Theresa May

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The Right Honourable Theresa Mary May (born in Eastbourne, Sussex on October 1 1956 as Theresa Mary Brasier) is a British politician, former chairman of the Conservative Party, and Member of Parliament for Maidenhead.

May studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford and obtained a Geography MA. From 1985 to 1997, she was a consultant for a financial institution, and was a councillor in the London Borough of Merton 1986-1994, where she was Chairman of Education 1988-1990 and Deputy Group Leader and Housing Spokesman 1992-1994. in the 1992 general election she stood unsuccessfully for Durham North West, a safe Labour seat. She contested the Barking by-election, 1994 without success. In the 1997 general election she became the Conservative MP for Maidenhead.

Having entered parliament she soon became a member of William Hague's team. Her first appointment was as Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women (1998 – June 1999). She became the first of the 1997 intake of MPs to enter the Shadow Cabinet when in 1999 she became Shadow Education and Employment Secretary. After the 2001 election the new Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith retained her services in the Shadow Cabinet, moving her to the Transport portfolio. In this role she opposed Stephen Byers the then Transport Secretary in the period leading up to his resignation, making many media appearances and contributing to his eventual decision to resign. Her success in this role led to her appointment as the first female chairman in July 2002. Whilst holding this role, she courted controversy within the party at the 2002 Party Conference by warning that the Conservatives were perceived as the nasty party and that they needed to shed this image.

After Michael Howard MP became Conservative leader in 2003, he made May Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and the Environment. However in June 2004, she was moved to the new position of Shadow Secretary of State for the Family. After the 2005 election her portfolio was expanded and she became Shadow Secretary of State for the Family and for Culture, Media & Sport. She was appointed Shadow Leader of the House in December 2005 by the Conservative leader David Cameron MP.

May is known for her love of shoes; in the register of members interests she declared that she had '[received a] discount card on the purchase of shoes from Russell and Bromley, which has the potential to be of registrable value.' She is married to Philip May (educated at Lincoln College, Oxford) and lives in Sonning, Berkshire.

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