Theresa May Quotes

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.

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

The public want honesty from their politicians.Not showy gimmicks.

We are seeing, we have seen in the last figures a significant drop in the number of net migrants coming into the United Kingdom. So we are cutting out abuse, we've restricted the number of economic - non-EU economic migrants. We're cutting out abuse across the student visa system, particularly, and we're having an impact.

We have the finest military personnel in the world.

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

Poverty is about people lacking the tools they need to get on in life. And solving it is about tackling educational failure, antisocial behaviour, debt problems and addiction, and of course it's about work.

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.

As we conduct our negotiations it must be a priority to allow British companies to trade with the single market in goods and services but also, to regain more control of the numbers of people who are coming here from Europe.

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

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.

In seats where perhaps we don't expect to win at the next general election, the new infrastructure gives us a chance to win local council seats and to build a campaigning base which could help us to win in the future.

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

Poverty is not just about income: it's about aspiration. It's not just about giving people a couple of extra pounds a week, welcome though that is.

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.

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.

I disagree with the analysis that you've put about what happened in relation to the student demonstrations and protests and the incident with the Prince of Wales' car. We're very clear that we have to separate out the political responsibility from operational responsibility of the police.

The concept of doing something with child benefit, of changing the rules around child benefit, is something that has been being discussed for some time.

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

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

I will be ruthless in cutting out waste, streamlining structures and improving efficiency.

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

The internet makes information easier to come by, but harder to control - think of the success of blogs like ConservativeHome and Guido Fawkes. I definitely think Parliament's website can be improved - perhaps it could have better access to video feed, include interactive features or have discussion forums.

Police reform is working, and crime is falling.

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

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

Just as the police review their operational tactics, so we in the Home Office will review the powers available to the police.

We campaigned on the fact that we were going to have to take difficult decisions because of the state of the public finances. When we got into government we discovered that actually the public finances were in an even worse state than we thought.

I was a teenage godmother.

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.

While we have come a long way, we must go further if we are to ensure greater diversity and truly modern police forces that reflect the communities they serve and provide police officers able to tackle not only traditional crime but also the changing face of crime.

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.

Well can I just make a point about the numbers because people talk a lot about police numbers as if police numbers are the holy grail. But actually what matters is what those police are doing. It's about how those police are deployed.

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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.

Women often focus more on delivery - what is the outcome going to be rather than what are the interactions people have in order to get there.

It is essential to democracy that the elected representatives of the people make the laws that govern this country - and not the judges.

You only have to look at London, where almost half of all primary school children speak English as a second language, to see the challenges we now face as a country. This isn't fair to anyone: how can people build relationships with their neighbours if they can't even speak the same language?

What is absolutely clear is that we have, with the U.S., an extradition treaty which is important, I believe it is an important treaty, for both sides, the United States and the United Kingdom. It is a treaty that I believe is balanced and we work on that basis.

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.

You have a job but you don't always have job security, you have your own home but you worry about mortgage rates going up, you can just about manage but you worry about the cost of living and the quality of the local school because there is no other choice for you.rankly, not everybody in Westminster understands what it's like to live like this and some need to be told that it isn't a game.

Obviously, given the objective that we have, what I would hope is that people would be able to see that actually we had reduced the numbers of people, the net number of people, coming into the country. People would, presumably, see that, but it's difficult to say how.

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

If ever there was a time for a PM ready and able to do the job from day one, this is it.

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.

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

[Is the Conservative Party still the Nasty Party?] I said it was perceived as the Nasty Party. And is it? I don't think that it's a phrase that people today would apply to the Party. I think that the perception of the Party has changed.

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

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

I have not watched WAGs World, I have not watched the BBC's Upstairs, Downstairs, either. It would be Downton Abbey, I think.

Quite rightly, the public expects to see forces serving their communities, not chasing arbitrary targets.

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

We should no longer seek to have Budget surplus by end of Parliament. We should avoid tax rises.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is clearly important for all leadership candidates to be open and transparent about their tax affairs. I was very happy to publish mine today, and hope others will follow suit.

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.

And it is crucial of course that chief constables are able to make decisions within their budgets about how they deploy their police officers to the greatest effect to ensure that they're able to do the job that the public want them to do.

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

Today, there's an expectation that you get to know public people. In the past, it was much more what you did and how you presented yourself.

In tough times, everyone has to take their share of the pain.

We can bring immigration down to sustainable levels.

In our fields, on our fishing vessels, in our factories and our homes, there are people deprived of their freedom and trapped in a life of unimaginable suffering.

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.

If the police need more help to do their work, I will not hesitate in granting it to them.

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

I take a very simple view that a violent extremist at some point previously been an extremist, and by definition is an extremist, so you do need to look at that non-violent extremism.

Brexit means Brexit.The public made their verdict.

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

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

If we are going to realise our ambition of ending the harmful practices of FGM and forced marriage, the role of young people in pushing for change is crucial. We also need to ensure that everyone, from government to civil society, is playing their part.

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

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.

It is quite widely known that I like shoes. This is not something that defines me as either a woman or a politician, but it has come to define me in the eyes of the newspapers. I wore a pair of leopard-print kitten heels to a Conservative Party Conference a few years ago and the papers have continued to focus on my feet ever since.

Any attempt to wriggle, especially from leadership candidates who campaigned to leave the EU by focusing on immigration, will be unacceptable to the public.

It does not make sense that everybody should duplicate efforts when we could be working together.

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.

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.

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've been clear that Brexit means Brexit.

I'm not sure I should reveal the sources of my clothes.

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.

The overall policing budget is protected.

It is not possible to debate the balance between privacy and security, including the rights and wrongs of intrusive powers, without also understanding the threats.

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

I support selecting as many candidates as early as possible for lots of reasons. First of all I think it is important that every voter - regardless of where they live in the country - should have the opportunity to vote Conservative should they wish.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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