Theresa May today refused to rule out quitting if she fails to strike a Brexit deal with Brussels – as she issued a grovelling apology to Tory activists for the election debacle.
The Prime Minister, who is marking her 61st birthday, acknowledged that her decision to call a snap poll on June 8 had caused serious damage to the party.
But, despite Boris Johnson sparking a fresh wave of infighting, she insisted the government was ‘united’ and vowed to fight to win back young voters from Labour.
During an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show to launch Conservative conference in Manchester, Mrs May was challenged over whether she would resign if there was no deal on Brexit.
She replied: ‘I am working to get a deal, Andrew. That is what the whole focus of government is on making sure we get a deal.
‘Let’s put our efforts into that. Let’s do everything we cannot just to get a deal but a deal that works for the UK.
‘I believe the deal that works for the UK would also work for the EU. That’s why I am optimistic we can get a deal.’
She also sidestepped questions on whether Mr Johnson was ‘unsackable’ given her weakened position.
On the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the Prime Minister, who is marking her 61st birthday, acknowledged that her decision to call a snap poll on June 8 had caused serious damage
Mrs May said the announcements showed that the government had ‘listened’ to the outcome of the election – which saw the Tories stripped of their overall majority
Armed police are on high alert at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after a series of terrorist incidents this year
Mrs May said Government was working on contingency plans for no deal – but offered no specifics on whether planes would keep flying or business fears.
Asked if she wanted to apologise to her party for calling the election, the PM said: ‘I am sorry that some very good members of parliament lost their seats.’
But Mrs May denied calling the poll had been a mistake, telling Marr: ‘Is it ever a mistake to give people the opportunity to vote?
‘I don’t think so. At this stage, of course I wanted to see a different result and I had hoped for a different result in the general election.
‘What we must do now is learn from that general election, take those lessons forward.
‘It’s what I am doing, it is what the government is doing. I think the key message from that election is we didn’t get across what we were doing in terms of a country that works for everyone and really wanting to build on that.
‘We also saw that as Conservatives the arguments we thought we had fought and won during the 1980s about the importance of free market economies… there wasn’t a general consensus and we need to make those arguments again.’
In a nervy performance, Mrs May promised to peg student tuition fees at a maximum £9,250 a year rather than raising them as planned to £9,500 in 2018.
In a further concession, the amount which graduates can earn before they have to make repayments will increase from £21,000 to £25,000. The government is also launching a review to ‘look again’ at how students fund their degrees.
Mrs May said the measures would save students £30 on average.
But she said the government could not follow Jeremy Corbyn’s call for a massive spending splurge to wipe out fees altogether, and pay them from general taxation.
‘What the policy has done is it has meant there are more students going to university,’ she said.
Boris Johnson is facing the wrath of Tory backbenchers after his latest intervention on Brexit threatened to throw the government into fresh chaos
‘But when we set that policy we expected was going to happen is there was going to be a range, a diversity in the system.
‘That we would see universities at fees under the maximum – that hasn’t happened. We have to look at it again.’
Mrs May said ‘looking at it again’ would include a review of whole the system worked overall and listening to complaints.
But asked if she would back a graduate tax, she said: ‘If I knew what we would do in future, then I wouldn’t be saying we were going to spend time looking at this.’
Mrs May dismissed the Labour policy of funding universities out of general taxation – insisting it was one of many unfunded promises.
She said: ‘They gave the impression they were going to abolish student debt, now they have said they can’t do that.
‘Labour’s policy is based on the idea that somebody who goes to university, who benefits from university, who benefits more in their future life, should be paid by for by someone who never goes to university.
‘What I believe is graduates, people who go to university and benefit from the education in a very personal sense… if you get a better career, if you warn more during your life I think it’s right you make a contribution.’
Mrs May said the announcements showed she had ‘listened’ to the public’s reaction to the election and was acting.
The Prime Minister will also try to spike Mr Corbyn’s guns by adding £10 billion to the Government’s Help to Buy scheme, which makes it easier for first-time buyers to get on the property ladder.
The moves come after Mr Corbyn swept up the youth vote in June’s Election by promising to cut their debts and improve their living conditions.
Mrs May, who risks criticism from Tory Right-wingers that she is pursuing ‘Labour-lite’ policies, has opened up a third front against Mr Corbyn by signalling that the one per cent public pay cap will be lifted for teachers, after schools said that they were struggling to recruit enough staff.
Told during the interview today that she was not able or willing to answer questions, Mrs May insisted it was not the case.
Marr played back the excruciating clip of Mrs May insisting ‘nothing has changed’ after u-turning on her manifesto pledge on social care.
She said today: ‘On student fees, there is a change. I have said that.
‘(on social care) the principle had not changed. The system we were proposing was remaining the same in terms of the contribution people were making.
Marr played back the excruciating clip of Mrs May insisting ‘nothing has changed’ after u-turning on her manifesto pledge on social care
Former minister Anna Soubry said the public was fed up with ‘Tory wars’ and Mr Johnson should ‘grow up or go’
Police snipers are on duty on roofs around the conference venue in Manchester today
Mrs May was given a rough ride during her interview on the BBC today to mark the start of party conference
‘Yes we were going to introduce a cap but the fundamental principle remained.’
She added: ‘The thing is Andrew, sometimes you ask me hypothetical questions and I won’t answer them.’
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is facing the wrath of Tory backbenchers after his latest intervention on Brexit threatened to throw the government into fresh chaos.
MPs openly told the Foreign Secretary to ‘grow up or go’ after he drew a series of red lines for negotiations with the EU.
Mr Johnson has been criticised for manoeuvring to take over from Mrs May in the wake of her disastrous election – which saw the Tories stripped of their overall majority.
In an interview on the eve of the party’s conference in Manchester this week, Mr Johnson reopened Cabinet splits by warning he is not prepared to stay shackled to the EU for ‘a second longer’ once a mooted two-year transition ends in March 2021.
The Brexiteer also complained of a lack of optimism about cutting ties with the EU, saying the ‘Westminster bubble’ was out of touch.
Damaging claims in the Sunday Times also make clear the depth of Mr Johnson’s disdain for the PM.
Mrs May, pictured in Manchester for the Tory conference today, insisted the Tories would not follow Labour by offering massive spending commitments
He is said to have mocked Mrs May as a ‘slave’ to her powerful ex-aides Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.
Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has written to the board responsible for recommending teachers’ pay awards to say that staff shortages meant it was acceptable to offer pay rises above the one per cent limit for 2018-19.
Ministers are coming under pressure to make the same concession to nurses, who are threatening industrial action if they do not receive rises above the cap in November’s Budget.
The Labour leader made boosting public sector pay another key plank of his Election strategy.
Mrs May had claimed during the campaign that the £10 billion annual cost of Mr Corbyn’s pledge to axe tuition fees would leave a black hole in the finances, insisting: ‘Those fees will stay.’
Her new plans, which will cost £1.2 billion over four years, are effectively a holding measure while No 10 looks at overhauling the higher education funding system. The threshold change means that a graduate earning £25,000 a year will be immediately better off by £360 in 2018.
Although Downing Street has ruled out abolishing the fees altogether, a range of different funding models will be considered to ease the burden of the average student debt of £50,000.
Mrs May will target Corbyn supporters by adding £10bn to the Help to Buy scheme
Ministers are keen to encourage a shift away from three-year degrees to shorter, more employment-focused courses which companies could help to fund.
They will also examine ways to cut the interest rate paid on the loans, which is currently 6.1 per cent – compared with the base rate of 0.25 per cent.
But it is understood that a graduate tax – under which all workers with a degree earning above a certain salary would pay a levy to meet the cost of university courses – is unlikely to be one of the options.
Nor will Ministers consider saving money by capping the numbers going to university, fearing that it would jeopardise the progress which has been made in widening access for working-class students.
Tony Blair introduced fees for university students in 1998, with the annual upper limit rising to £3,000 in 2004 and £9,000 under the Coalition Government in 2010. Poorer students also have to take out loans to cover living costs.
The extension of the Help to Buy scheme is expected to benefit a further 135,000 buyers.
Under the scheme, the Government hands interest-free equity loans to cash-strapped buyers which do not have to be paid back until the house is sold, after which time it would be expected to have risen in value.
It comes after Mr Corbyn made political capital out of an ‘entire generation being priced out of the housing market’.
Mrs May hailed the tuition fee plans as part of her ‘mission to make our country a fairer place’.
The Prime Minister said: ‘This country has world-class universities – and I am proud that more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are attending them than ever.
‘But we know that the cost of higher education is a worry, which is why we are pledging to help students.’
Chancellor Philip Hammond says that the £10 billion Help to Buy extension had been introduced because ‘housing was another message from the Election’.
Mr Hammond said: ‘Young people are worried that life will be harder for them than it was for their parents – owning a home is a key part of that.
‘This Government understands that for many people, finding a deposit is still a very big hurdle. Making progress as a nation means supporting young people and families to achieve their dreams of home ownership.
‘Conservatives will always help those who work hard and save for the future.’