BRITAIN: Tory Home Secretary Theresa May To Become Prime Minister After Chief Opponent Drops Out

The Telegraph reports:

Conservative leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom has announced she is pulling out of the race to replace David Cameron as prime minister.

The energy minister has paved the way for Home Secretary Theresa May, as the only remaining candidate, to be named Tory leader and PM as early as today.

Mrs Leadsom said: “The best interests of our country inspired me to stand for the leadership. I believe that in leaving the EU a bright future awaits, where all our people can share in a new prosperity, freedom and democracy.

“The referendum result demonstrated a clear desire for change – strong leadership is needed urgently to begin the work of withdrawing from the European Union.

More from the BBC:

The timing of the handover of power from David Cameron is currently being discussed, but could be within days. Mrs May, 59, who backed staying in the EU, has been home secretary since 2010.

Mrs Leadsom, who campaigned to leave the EU, said the UK needed “strong and stable government” and that Mrs May was “ideally placed” to implement Brexit.

In a speech earlier on Monday setting out her leadership campaign platform, Mrs May – who has rejected the argument that the next leader and prime minister had to have been someone on the winning side of the EU referendum – said: “Brexit means Brexit and we’re going to make a success of it.”

Mrs Leadsom had apologised to Mrs May on Monday after suggesting in a weekend newspaper interview that being a mother made her a better candidate for the job.

Last week Leadsom created international headlines when she declared that marriage should be reserved for Christians only. For her part, Theresa May has a better but still mixed record on LGBT rights.

May’s ascendance to Prime Minister will surely result in many opinion columns about the historic potential in both Britain and the United States being led by women.