Americans must congratulate the British Conservative Party in its quick choice of Theresa May as prime minister in the wake of the vote June 23 to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Americans must congratulate the British Conservative Party in its quick choice of Theresa May as prime minister in the wake of the vote June 23 to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union.
May, 59, on Wednesday replaced David Cameron as prime minister and head of the Conservative Party. He submitted his resignation in the immediate wake of the momentous choice of British voters, by a relatively close 17 million to 16 million, to leave the EU. Cameron had put the referendum on the table in an effort to remain as prime minister last year. In the event, his action proved unnecessary as the Conservatives won a decisive victory in 2015, probably on other issues.
May served as home secretary — in effect, minister of the interior — for six years and as a member of Parliament for 19 years. She studied at Oxford University and has a reputation for being serious and even-tempered, if not charismatic. She became the Conservatives’ first choice to replace Cameron when her final rival for the post, Andrea Leadsom, dropped out of the race for lack of support. Leadsom had blotted her copybook when she made remarks that suggested she thought that she, as a mother, was better qualified to be prime minister than the childless May.
The new British leader has a brutal task ahead of her as she tries to negotiate the United Kingdom’s way out of the EU, retaining the advantages of the relationship while respecting the British electorate’s mandate to leave. She herself had opposed leaving but has pledged to carry out the mandate. Last year, 52.2 percent of the U.K.’s imports came from EU countries and the EU bought 43.5 percent of U.K. exports. Sticky business. In addition, two pieces of the United Kingdom, Scotland and Northern Ireland, voted not to leave the EU and are now thinking about succession from the U.K., another problem for May.
The United States, as it tries to cope with its own divisive issues, will find the U.K. under the new prime minister to be a still-interested partner, but one also intensely preoccupied with EU and internal issues.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette