May says actions matter more than personality in politics

 Boris Johnson delivers his speech at the Conservative party conference on Tuesday afternoon. 

Theresa May has been giving more interviews to broadcasters. Here are some of the top lines.

• May implied she resented being called a “Maybot”. The insult was coined by my colleague, John Crace, the Guardian’s sketchwriter, and it has been widely adopted because it is deemed to say something revealing about May’s manner. Asked if she was upset at being called a “Maybot”, she replied:

I’m certainly somebody with feelings. I don’t recognise that characterisation of myself.

• She implied that personality was overrated in politics. She said:

There’s a lot of talk these days of personalities and so forth, but actually when it comes down to it, political personality doesn’t make the difference between somebody getting a job and or getting a job, between that job being created in a balanced economy or not. It’s the actions of government that matter.

• She rejected claims that Boris Johnson’s intervention led to changes being made in her Florence speech on Brexit. When she was asked if this was the case, she replied:

No, the Florence speech was the result of discussions around cabinet and, yes, my judgement about what it was necessary to say at this stage in the negotiations. The whole cabinet came together. They agreed that speech. They agreed the position the government is taking.

• She rejected claims that the mood of the conference was miserable. When this was put to her, she replied:

The people I meet haven’t been down, they’ve been upbeat. They are upbeat about the arguments we need to make.

• She refused to deny that she said she wanted to become prime minister when she was a student. Asked about this, she replied:

That’s not a story I recognise, but we’ll gloss over that.

• She rejected suggestions that she was not enjoying being prime minister. When Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow asked if she was enjoying being PM, she replied:

Yes. It’s not miserable, Jon, and the reason it’s not miserable is because as prime minister I can ensure that government takes decisions that really improve people’s lives.

                                                                                        Source: The Guardian News.