Rt Hon Theresa May, Lady May, MP, PC

Theresa Mary May, PC, MP (née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. May served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 and has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead since 1997. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a one-nation conservative and has been characterised as a liberal conservative and Christian democrat. She is the second female Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, following Margaret Thatcher.

• Wikipedia: Theresa May

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Theresa May is a British Conservative politician who was Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equality. She was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1997 as the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead, and served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party, 2003–04. Appointed to Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in 2003, she became Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women before being appointed to her positions in Prime Minister David Cameron's Cabinet on 12 May 2010.

Born in Eastbourne, Sussex, May studied geography at St Hugh's College, Oxford. From 1977 until 1983, May worked at the Bank of England, and from 1985 until 1997 at the Association for Payment Clearing Services, also serving as a councillor for the London Borough of Merton's Durnsford Ward. After unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and 1994, she was elected MP for Maidenhead in the 1997 general election. May served in a number of roles in the Shadow Cabinets of William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard, and David Cameron, including Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. She was also the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2002 until 2003.

After the formation of the Coalition Government following the 2010 general election, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, giving up the latter role in 2012. Reappointed after the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election, she went on to become the longest-serving Home Secretary since James Chuter Ede over 60 years previously, pursuing reform of the police, taking a harder line on drug policy and introducing restrictions on immigration.[3]

Following the resignation of Cameron in June 2016, May announced her candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party and quickly emerged as the front-runner. She won the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 5 July by a significant margin, and two days later won the votes of 199 MPs, going forward to face a vote of Conservative Party members in a contest with Andrea Leadsom. Leadsom's withdrawal from the election on 11 July led to May's appointment as leader the same day.