Leadsom quits race to become next UK leader

LONDON (AA) – One of the two candidates running to succeed David Cameron as U.K. prime minister announced on Monday she is withdrawing from the contest.

Former treasury minister Andrea Leadsom said she was standing down because the country needed a new prime minister “as soon as possible” following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

“A nine-week campaign at such a critical moment in our country is highly undesirable,” she told reporters gathered outside a residential address in central London.

Leadsom, who had been expected to spend the summer trying to persuade members of the governing Conservative Party to select her, endorsed her rival in the contest, Home Secretary Theresa May.