Prime Minister Theresa May has appealed for compromise as an honourable political solution during what she describes as the most divisive period for Westminster she has seen in her lifetime.
“Compromise is not a harmful word. You don’t have to agree with someone 100 percent or disagree with someone 100 percent. Polarization is not good for politics,” she said.
She was speaking at Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival, in which she slammed social media, which she said she “hates”.
“This amplifies extreme views and, unless we’re very careful, they become the accepted views,” she said.
The former Prime Minister was reflecting on his parliamentary career, which began when he was elected Conservative MP for Maidenhead during the party’s second-worst defeat in its history.
As leader, she famously warned the Conservatives against becoming a “mean party” and later served as Home Secretary throughout David Cameron’s government.
May emerged as party leader after a fierce battle to succeed Prime Minister Cameron after being the last candidate in the referendum on whether to leave the EU.
But by early 2019, she had been ousted by an increasingly divisive party mired in internal civil war.
Perhaps reflecting on Boris Johnson’s successor, she said: “We now live in a celebrity world. It’s becoming about celebrity, not politics.”
“Nobody can accuse me of being a celebrity. I was a Maybot,” she joked about being labelled insensitive by media pundits.
She also said she had felt unfairly treated when she was filmed crying at the end of her farewell speech on her final appearance outside 10 Downing Street.
“When a man holds that position it is celebrated, but when a woman holds it it is seen as a sign of weakness,” she said.
May said she regretted her outburst but explained it was an impulsive reaction born of wanting to do what’s best for her country. She won huge applause at the festival for her outspokenness and campaigning to help victims of modern slavery.
She also spoke movingly about women’s equality.
“I was fortunate that my parents were always supportive and wanted me to do my best and do what it took to achieve that,” she said.
She recalled that when she was helping select a new headteacher for a local school in the 1980s, one candidate said that some girls would be better off just becoming a hairdresser rather than pursuing other, more ambitious careers.
She is a teacher who opposes closing down opportunities for women and wants to expand choice and opportunity: “If you ignore 50% of the world’s talent, you miss the opportunity to give 100% of people a chance to make things better,” she said.
She was asked about Michael Heseltine not putting Brexit on the agenda at the general election. Independent The refusal to address this as a central issue has made this election the most dishonest in history.
She did not label Brexit as a failure or a success, but acknowledged that some local businesses had been harmed as a result of border controls. She said the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine had distorted her analysis and it was too early to draw a final judgement.
Finally, regarding the famous footage of her holding hands with then US President Donald Trump at the White House, she insisted that she did not grab his hand.
“I should point out that he was holding onto mine! As we were walking he said, ‘There’s a bit of a hill up here’. I wasn’t worried, I was wearing kitten heels. Was he being a real gentleman or was he worried about going down the hill?” May did not reveal his intentions.

