Top 105 Theresa May Quotes

Now there is a growing feeling, it’s something that David Cameron led on actually, he said this some time ago, that MPs should not be voting on their own pay.

Let’s start getting some free trade agreements started as soon as we can. We need to get on with it; we need to get a grip and make progress.

The Government cannot just be consumed by Brexit. There is so much more to do.

Nobody wins when the police are sent to look after people suffering from mental health problems; vulnerable people don’t get the care they need and deserve, and the police can’t get on with the job they are trained to do.

I believe it’s important that we ensure that the police have a modern and flexible workforce. I think that’s what is necessary, so that they can provide the public with the service that they want.

Retailers have an important part to play in preventing knife crime – enforcing age restrictions and displaying knives safely is crucial.

Knife crime devastates communities.

We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act… about the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because, and I am not making this up, he had a pet cat.

As late as the 1980s, female officers were issued with uniform and kit which included a handbag, complete with a smaller truncheon to fit inside, and it wasn’t until 1995 that our first female chief constable was appointed.

We want to go further than preventing people from becoming terrorists and focus on a broader approach to counter-extremism – both violent and non-violent.

The overall policing budget is protected.

If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise.

We’re getting rid of bureaucracy, so that we’re releasing time for police officers to be crime fighters and not form writers.

I’m very fortunate. My husband is hugely supportive, and he is very happy getting on with his career.

We have a very clear position in the U.K. against torture, and we should maintain that.

Unfortunately, some judges evidently do not regard a debate in Parliament on new immigration rules, followed by the unanimous adoption of those rules, as evidence that Parliament actually wants to see those new rules implemented.

I was in the Commons recently and saw a young lady wearing a nice pair of shoes. I said I liked them and she said my shoes were the reason she became involved in politics.

Obviously local people will have their local voice through the police and crime commissioners that they’ve elected to determine their local policing.

Flexible working is not just for women with children. It is necessary at the other end of the scale. If people can move into part-time work, instead of retirement, then that will be a huge help. If people can fit their work around caring responsibilities for the elderly, the disabled, then again that’s very positive.

We will make the law clearer on parents’ liability for failing to prevent their child being subjected to FGM, and we are working to improve the police response.

Many British people of different faiths follow religious codes and practices and benefit a great deal from the guidance they offer.

I’m not willing to risk more terrorist plots succeeding and more paedophiles going free.

The right place for a person suffering a mental health crisis is a bed, not a police cell. And the right people to look after them are medically trained professionals, not police officers.

When you first come into Parliament, it’s a daunting place because you feel you’ve so much to learn. Once you’ve been re-elected, you feel much more confident. It just gives you a bit of a boost.

We know of officers who develop inappropriate relationships with victims of domestic abuse. They have ignored their professional duty and their moral responsibility.

I will not allow a Delia Smith cookbook in my house! It’s all so precise with Delia, and it makes cooking seem so inaccessible.

I think we all agree that the comments Donald Trump made in relation to Muslims were divisive, unhelpful and wrong.

I have grown used to the focus on my clothes and my shoes.

There is only one rule of law in our country, which provides rights and security for every citizen.

You don’t think about it at the time, but there are certain responsibilities that come with being the vicar’s daughter. You’re supposed to behave in a particular way. I shouldn’t say it, but I probably was Goody Two Shoes.

We need a bold, new, positive vision for the future of our country.

Local people do want to see more police on the streets.

If you can speak English, and you can get a place on a proper course at a proper university, you can come to study in Britain.

We are mandating forces to hold regular neighbourhood beat meetings. These meetings will give local people the chance to scrutinise the work of their local police.

A number of women have reportedly been victims of what appear to be discriminatory decisions taken by Sharia councils, and that is a significant concern.

We have to ask ourselves, is it really right that the E.U. should just continue to expand, conferring upon all new member states all the rights of membership?

There must be no attempts to remain inside the E.U., no attempts to rejoin it through the back door, and no second referendum.

You can’t solve a problem as complex as inequality in one legal clause.

I’m very pleased to be recognising International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the achievements of women across the world.

If, before 2020, there is a choice between further spending cuts, more borrowing and tax rises, the priority must be to avoid tax increases. They would disrupt consumption, employment and investment.

The British people have spoken, and there will be a different future for the U.K. – different but a brighter, more optimistic future. We may have to go through some difficult times to get there, but get there we will.

I actually think I think better in high heels.

Prison works.

We are engaged in a struggle that is fought on many fronts and in many forms.

On gay adoption I have changed my mind.

We need to change attitudes. We can only change attitudes by working together. Government will do its bit, but I want you all to do your bit, too. So speak out, stand up against violence against women and girls, and that’s the way we can eradicate it.

The key for members of the public is that they want criminals to be punished. They want them taken off the streets. They also want criminals who come out of prison to go straight.

I am a great admirer of most of the judges in Britain.

The decision on whether to ban anyone from the U.K. is made by the home secretary on the basis of the evidence at the time.

Within the E.U., in a wider context, people are increasingly recognising the need to prevent the abuse of free movement.

Like Indiana Jones, I don’t like snakes – though that might lead some to ask why I’m in politics.

Look, we constantly live looking at the issue of the threat of terrorism.

Tax credits do not help people get better jobs; in fact, they can create poverty traps that actually disincentivise people from working more hours or finding a better paid job.

Uncontrolled, mass immigration displaces British workers, forces people onto benefits, and suppresses wages for the low-paid.

Anti-social behaviour still blights lives, wrecks communities and provides a pathway to criminality.

I get cross about 13 years of Labour government that brought the country to the state it did.

I think it’s important to do a good job and not to feel that you’ve got to make grand gestures, but just to get on and deliver.

One area in which we can be certain mass immigration has an effect is housing. More than one third of all new housing demand in Britain is caused by immigration. And there is evidence that without the demand caused by mass immigration, house prices could be 10% lower over a 20-year period.

I want a counter-terrorism regime that is proportionate, focused and transparent.

For voters what matters is what government actually delivers for them.

Sometimes, things you wish had happened don’t, or there are things you wish you’d been able to do but can’t.

I’m not someone who feels anger on particular issues.

People will be able to raise their concerns: what are local officers doing about the drug dealing in the local park? What’s happening about the pub where all the trouble is? And the police will have to respond.

Our laws must protect victims.

Countries across the world are taking action now to help them track paedophiles and terrorists who abuse new technology to plot their horrific crimes.

There’s much more we can be doing in Parliament, we could be giving more power back to people at local government level, through local referendums.

The U.K. needs a system for family migration underpinned by three simple principles. One: that those who come here should do so on the basis of a genuine relationship. Two: that migrants should be able to pay their way. And three: that they are able to integrate into British society.

The country voted to leave the European Union, and it is the duty of the Government and of Parliament to make sure we do just that.

I think our police do an excellent job, day in and day out, working to keep us safe.

My pitch is very simple. My name is Theresa May, and I think I’m the best person to be Prime Minister of this country.

I completely understand why people are concerned about immigration. There’s no silver bullet, no one thing you can do to suddenly deal with all the problems and concerns with immigration, and that includes leaving the E.U.

I think if you talk to anybody who would like to have had children… I mean, you look at families all the time and you see there is something there that you don’t have.

People feel that they’re being required to meet all sorts of regulations and rules and requirements in their areas of work and MPs are not imposing those sort of restrictions on themselves.

It’s always an interesting experience for a politician to be heard in silence, I have to say.

I think for voters what matters is the values that drive the government.

David Cameron has already said, and I have said, that a Conservative government would be giving the security agencies and law enforcement agencies the powers that they need to ensure that they are keeping up to date as people communicate with data.

The use of water cannon could have changed the face of British policing; it would have made a huge difference to British policing.

We will talk to the CIFAS members, financial institutions, about the possibility of closing accounts of people who have no right to be here. If you’re going to create a hostile environment for illegal migrants… access to financial services is part of that.

If I am prime minister, we will come out of the European Union, and part of that will be control of free movement.

I’d personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it.

There is nothing inevitable about crime and there is nothing inevitable about anti-social behaviour.

I am a vicar’s daughter and still a practising member of the Church of England.

The Snowden leaks did cause damage.

People have to make journeys, what we want is people to have alternatives in public transport so that they can make a choice about the sort of way in which they’re going to travel.

Dealing with a simple burglary can require 1,000 process steps and 70 forms to be completed as a case goes through the Criminal Justice System. That can’t be right.

Targets don’t fight crime.

My whole philosophy is about doing, not talking.

It is all around us, hidden in plain sight. It is walking our streets, supplying shops and supermarkets, working in fields, factories or nail bars, trapped in brothels or cowering behind the curtains in an ordinary street: slavery.

I grew up the daughter of a local vicar and the granddaughter of a regimental sergeant major.

Communities need to feel that they can accommodate people. Rather than feeling that it’s not possible to integrate and that the stress and strain on housing and public services is too great.

What’s important is that we do this in the right timescale to get the right deal for the U.K. We shouldn’t invoke Article 50 immediately.

I am willing to consider powers which would ban known hooligans from rallies and marches and I will look into the powers the police already have to force the removal of face coverings and balaclavas.

Tying money up for 40 years doesn’t sound appealing when you are young.

We’ve got a first class leader at the moment. David Cameron is dealing with the issues that he was left by the last government very well indeed.

I’ve always championed women in politics. We just get stuck in; politics isn’t a game. The decisions we make affect people’s lives, and that is something we must all keep to the forefront of our minds.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

Reducing net E.U. migration need not mean undermining the principle of free movement. When it was first enshrined, free movement meant the freedom to move to a job, not the freedom to cross borders to look for work or claim benefits.

The U.K. courts were very clear that Abu Qatada posed a threat to our national security – that’s why we were pleased as a government to be able to remove him from the United Kingdom.

I was a teenage godmother.

Our manifesto to the British people promised to finish the job of police reform. And that is exactly what I intend to do.

Targets don’t fight crime; they hinder the fight against crime.

It is very important that people see there is a bright future, and we can re-engage that entrepreneurial spirit of the trading nation for which the U.K. has always been known – that dynamic, creative spirit.

The aim is to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration.

Today I can announce a raft of reforms that we estimate could save over 2.5 million police hours every year. That’s the equivalent of more than 1,200 police officer posts. These reforms are a watershed moment in policing. They show that we really mean business in busting bureaucracy.

One girl subjected to FGM or forces to marry is one girl too many.