How Theresa May Went From 'The New Iron Lady' To The Leader Who 'Betrayed Brexit'
“She wins by staying on the pitch,” a Downing Street aide once observed of Theresa May’s approach to politics, and for nearly two years the prime minister’s grinding resilience seemed to allow her to defy political gravity.
When she entered Number 10 amid the chaotic fallout from the EU referendum in the summer of 2016, May portrayed herself as a steely, competent, pragmatic leader who would unite a bitterly divided country, put Brussels in its place, and steer the UK into a bright future as an independent trading nation. More than that, she promised a transformational programme of social and economic reforms that would address the grievances that led more than 17 million people to vote to leave.
May’s departure from Downing Street will end a Westminster career that began more than three decades ago. She was elected to Parliament in the safe seat of Maidenhead in 1997, the year that Tony Blair’s reforming New Labour took power for the first time in a landslide. May held several shadow cabinet positions in opposition and served for a time as chairwoman of the Tory party.
It is immigration that will be remembered as May’s her most enduring contribution to Britain’s domestic policy. According to the former Tory chancellor George Osborne, May remained stubbornly wedded to the Tories’ controversial promise to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands long after every other member of cabinet had given it up as unrealistic.
In her first address outside Downing Street as prime minister, May promised to improve the lives of “ordinary working families” who were struggling to make ends meet and felt that their concerns had for too long been ignored by the political classes. She pledged to address “burning injustices” including racism against black men in the criminal justice system and the unequal treatment of the mentally ill in the health system.
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