Interior minister Theresa May and eurosceptic rival Andrea Leadsom emerged on Thursday as the two candidates who will battle to become Britain’s next Prime Minister and lead the country out of the Eur
Interior minister Theresa May and eurosceptic rival Andrea Leadsom emerged on Thursday as the two candidates who will battle to become Britain’s next Prime Minister and lead the country out of the European Union.
Ms May won 199 votes and Ms Leadsom 84 in a second ballot of legislators of the governing Conservative party. Justice secretary Michael Gove took just 46 votes and was eliminated from the race.
“This vote shows that the Conservative Party can come together, and under my leadership it will,” Ms May told supporters after the results were announced.
Grassroots Conservatives across the country will now vote to decide whether Ms May or Ms Leadsom becomes Britain’s first woman Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher was forced from office in 1990.
The result of the contest is expected by September 9, meaning businesses and investors must endure two more months of uncertainty over who will lead the huge task of disentangling Britain’s economy from the EU while trying to safeguard trade and investment.
Prime Minister David Cameron said in June he was stepping down after voters, many of them swayed by concerns over high immigration and a desire to reclaim “independence” from Brussels, rejected his entreaties to keep Britain in the EU and his warnings that leaving would spell economic disaster.
Meanwhile, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said it was up to government, not Parliament, to trigger the formal Article 50 process for leaving the EU, and that the will of the British public is clear after voting to leave the bloc.
He said Parliament could “have a say” in the process, but that final power will lie with the new Prime Minister, despite a legal challenge that claims the power to trigger Article 50 should lie with the House of Commons.
