Quotes from 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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

Whether an MP is a woman or a man, it's about the qualities of the individual in doing that job.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.