Theresa May has once again confirmed she will resign as the Prime Minster of the United Kingdom.
May first took the keys to 10 Downing Street as David Cameron resigned following the Brexit referendum result, her period as premier has been a constant battle to push her vision through.
The outgoing Prime Minister confirmed she will depart on Friday June 7, in a press conference outside Downing Street this morning, May 24.
Two years, 10 months and one country bitterly divided later, her much maligned approach to Britain’s exit from the European Union has seen parliament failing to agree on exit terms, but in agreement she no longer has the authority to guide it.
On Tuesday (May 21), May announced her New Brexit Deal, 10 point plan to parliament, a result of continued failure to get previous Brexit deals through.
In March, after extending the Brexit deadline and parliament taking control of the process, May offered her to resign if her deal was passed by parliament.
Her final Withdrawal Agreement Bill saw support within her party and in parliament collapse. The Labour opposition said it offered no meaningful change to previous attempts and hard-Brexit Tories and the DUP indicated their lack of interest in voting for it.
The UK now goes into another state of uncertainty.
Theresa May won the Conservative leadership after her predecessor David Cameron’s resignation following the decision of 51.9 per cent of the United Kingdom’s voters to leave the European Union in 2016.
In March 2017, May triggered Article 50 to start the process of Britain’s EU exit. The following month, despite repeatedly indicating she wouldn’t call a snap election, May announced she would hold a general election to galvanise her position and prove her mandate from the electorate to continue the UK’s exit from Europe.
The Conservatives lost seats to the Labour party and their majority in the House of Commons. However, the Tories remained the largest party and formed a minority government with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.
May faced crisis after crisis and criticism after criticism. One such being the huge backlash for refusing to meet with survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster less than a week after the election.
There was the Windrush Scandal, concerning people being wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with possible and actual wrongful deportation from the UK by the Home Office.
Many commentators linked the travesty to the ‘hostile environment policy’ brought in by May during her time as Home Secretary.
The prime minister was also criticised for refusing to condemn Donald Trump’s Muslim ban by members of all political parties – including her own. Her invite to Trump for a state visit didn’t go down well either.
But there were highs as well as lows; May proved she could throw shapes several times. Once on a trip to a secondary school in South Africa, and just a few months later she took to the Conservative Party conference stage busting a groove to ABBA’s Dancing Queen.
It’s been hard work following politics throughout Theresa May’s run as Prime Minister; I can’t imagine what it would have been like from inside Number 10.
May signed off, visibly emotional, and saying it has been the ‘honour of her life’ to lead the nation.
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Tim Horner is a sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated with a BA Journalism from University College Falmouth before most his colleagues were born. A previous editor of adult mags, he now enjoys bringing the tone down in the viral news sector.