Theresa May Set to Become New British Prime Minister
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead at the "International Desk," Theresa May is set to become Britain's next leader after her rival drops out. The Portuguese football team upsets the odds to win the European championship. And new details about the frightening plans of a gunman who killed five police officers in Texas. Hi, there. Welcome, everyone. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center. And we start in London, where the dust from Brexit is far from settled, but the path to prime minister is crystal clear for Theresa May, Britain's Home Secretary stands uncontested to become the country's next leader. The only other conservative party contender, Andrea Leadsom, withdrew her leadership bid a few hours ago.</s>ANDREA LEADSOM, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, CONSERVATIVE PARTY: There is no greater privilege than to lead the Conservative Party in government. And I would have been deeply honored to do it. I have, however, concluded that the interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported prime minister. I am, therefore, withdrawing from the leadership election, and I wish Theresa May the very greatest success. I assure her of my full support.</s>CURNOW: And the Conservative Party officials say the wheels are already in motion to elevate Theresa May to prime minister. Well, CNN's Max Foster joins me from our London bureau. Our political contributor, Robin Oakley is outside 10 Downing Street. Max, to you first. The wheels are in motion. How soon could Britain have a new prime minister?</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Could be in a matter of days. There's lots of discussion about how technically this might work because we have a situation where Theresa May will be the next prime minister, so she needs to be making all the key decisions from now. But David Cameron is in post and has all of the machinery around him. So, how do we move on from here? So, we are expecting the Parliamentary Party to appoint Theresa May as a conservative leader. And then, we need the Queen to make the appointment formal. The queen is currently outside London, so David Cameron would have to travel outside London in order to resign and Theresa May would have to travel outside London in order to be appointed. The Queen is back in London on Wednesday afternoon, though. So, that looks like the earliest point at which Theresa May might be appointed. So, you could have a situation where David Cameron has his last prime minister's questions on Wednesday, then goes to the palace to resign, and Theresa May then follows in after her -- after him to be appointed.</s>CURNOW: What a tumultuous few weeks it's been. Robin, to you, why did Leadsom pull out?</s>ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Essentially, I think because she was as an inexperienced minister with only a junior job behind her, she's been absolutely shaken to the core by the intensity of media attention on her since she declared her leadership bid. And she made an ill-judged comment about how she was better suited, perhaps, to be a prime minister than Theresa May simply because she was a mother. A lot of people turned on her over that, said it was crass and vile and not the kind of thing you expect in a leadership election of this sort. And the storm that unleashed which Andrea Leadsom admitted had her in tears I think has convinced her, finally, that she isn't ready for this kind of job and this kind of exposure at this stage. And so, she's now ceded the ground to Theresa May, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: While I have you here, Robin -- I mean, you've been covering politics since before Margaret Thatcher. This will be the second female prime minister. What kind of a leader will Theresa May be?</s>OAKLEY: Well, she has done very well as home secretary over six years. It's one of the most strenuous jobs in government, and it's a job which often gets people the wrong kinds of headlines. She's been there for a record six years. She's not been able to bring down immigration, which was one of her tasks as home secretary, but that was largely due to European Union immigration. Otherwise, she's held to been an effective fighter for her cause, able to stand up to vested interests like the police federation, succeed in getting Abu Qatada, the hated preacher expelled from Britain when others failed. So, she's seemed very much as a safe pair of hands, a cool resolute woman not much given to fraternizing with her fellow M.P.s, not somebody who tours the tea rooms and the bars and slaps people on the back, but quietly, as she says, gets on with the job. Robyn.</s>CURNOW: And also as one analyst said, she's also no stranger to a fight. Max Foster, this is about stability, about certainty isn't it? What is the most important list on Theresa May's to-do list?</s>FOSTER: Well, it has to be Brexit. She has to justify her position on Brexit because she campaigned for Britain to stay within the European Union. She has made it very clear, though, that she accepts the public decision on that. So, there won't be a second referendum. Britain will be leaving the European Union. It's just the process about which to go through with that, because we've got a standoff at the moment. Brussels is saying there will be no access for Britain to the single market if they don't accept freedom of movement of people. Theresa May, very clear, that the referendum was a public choice on immigration and there has to be some negotiation around whether or not there will be free movement of people between the European Union and the U.K. So, she is trying to set herself up in a negotiating position. And the one card she has is Article 50, as it's known. And she has to start that two-year process for Britain to leave the European Union. She won't do that until she's got some sort of deal on the table, some sort of compromise on the movement of people. And she's been quite tough on one thing, which is worrying a great number of people who have European nationality, and that is whether or not E.U. nationals currently resident in the U.K. can stay. She's not saying whether or not they can stay or not, and that is part of her negotiating position. So, we need to know what her plan is to extricate Britain from the European Union, absolute priority, because that's what's causing economic instability as well as political instability.</s>CURNOW: And Robin, how quickly will this trigger a general election?</s>OAKLEY: Not very quickly at all, if Theresa May has her way. She -- when she made her first pitch for the leadership, she said Brexit means Brexit, no second referendum and no general election until 2020 which is the next one that is due under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. There must be a temptation for any conservative leader at the moment to have an early general election because the Labour Party is in total disarray. Today we heard Angela Eagle, Shadow Minister, challenging Jeremy Corbyn, the party leader -- much criticized party leader, for his job. Labour may will be about to split, if that goes to the country and he is re-elected by the activists in the country against the wishes of the M.P.s. So, temptation there for a conservative leader to call an election, but Theresa May has got to get on with the job of getting Britain out of Europe, and then, perhaps, having got the package together, present the terms to the country in a general election, but she doesn't want to do that early, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: No, so, she'll want a quiet, cautious divorce, not a quickie one. Robin, just for you. David Cameron, I mean, he and his family are still living in 10 Downing Street behind you. In fact, Mr. Cameron looked rather crestfallen at Wimbledon yesterday. This was a political gamble that backfired on him. It was certainly not the exit he'd want.</s>OAKLEY: No, certainly not. He called a referendum to try and steal the battles within the Conservative Party. He thought he was probably going to be able to win the referendum that Britain would stay in the E.U. He hoped that was going to calm some of the divisions in his own party. Instead, those divisions are as vivid as they ever were, and he has lost his job as prime minister. He had been expecting to stay on into September to a G20 Summit when he and President Barack Obama would both make their farewells. But now, it looks as though he's going to be out bundled out of Downing Street pretty quickly, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Indeed, and Britain could have a prime minister -- a new prime minister by the end of the week, perhaps. To Max and Robin, thanks so much. Well, now to celebrations in Portugal. The country's football team stunned the sporting world over the weekend. Now, they're back at home. They're getting a hero's welcome. Take a look. A parade winding through Lisbon. Hundreds are crowded along the route cheering on the men who struck down France Sunday in a last nerve-racking minutes of the final match of Euro 2016. Well let's go to Isa Soares at the parade in Lisbon. Hi there, Isa. There have been some fantastically jubilant scenes in the last hour where you are. (</s>OFF-MIC) CURNOW: Yeah, sorry, Isa -- we're going to have to fix her audio there. It has been quite a tumultuous and loud experience in that parade, and we'll try and sort out both communications and speak to her a little bit later. In the meantime, stay with us. You're watching CNN. Demonstrations are sweeping the U.S. after police violence towards black people. In some cities, those tensions reached the boiling point. Plus, the last stand for Donald Trump's political opponent. Party leaders discuss rule changes that could block his presidential nomination. All that and much more after the break.