Theresa May’s rise from home secretary to British prime minister is being heralded as “a fantastic moment” and proof “the Tories are streets ahead on gender equality.”

In Prime Minister’s Questions this week May took the opportunity to use her party’s history of women prime ministers to score points against the Labour Party: “In my years here in this house I’ve long heard the Labour Party asking what the Conservative Party does for women. It keeps making us prime minister.” She went on to confirm her continued commitment to government spending cuts, justifying austerity as merely “living within our means.”

Behind the celebration of May as an emblem for women’s progress lies a dark reality: May’s pro-austerity politics and right-wing approach to immigration promises a miserable future for Britain’s most vulnerable women.