Politicians From England

"[On why Theresa May brought back her deal to be voted on in Parliament for a third time] Fuck knows, I'm past caring, it's like the living dead in here."

"She hides when things go wrong. No interviews, no quotes, nothing to reassure people or to remind people she even exists."

"As for May, her clinical standoffishness is entirely of a piece with the way she has behaved for the best part of the two and a half years since the vote, and certainly since the 2017 election. One of the most remarkable, and indeed excruciating, things about May has been her insistence on governing like she's got a landslide majority. Why has no one told her? She's the Florence Foster Jenkins of politics, insulated from the realities of her situation by weird or venal enablers."

"May's doomed attempt to play the straight man in a Fawlty Towers world was torpedoed by her stunningly awkward dance-on to Abba at a Tory Party conference."

"The decision of the the House [of Commons] on this report is important. It is important to show the public that there is not one rule for them and another for us. [...] Following an unsettling period in our political life, support for the report of the Privileges Committee will be a small but important step in restoring people's trust in members of this House and of Parliament. And I also say to members of my own party that it is doubly important for us to show that we are prepared to act when one of our own, however senior, is found wanting. I will vote in favour of the report by the Privileges Committee, I urge all members of this House to do so – to uphold standards in public life, to show that we all recognise the responsibility we have to the people we serve and to help to restore faith in our parliamentary democracy."

"She would frequently clash with George Osborne over immigration. She rarely got on anything but badly with Michael Gove. She and Cameron seemed to view each other with mutual suspicion."

"May believes in justice, but not in social justice; in individual enterprise, but not in uniting communities."

"I cannot remember a time when she did not have political ambitions. I well remember, at the time, that she did want to become the first woman prime minister and she was quite irritated when Margaret Thatcher got there first."

"Theresa is a bloody difficult woman. … She’s too narrow on her department … She’s been at the Home Office far too long, so I only know in detail what her views are on the Home Office. She doesn’t know much about foreign affairs."

"I respect her style – it is steady and serious. She is authoritative in parliament – superficial attacks on her bounce off. When the Tory establishment call her “a bloody difficult woman” she rightly wears it as a badge of pride."

"The United Kingdom, with which the United States has a "special relationship," is no exception. After multiple terrorist attacks rocked Britain in 2017, the president scolded the Brits for failing to rein in extremism. "Another attack in London by a loser terrorist," he tweeted after a train bombing in September 2017. "These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!" Prime Minister Theresa May bristled at the accusation, telling reporters, "I never think it's helpful for anybody to speculate about what is an ongoing conversation." In the months to come, her team would become infuriated with our administration, as President Trump criticized May's handling of Britain's exit from the European Union. When confidential internal messages leaked detailing the British ambassador's critiques of the Trump administration (including the apt observation that the president is "unpredictable" and his White House "dysfunctional") the president proceeded to validate all of the ambassador's concerns with an intemperate overreaction. Rather than showing restraint, he punched down, tweeting that the ambassador was "a very stupid guy," "wacky," and a "pompous fool." For no strategic purpose, other than spitefulness, he also took parting shots at May, who was then stepping down as prime minister, calling her policies a disaster. "What a mess she and her representatives have created," the president said in July 2019, specifically honing in on Brexit. "I have told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way... The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new Prime Minister.""

"It is important that we deliver a Brexit that is good for the British people. It will be up to my successor to take this forward. To find the majority in Parliament that I was not able to find and to deliver the decision of the British people in 2016."

"I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold. The second female prime minister, but certainly not the last. I do so with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love."

"Our laws will be made not in Brussels but in Westminster. The authority of EU law in Britain will end."

"The UK should have left the EU by now and I sincerely regret the fact that I have not yet been able to persuade Parliament to approve a deal."

"People didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. And I think members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often."

"We must stand up for the right of everyone, no matter what their religion, to practise their faith in peace."

"I served on the National Security Council for nine years; six years as Home Secretary and three as Prime Minister. During that time I listened to the expert independent advice from national security advisers. On Saturday, my Rt. Hon friend said "we must be able to promote those with proven expertise". Why, then, is the new national security adviser a political appointee with no proven expertise in national security?"

"I have consistently said that immigration has been good for this country,"

"Our focus to deliver Brexit must be absolute. We must not, and I will not, frustrate what was the largest democratic exercise in this country's history. In the very final stages of this process, the worst thing we could do is lose our focus."

"I continue to believe that by far the best outcome is the UK leaves the European Union in an orderly fashion with a deal. And that the deal we have negotiated is the best and indeed only deal available."

"I ask everyone in this room to back the deal so we can complete our historic duty - to deliver on the decision of the British people and leave the European Union with a smooth and orderly exit."

"It is important to emphasise that disruption increases teacher's workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for."

"What should be clear from this is whenever you close a route, the migrants and the people smugglers find another way, and anybody who thinks that this Bill will deal with the issue of illegal migration once and for all is wrong. Not least because a significant number, if not the majority, of people who are here illegally don't come on small boats, they come legally and overstay their visas."

"Overwhelmingly the British people want us to get on with delivering Brexit and also address the other important issues they care about. I believe it is my duty to deliver on the British people's instruction to leave the European Union and I intend to do so."

"In 2019 the UK will start a new chapter. The Brexit deal I have negotiated delivers on the vote of the British people. If Parliament backs a deal, Britain can turn a corner. The referendum in 2016 was divisive. But we all want the best for our country and 2019 can be the year we put our differences aside and move forward together, into a strong new relationship with our European neighbours and out into the world as a globally trading nation."

"[I will] continue to work to deliver on the solemn promise to the people of this country to deliver on the result of the referendum and leave the European Union"

"[A 2nd EU referendum would be a] betrayal of the vote of the British people"

"Our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy, that allows us to honour the referendum and realise the opportunities of Brexit"

"[My negotiated EU deal] gives us control of our borders, our money and our laws - it protects jobs, security and our Union"

"The only way to avoid No Deal is to vote for a deal."

"We will be out of EU programmes that do not work in our interests: out of the Common Agricultural Policy that has failed our farmers and out of the Common Fisheries Policy that has failed our coastal communities. EU citizens who have built their lives in the United Kingdom will have their rights protected, as will UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU."

"Let us not break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum"

"Outside the EU, we will be able to sign new trade deals with other countries and open up new markets in the fastest-growing economies around the world."

"It is good to see that we agree that the UK should leave the European Union with a deal and that the urgent task at hand is to find a deal that honours our commitments to the people of Northern Ireland, can command support in Parliament and can be negotiated with the EU - not to seek an election or second referendum."

"[A 2nd EU referendum] would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics, because it would say to millions who trusted in democracy, that our democracy does not deliver"

"We triggered Article 50 (the process by which the UK leaves the EU)... that had a two-year time limit, that ends on the 29 March. We want to leave with a deal, and that's what we are working for."

"We will take back control of our laws, by ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK. In future, our laws will be made, interpreted and enforced by our own courts and legislatures."

"We will take back control of our money, by putting an end to vast annual payments to the EU. Instead, we will be able to spend British taxpayers' money on our own priorities, like the extra £394m per week that we are investing in our long-term plan for the NHS."

"I'm proud that Gibraltar is British and I will always stand by Gibraltar."

"We will take back control of our borders, by putting an end to the free movement of people once and for all."

"But the EU should be clear: I will not overturn the result of the referendum. Nor will I break up my country."

"You know we, he and I are all members of the Conservative and Unionist Party. That's because we believe in the union of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland is part of that union. And we have a guarantee for the people of Northern Ireland and we are upholding that. Our Chequers plan does that it's the only plan on the table at the moment that does."

"I think people will feel a difference because they will know that for the first time in decades it is the UK government that is deciding who can come into the country,"

"That hasn't been possible for many years for people coming from the EU. That will change."

"He wanted to tear up our guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the UK."

"Everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would. Our society should continue to function in accordance with our values. But when it comes to taking on extremism and terrorism, things need to change."

"While we need to deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online, we must not forget about the safe spaces that continue to exist in the real world. Yes, that means taking military action to destroy Isis in Iraq and Syria. But it also means taking action here at home. While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is – to be frank – far too much tolerance of extremism in our country. So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out across the public sector and across society. That will require some difficult, and often embarrassing, conversations. But the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism, and we need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities, but as one truly United Kingdom."

"[The] jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK must end"

"While the recent attacks are not connected by common networks, they are connected in one important sense. They are bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division and promotes sectarianism. It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with the religion of Islam. It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth. Defeating this ideology is one of the great challenges of our time, but it cannot be defeated by military intervention alone. It will not be defeated by the maintenance of a permanent defensive counter-terrorism operation, however skillful its leaders and practitioners. It will only be defeated when we turn people’s minds away from this violence and make them understand that our values – pluralistic British values – are superior to anything offered by the preachers and supporters of hate."