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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the race [npr.org] to lead the Conservative Party, leaving Theresa May to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

Andrea Leadsom announced Monday she is backing out of the contest, citing the strong support for her opponent May and saying it was in Britain's best interests for the next leader to be put in place quickly. Leadsom's announcement comes after uproar over comments she made [bbc.com] suggesting she would be a better prime minister than May because she's a mother, while May is not.

[...] NPR's Frank Langfitt explained [npr.org] that Theresa May is the U.K.'s home secretary, "which means she deals with things like immigration, domestic security. She's 59 years old, seen also as steady, if unexciting kind of hand. But right now, given what's been going on in British politics, unexciting sounds very appealing to people — a little bit of certainty, not the circus that we had, certainly in the last few days."

Leadsom was a former banker, noteworthy for her passionate support for the U.K. leaving the EU, Frank explains. She's the latest in a series of Brexit supporters who have passed up or resigned prominent leadership posts. Johnson, who declined to run for prime minister, was a major Brexit campaigner. And Nigel Farage, the outspoken leader of the U.K. Independence Party, resigned from that role last week, saying "I've done my bit."

Also at the BBC [bbc.co.uk]. See the previous story [soylentnews.org] for links to stories about May.

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