Theresa May Poised to Become Next British Prime Minister

After Andrea Leadsom quits race, May is left unchallenged.


British energy minister Andrea Leadsom—one of just two candidates in the race to replace David Cameron as the leader of the Conservative Party—announced on Monday she was quitting the race, a move that clears the way for home secretary Theresa May to become Britain’s next prime minister.

In a press conference on Monday, Leadsom said that a nine-week campaign was unnecessary when May had already secured support from 60 percent of their Conservative colleagues.

“The interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported prime minister,” she told reporters.

Her withdrawal from the race to succeed Cameron comes just days after she was quoted saying she was better-suited for the office because she is a mother, unlike her rival May.

“I have children who are going to have children who will directly be a part of what happens next,” Leadsom told the Times UK. The backlash was swift, and prompted Leadsom to personally apologize to May for the remarks.

Her decision to pull out of the race is just the latest political fallout since Britain’s referendum to leave the European Union last month. Widely seen as the frontrunner in the prime minister race, Boris Johnson—the former mayor of London and a leader of the “leave” campaign— surprised the political world late last month by announcing he would not seek the job.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate