I don't follow UK politics much, but I did get interested during the Brexit referendum two years ago. Back then, the main names I recall are David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Nigel Farage, and maybe also Corbyn I think. At least, those were the names you constantly read about in the papers. I don't recall ever hearing the name "Theresa May".

I also know that Boris Johnson and Farage were the ones that were mainly pro Brexit and Corbyn and Cameron were against it.

Then the Brexiters won the referendum, and now that the negotiations are at the latter stage, I am again getting interested in UK politics. However, what I don't understand is, where did May come from? Why is she leading Brexit negotiations all of a sudden, when she played no significant role of promoting Brexit during the referendum? And I'm not seeing Farage or Johnson anywhere? What happened?

In short: why aren't the main endorsers of Brexit, the ones we kept hearing about during the campaign in 2016, not the ones leading the negotiations?