Theresa May

Biography

Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead, was born Theresa Mary Brasier on October 1, 1956, in Eastbourne. She is a British Conservative politician who was Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. May was the second woman to become Prime Minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to hold two of the Great Offices of State. She is married to Philip May, and they have stayed together throughout her public life. May attended Wheatley Park School in Oxfordshire and studied Geography at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, graduating in 1977. After university, she worked at the Bank of England and the Association for Payment Clearing Services before entering politics.

May became the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead in the 1997 general election after two unsuccessful attempts to win a seat in the Commons. She steadily rose through the Conservative Party ranks, serving in various shadow cabinet roles during the 2000s and as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003. When the Conservatives formed a coalition government after the 2010 general election, she was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, stepping down from the latter role in 2012. Her time as Home Secretary, which lasted until 2016, was the longest continuous service in over sixty years. During that period, she pursued key reforms, including creating the National Crime Agency and the College of Policing, handling the deportation of radical cleric Abu Qatada, and enforcing stricter immigration controls.

Although May supported the Remain campaign during the 2016 European Union referendum, she backed the Brexit process once the Leave vote won. After David Cameron resigned, she became leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister in July 2016, taking office unopposed after her last rival dropped out. Her time as Prime Minister was mainly focused on managing Britain's exit from the European Union. She triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in March 2017, starting the two-year exit process, and negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the EU.

However, May's withdrawal agreement was rejected by Parliament three times, marking it as one of the biggest legislative defeats for any modern British government. She also held a snap general election in June 2017, which resulted in the Conservatives losing their parliamentary majority and entering a confidence-and-supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party. Unable to pass her Brexit deal and facing pressure from her party, May announced her resignation in May 2019 and officially left office in July 2019, with Boris Johnson succeeding her. She stayed on as MP for Maidenhead until the 2024 general election, after which she joined the House of Lords as Baroness May of Maidenhead.