Clergyman’s daughter and peer of Benazir Bhutto: Meet the UK’s new PM, Theresa May

British home secretary and soon-to-be prime minister Theresa May departs a cabinet meeting in 10 Downing Street, London, on July 12, 2016. Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

London // She has been a chairman of her party, minister for women and equalities and until today was just three weeks short of becoming Britain’s longest-serving interior minister for 100 years. But to many people – and not just her detractors – Theresa May, the woman who today will move into Number 10 Downing Street as the second woman to hold the office of British prime minister, is best known for her flamboyant taste in footwear.

If that was how her detractors hoped to paint her as a frivolous person, it hasn’t worked. After 19 years in parliament, Mrs May, 59, has earned a reputation for toughness and for getting things done. She inspires loyalty among her staff and encourages younger women with political ambitions.

Even her political opponents admire her. Yvette Cooper, who was Mrs May’s opposite number in the Labour party says, “I respect her style. it is steady and serious.” And Nick Clegg, who was deputy prime minister during the Conservative/Liberal-Democrat coalition government from 2010-2015 and frequently clashed with her emerged from a particularly difficult meeting with her, declaring, “I’ve grown to rather like Theresa May.”

For all her abilities, the fact that the Conservatives see her as the person most able to unify those on either side of the Brexit debate both within her party and the country at large has as much to do with what Theresa May is not.

Unlike David Cameron, she does not hail from British upper class privilege. Her father was a clergyman in the Church of England and she was educated almost entirely in state schools. At weekends she worked in a bakery to earn pocket money.

She studied geography at Oxford university, where she was friendly with Benazir Bhutto, the future prime minister of Pakistan. In fact it was Bhutto who introduced Theresa Brasier, as she was then, to Philip May, who has been her husband since 1980.

Nor has Mrs May’s working life been confined to the rarefied world of politics. After university, she worked at the Bank of England and she entered parliament via the old-fashioned route, through local politics. She did not get involved in the bitter arguments that tore the Conservatives apart in the EU referendum and though many suspect her heart was with the Leave campaign, she stood by the prime minister and supported Remain. But as prime-minister-to-be she has already asserted that there can be no going back on the decision to leave the European Union. “Brexit means Brexit,” she said,

Inevitably, she is already being compared to Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister and there are many similarities. Both are clever girls from modest backgrounds who got to the top through ambition and hard work. Neither ever fitted in with the clubby, masculine ambience of parliament neither let that hold them back. Like Mrs Thatcher, Mrs May is known for her ultra-seriousness and zero small talk.

She is not entirely humourless, however. One of the prizes at a Conservative party fund-raising event was an afternoon of shoe-shopping with her. But as she takes over the helm of government in one of the most turbulent periods of recent British history, it will be a long time before anyone dares mention Theresa May’s shoes again.