Vicar’s daughter who danced to the top before Brexit toppled her

IT WAS never a political career that blazed across the firmament. There was no Churchillian rhetoric or Thatcherite steel. Instead, the years that led to Theresa May becoming the UK’s second ever female prime minister — in itself a remarkable triumph — were filled with unspectacular diligence but also a singular will to succeed. While her name will forever be linked to Brexit, here we illustrate some of the highs — and lows — in the life of Theresa May.

Hands across the sea: Mrs May met President Trump in 2017 and played host to him on his UK visit last year Poll calamity: Her decision to hold a snap election in 2017 backfired spectacularly PR disaster: The Prime Minister spoke to the fire crews who fought the Grenfell Tower blaze in June 2017, but was criticised for not meeting survivors immediately

Tension: In a rare flash of public temperament, last December, Mrs May berated EU boss JeanClaude Juncker, who had called her response to Brexit ‘nebulous’

Fashion faux pas: It was considered a mistake for style-conscious Mrs May to pose in £995 leather trousers in 2016

Inseparable: They met as students and married in 1980. Philip May has been described as Theresa’s ‘rock’ — the only person whose advice she takes seriously

Oxford undergrad: Always politically minded, she left university in 1977 with a secondclass BA degree and a desire to become PM

Family ties: Theresa, aged five, with her father the Rev Hubert Brasier and mother Zaidee in 1961

Return of the Maybot: Mocked for her robotic dancing style during a tour of Africa, the PM turns the joke on her critics at the Tory Party Conference last October