In her own words, Theresa’s Tory values

VALUES ‘I want us to be the party that represents the whole of Britain and not merely some mythical place called “Middle England”.’ ‘The values and aspirations that motivate the British people are the same values and aspirations that motivate the Tories. They want better public services first, so do we. They want a society which cares for vulnerable people – so do we.’

IMMIGRATION ‘Uncontrolled, mass immigration displaces British workers, forces people on to benefits, and suppresses wages for the low-paid.’ ‘When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast,’ she said last year, ‘it’s impossible to build a cohesive society.’ There is, she added, ‘no case, in the national interest, for immigration of the scale we have experienced over the last decade.’ ‘Sham marriages have been widespread; people have been allowed to settle in Britain without being able to speak English; and there have not been rules in place to stop migrants becoming a burden to the taxpayer.’ ‘We need a system for family migration underpinned by three simple principles. One: that those who come here should do so on the basis of a genuine relationship. Two: that migrants should be able to pay their way. And three: that they are able to integrate into British society.’

ASYLUM-SEEKERS She said last year that the UK must distinguish vulnerable people who have been resettled and those ‘who claim asylum after abusing the visa system or having travelled through safe countries’.

‘If you’ve spurned the chance to seek protection elsewhere — but we cannot return you to that safe country and you still need refuge — you’ll get the minimum stay of protection and you won’t have an automatic right to settle here. But for those who really need it, we will offer a longer stay of protection. Humane for those who need our help, tough on those who abuse it.’

HUMAN RIGHTS ACT ‘ We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act... about the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because, and I’m not making this up, he had a cat.’ ‘The European Court of Human Rights can bind the hands of Parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals – and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights.’

One of her greatest achievements as Home Secretary was to get the hate-preacher Abu Qatada deported to Jordan. She was also responsible for the extradition of extremist Muslim cleric Abu Hamza to the US, where a court found him guilty of terrorism.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS Attended one herself, and put her name to a campaign to allow a grammar school in her constituency to expand by opening a satellite on another site.

She said: ‘Grammar schools attract considerable support from Maidenhead families. If a good school wishes to expand in line with existing legislation then this must be seriously considered.’

CRIME ‘Dealing with a simple burglary can require 1,000 process steps and 70 forms to be completed as a case goes through the system. That can’t be right.’ VOTER APATHY ‘Fewer and fewer people are bothering to vote. Why? Because they think that politicians will do exactly what they like. More people vote for a TV show than a political party. And those who do vote think a man dressed as a monkey is more likely to deliver on his pledges than any party.’ FEMINISM ‘As a Tory woman, I’m instinctively suspicious of posi- tive discrimination. I’m a passionate believer in meritocracy.’

RELIGION ‘I am a vicar’s daughter and still a practising member of the Church of England.’ ‘It’s right that we don’t flaunt these things in British politics, but it is a part of me, it’s there and it obviously helps to frame my thinking and my approach.’ THE ‘NASTY PARTY’

Many Tories have struggled to forgive her for branding the Conservatives ‘the nasty party’ in 2002, referring to its perceived intolerance of minorities. But the quote was taken out of context. In fact, she was trying to explain why the public saw politicians as ‘untrustworthy’.

Her full quote was: ‘There’s a lot we need to do in this party of ours. Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally, are our sympathies. You know what some people call us - the nasty party. I know that’s unfair ... but it’s the people out there we need to convince – and we can only do that by avoiding behaviour and attitudes that play into the hands of our opponents. No more glib moralising, no more hypocritical finger-wagging.’ FASHION

‘It is quite widely known that I like shoes. This is not something that defines me as either a woman or a politician, but it has come to define me in the eyes of the newspapers. I wore a pair of leopard-print kitten heels to a Conservative Party Conference a few years ago and the papers have continued to focus on my feet ever since.’ COOKING

‘I will not allow a Delia Smith cookbook in my house! It’s all so precise with Delia, and it makes cooking seem so inaccessible.’

Her choices on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs:

1: Walk Like A Man from the original Broadway production of the Jersey Boys

2: The Gregorian chant Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium written by St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century for the Feast of Corpus 3: Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto 4: Abba’s Dancing Queen : The Rondo from the Abdelazer Suite by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell

6: The Queen of the Night aria from Mozart’s opera Magic Flute

7: An episode of the BBC-TV political satire Yes Minister called The Compassionate Society (1981). The plot featured a controversy over NHS bureaucracy, with Government minister Jim Hacker shocked that a new hospital that had been open for 15 months had yet to admit any patients despite having more than 500 administrative staff.

8: When I Survey The Wondrous Cross, a hymn which was written by Isaac Watts, first published in 1707 and used by the BBC to introduce its early morning broadcasts on Good Friday. Book: Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen Luxury item: A lifetime subscription to Vogue magazine

Star sign: Born on October 1, 1956, which means that she’s Libra. Those with this birth-date are said to ‘take initiative very often’, be ‘very energetic’ and ‘prefer action rather than planning’.