BICOM

The UK is set to have a new prime minister from tomorrow evening, as the Conservative Party leadership race ended prematurely yesterday.

Following the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom’s candidacy to head the Conservative Party, it was confirmed that Home Secretary Theresa May will move into Downing Street tomorrow.

Although there has been no official response to Prime Minister-designate May’s appointment by Israel’s government, Daniel Taub, who served as Israeli ambassador to London from 2011 until last year, told the Jerusalem Post that she “has been a long-standing friend of Israel and the Jewish community”.

He added that as Home Secretary, she has been very supportive of “our efforts to deepen British- Israel ties in the area of homeland security”.

Eric Pickles MP, chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel said: “As a politician not known for hollow platitudes, Israel can rest assured that a UK led by Theresa May will be there in its moments of need.”

Notably, the Prime Minister-designate told Conservative Friends of Israel two years ago “it is worth re-stating the threats faced by Israel because they are considerable,” going on to list Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and Iran. She said that “no democratic government could, in the face of such danger, do anything but maintain a strong defence and security capability and be prepared to deploy it if necessary”. At the same time, she said that “there will be no lasting peace or justice in the region until the Palestinian people are able to enjoy full civil rights themselves”.

May visited Israel in summer 2014, during a difficult period in which the kidnapping of three Israeli teenage boys led to extremely high tensions. She has been a regular speaker at Jewish communal events, most notably delivering a keynote address at the Bnei Akiva youth organisation to mark Israel’s Independence Day last year. She made an impassioned speech expressing solidarity at a Board of Deputies event last year in the wake of the Paris terror attack at a kosher supermarket.