Brexit-battered May resigns; battle to replace her begins

LONDON - When Theresa May became Britain's prime minister in July 2016, only the second woman to hold the post, the vicar's daughter-turned-politician inaugurated her tenure with the brisk declaration: "Brexit means Brexit."

Few political catchphrases have ultimately rung so hollow. Whatever Brexit turns out to mean, British voters' narrow decision a month earlier to bolt from the European Union was a code May never managed to crack.

On Friday - Brexit-battered, ridiculed and reviled, abandoned by her own Conservative Party - the 62-year-old prime minister bowed to the inevitable and bowed out. Her announcement that she would step down June 7 as party leader inaugurated a near-instantaneous scrum to replace her, with a new prime minister likely to be picked