Photo Of New British PM, Theresa May, Kneeling To Greet Queen Elizabeth

Theresa May formally appointed British prime minister by the Queen

Theresa May replaced David Cameron as Britain’s prime minister on Wednesday, assuming responsibility for the monumental task of negotiating a complex divorce from the European Union.

Cameron stepped down after Britons rejected his entreaties and voted to leave the EU in a referendum last month, severely undermining European efforts to forge greater unity and creating economic uncertainty across the 28-nation bloc.

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May, 59, assumed office after an audience with Queen Elizabeth. An official photograph showed her curtseying and shaking hands with the smiling monarch, for whom she is the 13th prime minister in a line that started with Winston Churchill.

She is also Britain’s second female head of government after Margaret Thatcher.