I don’t want to comment on something that I haven’t done research on. I wouldn’t want to be influenced by any scholar

It's all nonsense. I do not claim to be prime minister. Why do they raise such issues ?! We are all ministers in our own place. But at this age, I'm not fighting for a position.

As President of the Akademi, I may tell you quite frankly I would not like the Prime Minister to interfere with my work.

I have always stayed out of politics, I don't believe it would be appropriate to talk about it.

Having said that, I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program — the alleged program — the existence of which I can neither confirm nor deny.

I ruled out any discussions on the subject [on the constitutional issue of raising any issue on the exchange of letters between Prime Minister and the President, in the Parliament], upholding the principle of confidentiality of communication between the President and the Prime Minister …a significant constitutional precedent.

​”The places I come from, we don’t deal with that kind of petty nonsense... I’m just not going to be part of this effort to divide this administration​.”

I'm a pretty honest person, I don’t get on with him personally.
I haven't spoken to him since he entered Downing Street pretty much. I don't share his politics and I think he was disingenuous during the leadership contest and, frankly, he said many things I don't approve of while he was prime minister, including attacking my record.

‘I can’t make a comment. They must have been relevant or they would never have been written.They did not contribute towards peace, which is why she posed the question.

If you don't have the patience to read something, don't have the hubris to comment on it.

To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the President.

You have to want it. And I don’t want to be prime minister. [. . .] I value my relationship and my mental health too much for it. I will not be a candidate.

I said, ‘I won’t do it unless the prime minister calls me himself, or you put it in writing.

You know that I was not willing to make a statement containing untruths and half truths, which were worse that untruths.