Premiership of Theresa May
 Official portrait, 2016 | |
| Premiership of Theresa May 13 July 2016Â â 24 July 2019 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
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| Cabinet | |
| Party | Conservative |
| Election | 2017 |
| Seat | 10 Downing Street |
.svg) Coat of Arms of HM Government | |
| Official website | |
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|---|---|---|
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Home Secretary First ministry and term Second ministry and term
Bibliography |
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Theresa May's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 13 July 2016 when she accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding David Cameron, and ended on 24 July 2019 upon her resignation. May's premiership was dominated by Brexit, terrorist attacks in Westminster, the Manchester Arena and London Bridge, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Salisbury poisonings. As prime minister, May also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Leader of the Conservative Party.
May was elected unopposed after her opponent, Andrea Leadsom, withdrew from the final round of the 2016 leadership election; May became Conservative leader on 11 July 2016, and she became prime minister two days later. She began the process of withdrawing the UK from the European Union, triggering Article 50 in March 2017. The following month, she announced a snap general election, with the aims of strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations and highlighting her "strong and stable" leadership. This resulted in a hung parliament in which the number of Conservative seats had fallen from 330 to 317, despite the party winning its highest vote share since 1983. The loss of an overall majority prompted her to enter a confidence and supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland to support a minority government.
May carried out the Brexit negotiations with the European Union, adhering to the Chequers Plan, which resulted in her draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. She also announced a ÂĢ20 billion increase in funding to the National Health Service through the NHS Long Term Plan, established the first-ever Race Disparity Audit and launched a 25 Year Environment Plan, amending the Climate Change Act 2008 to end the UK's contribution to global warming by 2050. Unemployment in the United Kingdom fell to record lows, the lowest jobless rate since 1975. Her government also passed legislation cracking down on knife crime and giving extra powers to law enforcement and intelligence services to combat terrorism, published the 2017 Industrial Strategy White Paper[1] and signed an immigration treaty with France to stem illegal border crossings in January 2018.[2]
Although May did not succeed in getting much of her Brexit legislation through Parliament, her government was nevertheless responsible for passing the Great Repeal Act and for negotiating and approving the near-entirety of the UK's terms of exit from the EU.[3] Three budgets were passed during her tenure: the first in March 2017, the second in November 2017 and the third and final in October 2018. May was also a prominent figure in leading the international condemnation and response to Russia over the Salisbury poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018. May survived two votes of no confidence in December 2018 and January 2019, but after versions of her draft withdrawal agreement were rejected by Parliament three times and her party's poor performance in the May 2019 European Parliament election, she left office on 24 July and was succeeded by Boris Johnson, her former Foreign Secretary. May is viewed unfavourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers.
Conservative leadership bid
[edit]In a referendum held on 23 June 2016, Britain voted to withdraw from the European Union, with a result of 52% for withdrawal and 48% for remaining within the union. David Cameron, who as prime minister had campaigned to remain within the European Union, announced on 24 June 2016, immediately following the announcement of the referendum results, that he would resign from his post.[4] Following the first stages of the Conservative Party leadership election to succeed him, Home Secretary Theresa May's only remaining competitor, Andrea Leadsom, withdrew from the race on 11 July 2016. Following this announcement, Cameron said that he would step down from his post on 13 July.[4] Cameron formally tendered his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II on that day, who subsequently appointed May as his successor.[5][6] In her first speech as prime minister, May paid tribute to Cameron, saying "In David Cameron, I follow in the footsteps of a great, modern Prime Minister. Under David's leadership, the government stabilised the economy, reduced the budget deficit, and helped more people into work than ever before. But David's true legacy is not about the economy but about social justice. From the introduction of same-sex marriage, to taking people on low wages out of income tax altogether; David Cameron has led a one-nation government, and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead."[7]
Early days
[edit]
When appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016, May became the UK's second female prime minister,[8] after Margaret Thatcher, and the nation's first female Prime Minister of the 21st century.[9] She told the media on 11 July 2016 that she was "honoured and humbled" to ascend to the role.[10]
Responding to some calls for a general election (reported by the news media) to confirm her mandate, "sources close to Mrs May" said there would be no such election, according to the BBC.[11] In a speech after her appointment, May emphasised the term Unionist in the name of the Conservative Party, reminding all of "the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."[12] By 15 July 2016, May had travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland to meet with first minister Nicola Sturgeon, to reinforce the bond between Scotland and the rest of the country. "This visit to Scotland is my first as prime minister and I'm coming here to show my commitment to preserving this special union that has endured for centuries," she explained.[13] After a meeting at Bute House, May offered the following comment about Scotland's role in the negotiations about the UK's exit from the EU: "I'm willing to listen to options and I've been very clear with the First Minister today that I want the Scottish government to be fully engaged in our discussion."[14]
In August 2016, May launched an investigation aimed at identifying and reducing racism within public services.[15]
As part of the government's plan to curb childhood obesity, May took steps to reduce sugar content of foods, though many experts criticised her as they felt that too little was being done.[16] Notably there were widespread calls for curbing advertising of unhealthy foods to children and banning promotions of unhealthy food (such as multipacks and 'buy one, get one free') in supermarkets, restaurants, cafes and takeaways.[17]
Health Service
[edit]Under May, consultation began over cost saving, streamlining and reduction of some services in the National Health Service (NHS).[18] Critics feared cuts that could "put lives at risk"[19] even though the review focused primarily on reducing costs. An article in The Guardian suggested possible benefits from the review but feared secrecy within the NHS was hindering effective public discussion.[20] Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb accepted the review made sense in principle but stated: "While it is important that the NHS becomes more efficient and sustainable for future generations, redesign of care models will only get us so far â and no experts believe the Conservative doctrine that an extra ÂĢ8 billion funding by 2020 will be anywhere near enough."[21]
Grammar schools
[edit]In September 2016, May announced that she would end a ban on new grammar schools.[22] A BBC article suggested grammar schools would be "dumbed down" while other secondary schools in the area would "suffer".[23] Jon Coles of United Learning, which controls 60 schools was "unconvinced more grammar schools would raise standards".[24] Poor children and children from families that are "just about managing" tend to miss out on grammar school places.[25] None of the top ten nations with the best education have UK style grammar schools selecting at age 11.[26] The Royal Society commissioned research from the Education Policy Institute which showed that disadvantaged pupils did worse overall in science and maths in regions with selective education.[27] A cross party Select Committee of MPs described the issue of grammar school expansion as an "unnecessary distraction" and cast doubt on the claim grammar schools improve social mobility. Many speakers emphasised the need to tackle funding problems' effects on the whole of schooling.[28] Following the outcome of the 2017 general election, May's grammar school policy was not included in the Queen's Speech, and was deemed unlikely to be pursued.[29]
Child poverty
[edit]The Child Poverty Unit was merged with the Department for Work and Pensions leading to fears by some that child poverty would be less of a priority under May. This "ran counter" to May's pledge to "govern for everyone and fight the injustice of being born poor". A study said that from 2014 to 2015 28% of UK children were poor.[30] The Child Poverty Action Group feared restricting the Child Poverty Unit to one department would reduce its effectiveness. The Institute for Fiscal Studies projected a 50% increase in child poverty by 2020 due to benefit cuts and 'sluggish wages'.[31][32]
Ministerial appointments
[edit]May appointed new Cabinet members in "one of the most sweeping government reshuffles for decades",[33] described by The Telegraph as "a brutal cull": several prominent members, including six of David Cameron's ministers, were removed from their posts.[34] The early appointments were interpreted both as "centrist and conciliatory", an effort to reunite the party in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the European Union, and as "a shift to the right", according to The Guardian.[35] Robert Peston of ITV News specifically labelled her new Cabinet as right wing.[36]
May abolished the Department for Energy and Climate Change in a move widely criticised by Greenpeace which expressed concern the new government failed to see the threat from climate change, Friends of the Earth which said climate change "is happening now while the new government lowers its priority", and also by other more impartial peoples and groups.[clarification needed] Climate change was included within the scope of the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.[37]
Upon becoming prime minister, May appointed former mayor of London Boris Johnson as foreign secretary, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd as home secretary, and former shadow home secretary David Davis to the newly created office of Brexit secretary.[38] Her choice of Johnson as Foreign Secretary "raised eyebrows",[39] and drew some criticism from the press.[40] Liam Fox and Philip Hammond, both of whom had previously served as Secretary of State for Defence (Fox from 2010 to 2011 and Hammond from 2011 to 2014), with Hammond having served as foreign secretary from 2014 to 2016, were appointed to the newly created office of International Trade Secretary, along with Chancellor of the Exchequer, respectively.[41][42] Replacing Michael Gove, Liz Truss was made Justice Secretary, the "first female Lord Chancellor in the thousand-year history of the role".[43] Andrea Leadsom, who was energy minister and May's primary competitor for party leader, was made the new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.[44] However, former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers resigned from Cabinet after May offered her a post which was "not one which I felt I could take on".[45]
May jointly appointed Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy on 14 July as her Downing Street Chiefs of Staff.[46] Both had been political advisers to her at the Home Office before both working outside the government for a brief period before working on her leadership campaign.[47][48] The three ministers with new roles who worked to negotiate Brexit all espoused the Leave vote: David Davis, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson.[13]
Foreign trips
[edit]
May made 72 trips to 33 countries during her premiership. The country she visited the most was Belgium, where she travelled 23 times, often for Brexit negotiations at the European Council and Commission. She took part in three UN GA summits, four G20 summits, three EU summits, two G7 summits, two NATO summits, and one CHOGM summit.
On 20 July, May attended her first Prime Minister's Questions since taking office, then afterwards made her first overseas trip as prime minister, visiting Berlin for talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel. They discussed GermanyâUnited Kingdom relations while the UK prepared for Brexit. During the visit, May said that she would not trigger Article 50 before 2017, suggesting it would take time for the UK to negotiate a "sensible and orderly departure" from the EU. May also announced that in the wake of the referendum, Britain would relinquish the presidency of the Council of the European Union that the UK had been scheduled to hold in the second half of 2017.[49][50]
On 4 September, May attended the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit, the first since the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. May sought to use the summit to emphasise her commitment to making the UK a "global leader in free trade" She also faced questions over the decision to delay planned Chinese investment in Hinkley Point C.[51]
On 21 January 2017, following the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, the White House announced that May would meet the president on 27 January, making her the first foreign leader to meet Trump since he took office on 20 January.[52]
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May attended the annual Munich Security Conference from 16 to 17 February 2018 where she urged European allies to agree to a new security treaty.[53] Whilst in Germany she also held a meeting with Angela Merkel in Berlin.
Incidents
[edit]Islamic extremist attacks
[edit]On 22 March 2017 a terrorist ploughed a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four people and injuring others, in an Islamic extremist attack. May, who was in the House of Commons for a vote at the time, was evacuated by her security team in the Prime Ministerial Car[54] and taken to 10 Downing Street.[55] She condemned the attack as "sick and depraved" in the night following it, and said "our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism" in next day's morning session of Parliament.[56]
On 22 May of the same year twenty-two people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a homemade device laden with shrapnel in the lobby of the Manchester Arena at the end of a music concert with American singer Ariana Grande. Two-hundred people were injured in the attack, the worst on British soil since the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Following a COBRA meeting with Greater Manchester Police (GMP)'s Chief Constable Ian Hopkins on 23 May, May announced that the UK's terror threat level had been raised to "critical", and remained so until 27 May, when it was reduced to its previous level of severe.[57] Within hours of the attack, information given confidentially to security services in the United States and France were leaked to the news media, leading to condemnation from Home Secretary Amber Rudd. On 25 May, GMP said it had stopped sharing information on the attack with the US intelligence services. May said she would make clear to US president Donald Trump that "intelligence that has been shared must be made secure." Trump described the leaks to the news media as "deeply troubling", and pledged to carry out a full investigation. May created the Commission for Countering Extremism in the aftermath of the bombing.
On 3 June, three terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before getting out and running into Borough Market. Eight people were killed, and armed police shot the attackers dead eight minutes after the first emergency calls were made.
Grenfell Tower fire
[edit]On 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in Grenfell Tower, a block of flats in West London, causing 72 deaths. The response to the disaster caused an image problem for May's government during its second term. May stated she would "always regret" not meeting the surviving residents of the tower in the immediate aftermath of the fire.[58][59]
Salisbury nerve agent attack
[edit]On 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer, and his daughter Yulia Skripal were poisoned in a restaurant in Salisbury. Within days of the attack, political pressure began to mount on May and her government to take action against the perpetrators, and most politicians believed that the Russian government was behind the attack.[60] Several days later May said the agent had been identified as one of the Novichok family of agents, believed to have been developed in the 1980s by the Soviet Union.[61][62] She said Britain was to push for the EU to agree new sanctions against Russia, and spoke in the House of Commons on 12 March:[61]
It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as 'Novichok'. Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down; our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so; Russia's record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Mr Speaker, there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on the 4th of March. Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.
May said that the British government requested that Russia explain which of these two possibilities it was by the end of 13 March 2018. She also said: "The extra-judicial killing of terrorists and dissidents outside Russia were given legal sanction by the Russian Parliament in 2006. And of course Russia used radiological substances in its barbaric assault on Mr Litvinenko." She said that the UK government would "consider in detail the response from the Russian State" and in the event that there was no credible response, the government would "conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom" and measures would follow.[63] British media billed the statement as "Theresa May's ultimatum to Putin."[64][65]
On 13 March, Home Secretary Amber Rudd ordered an inquiry by the police and security services into alleged Russian state involvement in 14 previous suspicious deaths of Russian exiles and businessmen in the UK. May unveiled a series of measures on 14 March 2018 in retaliation for the poisoning attack, after the Russian government refused to meet the UK's request for an account of the incident. One of the chief measures was the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats which she presented as "actions to dismantle the Russian espionage network in the UK", as the diplomats had been identified as "undeclared intelligence agents".
Jeremy Corbyn cast doubt in his parliamentary response to May's statement concerning blaming the attack on Russia prior to the results of an independent investigation, which provoked criticism from some MPs, including members of his own party.[66][67]
The UK's official assessment of the incident was supported by 28 other countries which responded similarly. Altogether, an unprecedented 153 Russian diplomats were expelled.[68] Russia denied the accusations and responded similarly to the expulsions, "accusing Britain of the poisoning".[69] On 5 September, British authorities identified two Russian nationals, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, as suspected of the Skripals' poisoning, and alleged that they were active officers in Russian military intelligence.
May was widely praised for her handling of the nerve agent attack and it was considered to be one of the highest points of her premiership.[70]