Theresa May Quotes

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

Shortly after the appointment of Britain's first-ever female police constable with officials powers of arrest, the Home Office declared that women could not be sworn in as police officers because they were not deemed 'proper persons'. It makes you wonder what those Home Office officials would say now to having a female Home Secretary.

- Theresa May

I don't tour the TV studios. I don't gossip over lunch. I don't drink in Parliament's bars. I don't wear my heart on my sleeve. I just get on with the job in front of me.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

Sham marriages have been widespread; people have been allowed to settle in Britain without being able to speak English; and there have not been rules in place to stop migrants becoming a burden on the taxpayer. We are changing all of that.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

Stop-and-search has the potential to cause immense resentment and honesty to the police, with all the implications that has for generating distrust and ending co-operation from the public, if it is not used fairly.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

We are all different. We all have different circumstances, and you have to cope with whatever it is, try not to dwell on things.

- Theresa May

No, I can tell you one of the first things that happens to a home secretary when they arrive in the job is that they are given a briefing about the security matters that they will be dealing with and I deal with security matters on a daily basis.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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?

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

A lot of men in politics suddenly woke up to the issue of women in politics when they realised: hey, there are votes in this!

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

Knife crime devastates communities.

- Theresa May

On gay adoption I have changed my mind.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

Labour ministers often look puzzled when reports show that Britain has one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the developed world. They just don't get it. They see poverty, inequality, fairness, as all about income. For the past 12 years, they have relied on tax credits to solve this. But tax credits do not solve poverty: they mask it.

- Theresa May

Targets don't fight crime.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

We can bring immigration down to sustainable levels.

- Theresa May

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?

- Theresa May

I was a teenage godmother.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

What we're also doing is helping police forces in terms of issues like procurement and IT, so that savings can be made in those areas which I think is the sort of thing that everybody is going to want us to be doing.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

The overall policing budget is protected.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

So we mustn't lower our guard in any sense because of what has happened in terms of the death of Osama Bin Laden and we are certainly not doing that. The terror threat level here in the U.K. remains at severe and we're very conscious of the need to continue that.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

The Snowden leaks did cause damage.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

Our laws must protect victims.

- Theresa May

The right place for a terrorist is a prison cell; the right place for a foreign terrorist is a foreign prison cell far away from Britain.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

We have the finest military personnel in the world.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

I was looking at a photograph of the 1997 election campaign yesterday, and I thought: 'My God. Did I really have that hairstyle? And that Tory blue suit?'

- Theresa May

I believe in marriage. I believe marriage is a really important institution, it's one of the most important institutions we have.

- Theresa May

My whole philosophy is about doing, not talking.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

We are ensuring that we are checking people who are coming in to the U.K.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

I think there is a break down of trust generally, between people and politicians. I think that's come about for a whole variety of reasons.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

Prison works.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

Police reform is working, and crime is falling.

- Theresa May

UKIP talk a lot about immigration - but they don't have a serious plan for action.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

I actually think I think better in high heels.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

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.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

I've been clear that Brexit means Brexit.

- Theresa May

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

- Theresa May

The universities have got a job here as well in making sure that people actually understand that we're open for university students coming into the U.K. There's a job here not just for the government, I think there's a job for the universities as well to make sure that people know that we are open.

- Theresa May

It's very important that we unite as a party and as a country.

- Theresa May

We need to bring control into movement of people coming into the U.K. from the E.U.

- Theresa May