LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Brexit campaigner Andrea Leadsom, who this week dropped out as her rival in the Conservative leadership contest, as farming minister in her new cabinet on Thursday.
Leadsom had made it through to the run-off stage of the race to succeed former prime minister David Cameron thanks to a wave of eurosceptic support following Britain’s EU referendum, but surprisingly pulled out on Monday, effectively handing the job to May.
Her withdrawal came after a newspaper interview in which she suggested she had a greater stake in the country’s future because she was a mother, unlike May. She later apologised amid a storm of criticism, and said on Monday that it had become clear she lacked the support to lead the party.
Her new role as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs represents a promotion from her previous job as junior energy minister, but lands her the difficult task of delivering on funding promises made to the farming community during the referendum campaign.