The outgoing British leader issued a warning against pursuing a politics of “absolutism”. Delivering a wide-ranging speech at the Chatham House think tank, Mrs May drew the line between what she thinks is “politics at its best” and a behaviour “coarsening” today’s public debate. And her target, while not openly mentioned, is believed to have been US President Mr Trump, who in the past few days have launched a scathing attack against Mrs May.
She said: “Getting things done rather than simply getting them said requires some qualities that have become unfashionable at late.
“One of them is being willing to compromise.
“The alternative is a politics of winners and losers, of absolutes and of perpetual strives, and that threatens us all.
“This absolutism is not confined to British politics, it festers politics all across the world.
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“We see it in the rise of political parties on the far-left and far-right in Europe and beyond.
“And we see it in the increasingly adversarial nature of international relations, which some view as a zero-sum game where one country can only gain if others lose.
“And where power, unconstrained by rules, is the only currency of value.
“This absolutism at home and abroad is the opposite of politics at its best.
“It refuses to accept that other points of view are reasonable.
“It ascribes bad motives to those taking those different views.
“The sustainability in modern policy derives not from an uncompromising absolutism, but rather through the painstaking marking out of a common ground.”
Mrs May’s speech comes after Mr Trump branded her handling of Brexit “foolish” and her plan for leading the UK out of the EU a “disaster”.
In a string of messages wrote on Twitter, the US President said: “The wacky ambassador that the UK foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy.
“He should speak to his country, and Prime Minister May, about their failed Brexit negotiation, and not be upset with my criticism of how badly it was handled.
“I told her how to do that deal, but she went her own foolish way – was unable to get it done. A disaster!
“I don’t know the ambassador but have been told he is a pompous fool.
“Tell him the USA now has the best economy and military anywhere in the world, by far and they are both only getting bigger, better and stronger.”
Mr Trump’s fury was triggered by Mrs May’s defence of Sir Kim Darroch, the former British ambassador to the US who branded Mr Trump “incompetent” in leaked diplomatic memos.
Mrs May’s speech at Chatham House also criticised Tory leadership hopeful Boris Johnson – who this week said he’d refuse to compromise over key parts of Brexit.
Without mentioning the former Foreign Secretary, Mrs May said: ”Today an inability to combine principles with pragmatism – and make a compromise when required – seems to have driven our whole political discourse down the wrong path.”
The outgoing Prime Minister didn’t deny she was referring to Mr Trump or Mr Johnson in her speech.
Asked whether she was speaking about them, Mrs May said: “This is a general observation, I have seen it in politics across the world.
“I think it is important we try and bring the debate back into a more reasoned area.”
