![\"Teresa\"](\"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Teresa.jpg\")
Theresa May took over as Britain\u2019s new prime minister on Wednesday, promising a \u201cbold, new, positive role\u201d for the country less than three weeks after its seismic vote to leave the EU.\nMay, the former interior minister who succeeds David Cameron after seeing off several rivals for leader of the Conservative Party, becomes Britain\u2019s second female leader after Margaret Thatcher.
\nAfter formally being invited to form a government in a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, May arrived at her new Downing Street residence with a promise to lead a government that would tackle \u201cburning injustice.\u201d
\n\u201cFollowing the referendum we face a time of great national change. And I know because we\u2019re Great Britain that we will rise to the challenge,\u201d she told reporters, flanked by her husband, Philip.
\n\u201cAs we leave the European Union we will forge a bold new positive role for ourselves in the world.
\n\u201cAnd we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for everyone of us.\u201d
\nAs Scotland mulls moves that could eventually see it break away, following the referendum in which most Scots voted to stay in the EU but England and Wales voted to leave, May said keeping the \u201cprecious\u201d kingdom together was a priority.
\nShe is expected to announce key members of her cabinet, including the foreign, interior and finance ministers, on Wednesday evening before getting down to business.
\nEU leaders are pressing for a swift divorce following the vote to leave the bloc on June 23, which sent shockwaves around the world and plunged Britain into uncertainty.
\nEuropean Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was among the first to offer his congratulations to May, and said he hoped they would meet \u201cin the near future.\u201d
\n\u201cThe outcome of the United Kingdom\u2019s referendum has created a new situation which the United Kingdom and the European Union will have to address soon,\u201d he said.
\nMay campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU but has stressed that she will honor the popular vote, saying repeatedly that \u201cBrexit means Brexit.\u201d
\nHowever, she has refused to be rushed on the timetable.
\nEarlier, Cameron had made his final statement in Downing Street flanked by his wife Samantha and three children, where he wished Britain \u201ccontinued success.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not been an easy journey and, of course, we\u2019ve not got every decision right but I do believe today our country is much stronger,\u201d the 49-year-old said.
\nHe later made the short drive to the palace, where the queen accepted his resignation after six years in office.
\nCameron had called the referendum and campaigned to stay in the EU in a bid to try to heal divisions in his Conservative party. He gambled, and he lost.
\nIn his final question and answer session in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Cameron echoed a line he had once used to taunt former Labour premier Tony Blair.
\n\u201cAs I once said, I was the future, once,\u201d he said.
\nHe urged his successor, \u201ca brilliant negotiator,\u201d to \u201ctry to be as close to the European Union as we can be, for the benefits of trade, of co-operation and of security.\u201d
\nMay campaigned for the leadership as a safe pair of hands, who has spent six years as home secretary, one of the toughest jobs in British politics.
\nThe daughter of a Church of England pastor, she is cricket fan with a sober demeanour who lists her hobbies as cooking and walking.
\nShe has been MP for Maidenhead, the well-to-do commuter town west of London, since 1997 and was previously chairman of the Conservative party.
\nMay is something of an unknown quantity internationally, but European Council president Donald Tusk said he looked forward to a \u201cfruitful working relationship\u201d with her.
\nHer continental peers have said they expect her to move quickly to implement the referendum result.
\nGermany\u2019s Angela Merkel, France\u2019s Francois Hollande and Italy\u2019s Matteo Renzi announced Wednesday that they will hold a summit in August on the matter.
\nWomen are expected to secure several top jobs in May\u2019s cabinet, including current energy minister Amber Rudd and international development minister Justine Greening.
\nForeign Minister Philip Hammond and Brexit campaigner Chris Grayling, the leader of the House of Commons, are also tipped for senior positions \u2014 but George Osborne is expected to lose the finance portfolio.
\nFriends of former London mayor Boris Johnson, who had been hotly tipped to succeed Cameron but declined to run at the last minute, said he was also hoping to play a \u201csignificant role.\u201d
\nInvestors will be watching May\u2019s first days in office closely.
\nThe Bank of England will announce Thursday whether it will cut interest rates for the first time in more than seven years to curb economic fallout from Brexit.<\/p>\n