World Theresa May: 16 Things You Should Know About The New UK Prime Minister

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Ms. Theresa May is the new British Prime Minister. She succeeded David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and UK Prime Minister. Here are 16 things you should know about her.



1. Theresa Mary May, 59, is the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead.

2. Born on October 1st 1956 in Eastbourne, Sussex, Theresa May was educated at Holton Park Girls' Grammar School, Oxfordshire, and St Hugh’s College Oxford (Geography).

3. She entered Parliament in 1997 and is currently the longest serving Home Secretary in 50 years.

4. She is married to banker Philip May and has no children. The pair, who have a shared love of cricket, met at a Conservative Association dance party and have been married for 36 years. They live in Sonning, Berkshire.

5. She is the only child of a Church of England vicar.

6. Theresa May's restrained approach has helped her avoid alienating Tory Brexiteers, and the polls suggest her reputation has held up better than some of her potential leadership rivals.

7. Theresa May bills herself as the tough negotiator who can get Britain a good deal with Brussels when the talks about Brexit start, which she says will be next year.

8. Announcing her leadership bid on 30, June, 2016, she said: “My pitch is simple - I’m Theresa May and I think I’m the best person to lead this country.”

9. She pitched herself as the unshowy Cabinet minister who can get results and stand up for herself – whether it is by deporting radical cleric Abu Qatata to Jordan, or stopping the deportation of computer hacker Gary McKinnon despite angering the US Government.

10. She is an early advocate of Conservative "modernisation" with a famously exotic taste in shoes, she is seen as one of Westminster's toughest and shrewdest operators. Mrs May is known for her exotic taste in shoes.

11. Her political stock rose when, in 2013, she succeeded where many other home secretaries before her had failed and successfully deported radical cleric Abu Qatada.

12. She has faced constant criticism over the government's failure to meet its promise to get net migration down to below 100,000 a year.

13. She was first elected to Parliament in 1997 as the MP for Maidenhead, Mrs May joined the shadow cabinet in 1999 as shadow education secretary and in 2002 she became the party's first female chairman.

14. Mrs May - who became the UK's most senior female politician after being appointed home secretary in 2010 - has been a prominent advocate of positive action to recruit more women Tories to winnable seats.

15. She has persistently called for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights but she has said she would drop this policy if she became prime minister, saying there is not a parliamentary majority for it.

16. Mrs May is Britain's second female Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher.
 
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