May will fight next election, and win, says Damian Green

THERESA MAY will fight the next general election in 2022 and win it for the Conservatives, her right-hand man in the Government has said.

Damian Green, the First Secretary of State and deputy prime minister in all but name, said the country was about to meet the real Mrs May and praised her plans to change Britain for the better.

In an interview with The Spectator, Mr Green blamed the Tory election failure on “a manifesto that clearly didn’t work” and spoke of Mrs May’s warmth and sense of humour.

Putting to bed claims that the Prime Minister has made an arrangement with her senior Cabinet ministers to step aside after Brexit, he said: “She is a fighter, and she’s got an agenda for the country that she’s passionate about. She wants to put that into practice.

“By 2022, she will have a big record of achievement. I’m optimistic we’ll have a good Brexit deal, and we’re determined to pursue a domestic agenda that will show people who may not previously have benefited from Conservative successes that they can do so.

“Different types of people, in different parts of the country. I think people will see that as a success.”

He also issued a thinly veiled warning to Cabinet ministers including Boris Johnson who have made their views on Brexit clear in what has been interpreted as an attempt to force the Prime Minister into changing her position on leaving the EU.

“There are views to be expressed on all issues and I would prefer them to be expressed in private rather than in public,” he said, adding that as a former journalist himself, he has had to develop new skills as a minister.

Mr Green, a trusted and close friend of Mrs May’s, also said Jeremy Corbyn “didn’t lift a finger” and “behaved very, very badly as a Remain campaigner” during the EU referendum.