PM tells This Morning she is not concerned about being deposed and says she enjoys her job

Theresa May has insisted she feels secure in her job and does not worry about being deposed as she prepared for another relaunch of her embattled prime ministership with a speech introducing a review of university funding.

Appearing on ITV’s This Morning chatshow before her address in Derby on Monday, May reiterated her desire to continue in No 10 and said she was enjoying the role.

Asked if she felt secure in the job, May replied: “Yes. I’m doing a job and I’m going to jolly well get on and do it. And what drives me in doing it is not what’s written but what people out there want the government to do. That’s the important thing.”

Chatting to co-hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, May tried to present a more human approach, saying she sometimes relaxed in front of the TV, adding: “I never get to the end of the box set.”

Asked if she felt beleaguered, or worried a colleague might “stab you in the back”, May replied: “No, for me it’s all about what I’m doing to deliver for the public. That’s why I was on doorsteps on my own constituency on Saturday afternoon talking to people, hearing about the issues that really matter to them. That’s what drives me – that’s what politics is about.”

The prime minister also insisted she was enjoying the job: “Yes. Throughout my life, whenever I’ve taken on jobs I’ve never thought: oh, it’s going to be like this or like that. I just get on and do it. There’s huge issues to be dealing with but it’s worthwhile.”

May’s speech will formally unveil a review of 18-plus education, with mooted ideas including whether universities could charge different fees for different courses, and whether some form of maintenance grant could be restored.

Conceding that “some issues have arisen” over the level of debt many students were amassing with most courses charging the maximum tuition fees of £9,250 a year, May said on This Morning that she did not want to pre-empt the review in suggesting possible changes.

However, she said she did want the review to look into the “stigma” connected to non-university higher education, and whether more young people could be discouraged from taking degrees when it was not necessary for them.

“For a long time I’ve worried about the fact that in this country we’re very good at saying academic education is good and for everybody, but we’ve never put sufficient emphasis on technical or vocational education,” she said.

“For some people they sort of think technical education is something that happens to other people’s children, and not their own. I think we’ve got to break this old-fashioned attitude that there’s only one way through in education.”

Following her speech, May is to host a cabinet away-day at her country residence in Chequers on Thursday to discuss Brexit. However, Downing Street said it did not expect any concrete agreements to be made.

On Tuesday, the Brexit secretary, David Davis, is to make his own “road to Brexit” speech, following speeches by May and Boris Johnson on security and foreign affairs last week. Davis will speak in Vienna as part of a tour of European capitals, which will include meetings with counterparts in France and Spain.

His European visits add weight to those who believe ministers are seeking to devote more time to speaking directly to European leaders to ease negotiations past the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.

“We’ve always been clear there will be engagement with European partners over Brexit and of course other issues, it’s part of that process. But it’s also the venue the secretary of state has chosen,” the prime minister’s spokesman said on Monday.

