Beckett (
Foreign Secretary) and
Jacqui Smith
Jacqueline Jill Smith (born 3 November 1962) is a British broadcaster, political commentator and former Labour Party politician. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch from 1997 to 2010. She served as Home Secretary from 2007 to 2009 ...
(Home Secretary). As Home Secretary, May was also a member of the
National Security Council
A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...
. She was the longest-serving Home Secretary for over 60 years, since
James Chuter Ede who served over six years and two months from August 1945 to October 1951. May's appointment as Home Secretary was somewhat unexpected, with
Chris Grayling
Christopher Stephen Grayling (born 1 April 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 to 2019. He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom and Ewell since 2001 ...
having served as shadow Home Secretary in opposition.
May's debut as Home Secretary involved overturning several of the previous Labour government's measures on data collection and surveillance in England and Wales. By way of a government bill which became the
Identity Documents Act 2010, she brought about the abolition of the Labour government's
National Identity Card and database scheme and reformed the regulations on the retention of DNA samples for suspects and controls on the use of
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly tr ...
cameras. In May 2010, May announced the adjournment of the deportation to the United States of alleged computer hacker
Gary McKinnon. She also suspended the registration scheme for carers of children and vulnerable people, with May saying that the measures were "draconian. You were assumed to be guilty until you were proven innocent, and told you were able to work with children." On 4 August 2010, it was reported that May was scrapping the former Labour government's proposed "go orders" scheme to protect women from
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
by banning abusers from the victim's home.
In June 2010, May faced her first major national security incident as Home Secretary with the
Cumbria shootings. She delivered her first major speech in the
House of Commons as Home Secretary in a statement on this incident, later visiting the victims with the Prime Minister. Also in June 2010, May banned the Indian Muslim preacher
Zakir Naik from entering the United Kingdom.
According to ''The Daily Telegraph'', a Home Office official who disagreed with this decision was suspended. In late June 2010, May announced plans for a temporary cap on UK visas for non-EU migrants. The move raised concerns about the impact on the British economy.
In August 2013, May supported the detention of
David Miranda, partner of ''Guardian'' journalist
Glenn Greenwald, under the
Terrorism Act 2000
The Terrorism Act 2000 (c.11) is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland (Em ...
, saying that critics of the Metropolitan Police action needed to "think about what they are condoning".
Lib Dem peer and former Director of Public Prosecutions
Ken Macdonald accused May of an "ugly and unhelpful" attempt to implicate those who were concerned about the police action of "condoning terrorism".
The High Court subsequently acknowledged there were "indirect implications for press freedom" but ruled the detention legal.
May also championed legislation popularly dubbed the
Snooper's Charter, requiring internet and mobile service providers to keep records of internet usage, voice calls, messages and email for up to a year in case police requested access to the records while investigating a crime. The Liberal Democrats had blocked the
first attempt, but after the Conservative Party obtained a majority in the 2015 general election May announced a new
Draft Investigatory Powers Bill similar to the Draft Communications Data Bill, although with more limited powers and additional oversight.
Police and crime
Speaking at the
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) conference in June 2010, May announced radical cuts to the Home Office budget, likely to lead to a reduction in police numbers. In July 2010, May presented the House of Commons with proposals for a fundamental review of the previous Labour government's security and counter-terrorism legislation, including "stop and search" powers, and her intention to review the 28-day limit on detaining terrorist suspects without charge.
In July 2010, May announced a package of reforms to policing in England and Wales in the
House of Commons.
The previous Labour Government's central crime agency,
Soca (Serious Organised Crime Agency), was to be replaced by a new
National Crime Agency. In common with the Conservative Party 2010 general election manifesto's flagship proposal for a "
Big Society" based on voluntary action, May also proposed increasing the role of civilian "reservists" for crime control. The reforms were rejected by the Opposition
Labour Party.
Following the actions of some members of
Black Bloc in vandalising allegedly
tax-avoiding shops and businesses on the day of the March 2011 TUC march, the Home Secretary unveiled reforms curbing the right to protest, including giving police extra powers to remove masked individuals and to police social networking sites to prevent
illegal protest without police consent or notification.
In 2012, despite inquiries by both
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
and the
Independent Police Complaints Commission
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was a non-departmental public body in England and Wales responsible for overseeing the system for handling complaints made against police forces in England and Wales.
On 8 January 2018, t ...
ruling that there was no new evidence to warrant further investigation, after discussions with
Doreen Lawrence, May commissioned
Mark Ellison
Mark Ellison KC is a British barrister and member of QEB Holllis Whiteman chambers.
Career
Having gained his LLB at the University of Wales, he was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1979. Specialising in fraud, he acted for both defence a ...
to review Scotland Yard's investigations into alleged police corruption. The report was presented to Parliament by May on 6 March 2014.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe,
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February.
The rank of Commissio ...
said the report, which has prompted an inquiry into undercover policing, was "devastating".
In July 2013, May welcomed the fact that crime had fallen by more than 10% under the coalition government, while still being able to make savings. She said that this was partly due to the government removing red tape and scrapping targets to allow the police to concentrate on crime-fighting.
In 2014, May delivered a speech to the
Police Federation, in which she criticised aspects of the culture of the police force.
In the speech, she said:
On 9 December 2010, in the wake of violent
student demonstrations in central London against increases to higher-education
tuition fees, May praised the actions of the police in controlling the demonstrations but was described by ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fou ...
'' as "under growing political pressure" due to her handling of the protests.
In December 2010, May declared that deployment of water cannon by police forces in mainland Britain was an operational decision which had been "resisted until now by senior police officers." She rejected their use following the
widespread rioting in summer 2011 and said: "the way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities." May said: "I condemn utterly the violence in Tottenham... Such disregard for public safety and property will not be tolerated, and the Metropolitan Police have my full support in restoring order."
In the aftermath of the riots May urged the identification of as many as possible of the young criminals involved. She said: "when I was in Manchester last week, the issue was raised to me about the anonymity of juveniles who are found guilty of crimes of this sort. The Crown Prosecution Service is to order prosecutors to apply for anonymity to be lifted in any youth case they think is in the public interest. The law currently protects the identity of any suspect under the age of 18, even if they are convicted, but it also allows for an application to have such restrictions lifted, if deemed appropriate." May added that "what I've asked for is that CPS guidance should go to prosecutors to say that where possible, they should be asking for the anonymity of juveniles who are found guilty of criminal activity to be lifted".
Anti-social behaviour
In July 2010, May proposed to review the previous
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labou ...
Government's
anti-social behaviour legislation signalling the abolition of the "
Anti-Social Behaviour Order" (ASBO). She identified the policy's high level of failure with almost half of ASBOs breached between 2000 and 2008, leading to "fast-track" criminal convictions. May proposed a less punitive, community-based approach to tackling social disorder. May suggested that anti-social behaviour policy "must be turned on its head", reversing the ASBO's role as the flagship crime control policy legislation under Labour. Former Labour Home Secretaries
David Blunkett
David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...
(who introduced ASBOs) and
Alan Johnson expressed their disapproval of the proposals.
Drug policy

In July 2013, May decided to ban the stimulant
khat, against the advice of the
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The council reached the conclusion that there was "insufficient evidence" it caused health problems. Explaining the change in the classification May said: "The decision to bring khat under control is finely balanced and takes into account the expert scientific advice and these broader concerns", and pointed out that the product had already been banned in the majority of other EU member states, as well as most of the G8 countries including Canada and the US. A report on khat use by the ACMD published in January 2013 had noted the product had been associated with "acute psychotic episodes", "chronic liver disease" and family breakdown. However, it concluded that there is no risk of harm for most users, and recommended that khat remain uncontrolled due to lack of evidence for these associations.
Liberal Democrat minister
Norman Baker accused May of suppressing proposals to treat rather than prosecute minor drug offenders from a report into drug policy commissioned by the Home Office. The Home Office denied that its officials had considered this as part of their strategy. Baker cited difficulties in working with May as the reason for his resignation from the Home Office in the run-up to the 2015 general election.
Immigration
In 2010, May promised to bring the level of net migration down to less than 100,000. ''The Independent'' reported in February 2015, "The
Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced a net flow of 298,000 migrants to the UK in the 12 months to September 2014—up from 210,000 in the previous year."
In total, 624,000 people
migrated to the UK in the year ending September 2014 and 327,000 left in the same period. Statistics showed "significant increases in migration among both non-EU citizens—up 49,000 to 292,000—and EU citizens, which rose by 43,000 to 251,000."
In May 2012 she told the ''
Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' of her intention "to create here in Britain a
really hostile environment for illegal migration,"
May rejected the European Union's proposal of
compulsory refugee quotas. She said that it was important to help people living in war-zone regions and refugee camps but "not the ones who are strong and rich enough to come to Europe". In May 2016, ''The Daily Telegraph'' reported that she had tried to save £4m by rejecting an intelligence project to use aircraft surveillance to detect illegal immigrant boats.
Family migration
In June 2012, Theresa May announced that new restrictions would be introduced to reduce the number of non-
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Ass ...
family migrants. The changes were mostly intended to apply to new applicants after 9 July 2012.
The newly introduced rules came into effect on 9 July 2012 allowing only those British citizens earning more than £18,600 to bring their spouses or their children to live with them in the UK. This figure would rise significantly in cases where visa applications are also made for children. They also increased the current two-year probationary period for partners to 5 years. The rules also prevent any adult and elderly dependents from settling in the UK unless they can demonstrate that, as a result of age,
illness
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
or
disability
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, s ...
, they require a level of long-term personal care that can only be provided by a relative in the UK.
The
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
was concerned about the immigration issue and therefore addressed the PM in Parliament as to whether she had examined the impact on communities and families on modest incomes, but it received no direct response. The human rights group
Liberty concluded that the new rules showed scant regard to the impact they would have on genuine families.
The
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration conducted an evidence based inquiry into the impact of the rules and concluded in their report that the rules were causing very young children to be separated from their parents and could exile
British citizen
British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...
s from the UK.
Deportation decisions
At the Conservative Party Conference in October 2011, while arguing that the Human Rights Act needed to be amended, May gave the example of a foreign national who the Courts ruled was allowed to remain in the UK, "because—and I am not making this up—he had a pet cat". In response, the Royal Courts of Justice issued a statement, denying that this was the reason for the tribunal's decision in that case, and stating that the real reason was that he was in a genuine relationship with a British partner, and owning a pet cat was simply one of many pieces of evidence given to show that the relationship was "genuine". The Home Office had failed to apply its own rules for dealing with unmarried partners of people settled in the UK. Amnesty International said May's comments only fuelled "myths and misconceptions" about the Human Rights Act and Justice Secretary
Kenneth Clarke subsequently called May's comments "laughable and childlike."
In June 2012, May was found in
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
by Judge Barry Cotter, and stood accused of "totally unacceptable and regrettable behaviour", being said to have shown complete disregard for a legal agreement to free an Algerian from a UK Immigration Detention Centre. As she eventually allowed the prisoner to be freed, May avoided further sanctions including fines or imprisonment.
May responded to a Supreme Court decision in November 2013 to overturn her predecessor
Jacqui Smith
Jacqueline Jill Smith (born 3 November 1962) is a British broadcaster, political commentator and former Labour Party politician. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch from 1997 to 2010. She served as Home Secretary from 2007 to 2009 ...
's revocation of Iraqi-born terror suspect Al Jedda's British citizenship by ordering it to be revoked for a second time, making him the first person to be stripped twice of British citizenship.
May was accused by
Lord Roberts of being willing to allow someone to die "to score a political point" over the deportation of mentally ill Nigerian man Isa Muazu.
According to Muazu's solicitor, May had arranged for the asylum seeker, who was said to be "near death" after a 100-day hunger strike, to be deported by a chartered private jet.
To strengthen the Home Office's tough stance, an "end of life" plan was reportedly offered to Muazu, who was one of a number of hunger strikers at the
Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre.
Abu Qatada deportation

On 7 July 2013,
Abu Qatada, a radical cleric arrested in 2002, was deported to
Jordan after a decade-long battle that had cost the nation £1.7 million in legal fees,
and several prior Home Secretaries had not resolved. The deportation was the result of a treaty negotiated by May in April 2013, under which Jordan agreed to give Qatada a fair trial, by not using evidence that may have been obtained against him through torture.
May pointed to Qatada's deportation as a triumph, guaranteeing in September 2013 that "he will not be returning to the
UK", and declaring in her 2016 leadership campaign announcement that she was told that she "couldn't deport Abu Qatada" but that she "flew to Jordan and negotiated the treaty that got him out of Britain for good".
The Qatada deportation also shaped May's views on the
European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by th ...
and
European Court of Human Rights, saying that they had "moved the goalposts" and had a "crazy interpretation of our human rights laws", as a result, May has since campaigned against the institutions, saying that British withdrawal from them should be considered.
"Go Home" advertisements
In August 2013, the Home Office engaged in an advertising campaign directed at illegal immigrants. The advertisements, in the form of mobile advertising hoardings on the back of lorries, told illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest", with an image of a person in handcuffs, and were deployed in six London boroughs with substantial ethnic minority populations. They were widely criticised as creating a
hostile atmosphere for members of ethnic minority groups. The shadow Home Secretary,
Yvette Cooper, described their language as being reminiscent of that used by the
National Front in the 1970s. An adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that "the claim
hat 106 arrests were made last weekwas misleading and had not been substantiated" was followed by the advertisements being withdrawn after being banned by the ASA.
Passport backlog
In mid 2014, the Passport Office faced a backlog in developing processing passport applications, with around 30,000 applications hit by delays. David Cameron suggested this had come about due to the Passport Office's receiving an "above normal" 300,000-rise in applications. It was revealed, however, that May had been warned the year before, in July 2013, that a surge of 350,000 extra applications could occur owing to the closure of processing overseas under Chancellor Osborne's programme of cuts. Around £674,000 was paid to staff who helped clear the backlog.
Windrush scandal
In April 2018, May's
hostile environment policy became the focus of British politics in what came to be known as the
Windrush scandal, in which members of the
Windrush generation
British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...
of Afro-Caribbean Britons were threatened with deportation by the Home Office and in at least 83 cases, illegally deported from the UK. The policy also affected the lives of many thousands of people who were in the United Kingdom legally by causing them to be sacked from employment, preventing access to health care, illegally demanding money, exiling them and preventing their return to the UK, and leaving them destitute. The scandal led to the resignation of May's successor Amber Rudd as Home Secretary, and her replacement by
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer ...
. Responding to questions in Parliament on the Windrush scandal on 25 April, May maintained that the hostile environment policy would remain government policy.
Birmingham schools row
In June 2014, an inflamed public argument arose between Home Office and
Education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
Ministers about responsibility for
alleged extremism in Birmingham schools.
Prime Minister
David Cameron intervened to resolve the row, insisting that May sack her
Special Advisor Fiona Cunningham (now Hill) for releasing on May's website a confidential letter to May's colleagues, and that
Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Par ...
, the Education Secretary, apologise to the Home Office's
head of Security and Counter-Terrorism,
Charles Farr, for uncomplimentary briefings of him appearing on the front page of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...
''.
Minister for Women and Equalities
May held the office of
Minister for Women and Equalities in parallel to her office of Home Secretary from 2010 to September 2012, when this role was taken over by
Maria Miller.
[Maria Miller becomes culture secretary](_blank)
, ''The Guardian'', 4 September 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
May's appointment as Minister for Women and Equalities was controversial, and was met with criticism by many in the
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...
due to May's record of consistently opposing
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 3 ...
from 1997 to 2004: she voted against equalising the age of consent in 1998, she spoke in favour of
Section 28 in 2001, and she spoke against greater
adoption rights for homosexuals in 2002. May later stated, during an appearance on the BBC's ''
Question Time'' in 2010, that she had "changed her mind" on gay adoption. Writing for ''
PinkNews'' in June 2010, May detailed proposals for improving LGBT rights including measures to tackle homophobia in sport, advocating British society's need for "cultural change".
On 2 July 2010, May stated she would be supporting the previous Labour Government's Anti-Discrimination Laws enshrined in the
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed during the Brown ministry with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-di ...
despite having previously opposed it. The Equality Act came into effect in England, Wales and Scotland on 1 October 2010. She did however announce that a clause she dubbed "
Harman's Law" which would have required
public bodies to consider how they can reduce socio-economic inequalities when making decisions about spending and services would be scrapped on the grounds that it was "unworkable".
Prime Minister (2016–2019)
Leadership election
On 30 June 2016, May announced her candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party to replace
David Cameron, who resigned following the outcome of the
European Union membership referendum in which 52% of voters voted in favour of leaving the EU. May emphasised the need for unity within the party regardless of positions on leaving the EU, saying she could bring "strong leadership" and a "positive vision" for the country's future. Despite having backed a vote to remain in the EU, she insisted that there would be no second referendum, saying: "The campaign was fought... and the public gave their verdict. There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door... Brexit means Brexit". An opinion poll that day found 47% of people choosing May as their preferred candidate to be prime minister.
May's supporters included a number of Cabinet ministers, such as
Amber Rudd,
Chris Grayling
Christopher Stephen Grayling (born 1 April 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 to 2019. He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom and Ewell since 2001 ...
,
Justine Greening,
Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Spor ...
,
Michael Fallon and
Patrick McLoughlin
Patrick Allen McLoughlin, Baron McLoughlin, (born 30 November 1957) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he first became the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Derbyshire following the 1986 by-election. The constitu ...
. She received the most votes in the first round of voting on 5 July, receiving support from 165 MPs, with rivals
Andrea Leadsom
Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (; ' Salmon; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Northamptonshire since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Enviro ...
receiving 66 votes and
Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Par ...
48. The two candidates with the fewest votes,
Liam Fox and
Stephen Crabb, immediately announced their support for May. May came in first place in the second ballot on 7 July with an overwhelming majority of 199 MPs, compared with 84 for Leadsom and 46 for Gove, who was eliminated. Afterwards, May stated that she was delighted with her support among MPs, and she progressed to a vote of the Conservative Party membership against Leadsom.
On 11 July, Leadsom announced her withdrawal from the leadership contest hours after May had made her first official campaign speech, saying her lack of support amongst Conservative MPs compared to May would be too great a hindrance to becoming a credible prime minister. As the sole remaining candidate, May was formally declared Leader of the Conservative Party that evening.
Appointment
On 13 July 2016, two days after becoming Leader of the Conservative Party, May was appointed Prime Minister by
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...
, becoming only the second female British prime minister after
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
.
Addressing the world's media outside
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along w ...
, May said that she was "honoured and humbled" to become prime minister. On becoming prime minister, May became the first woman to have held two of the
Great Offices of State.
Responding to some calls for an early general election, "sources close to Mrs May" said there was no need for such an election. In a speech after her appointment, May emphasised the term "Unionist" in the name of the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative Pa ...
, reminding all of "the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." By 15 July, May had travelled to
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
to meet with
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member o ...
to reinforce the bond between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. "I'm coming here to show my commitment to preserving this special union that has endured for centuries," she explained.
Cabinet changes
May's first Cabinet appointment was described by
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
as "one of the most sweeping government reshuffles for decades", and called "a brutal cull" by ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fou ...
''.
Nine of Cameron's ministers, including several prominent members, were sacked or resigned from their posts.
[ The early appointments were interpreted both as an effort to reunite the Conservative Party in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the EU and as "a shift to the right," according to '']The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...
''. ITV's Political Editor Robert Peston commented: "Her rhetoric is more left-wing than Cameron's was, her cabinet is more right-wing than his was." Although May had supported remaining in the EU, she appointed several of the most prominent advocates of Brexit to key Cabinet positions responsible for negotiating the United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union, including Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Fo ...
as Foreign Secretary, David Davis as Brexit Secretary
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union or, informally, Brexit Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the business of the Department for Exiting the Euro ...
, and Liam Fox as International Trade Secretary, the latter two being new positions. Other key appointees included Amber Rudd as Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
and Philip Hammond
Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019, Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, and Defence Secretary from 2011 to 2014 ...
as Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
.
First term (2016–2017)
The First May ministry delayed the final approval for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in July 2016, a project which May had objected to when she was Home Secretary. Her political adviser Nick Timothy wrote an article in 2015 to oppose China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones an ...
's involvement in sensitive sectors. He said that the government was "selling our national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...
to China" without rational concerns and "the Government seems intent on ignoring the evidence and presumably the advice of the security and intelligence agencies".
In July 2016, when George Kerevan asked her whether she would be prepared to authorise the killing of a hundred thousand innocent persons by a nuclear strike; during the " Trident debate" inside the House of Commons, May said "Yes. And I have to say to the honourable gentleman: the whole point of a deterrent is that our enemies need to know that we would be prepared to use it. Unlike some suggestions that we could have a nuclear deterrent but not actually be willing to use it, which come from the Labour Party frontbench
In many parliaments and other similar assemblies, seating is typically arranged in banks or rows, with each political party or caucus grouped together. The spokespeople for each group will often sit at the front of their group, and are then kno ...
."
On 20 July, May attended her first Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom, currently held as a single session every W ...
since taking office, then afterwards made her first overseas trip as prime minister, visiting Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
. During the visit, May said that she would not trigger Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon—the process for withdrawing from the European Union—before 2017, suggesting it would take time for the UK to negotiate a "sensible and orderly departure" from the EU. However, although Merkel said it was right for the UK to "take a moment" before beginning the process, she urged May to provide more clarity on a timetable for negotiations. Shortly before travelling to Berlin, May had also announced that in the wake of the referendum, Britain would relinquish the presidency of the Council of the European Union
The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member state ...
, which passes between member states every six months on a rotation basis, and that the UK had been scheduled to hold in the second half of 2017.
May supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Saudi may refer to:
* Saudi Arabia
* Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia
* Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia
* House of Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It i ...
and defended selling arms to Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ar ...
, which is accused of committing war crimes in Yemen, insisting that Britain's close relationship with Saudi Arabia was "helping keep people on the streets of Britain safe".
On 21 January 2017, following the inauguration of Donald Trump
The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States marked the commencement of Donald Trump's term as president and Mike Pence as vice president. An estimated 300,000 to 600,000 people attended the public ceremony hel ...
as US President, the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 ...
announced that May would meet the President on 27 January, making her the first foreign leader to meet Trump since he took office on 20 January. In a joint press conference, May indicated an interest in increased trade between the United States and the United Kingdom. She also affirmed a desire to maintain an American involvement in NATO. May was criticised by members of major parties, including her own, for refusing to condemn Trump's Executive Order 13769, as well as for inviting Trump to a state visit with Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
.
In January 2017, when it came to light that a Trident test had malfunctioned in June 2016, May refused to confirm whether she knew about the incident when she addressed parliament.
May's Chancellor, Philip Hammond
Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019, Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, and Defence Secretary from 2011 to 2014 ...
, continued government policies of freezing benefits in his 2017 budget.
2017 general election
On 18 April, May announced that she would call a parliamentary vote to hold an early general election on 8 June, saying that it was the "only way to guarantee certainty and security for years ahead". May had previously ruled out an early election on five occasions over nine months. The election was the first snap election held under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 after MPs gave May the two-thirds super-majority required.
Unveiling the Conservative manifesto in Halifax on 18 May, May promised a "mainstream government that would deliver for mainstream Britain". It proposed to balance the budget by 2025, raise spending on the NHS by £8bn per annum and on schools by £4bn per annum by 2022, remove the ban on new grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...
s, means-test the winter fuel allowance, replace the state pension "triple lock" with a "double lock" and require executive pay to be approved by a vote of shareholders. It also contained May's previously-announced flagship energy reform of a cap on gas and electricity bills for households on standard variable tariffs. It dropped the 2015 pledge to not raise income tax or national insurance contributions but maintained a commitment to freeze VAT. New sovereign wealth fund
A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...
s for infrastructure, rules to prevent foreign takeovers of "critical national infrastructure" and institutes of technology were also proposed. The manifesto was noted for its intervention in industry, lack of tax cuts and increased spending commitments on public services. On Brexit it committed to leaving the single market and customs union
A customs union is generally defined as a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff.GATTArticle 24 s. 8 (a)
Customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set ...
while seeking a "deep and special partnership" and promised a vote in parliament on the final agreement.
The manifesto also proposed reforms to social care in England that would raise the threshold for free care from £23,250 to £100,000 while including property in the means test and permitting deferred payment after death. After attracting substantial media attention, four days after the manifesto launch May stated that the proposed social care reforms would now include an "absolute limit" on costs in contrast to the rejection of a cap in the manifesto. She criticised the "fake" portrayal of the policy in recent days by Labour and other critics who had termed it a "dementia tax". ''Evening Standard'' editor George Osborne called the policy change a "U-turn". ''The Financial Times'' contrasted her " Strong and Stable" leadership slogan with her own record of nine rapid U-turns claiming she was "making a habit of retreating from policies."
The general election in June resulted in a hung parliament, prompting her to broker a deal
A deal, or deals may refer to:
Places United States
* Deal, New Jersey, a borough
* Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* Deal Lake, New Jersey
Elsewhere
* Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia
* Deal, Kent, a town in England
* Deal, a ...
with Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
's Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by ...
(DUP), involving £1 billion of additional public funding for Northern Ireland.
Second term (2017–2019)
Less than two weeks after the 2017 State Opening of Parliament, May ordered a full public inquiry
A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal commission in that ...
into the contaminated blood scandal. For this she was widely praised as successive governments going back to the 1980s had refused such an inquiry, some though speculated that May had simply been forced to announce the inquiry after a group legal action and news of fresh evidence were brought by Jason Evans. Additionally, Andy Burnham had threatened to take evidence to the police if an inquiry were not announced. With over 1,000 core participants, the Infected Blood Inquiry is the biggest public inquiry ever held in the UK.
Myanmar
In November 2017, May said the actions
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
of Myanmar Army
The Myanmar Army ( my, တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း), ) is the largest branch of the Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw'') of Myanmar (Burma) and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The Myanmar Arm ...
and police against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
"looks like ethnic cleansing".[Theresa May vows to tackle 'inhuman destruction of Rohingya people']
. Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...
. 14 November 2017. According to May, "it is something for which the Burmese authorities – and especially the military – must take full responsibility." From the 2017 general election to December 2017, May suffered no defeats in whipped votes in the House of Commons. On 13 December 2017, May lost a vote on the EU Withdrawal Bill by 309 votes to 305, due to 11 Conservatives voting against the government, including Stephen Hammond who was then vice-chairman of the Conservative Party.
Russia
May accused Russia of "threatening the international order", "seeking to weaponise information" and "deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories". She mentioned Russia's meddling in German federal election in 2017,[Theresa May warns Russia over election meddling and vows to protect UK]
. ''The Independent''. 13 November 2017. after German government officials and security experts said there was no Russian interference.
China
May promised to confront China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones an ...
on human rights but was praised in Communist Party-controlled media for "sidestepping" human rights in China during her first official visit to the country.[China applauds ‘Auntie’ Theresa May for sidestepping human rights issue]
. '' The Week''. 2 February 2018. The '' Global Times'' said: "For the Prime Minister, the losses outweigh the gains if she appeases the British media at the cost of the visit’s friendly atmosphere."
Assassination plot
In 2017, Islamic State
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
terrorist Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman was foiled in a plot to assassinate May at Downing Street.
Turkey
In May 2018, during a three-day state visit to the UK by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...
, May declared that Britain is a "true friend" of Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula i ...
, but she added that "It is important that in defense of democracy, which has been facing extraordinary pressures from the failed coup, instability across the border from Syria and from Kurdish terrorism, Turkey does not lose sight of the values it is seeking to defend."
Contempt of Parliament
On 4 December 2018, on a motion passed by MPs by 311 to 293 votes, the May Government was found in contempt of Parliament; the first government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
to be found in contempt in history. The vote was triggered by the government failing to lay before Parliament any legal advice on the proposed withdrawal agreement on the terms of the UK's departure from the European Union, after a humble address for a return was unanimously agreed to by the House of Commons on 13 November 2018. The government then agreed to publish the full legal advice for Brexit that was given to the Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
by the Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
during negotiations with the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
.
Vote of confidence (Conservative Party)
On 12 December 2018, May faced a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party over opposition to her negotiated Brexit deal, after the number of Conservative MPs exceeded the 48 no-confidence letter threshold that the 1922 Committee Chairman, Sir Graham Brady required for the vote of confidence to be held. May won the vote with 200 Conservative MPs voting for her, compared to 117 voting against. As part of her speech to the Parliamentary Conservative Party before the confidence vote was opened, it was reported that May conceded that she would step down as prime minister after delivering Brexit and would not lead the Conservative Party into the next General Election in exchange for Conservative MPs voting to have confidence in her leadership so that she would be able to keep the party, Parliament and the UK stable during the final stages of Brexit. May later confirmed this to BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...
Political editor The political editor of a newspaper or broadcaster is the senior political reporter who covers politics and related matters for the newspaper or station. They may have a large team of political correspondents working under them.
In publishing, beca ...
, Laura Kuenssberg after meeting EU leaders, including Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...
in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
.
Vote of no confidence (House of Commons)
On 17 December 2018 in the House of Commons, the Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist. ...
, tabled a motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
in May's premiership, citing May's refusal to set the date for the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal before Christmas, and instead pushing it back to mid-January. The following day the government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
refused to allow time for the motion to be debated. John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, confirmed that they were under no obligation to do so. Following the defeat of May's Brexit deal on 15 January 2019, Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
in the Government, to be voted on by parliament the following evening. The motion was defeated by 325 votes to 306; a majority of 19.
Brexit deal defeats
On 15 January 2019, May's government was defeated in the House of Commons by a margin of 230 votes (202 in favour and 432 opposed) in a vote on her deal to leave the European Union ("first meaningful vote"). It was the largest majority against a United Kingdom government in history.
On 12 March, May was again defeated in the Commons by 149 votes (242 in favour and 391 against) on her latest deal after she secured last-minute concessions from the EU ("second meaningful vote").
On 29 March, May was again defeated by 58 votes in the Commons (286 in favour and 344 against) on the withdrawal deal but not the political declaration ("third meaningful vote").
Resignation
On 27 March 2019 at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, May confirmed that she will "not lead the UK in the next stage of Brexit negotiations", meaning she was expected to resign after the third meaningful vote, if it had passed successfully. However, no date was stated, and her reported wording was ambiguous and thus carried no binding force. On 29 March, the third meaningful vote was defeated, and while May did not state anything in regards to standing down, Corbyn stated that if May could not find an alternative to her deal "she must go, not at an indeterminate date in the future but now."
On 22 April it was announced that the leaders of 70 Conservative Associations had signed a petition calling for a vote of no confidence. Under party rules an Extraordinary General Meeting must be convened if one is demanded by 65 associations. The non-binding vote, to be determined by 800 of the party's senior officials, would be the first time such an instance has occurred. On 24 April, the party's 1922 Committee ruled out changing the leadership challenge rules, but its chair, Graham Brady, asked for clarity on when May would step down from office.
On 24 May she confirmed that she would resign as Conservative Party leader on 7 June, stating, "it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new prime minister to lead that effort." She continued to serve as prime minister until she tendered her resignation to the Queen
In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to:
* Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death
The Queen may also refer to:
* Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...
on 24 July. This coincided with the arrival of Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Fo ...
as prime minister, who was elected by the Conservative Party membership. By constitutional convention May did not step down until she assured the Queen that Johnson would be able to command the confidence of the House of Commons.
In one of May's last Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom, currently held as a single session every W ...
, Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP for Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into t ...
, urged May not to "cut and run" and instead reconsider her resignation. May responded by saying she would return to the role of a backbench MP after leaving office.
On 24 July 2019, May ended her consecutive service at the frontbench since 1998 when she had been appointed Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women.
Ministerial resignations
May's premiership had 51 resignations with 33 relating to Brexit. These included 12 departures from the Cabinet. The pace and number of resignations have been described as 'unprecedented' by the Institute for Government, with resignations impacting the functioning of the government. In less than three years, May received more resignations than Thatcher (11 years) or Blair (10 years). The Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes.
United Kingdom
...
Julian Smith described May's Cabinet as exhibiting the 'worst cabinet ill-discipline in history'.
Public opinion
May had a high approval rating during her first week as prime minister. The results of an Ipsos MORI survey released in July 2016 indicated that 55% of those surveyed believed that May was a suitable PM while only 23% believed that the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn would make a good prime minister.
A ''ComRes'' poll taken in September 2016 after her election suggested May was seen as substantially more "in touch with ordinary British people" than her predecessor David Cameron and a majority of voters saw her as "the right person to unite the country".
At the beginning of 2017, nearly six months after becoming prime minister, a ComRes
Savanta ComRes is a market research consultancy based in London, England. Established in 2003 as Communicate Research Ltd, ComRes was a founding member of the British Polling Council in 2004, and is one of the UK's best known polling companies. ...
found May was the most popular UK politician with a net rating of +9 which was described as the longest honeymoon period enjoyed by any sitting Conservative prime minister since the end of the Second World War.
The Conservative Party had a 21-point lead over Labour in a poll released the day before May announced a snap election but this lead narrowed substantially. In mid-June, following the election, a YouGov poll showed that May's popularity had dropped to a rating of −34. In April 2018, May had a higher approval rating than Corbyn for the first time since the general election, leading him by −13 to −23.
Plans to reform social care
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wor ...
came to dominate the Conservative election campaign during the 2017 Snap Election, with some arguing it ultimately cost May her majority. May's promised green paper
In the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, Hong Kong, the United States and the European Union, a green paper is a tentative government report and consultation document of policy proposals for debate and discussion. A green paper represent ...
on the future of adult social care was plagued by frequent delays, ultimately never materialising during her premiership. A December 2019 poll by learning disabilities
Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficult ...
charity Hft found that 59% of social care providers in England believed that the situation in social care worsened under May's premiership, compared to just 3% who said it was slightly better.
Political positions
May has identified herself with the one-nation conservative position within her party.
Since coming into prominence as a front-bench politician, May's public image has divided media opinion, especially from some in the traditionalist right-wing press. Commenting on May's debut as Home Secretary, Anne Perkins of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...
'' observed that "she'll be nobody's stooge", while Cristina Odone of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fou ...
'' predicted her to be "the rising star" of the Coalition Government. Allegra Stratton, then with ''The Guardian'', praised May as showing managerial acumen.
Describing her as a liberal Conservative, the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' characterised May as a "non-ideological politician with a ruthless streak who gets on with the job", in doing so comparing her to German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
. Conversely, in ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
'', Rebecca Glover of the Policy Innovation Research Unit contrasted May to Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Fo ...
, claiming that she was "staunchly more conservative, more anti-immigration, and more isolationist" than he was.
During her leadership campaign, May said that "We need an economy that works for everyone", pledging to crack down on executive pay by making shareholders' votes binding rather than advisory and to put workers onto company boards (although she later claimed that the last pledge was not to be mandatory), policies that ''The Guardian'' describes as going further than the Labour Party's 2015 general election manifesto.
After she became prime minister, May's first speech espoused the left, with a promise to combat the "burning injustice" in British society and to create a union "between all of our citizens" and promising to be an advocate for the "ordinary working-class family" and not for the affluent in the UK. "The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives ... When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws we’ll listen not to the mighty, but to you. When it comes to taxes we’ll prioritise not the wealthy but you."
May has described herself as a personal supporter of fox hunting with hounds, saying that foxes' numbers had to be controlled and that hunting them with dogs was the most humane way to do it. The Conservative manifesto for the 2017 election included a pledge to hold a parliamentary vote to repeal the Hunting Act 2004, which prohibits a range of hunting activities.
After the Conservatives' manifesto for the 2017 election was released, some people, including Fraser Nelson of ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...
'', called her a "red Tory
A Red Tory is an adherent of a centre to centre-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition, most predominantly in Canada but also in the United Kingdom and Australia. This philosophy tends to favour ...
", saying that she had moved her party to the left in politics. ''Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and inte ...
'' called her policies "Mayism", saying that Mayism was "a working-class conservatism openly critical of the "cult of individualism" and globalization".
May praised the former Prime Minister Winston Churchill and has a portrait of Churchill on the wall of her study. May's spokesman said: "The prime minister has quoted and referenced Sir Winston Churchill on many occasion and acknowledged him as one of the great prime ministers of the 20th century."
May welcomed the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying that "no one is above the law." Assange had fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 after being accused of sexual assault in Sweden. He is also wanted by the US for "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion" relating to the Wikileaks release of classified material in 2010, including footage of US soldiers killing civilians in Iraq.
Foreign policy
In 2003, May voted to approve the invasion of Iraq and in 2013 voted in favour of British military intervention in the Syrian civil war.
The May Ministry delayed the final approval for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in July 2016, a project which May had objected to when she was Home Secretary. Her political adviser Nick Timothy wrote an article in 2015 to oppose People's Republic of China's involvement in sensitive sectors. He said that the government was "selling our national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...
to China" without rational concerns and "the Government seems intent on ignoring the evidence and presumably the advice of the security and intelligence agencies."
Politicians and human rights activists urged Theresa May's government to vote against Saudi Arabian retention of the membership of the UN Human Rights Council. Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
's UK Foreign Policy Programme Director Polly Truscott said: "Rather than turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s continuing bully tactics, the UK should publicly hold the Saudi authorities to account for its appalling human rights record and the ongoing war crimes in Yemen and should stop selling weapons to Saudi as a matter of urgency." May defended selling arms to Saudi Arabia stating that close ties with the country "keep people on the streets of Britain safe".
Economic policy
Prior to her premiership, May outlined plans to backtrack on the longstanding government plan to achieve a surplus by 2020, following the UK's withdrawal from the European Union
Withdrawal from the European Union is the legal and political process whereby an EU member state ceases to be a member of the Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union ( TEU) states that "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from t ...
. With uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook, Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
Phillip Hammond has suggested that the government's Autumn Statement may be used to "reset" economic policy.
In 2015, while May was Home Secretary, an 18% funding cut in the police force had taken place with the loss of around 20,000 police officers. Before the Manchester Arena bombing
On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande.
Twenty-three people were killed, includin ...
and after the Paris attacks, she was warned by a Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
senior police officer that the cuts in the force and community policing risked terror attacks in the city due to the lack of resources to undertake proper intelligence and anti-terrorist measures.
In May and Hammond's 2017 budget, continued government policies were confirmed regarding freezing benefits.
May's government published a Green Paper
In the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, Hong Kong, the United States and the European Union, a green paper is a tentative government report and consultation document of policy proposals for debate and discussion. A green paper represent ...
in November 2016 which considered forcing companies to reveal the difference between what their CEOs are paid and what their ordinary workers are paid. On 1 January 2019 new regulations came into force for UK listed companies with over 250 employees to annually disclose the ratio of their CEO's pay to the median, lower quartile, and upper quartile pay of their UK employees.
Workers' representatives
Before her premiership began, May said that she planned to have workers represented on company boards, saying "If I'm prime minister ... we're going to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but workers as well." May aimed to put workers' and consumers' representatives on boards to make them more accountable. Nils Pratley, a journalist at ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...
'', wrote in July "Fundamental principles of Britain's boardroom governance are being rethought. It is a very welcome development. In the more enlightened quarters of the UK corporate world, they can see that boardroom pay has eroded trust in business." Workers' representatives it appeared, would have made UK companies more like those in Germany and France. May was accused of backtracking in November 2016 when she said that firms would not be forced to adopt the proposal, saying "there are a number of ways in which that can be achieved".
Environment
Following the impact of '' Blue Planet II'' in 2017, the May administration outlined plans to approve further green policy. A particular focus has been on plastic and its impact on the environment. In March 2018, May announced plans for a plastic deposit scheme modelled on a similar policy in Norway to boost recycling.
EU and Brexit
May publicly stated her support for the UK remaining in the EU during the 2016 referendum campaign, but did not campaign extensively in the referendum and criticised aspects of the EU in a speech. It was speculated by political journalists that May had sought to minimise her involvement in the debate to strengthen her position as a future candidate for the Conservative party leadership. Some in David Cameron's ministry likened May to a "submarine" on the issue of Brexit due to her perceived indifference towards the referendum and the EU.
In a leaked recording prior to the Brexit referendum, May said,
May also said Britain was more secure as part of the EU due to the European arrest warrant and Europe-wide information sharing among other factors. She said, "There are definitely things we can do as members of the European Union that I think keep us more safe".
May's public reticence during the referendum campaign resulted in tensions with David Cameron and his pro-EU team. Following the referendum and her election as party leader, May signalled that she would support full withdrawal from the EU and prioritise immigration controls over remaining within the single market, leading some to contrast this with her earlier remarks on the earlier economic arguments. She later went on to say before the 2017 United Kingdom general election
The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing C ...
that she would be willing to leave the EU without a deal, saying that "no deal is better than a bad deal. We have to be prepared to walk out". The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron
Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, before which he worked in ...
, said it was "disappointing that Theresa May lacked the political courage to warn the public as she did a bunch of bankers in private about the devastating economic effects of Brexit. More disappointing is that now she is supposedly in charge, she is blithely ignoring her own warnings and is prepared to inflict an act of monumental self-harm on the UK economy by pulling Britain out of the single market." Phil Wilson for the Open Britain group said, "It's good to know that privately Theresa May thinks what many of us have been saying publicly for a long time, leaving the single market would be bad for businesses and for our economy. Now she is prime minister, Theresa May is in an unrivalled position to act on her previous concerns, starting by putting membership of the single market at the heart of her government's negotiating position."
On 22 September 2017, May officially made public the details of her Brexit proposal during a speech in Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico a ...
, urging the European Union to maintain a transitional period of two years after Brexit during which trade terms remain unaltered. During this period, the UK would also continue to honour its budget commitments of about €10 billion per annum, and accept immigration from Europe. Her speech was criticised by leading Eurosceptic Nigel Farage. The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed May's proposal as "constructive," but said it also "must be translated into negotiating positions to make meaningful progress."
May did not initially wish to give MPs a vote on withdrawal from the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
. Nicky Morgan
Nicola Ann Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes, (; born 10 October 1972) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, ...
stated "in 2016 MPs aren't asking for a veto but they do want a say and we hope the Prime Minister will remember her earlier words". Anna Soubry and Nick Clegg also called for more parliamentary involvement. In November 2016, the High Court ruled in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union that parliament must vote on the decision to leave the EU but May appealed to the Supreme Court. Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member o ...
, Scottish First Minister has joined the case as did representatives from Wales and Northern Ireland. Sturgeon felt that the Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyroo ...
should also consent to the UK triggering of Article 50. She said she was not seeking to prevent England and Wales leaving but wanted to preserve Scotland's place in the EU. In the end the Supreme Court required a vote in the UK parliament.
May was accused of not having a plan if Brexit talks broke down. There were fears that if talks failed Britain could be left trading under WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation
in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
rules which it was feared by some analysts would seriously damage jobs and livelihoods in Britain and Europe. May's ministers repeatedly promised to walk away from a bad final deal but, it was argued by some commentators, had no plans for how to manage without a deal. Ivan Rogers described May's Brexit strategy as "an accident waiting to happen". He said completing Brexit was "guaranteed" to take a decade and alleged May's hopes of a trade deal made to order meant that instability in the next few months was "quite likely".
In late October 2018, the National Audit Office claimed that it was already too late to prepare the necessary Irish border security checks in the event of a No-deal scenario—a weakness that could be exploited by criminals.
On 5 February 2019, May gave a speech to business leaders in Belfast to address Brexit stating the United Kingdom's relationship with Ireland was closer than the 26 other members of the EU. She affirmed the government's "absolute" commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and stated that Britain would seek to have no hard border in Northern Ireland.
It was reported in 2020 that former MI6 operative Christopher Steele accused May, while Boris Johnson was foreign secretary, of ignoring claims that Russia may have secretly funded Brexit. Steele accuses May's government of selling British interests short by not taking matters further: “In this case, political considerations seemed to outweigh national security interests. If so, in my view, HMG made a serious mistake in balancing matters of strategic importance to our country.”
In July 2020 the Intelligence and Security Committee report on Russia was released. It stated that the British government and intelligence agencies failed to conduct any assessment of Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum. It stated the government “had not seen or sought evidence of successful interference in UK democratic processes”. Steward Hosie, SNP member said “The report reveals that no one in government knew if Russia interfered in or sought to influence the referendum because they did not want to know,”. However, the report stated no firm conclusion could be ascertained on whether the Kremlin had or had not successfully interfered in the referendum.
Feminism
In 2005, May co-founded the mentoring and pressure group '' Women2Win''. This group and May's personal efforts have been credited with increasing the number of Conservative women MPs and with supporting them. In government she lobbied for improvements to maternity leave, and as Home Secretary she acted on FGM
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
and introduced a law on coercive control. However, she has been criticised for the financial cuts made by her government, which have been claimed to have had the greatest impact on poor and vulnerable women.
Same-sex relationships
In 1998, May voted against lowering the age of consent for homosexual acts, and was absent for the vote on the repeal of Section 28 in 2003. In May 2012, however, May expressed support for the introduction of same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
by recording a video for the Out4Marriage campaign, in which she stated "I believe if two people care for each other, if they love each other, if they want to commit to each other... then they should be able to get married and marriage should be for everyone". In May 2013, May voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
.
Post-premiership
After leaving 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along w ...
, May took her place on the backbenches, remaining an MP to "devote her full time" to her constituency of Maidenhead, Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...
. In the 2019 general election she was re-elected as the constituency's MP.
On 30 September 2019, May divulged, at the Henley Literary Festival in Oxfordshire, that she was "thinking about writing a book", saying "It has been suggested to me that people involved in significant events should write about them so historians can look back and see what those who were at the centre of events were thinking, why they took decisions and so forth". When interviewed, she admitted that she had not read her predecessor David Cameron's memoir ''For the Record''. She also said she had "no regrets" over her political career.
In May 2020, May criticised the chief adviser to the prime minister Dominic Cummings when he broke lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. She abstained in the vote on the second lockdown in Parliament.
May has been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg following his expected retirement in 2023. In June 2021, British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace expressed support for a potential May candidacy, saying "she would be an excellent candidate."
On 13 July 2021, May was one of 24 Conservative MPs who voted against their party, defying the whip for the first time in 24 years, over the government's proposal to cut its foreign aid budget. She criticised the government, saying in an address to Parliament, "We made a promise to the poorest people in the world. The Government have broken that promise."
May was critical of Boris Johnson after the publication of the summary of the Sue Gray report, stating "either my right honourable friend had not read the rules or didn't understand what they meant and others around him, or they didn't think the rules applied to Number 10. Which was it?"
On 16 March 2022, Russia banned May from visiting the country over the war in Ukraine.
Personal life
May has been married to Sir Philip May, an investment relationship manager currently employed by Capital International, since 6 September 1980. It has been reported that former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 ...
introduced the two during their time at Oxford. May has expressed regret that she and her husband did not have children. The Mays are passionate walkers, and they regularly spend their holidays hiking in the Swiss Alps
The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps (german: Schweizer Alpen, french: Alpes suisses, it, Alpi svizzere, rm, Alps svizras), represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swis ...
. May is also a cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cricket), bails b ...
fan, stating that Sir Geoffrey Boycott was one of her sporting heroes. She also enjoys cooking, and has said that she owns 100 cookery books. Philip has said that she "is a very good cook".
May and her husband reside in the Thames village of Sonning which is within her constituency.
May is a member of the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
and regularly worships at church (usually at St Andrew's, Sonning) on Sunday. The daughter of an Anglican priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
, Hubert Brasier, May has said that her Christian faith "is part of me. It is part of who I am and therefore how I approach things".
May is known for a love of fashion, and in particular of distinctive shoes; she wore leopard-print shoes at her 'Nasty Party' speech in 2002, as well as her final Cabinet meeting as Home Secretary in 2016. On '' Desert Island Discs'' in 2014, she chose a subscription to ''Vogue'' as her luxury item. However, she has been critical of the media focusing on her fashion instead of her achievements as a politician.
May was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus of type 1 in November 2012. She is treated with daily insulin injections.
Following her husband's knighthood in the 2019 Dissolution Honours, she has been entitled to be styled as Lady May. , May's listing on Parliament's website, her own website, and social media do not use the style "Lady May".
As a former Prime Minister, May, with her husband Philip, had a place of honour at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022.
Honours and arms
Commonwealth honours
Foreign honours
Scholastic
; University degrees
; Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships
Honorary degrees
Freedom of the City
* 30 August 2018: Abuja
Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...
.
Memberships and Fellowships
Awards
Prior to and since her appointment to Government, May has actively supported a variety of campaigns on policy issues in her constituency and at national level. She has spoken at the Fawcett Society promoting the cross-party issue of gender equality. She is the Patron of Reading University Conservative Association, in Berkshire (the county of her Maidenhead constituency). Her activism has earned her a number of awards.
She was nominated as one of the Society's Inspiring Women of 2006. In February 2013, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...
's '' Woman's Hour'' described her as Britain's second-most powerful woman after Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...
; May was Home Secretary at the time, and the most senior woman in that government.
In 2001 she was made a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors.
In September 2017, she was listed by ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also rep ...
'' as the second most powerful woman in the world, behind Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
.
Arms
See also
*List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the principal minister of the crown of His Majesty's Government, and the head of the British Cabinet. There is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was n ...
References
External links
Constituency website of Theresa May MP
Profile
at the Conservative Party website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Theresa
1956 births
21st-century prime ministers of the United Kingdom
20th-century Anglicans
21st-century Anglicans
20th-century British women politicians
21st-century British women politicians
Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford
British Anglicans
Chairmen of the Conservative Party (UK)
Conservative Party (UK) councillors
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Conservative Party prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Councillors in the London Borough of Merton
Female interior ministers
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Leaders of the Conservative Party (UK)
Living people
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Berkshire
Ministers for Women and Equalities
People from Eastbourne
People from Maidenhead
People with type 1 diabetes
Secretaries of State for the Home Department
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Wives of knights
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Women's ministers of the United Kingdom
Women Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom