DAVID Cameron's successor Theresa May and right-hand man George Osborne led the tributes to the British prime minister as he bid farewell on Tuesday to his top team by chairing an "emotional" final cabinet meeting.
Cabinet ministers spoke of a "sad day" but also Mr Cameron's determination to remain upbeat and continue to drive the one nation Conservative agenda as he prepared to hand power to Mrs May.
The new Tory leader posed for photos as she arrived at 10 Downing Street in her trademark kitten heels on the day before she moves into the famous address as Britain's second female PM.
Culture secretary John Whittingdale said there was a "touch of sadness" about the meeting but told Sky News: "It was emotional but quite rightly we spent a long time on the government business, but then we had a period during which we could raise tributes to the extraordinary service the prime minister has given, led on by George Osborne and Theresa May."
Secretary of State Theresa Villiers said Mr Cameron is leaving Britain in a better state than when he took office in 2010.
She said: "He's changed our party for the better, he's changed our country for the better, he's also given me huge opportunities, so for me it was a kind of sad day to see David Cameron's last cabinet meeting.
"But I'm sure our country is in safe hands with Theresa May."
Mrs May now faces a breakneck period of activity appointing a new cabinet after the expected nine-week leadership campaign was truncated to just a couple of days by Andrea Leadsom's withdrawal from the contest.
After presenting herself as the unity candidate, Mrs May is expected to offer plum posts to leading figures from both the Remain and Leave camps from the EU referendum, in which she backed continued membership but kept a low profile.
Mr Osborne looks unlikely to stay on as chancellor after Mrs May trashed parts of his economic legacy, and is widely tipped to become foreign secretary in a potential job swap with Philip Hammond, who has long coveted the role at the Treasury.
Senior Brexiteer Chris Grayling will be rewarded for his role running Mrs May's campaign, possibly replacing her as home secretary.
And it is thought that a prominent Leave campaigner could be given the job of overseeing negotiations for the UK's departure from the EU and making good on Mrs May's promise that "Brexit means Brexit".
Mrs Leadsom is expected to be offered a job in recognition of her raised profile from the referendum.
But big question marks were hanging over the future of Brexit standard-bearers Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, who were seen to have blotted their copy-books in the wake of the referendum result but moved quickly to endorse Mrs May when Mrs Leadsom pulled out.
Mrs May will take up office today, after Mr Cameron answers MPs' questions in the House of Commons for the last time and goes to Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to Queen Elizabeth.
But even before arriving at No 10 she is facing calls for a snap general election from Labour, who said it was "crucial" that the UK has a "democratically elected prime minister" at a time of economic and political instability.
She set her face against a snap election when she launched her campaign for the Tory leadership on June 30, saying: "There should be no general election until 2020."
