Theresa May insists she’ll still be ‘a bloody difficult woman’ when it comes to showdown Brexit talks

THERESA May has said she intends to be "a bloody difficult woman" in the upcoming key Brexit talks as she took a swipe at the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

The Prime Minister said she would deliver on her reputation as being "difficult" when she leads Britain in the crunch Brexit talks with the European Union in the coming weeks.

Mrs May, was previously branded a "bloody difficult woman" by Tory MP Ken Clarke, and she claimed that side to her was still there.

She said:  “There’s a difference between those who think you can only be bloody difficult in public and those who think, actually, you bide your time, and you’re bloody difficult when the time is right – and when it really matters.”

The Prime Minister added she had become "a little bit irritated" over constant questions about her leadership as many Westminster observers think Mr Johnson could launched a bit to overthrow her before the Brexit deadline next year.

She used a BBC Panorama programme, which will be aired this week, to attack her political rival.

Referring to Mr Johnson's previous comment that her Chequers proposal to the European Union had "wrapped a suicide vest" around the country, Mrs May said: “Using language like that was not right. It’s not language I would have used.”

Mrs May added there was “a difference between those who think you can only be bloody difficult in public and those who think, actually, you bide your time and you’re bloody difficult when the time is right — and when it really matters.”

It came as ex-BoJo aide Guto Harri said his old boss was self-destructing, and bringing down the country as well with his comments.Speaking to the BBC’s The Week in Westminster, he said: “Somebody needs to take the spade out of his hand or it looks to me like he’s digging his political grave.”

Mr Harri said he found it a “tragedy” that Boris could have been a good PM but that is now a “very different prospect”.

Lord Heseltine said of Boris’s leadership hopes: “Has he done any irreparable harm? Well I don’t think he has.

“What you have to say to yourself is who the Tory Party membership of the House of Commons is going to choose to send to the activists of the Conservative Party in any leadership campaign.

“Whilst there is strong opposition to Boris, I find it difficult to think of two names that they will send that don’t include him.

“And, if he gets before the activists, my guess is that he will get the nomination.”