LONDON — Britain’s carefully choreographed political change of command culminated Wednesday with Theresa May inheriting the reins of a country caught in an unaccustomed vortex of uncertainty as it hurtles toward an exit from the European Union.
May was invited to govern the country during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II only minutes after David Cameron visited Buckingham Palace and formally resigned as prime minister.
A photo of May curtsying before a handbag-toting Queen signaled the moment that May formally ascended to the country's highest political office. May was expected to make an address later as she took over 10 Downing Street.
Earlier Wednesday, Cameron went through his final paces as leader.
He received a standing ovation in Parliament and declared Britain "much stronger" than when he took office six years ago as he left Downing Street for the last time as prime minister.
Amid gusting winds and bursts of rain, Cameron gave a short statement outside the prime minister's residence with his wife and three young children by his side. He thanked the country for the "greatest honor of my life" and wished his successor luck guiding Britain through its difficult E.U. split.
It was Cameron's bad bet on the E.U. — in calling a referendum that he lost — that set off Wednesday's transition, just a year after Cameron won a resounding victory that could have kept him in office until 2020.
Cameron took some jabs from opponents who blamed him for calling that vote when he appeared on the green benches of Parliament earlier Wednesday. He was also given a standing ovation by supporters, and his premiership was celebrated by fellow Conservatives who congratulated him on cutting the deficit, enacting gay marriage and appointing women to key posts — one of whom will take his place.
May became the 13th prime minister to air-kiss the hand of Queen Elizabeth II, who at 90 has seen leaders of government come and go on average every five years during her six-decade-plus reign.