Theresa May will enter Downing street as Britain’s second female prime minister, a rapid ascent to the premiership that came after her sole remaining challenger withdrew from the leadership race.
The home secretary’s coronation cuts short what was expected to be a bruising nine-week contest with Andrea Leadsom, and will bring an end to David Cameron’s six-year tenure in No 10, when he will offer his resignation to the Queen after this week’s prime minister’s questions.
May has just two days to prepare herself for the premiership and address the pressing questions about who will be in her cabinet, how she will unite the party after the battle over Brexit and her preparations for the negotiations to leave the European Union.
On Monday, May, who had campaigned for remain in the EU referendum, said she was “honoured and humbled” to have been chosen by her party, before offering an olive branch to colleagues who backing leaving the EU by declaring that she would “make a success” of Brexit.
Flanked by dozens of Tory MPs, the home secretary paid tribute to Cameron for his leadership of the country and party, and to Leadsom for her “dignity” in standing aside earlier in the day, before saying the time had come to unite the country and her party.
She said that her campaign had been based on a series of messages: “First, the need for strong, proven leadership to steer us through what will be difficult and uncertain economic and political times, the need, of course, to negotiate the best deal for Britain in leaving the EU, and to forge a new role for ourselves in the world.
“Second, we are going to unite our country and, third, we need a strong, new positive vision for the future of our country, a vision of a country that works not for the privileged few, but that works for every one of us.”
As May made her way through parliament to deliver her statement to the cameras, Westminster was already awash with speculation about who she is likely to appoint to senior positions. Favourites for the key role of chancellor include Philip Hammond, currently foreign secretary, and Chris Grayling, the Brexit-supporting leader of the House of Commons, who has run May’s campaign.
George Osborne has indicated that he would stay on in a senior role if asked, with some expecting that he could become the new foreign secretary. There were also rumours that leave campaigners such as David Davis or Liam Fox could lead Brexit negotiations in a specially appointed cabinet position.
Other key allies in her campaign have included Karen Bradley, Richard Harrington and James Brokenshire, who have all worked with May as Home Office ministers; Gavin Williamson, who has been a key aide to David Cameron; the former minister Damian Green; and Brandon Lewis, the housing minister.
Lewis told the Guardian that he was delighted, saying the priority now would be “getting stability for the economy”.
Sam Gyimah, the childcare minister, who has supported May’s campaign since the day Cameron announced his resignation, smiled as he declared: “Cometh the hour, cometh Theresa. There is a sense of relief and euphoria. Relief that we are not going to have a long, drawn-out election campaign, but euphoria that we have chosen someone who clearly merits the top job.”
Tories quickly rallied around the prime minister-elect. Steve Baker, a leading Eurosceptic, who had backed Leadsom, emerged from a meeting of the 1922 Committee to say it was clear there was now unity. He said many in the “voluntary party” were disappointed about the fact that they would not now have a vote. “I hope they will understand that Andrea made a thoughtful decision.”
Most Conservatives appeared shocked at the speed at which they had gone from preparing for a leadership battle with the party’s grassroots to the apparent coronation of a new leader and prime minister.
Leadsom, who had been backed by many of the most Eurosceptic MPs, pulled out of the race just after noon, saying that it was in the “best interests of the country” because a nine-week contest could be destabilising. “Business needs certainty; a strong and unified government must move quickly to set out what an independent UK’s framework for business looks like,” she said.
The energy minister blamed too little support among Tory MPs, arguing that the backing of 84 colleagues had been a great expression of confidence but was less than 25% of the parliamentary party. She said that was not sufficient to become prime minister, even if members backed her.
Leadsom did not mention her earlier admission that a series of attacks from colleagues, following controversial comments about motherhood, had left her “shattered” and in tears. However, the controversy this weekend that resulted in a number of colleagues calling her insensitive, inexperienced and not “PM material” is likely to have influenced her decision.
As Leadsom finished her statement, a group of hecklers shouted: “Another Brexiteer leaves the scene of the crime.”
Edward Leigh, a Eurosceptic MP, arrived at the statement a few minutes after it ended. “What the fuck is going on, why is she resigning?” he asked the assembled supporters. “I found out 20 minutes ago in the tea room. I don’t know who was in the loop.”
Cameron said Leadsom had made the right decision, and in an unusually curt statement said her decision would now avoid a “prolonged leadership election campaign”. He added: “I’m also delighted that Theresa May will be the next prime minister. She is strong, she is competent, she’s more than able to provide the leadership the country is going to need in the years ahead, and she will have my full support.”
Cameron announced that he would chair his last cabinet meeting on Tuesday and carry out one more prime minister’s questions on Wednesday before heading to Buckingham Palace to resign formally. “We will have a new prime minister in that building behind me by Wednesday evening.”
As he walked back into No 10 after making his comments, Cameron was humming a song that some suggested was the start of the music from the West Wing. As he entered the door be muttered “right” as if ready to get on with his day.
May has ruled out the possibility of an early general election, arguing that she was part of the Conservatives’ leading team that won a mandate last year.
Earlier, she had delivered a speech that had been intended to be the opening gambit in a fight for the leadership with Leadsom, adopting the language of Labour’s previous leader, Ed Miliband, as she made a one-nation pitch to work for everyone rather than the privileged few.
In the hardest-hitting passage, she said: “We need a government that will deliver serious social reform – and make ours a country that truly works for everyone. Because right now, if you’re born poor, you will die on average nine years earlier than others. If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white.
“If you’re a white working-class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else to go to university. If you’re at a state school, you’re less likely to reach the top professions than if you’re educated privately. If you’re a woman, you still earn less than a man.”
Robert Halfon, the Conservative’s deputy chairman, suggested that May had laid out a vision that placed his party’s tanks on Labour lawns. “This was a speech for a real workers’ party: radical proposals that give people real rights. It was an assault on crony capitalism. It put meat on the bones of compassionate Conservatism,” he said. “Given that millions of working people no longer vote Labour, she has shown those people that the Conservative party is ready to speak for many disenfranchised.”
Labour’s Jon Ashworth said he welcomed her “apparent conversion to the active industrial agenda we outlined at the last general election”, but argued that she had a “record of failure” at the Home Office, including cuts to police funding. “People will judge her on her actions, not her words. The truth is, Theresa May will offer nothing new for working people – just more of the same failed policies,” he said.
Jeremy Corbyn was expected to speak with May by phone on Monday night.
