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Home Secretary
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom First ministry and term (July 2016 – June 2017)
Second ministry and term (June 2017 – July 2019)
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In an interview with Julie Etchingham on ITV's Tonight programme on 5 June 2017, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the naughtiest thing she had ever done was to 'run through fields of wheat' as a child. The comment was the subject of much parody on the internet and became a meme.
May led a campaign during the run-up to the 2017 general election she had called less than two months earlier. In an ITV News interview, she gave an insight into what it was like growing up as the daughter of a vicar, admitting she was a "bookish" child, [1] and saying: "I didn't have brothers and sisters who I was playing with and so obviously I had friends but sometimes had to just go out and do things on my own." [2]
What's the naughtiest thing you ever did?
Oh, goodness me. Well, I suppose... gosh. Do you know, I'm not quite sure. Nobody is ever perfectly behaved, are they? I mean, you know, I have to confess, when me and my friend, sort of, used to run through the fields of wheat, the farmers weren't too pleased about that.
At a speech at Glastonbury Festival, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joked that running through fields of wheat was "terrible" behaviour. [3]
Elle Hunt of The Guardian said "One has to imagine even the most bookish of children is capable of more noteworthy wrongdoings than causing fleeting irritation to local agriculturalists... But even if the transient displacement of grain was the pinnacle of May’s youthful misbehaviour, her response failed the test implied of the question." [4]
Media Mole of the New Statesman argued that May had been much naughtier in her political career. [5]
The 'fields of wheat' comment was widely reported in the media and became a phrase closely associated with May. [6] [7]
Concerns began to grow that a large group of people could be inspired by May's comments to also run through fields, potentially damaging crops in the process. Close to 30,000 people signed up to an event scheduled to take place in Norfolk from 23 to 24 June, with a further 59,000 saying they were interested in attending. A spokesperson from the National Union of Farmers told The Telegraph: "We welcome members of the public to responsibly enjoy the countryside, but keep yourself and any dogs to the rights of way and follow the Countryside Code." [8]
During the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, frontrunner Boris Johnson appeared to mock May as he was pictured near his Oxfordshire home recreating May's "naughtiest" moment running through what the media reported as a field of wheat. [9] [10] [11] [12]
As May neared the end of her Prime Ministership, she said that "One of the silliest things I ever did was answering that question, but there we are." [13]
Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead,, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since August 2024. May is the second female Prime Minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative.
Sir David Roy Lidington is a former British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aylesbury from 1992 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2018 to 2019 and was frequently described as being Theresa May's de facto Deputy Prime Minister.
Sir Lynton Keith Crosby is an Australian political strategist who has managed election campaigns for right-of-centre parties in several countries.
Justine Greening is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Education from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, she served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2010 to 2011, Secretary of State for Transport from 2011 to 2012 and Secretary of State for International Development from 2012 to 2016. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Putney from 2005 to 2019.
Tonight is a British current affairs programme, produced by ITV Studios and ITN for the ITV network, replacing the long-running investigative series World in Action in 1999. Previously airing twice-weekly, on Monday and Friday evenings at 8.00pm, the show runs the gamut from human interest-led current affairs to investigative journalism.
Laura Juliet Kuenssberg is a British journalist who presents the BBC's Sunday morning politics show. She was succeeded as Political Editor of BBC News by Chris Mason.
Julie Anne Etchingham is an English journalist who works as a television newsreader with ITV News. A graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge, Etchingham joined the BBC as a trainee after completing her studies, and went on to present the children's news programme Newsround in 1994. She joined Sky News in 2002, and also presented editions of Five News when Sky won the contract to produce news programming for Channel 5 in 2005.
Angela Rayner is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2024. She has been Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. Ideologically she identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.
Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., known professionally as Stormzy, is a British rapper, singer, and songwriter. In 2014, he gained attention on the UK underground music scene through his Wicked Skengman series of freestyles over classic grime beats. Stormzy's song "Shut Up", which was initially released as a freestyle on YouTube, became popular and peaked at number eight on the UK Singles Chart after he launched a campaign to reach Christmas number one.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, with 47,567,752 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party, led by the prime minister Boris Johnson, won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48, on 43.6 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election, though with a narrower popular vote margin than that achieved by the Labour Party over the Conservatives at the 1997 general election. This was the second national election to be held in 2019 in the United Kingdom, the first being the 2019 European Parliament election.
Theresa May's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 13 July 2016 when she accepted an invitation of Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding David Cameron, and ended on 24 July 2019 upon her resignation. May's premiership was dominated by Brexit, terrorist attacks in Westminster, the Manchester Arena and London Bridge, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Salisbury poisonings. As prime minister, May also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, and as Minister for the Civil Service. She also served as Leader of the Conservative Party.
Michael Alex Burghart is a British Conservative Party politician, academic and former teacher who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar since 2017. He was formerly a special adviser to Theresa May and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since July 2024.
The second May ministry was formed on 11 June 2017 after Theresa May returned to office following the June 2017 snap general election. The election resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservative Party losing its governing majority in the House of Commons. On 9 June 2017, May announced her intention to form a Conservative minority government, reliant on the confidence and supply of the Democratic Unionist Party; a finalised agreement between the two parties was signed and published on 26 June 2017.
"Strong and stable" or "strong and stable leadership" was a phrase often used by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May in the run up to the 2017 general election.
The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once a successor had been elected. Nominations opened on 10 June; 10 candidates were nominated. The first ballot of members of Parliament (MPs) took place on 13 June, with exhaustive ballots of MPs also taking place on 18, 19 and 20 June, reducing the candidates to two. The general membership of the party elected the leader by postal ballot; the result was announced on 23 July, with Boris Johnson being elected with almost twice as many votes as his opponent Jeremy Hunt.
At various dates in the run up to the 2019 general election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge the opinions that voters hold towards political leaders. Results of such polls are displayed in this article. Most of the polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules.
Brexit negotiations in 2019 started in August, after having originally concluded in November 2018 with the release of the withdrawal agreement. Negotiations took place between the United Kingdom and the European Union during 2017 and 2018 for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union following the referendum held on 23 June 2016.
Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. As of 2020, the UK is the only member state to have left the EU. Britain entered the predecessor to the EU, the European Communities (EC), on 1 January 1973. Following this, Eurosceptic groups grew in popularity in the UK, opposing aspects of both the EC and the EU. As Euroscepticism increased during the early 2010s, Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech in January 2013 at Bloomberg London, in which he called for reform of the EU and promised an in–out referendum on the UK's membership if the Conservative Party won a majority at the 2015 general election. The Conservatives won 330 seats at the election, giving Cameron a majority of 12, and a bill to hold a referendum was introduced to Parliament that month.
2010s political history refers to significant political and societal historical events in the United Kingdom in the 2010s, presented as a historical overview in narrative format.
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