Prime Minister Theresa May has dismissed reports of her plans to quit her post, stating she will lead the Conservative Party into the next general election. “I am not a quitter. I am in this for the long term,” she said in a media address during her ongoing visit to Japan.
“There's a real job to be done in the UK. It is about getting the Brexit deal right, it is about building that deep and special partnership with the European Union but it is also about building global Britain, trading around the world,” she said. Speculations about May's departure from 10 Downing Street was triggered by media reports last week that claimed that the PM planned to step down by August 30, 2019. “What I am clear that I want to do is, yes, get on with the job of Brexit, but it's not just about Brexit. What I want to do is a lot more about the long term, which is about changes domestically, on issues like social justice,” she said.
May's authority was severely bruised by a misjudged election campaign held earlier this year. One that cost her party its majority in the Parliament and failed to provide a clear mandate for her Brexit strategy. “There are real issues that we need to be dealing with and I’m there to do it. I think for most members of the public, they would say they want the government to get on with the job. And that’s exactly what I and the government are doing,” May said.
However, senior Tories voiced their doubts over the PM. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said the prime minister was “deluding herself” about her plan to stay in power until the next election. “Neither the public nor Tory MPs believe her fantasy of staying on till 2022,” he said. Following her party's failure to win June's general election, several MPs called on her to consider her position. Former Chancellor George Osborne said she was a “dead woman walking”.
