Theresa May

Theresa Mary May is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2016, the second woman to hold both positions, the first being Margaret Thatcher.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, FRIC was a British stateswoman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom.

Theresa May and Angela Merkel's friendly first meeting by The Telegraph

She has been the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead since 1997.

Theresa May congratulates Donald Trump on his victory by The Telegraph

Ideologically, she identifies herself as a one-nation conservative.

The daughter of Zaidee Brasier and Hubert Brasier, a vicar, May grew up in Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire is a county in South East England bordering on Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

From 1977 until 1983, she worked for the Bank of England, and from 1985 until 1997 at the Association for Payment Clearing Services, also serving as a councillor for Durnsford in Merton.

The Bank of England, formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based.

The UK Payments Administration Ltd is a United Kingdom service company that provides people, facilities and expertise to the UK payments industry.

After unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and 1994, she was elected as the MP for Maidenhead in the 1997 general election.

From 1999 to 2010, May held a number of roles in the Shadow Cabinets of William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard, and David Cameron, including Shadow Transport Secretary and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary.

Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, PC, QC is a British politician who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005.

George Iain Duncan Smith, often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British Conservative Party politician.

William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond is a British Conservative politician and life peer.

She was also Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003.

The Chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration, overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters.

After the formation of a coalition government following the 2010 general election, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, giving up the latter role in 2012.

The post of Minister for Women and Equalities is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom Government Equalities Office, an independent department within the wider Department for Culture, Media and Sport that has responsibility for addressing all forms of discrimination, with particular emphasis on gender inequality.

Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, normally referred to as the Home Secretary, is a senior official as one of the Great Offices of State within Her Majesty's Government and head of the Home Office.

Reappointed after the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election, she went on to become the longest-serving Home Secretary since James Chuter Ede over 60 years previously.

James Chuter Ede, Baron Chuter-Ede, was a British teacher, trade unionist and Labour politician.

During her tenure she pursued reform of the Police Federation, implemented a harder line on drugs policy including the banning of khat, oversaw the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners, the deportation of Abu Qatada, the creation of the National Crime Agency and brought in additional restrictions on immigration.

A police and crime commissioner is an elected official in England and Wales charged with securing efficient and effective policing of a police area.

Abu Qatada al-Filistini, born Omar Mahmoud Othman in 1959/1960, is a Salafi cleric and Jordanian national.

Khat is a flowering plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Following Cameron's resignation, May won an unchallenged leadership election in July 2016, and was appointed Prime Minister.

As Prime Minister, May began the process of withdrawing the UK from the European Union, triggering Article 50 in March 2017.

The European Union is a politico-economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe.

In April 2017, May announced an early general election in June, with the aim of strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations.

Brexit is the popular term for the prospective withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

This resulted in a hung parliament, in which the number of Conservative seats fell from 330 to 317, prompting her to broker a confidence and supply deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to support May's minority government.

In a parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament is an expression used to describe a state of a parliament when no single political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament and therefore has no legitimate mandate to form a government.

A minority government, or minority cabinet or minority parliament, is a cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament.

In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a minority government to retain power in the lower house.