BREXIT:David Cameron to Appear Before Parliament on Final Day as Prime Minister

Prime Minister David Cameron leaving 10 Downing Street in London on

David Cameron was due on Wednesday to defend his political record in Parliament for the final time as prime minister, as Britain prepared for the formal handover of power to his successor, Theresa May, the home secretary.

Mr. Cameron’s last parliamentary duty was at prime minister’s questions, the weekly ritual in which lawmakers interrogate the leader in often combative exchanges.

On Wednesday, the discussion was expected to be more respectful, with Mr. Cameron’s political adversaries and allies likely to pay tribute to him as he prepares to leave his office in 10 Downing Street for the last time as prime minister, a position he held for six years.

“As I leave today, I hope that people will see a stronger country, a thriving economy and more chances to get on in life,” Mr. Cameron told the newspaper The Telegraph, ahead of his parliamentary appearance.

Though Mr. Cameron won a general election only last year, he finds himself out of power at age 49 in the aftermath of Britain’s tumultuous referendum vote to leave the European Union. Mr. Cameron will be the youngest prime minister to relinquish the job since Archibald Primrose, the Earl of Rosebery, in 1895.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cameron was expected to remind lawmakers of his role in stabilizing Britain’s economic position when he took power in 2010, after the global financial crisis, and that he legalized gay marriage.

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But Mr. Cameron will mainly be remembered as the prime minister who gambled — and lost — by holding a referendum in which he called on Britons to continue more than four decades of European integration.

When 52 percent of voters decided they wanted to leave the bloc in last month’s referendum, Mr. Cameron was left withlittle alternative but to resign.

Not only has the vote plunged Britain into political crisis, it has also strained the unity of the United Kingdom, prompting new talk of independence for Scotland, where a majority of voters opted to stay in the European Union.

Later Wednesday, Mr. Cameron was to be driven the short journey to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II. Then Ms. May, 59, would make a similar journey to meet the monarch who has held such meetings with every prime minister since Winston Churchill.

After that appointment, Ms. May is scheduled to arrive at Downing Street, where she is likely to make a brief statement before beginning work on constructing her government. The new government’s main task will the highly complex one of withdrawing Britain from the 28-nation European Union.

Ms. May, who has served as home secretary for six years, is expected to promote several women to central positions in her cabinet, though it remains unclear whether those will include the jobs of chancellor of the Exchequer or foreign secretary.

Because she argued for Britain to remain inside the European Union, she is expected to give powerful positions to several of those who took the opposing view, to create a politically balanced cabinet.

One of her most delicate decisions will be what positions — if any — to offer figures such as Boris Johnson, the former London mayor, and Michael Gove, the justice secretary. Both men took leading roles in the campaign for withdrawal from the European Union, or “Brexit.”