Originally posted by Hobosapien
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She's a very canny politician. She knew that either result would wipe out a good fraction of her competitors, so she adopted the pragmatic position of siding with the (more likely) winner, but not aggressively so. She then spent that period planning for her leadership bid. It wasn't a complete surprise that Boris and Gove shot each other or, at least, that Boris hoisted himself with his own petard. He's a journalist (and not a very good one). Anyway, as unbelievable as recent events might appear, they were not completely unpredictable, and May was certainly ready for this eventuality. She's also canny enough to know that her working majority in Parliament is relatively slim and that the honeymoon period will be relatively short if she makes any strategic blunders. She has famously alienated some sections of her Parliamentary party (notably Gove's team, but the Notting Hill Tories more generally don't particularly like her).
Incidentally, I'd expect Article 50 by the end of this year or early next year, but she'll be driven by the strategic advantage on that, rather than whim. It's interesting that many Bremainers seem to think (hope, I suppose) that she'll dramatically water down Brexit or even fail to invoke Article 50 (Express readers
). Again, I'd suggest that anyone who believes this hasn't really been paying attention to May over the years.
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