After three years of grappling with the behemoth that is Brexit, Theresa May has has finally stepped down as leader of the Conservative Party.
There was applause when May entered Downing St on July 13, 2016, pledging to end “burning injustices” and help the “just about managing”.
But despite the promises, her tenure inevitably ended up being utterly dominated by Britain’s exit from the EU and now Boris Johnson, arguably the man who clinched victory for Vote Leave in the 2016 referendum, .
So – other than Brexit – what has the May administration actually achieved? And what promises did the outgoing PM fail to deliver on?
What has the government done?
Committed the UK to net zero emissions by 2050
In the final days of her premiership, May tied the UK to a new climate change plan that will cut greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by 2050.
She said there was a "moral duty to leave this world in a better condition than what we inherited" and that the move would benefit public health and cut NHS costs.
Britain was the first major nation to propose this target - and the move has been widely praised by green groups and across the political spectrum.
The infected blood inquiry
During the 1970s and 80s, contaminated blood in the NHS led to the deaths of at least 2,400 people, while thousands more were exposed to Hepatitis C and HIV.
Just days after the state opening of parliament in 2017, May announced a full public inquiry into the scandal, calling it “an appalling tragedy which should simply never have happened”.
The news was welcomed by victims and campaigners. She has since announced £29m extra for victims.
Free tampons in schools
Young girls had been skipping school because they were unable to afford sanitary products and concern was mounting over the scale of period poverty in the UK.
In Philip Hammond’s spring statement, the Chancellor announced the government would fund free sanitary products for secondary schools. It was later announced this would be extended to primary schools.
Firms to publish their gender pay gap
Theresa May shone a light on the disparity between men and women’s pay by forcing companies to publish their gender pay gap once a year.
Though some have said May should have gone further, the legal requirement for firms with 250 employees or more has underlined pay injustice.
Introduced a plastic tax
The UK is on course to introduce a tax on all single use plastic packaging that does not include at least 30% recycled material by 2022.
This followed the BBC’s heart-breaking documentary Blue Planet, fronted by David Attenborough, which showed the impact plastic use was having on marine life.
The Grenfell Tower fire inquiry
May’s response in the days after the North Kensington tower block blaze, in which 72 people die was slated as cold, inadequate and slow to adapt.
She was also criticised by survivors for appointing establishment figure Sir Martin Moore-Bick to chair the inquiry into the fire, which will not deliver its first report until October.
But she nonetheless ordered an independent inquiry and highlighted the move in her resignation speech.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, gave his reaction after Theresa May announced her departure.
He said: “The inquiry she launched has kicked scrutiny of corporate and government interests into the long-grass, denying families and survivors justice, while allowing business as usual to continue for the wealthy. For the outgoing Prime Minister to suggest that her awful response to Grenfell is a proud part of her legacy is, frankly, disgraceful.”
Gave domestic abuse victims more support
The Domestic Abuse Bill, finally passed in January, introduced a series of measures that will protect victims.
They include:
A legal definition of domestic abuse which includes economic abuse
A Domestic Abuse Commissioner to represent victims
Prohibiting perpetrators cross-examining their victims in family courts,
Making domestic abuse offenders subject to polygraph testing as a condition of their release from custody
Put £20bn into the NHS
Ambulance waiting times, an increase in baby deaths and a hospital beds crisis were among the headlines which were causing major concern for the health of the NHS.
May announced in 2018 that the NHS will receive a funding increase totalling £20.5 billion in real terms by 2023/24.
Labour and medics have said that this is not enough but it is nonetheless the biggest increase in funding the NHS has ever seen.
Abolished stamp duty for first-time buyers
The housing crisis has been a constant of May’s period in office with working people often complaining they are unable to get on the housing ladder.
Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in 2018 that stamp duty will be abolished immediately for first-time buyers buying a home of up to £500,000.
£2bn for social housing
Homelessness has doubled since 2010, figures have shown.
Charities have repeatedly underlined that more social housing is key to solving both the housing crisis and rough sleeping.
In September 2018, May announced an extra £2bn in longer-term funding for social housing developments, and called for an end to the “stigma” attached to living in a council home. The announcement was welcomed by housing associations and charities.
Racial disparity audit
May’s government carried out the first ever race disparity audit.
Among some of the more shocking statistics the study highlighted were that black men were nearly three times more likely to be arrested than white men, and black children three times more likely to be excluded from school.
It shone a light on Britain’s race problem in the wake of the Brexit vote.
During her last days as PM, May also announced the government would create an independent Office For Tackling Injustices, which will hold Johnson, and other future PM's, to account over social justice.
Introduced the ‘Amazon tax’
May’s chancellor announced that internet giants such as Amazon and Google will be subject to a ‘digital services tax’.
It comes amid widespread concern, in the UK and elsewhere, that the multi-billion pound technology firms are avoiding tax.
While the OBR estimated the tax could bring in as [relatively] little as £30m, others have welcomed the tax as world-leading.
Introduced T-Levels
While Theresa May’s election manifesto pledge to create more grammar schools was dropped when the Tories lost their majority, she made good on her promise to make technical education more prestigious with T-Levels.
Designed to be on an academic par with A-Levels, the first batch was due to include construction, digital skills, education and childcare qualifications.
T-Levels have, however, been beset by delays.
What did her government fail to do?
Reform the Home Office
The department May led for six years before becoming PM has lurched from crisis to crisis throughout her time in power.
Its “hostile environment” policies led to the Windrush scandal, which saw at least 83 people wrongly detained, denied legal rights or threatened with deportation.
The Home Affairs Select Committee has also repeatedly criticised detention centres’ treatment of vulnerable adults.
Knife crime reached record levels in 2018, while the number of police jobs has fallen by up to 22,000 since 2010.
Despite all this, and much more, May’s government declined to bring forward meaningful reforms of the Home Office.
Introduce social care reforms
The so-called ‘dementia tax’ outlined in the Tory manifesto is believed to have lost her party a majority at the 2017 general election, and did not make it into her programme for government.
Throughout her three years in office, May has failed to introduce any reforms to social care, despite the sector struggling and costing the public purse billions.
The social care green paper which she was supposed to bring forward this month has not materialised. It was supposed to explore a more generous means-test, a cap on lifetime social care charges, an insurance and contribution model, a care ISA; and the possibility of tax-free withdrawals from pension pots.
End austerity
Theresa May said in her conference speech last year that “people need to know austerity is over” and that “their hard work has paid off” after swingeing cuts to welfare and public services.
But Hammond used his Spring Statement in 2019 to confirm the fourth and final year of the benefits freeze – which started in April - will go ahead as planned.
The freeze, which applies to Universal Credit, child benefit, tax credits, housing benefits, income support and some disability benefits, was created by former chancellor George Osborne and came into force in 2016.
Put workers on boards
In a speech launching her Conservative Party leadership, the prime minister said she wanted to see “changes in the way that big business is governed”.
She advocated putting workers on company boards and making companies hold annual votes on executive pay.
May was later accused of backtracking and watering the plans down, confirming to the CBI that she was scrapping the plans in August 2017.
Liberalise abortion/gay marriage law in Northern Ireland
The Stormont assembly has not been sitting since power-sharing talks between Sinn Fein and the government’s supply-and-confidence partners the DUP broke down in January 2017.
In the region, abortion remains illegal and same sex marriage is banned despite reforms across the rest of the UK and Ireland.
Despite repeated calls for the PM to use Westminster legislation to make reforms in Stormont’s absence, she has refused.