(Bloomberg) -- Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom will face off in an all-female battle to succeed David Cameron as U.K. prime minister and lead negotiations to take Britain out of the European Union.
May, the home secretary, won 199 votes in the second-round ballot of Conservative Party lawmakers on Thursday and Leadsom, energy minister, took 84. Justice Secretary Michael Gove was eliminated from the contest after coming last with 46 votes.
Tory party members nationwide now face a choice between the relatively inexperienced Leadsom and May, who has spent six years in a job traditionally known as a graveyard of political careers. Whoever wins, Britain is set to have its second female prime minister. The first one, Margaret Thatcher, left office more than quarter of a century ago. The winner will be declared on Sept. 9.
“Now is the time for me and my team to take my case out to the party members in the country,” May said after the result. “We need proven leadership to negotiate the best deals for leaving the European Union, to unite our party and our country.”
‘Crying Out'
Leadsom, who has the backing of former London Mayor Boris Johnson, is pitching herself as the pro-Brexit candidate. The label may be valuable in the run-off as Tory supporters tend to be more Euro-skeptic than the general public. May sided with the “Remain” camp in the referendum, but kept a low profile.
For a related story about May's track record, click here.
“It's the establishment versus the people,” said Peter Bone, one of Leadsom's supporters. “Across the board, people are crying out for anti-establishment politicians.”
There are about 150,000 Conservative Party members, who will now vote in a postal ballot. Speaking to the BBC, John Curtice, professor of politics at Stratchlyde University, described them as “a very distinctive slice of Britain.”
For the first time, they will be electing a prime minister, instead of simply a party leader. In 2001, the first time rank-and-file Tories were given a vote on their leader, they rejected the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken Clarke in favor of Iain Duncan Smith, largely on the grounds that Duncan Smith shared their hostility toward the EU. Tory lawmakers forced him out two years later, and replaced him without a contest.
Big Decisions
The victorious candidate will inherit a country reeling from the vote to leave the EU as readings of business confidence suggest the economic shock waves are already being felt. She will have to decide when to trigger the formal start of two years of exit negotiations with the EU, manage the trade-offs involved and lead a team of negotiators to establish new commercial relationships with countries around the world.
Neither woman has set out much detail of how they would carry out the divorce from the EU, beyond May saying Britain should proceed slowly and Leadsom arguing it can be done quickly. May has said that keeping access to the EU single market on services should be a priority.
Their priorities for managing the economy are equally unclear, though May responded to the Brexit vote by warning that Britain should no longer try to meet its target of a budget surplus by 2020, a view echoed by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne the next day.
‘Major Speech'
Leadsom, in a 12-minute “major speech on the economy” on Thursday, appealed to people and the markets to take a more optimistic view of Brexit.
A surprise entry in the race after her performances in debates before the referendum were well-received by grassroots members, Leadsom has spent this week defending herself against claims she has exaggerated her experience in the financial-services industry.
After questions about her resume on Thursday, she told the BBC that she ran “huge teams of people” at Barclays, even as people who worked at the bank questioned her record.
One former executive, who worked at Barclays at the same time and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Leadsom didn't manage huge teams and was mid-level. Another person who works at Barclays said he couldn't find anyone who remembered working with her. A spokeswoman for Barclays declined to comment.
--With assistance from Joe Mayes and Charlotte Ryan To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net, Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Andrew Atkinson
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