Theresa May Takes Charge Of The United Kingdom

Theresa May becomes Britain’s new Prime Minister. We’ll look at the challenges and what the UK does next.

A big handoff today at 10 Downing Street in London, seat of Britain’s Prime Minister. Conservative David Cameron, out.  Conservative Theresa May, in. They both opposed the Brexit, taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Theresa May will have to implement it. A preacher’s daughter, like Angela Merkel. She’s been a hawk on immigration. Steely with Brussels. But now everything is on the line. This hour On Point,  Britain’s new PM, and delivering on the Brexit. — Tom Ashbrook

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times. (@lionelbarber)

Heather Stewart, political editor for the Guardian. (@guardianheather)

David Rennie, Washington bureau chief and Lexington columnist for the Economist. (@DSORennie)

Anand Menon, professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College, London, where he also director of the UK in a Changing Europe Initiative. (@anandmenon1)

The Guardian: Theresa May nursed ambition to be Britain's first female PM — "Theresa May had wanted to be Britain’s first female prime minister and was annoyed when Margaret Thatcher beat her to it, one of her oldest friends has recalled. Pat Frankland, who has known May since they enrolled together at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, in 1974, said May made no secret of her desire to reach the top even as a teenager."

The Economist: Theresa May will be Britain’s next prime minister — "What do we know of the woman who will soon move into 10 Downing Street? Her long (six years) spell as home secretary, a job known as a graveyard of careers, has given her a reputation for being inscrutable, competent and—in some respects—authoritarian. She is a hawk on immigration. On the other hand, she was warning her party of its 'nasty' reputation, three years before Mr Cameron became leader and set about trying to modernise it. She was instrumental to the legalisation of gay marriage three years ago and was on the Remain side of Britain’s EU referendum campaign, albeit keeping mostly quiet about it."

Foreign Affairs: Littler England — "The United Kingdom, a nuclear power and permanent member of the UN Security Council, now seems intent not on engaging with the outside world but on insulating itself from it. The United Kingdom does not merely lack a grand strategy. It lacks any kind of clearly defined foreign policy at all, beyond a narrow trade agenda."