Embattled Theresa May insists she'll still be British PM in 2018

British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in central London.
PHOTO: REUTERS

HAMBURG (Bloomberg) - Theresa May insisted she'll still be Britain's prime minister next year, despite losing her majority at last month's general election.

Arriving at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, May faced questions about how long she can keep her job, with her Brexit strategy under attack from business and her Conservative Party trailing the Labour opposition in opinion polls.

The man who ate away her parliamentary majority - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - said Thursday to Bloomberg News that he thinks another sudden election is a possibility.

But May, in a series of television interviews, said she is "getting on with the job."

She denied that she's lost influence abroad as a result of the election and said she expects to be at next year's G-20 summit in Argentina.

"We will be playing our absolutely full part and I'll be playing my full part," the prime minister told Sky News. When she arrived at the summit table, she sat between Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ahead of the election, polls put her on course for a majority of more than 100 seats in Parliament, but she ended up losing ground to Labour, forcing her to do a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to stay in power.

But May told the BBC that she is determined to fight on.

"There's two ways the government can react to that," she said. "We can be very timid and sit back or we can be bold and that's what we are going to be."

May said she stands by the decision to hold the snap election. "I think it was the right decision to actually call that election," she told Channel 4 News. "I'd hoped for a different result." (Updates with pledge to be 'bold' in fifth paragraph.)

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.