UK leadership handover in dramatic day in British politics

He will be replaced by former Home Secretary Theresa May, who became Conservative leader on Monday after her sole contender for the job – Andrea Leadsom – dropped out of the race.

May, the second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, has repeatedly said that “Brexit means Brexit”.

Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, reporting from London, said that May was disadvantaged because she did not have much time to form her cabinet.

Alluding to the tough negotiations that lie ahead over Britain’s exit from the European Union, May said, “we face a time of great national change”.

Earlier, her predecessor David Cameron formally stepped down.

Cameron had called the referendum and campaigned to stay in the European Union in a bid to try to heal divisions in the Conservative ranks.

“We will do everything we can to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you”, May said. “If you’re from an ordinary working class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise”.

Her continental peers have said they expect her to move quickly to implement the referendum result.
Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Francois Hollande and Italy’s Matteo Renzi announced Wednesday that they will hold a summit in August on the matter.

But the decision to name Johnson, the eccentric former London mayor, to the high-profile post of representing Britain to the rest of the world is likely to cause controversy. Mr Johnson has been appointed British Foreign Minister.

Philip Hammond, who had been Foreign Secretary, has succeeded George Osborne as Finance Minister, who has resigned.

Elected the Conservative Party leader in 2005, Cameron led a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2015, and then led his party to a majority in the 2015 general election.

In his final Prime Minister’s Questions at Parliament, outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron opened Wednesday with the quip that “apart from one meeting in the afternoon with the Queen, my diary is remarkably light”.

Cameron gave a short speech as he left the Downing Street office for the last time.

She paid tribute to Mr Cameron as a “great modern prime minister” who had stabilised the economy, brought down the deficit and increased employment, but whose greatest legacy would be social justice measures like the legalisation of gay marriage and the removal of the low-paid from income tax.

Earlier in the day, David Cameron attended his last Prime Minister’s Questions before heading to Buckingham Palace shortly before 5pm to tender his resignation.

Buckingham Palace released an image of May offering a deep curtsey before the monarch, denoting that she has accepted the queen’s invitation to form a government.

May has been Britain’s Home Secretary in charge of immigration and law and order for the past six years.

A heavy workload already waiting for her in-tray after the Brexit vote.

Although May backed remaining in the European Union, she has reassured “leave” supporters that “Brexit means Brexit, and we will make a success of it”. As May spoke in front of her new residence, a small band of pro-Brexit demonstrators down the street chanted “Theresa May, don’t delay!”

In a speech shortly before becoming the Conservative Party leader, she said, “There are business leaders whose response has not been to play for Britain’s departure from the European Union or to think of the opportunities withdrawal presents, but to complain about the result and criticize the electorate”.