Theresa May and her husband Philip at 10 Downing Street in London, on Wednesday. Credit Frank Augstein/Associated Press        

Theresa May to the Rescue

Editorial Board / International New York Times | 13 July 2016

A lot has happened since Britain voted on June 23 to leave the European Union, most of it unexpected — including the result of the vote itself. That was followed by the swift exit of Prime Minister David Cameron, the unintentional instigator of the needless referendum, along with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom, all of whom had hoped to exploit their support of Brexit to win a promotion to Mr. Cameron’s office. In the end, it has been left to a competent, experienced and staid political veteran who did not support Brexit, but didn’t much campaign against it, to clean up the mess.

In different times, Theresa May would have been celebrated on Wednesday as only the second woman ever to serve as Britain’s prime minister. The story line now is the “mission impossible” that Ms. May, the former home secretary, faces in creating a future for Britain outside the European Union.

Ms. May brings to the job a reputation for seriousness and practicality. She had been home secretary since May 2010, an achievement in itself given the history of the Home Office as a dead end for political careers. No ideologue, she is a hard-liner on immigration but supported gay marriage and has described her Conservative Party as “the nasty party” in need of modernizing. Kenneth Clarke, a former cabinet minister, was overheard to describe her as a “bloody difficult woman,” and that is not necessarily a handicap for the tasks that lie before her.

Among women who have achieved high office, she is less like the combative and uncompromising Margaret Thatcher, to whom she will inevitably be compared, than like Germany’s Angela Merkel. Ms. May and Ms. Merkel are both the daughters of pastors, and are political leaders known to be stubborn, competent and down to earth. The inevitable duels of these two strong women as negotiations begin over Britain’s withdrawal will be closely followed.

Before that happens, though, Ms. May must first outline her vision of a Britain outside the European Union. She has publicly declared that “Brexit means Brexit,” meaning that she does intend to go through with it. But she still needs to define what Brexit means in terms of concrete actions to retain British access to Europe’s single market, satisfying the anti-globalization and anti-immigration mood of the 17 million Leave voters, managing the economic fallout of the referendum and coping with increased separatism in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

On Wednesday, Ms. May named Mr. Johnson as foreign secretary. This was a surprising and, in some quarters, disturbing choice given the ease and frequency with which he insults foreign leaders; it is unclear whether it will complicate her task. In any case, she needs to move quickly. Uncertainty has already battered Britain’s economy. Even as Ms. May accepts the mandate to negotiate Britain’s formal exit from the European Union, she should make clear to the British that their country’s economic future must be within the single market. And that will inevitably require puncturing any illusion that Britain can continue participating in that market without allowing free movement of people and making any contribution to the E.U. budget. More uncertainty can only do more damage.