After the 1997 election, he became a whip and subsequently served as a spokesman for home affairs and then health before joining the shadow cabinet as work and pensions spokesman. (news.bbc.co.uk)
He became a party spokesman on local government, joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 as Shadow Health Secretary and became Shadow Education Secretary in 1994. (en.wikipedia.org)
May became MP for Maidenhead in 1997, quickly entering then Tory leader William Hague's frontbench in 1998, before joining the shadow cabinet from 1999 onwards. (totalpolitics.com)