The Right Honourable Theresa May (born 1956) is a British politician, former chairman of the Conservative Party, and MP for Maidenhead.
She 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 in 1997 became the Conservative MP for Maidenhead. In 1992 she had stood unsucessfully for Durham North West, a safe Labour seat.
Having entered parliament she soon became a member of William Hague's team. Her fist appointment was as Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women (1998 -June 1999) quickly being promoted to the Shadow Cabinetin 1999 as Shadow Education and Employment Secretary. After the 2001 election the new Conservative leaderIain Duncan Smith retaind her services in the Shadow Cabinet but 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 go. Her success in this role led to her appointment as the first woman chairman in July 2002. Whilst holding this role she courted controversy within the party at the 2002 Party Conference by warning that the Tories were perceived as the nasty party and that they needed to shed this image.
After Michael Howard became Tory leader in 2003, he made her 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. In some quarters this was seen as a demotion, but a high profile speech by the party leader Michael Howard in late 2004 demonstrated that policy with regards to Family and particularly child care is set to be a key area in the forthcoming General Election.
Mrs 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.'
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