Theresa
May is set to become the UK's next prime minister after Andrea Leadsom
pulled out of the contest to become Conservative Party leader. She's
expected to take over as the head of the government on Wednesday.
The 59-year-old politician will take over from David Cameron, who announced he would be stepping down from the job last month.
Mrs May, who backed staying in the EU, has been home secretary since 2010.
Mrs
Leadsom, who campaigned to leave the EU, said the UK needed "strong and
stable government" and that Mrs May was "ideally placed" to lead the
country out of the European Union.
Theresa is the MP for the area
of Maidenhead in the south east of England. She's also the Home
Secretary, which is a big job in the government. It means she is in
charge of things like police, keeping the country safe and immigration.
Theresa started in politics by stuffing envelopes at her local
Conservative club. She studied geography at university and her first job
was at the Bank of England.
Mrs May will become the second
female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, who held the top job from
1979 to 1990. Usually the British prime minister gets chosen when
there's a general election, which normally happens every five years. The
next contest is set for 2020.
Most adults in the UK can vote in it
and usually the political party that gets the most Members of Parliament
gets to have their leader become the new prime minister.
But after Mr Cameron quit his job, the Conservative party was left to decide who the new prime minister of the UK would be.
The
Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green parties are now calling for another
general election as soon as possible to let the British people decide
who should be running the country.
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