article: Their comments follow Mrs May's claim she was "here for the long term". Labour said she was "deluding herself" - but Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson led her defence, insisting she could win an absolute majority. However, ex-Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said it was "too early to be talking about going on and on". "The truth is we ran a very poor election and you can't just brush that under the table and pretend it didn't happen - not least because we went from having a workable majority to no majority at all, so that stands to reason," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. And while there was no mood for a leadership election, Mrs May's remarks "will certainly raise some eyebrows". "Let's get some performance, let's get some delivery for the British people and then let's see where we are, rather than vice versa," Mr Shapps added. Debate over Mrs May's long-term ambitions was sparked after she told the BBC's Ben Wright in Kyoto that it was her intention to lead her party into another general election, whenever that was. "Yes, I'm here for the long term. What me and my government are about is not just delivering on Brexit but delivering a brighter future for the UK," she said. Mrs May said she wanted to ensure "global Britain" could take its trading place in the world, as well as dealing with "those injustices domestically that we need to do to ensure that strong, more global, but also fairer Britain for the future" The prime minister has been under pressure after losing her Commons majority in a snap election called earlier this year. Some reports had suggested she could stand down in 2019 after EU withdrawal. But speaking on a visit to Nigeria, Mr Johnson, who received public backing from Mrs May after recent criticism of his performance, said: "I've made it clear I'm giving my undivided backing to Theresa May. "We need to get Brexit done. "She's ideally placed to deliver a great outcome for our country and then deliver what we all want to see, which is this exciting agenda of global Britain. "I think she gets it. She really wants to deliver it. I'm here to support her." The UK is due to leave the EU in March 2019 and supporters of Mrs May have said leadership speculation serves only to undermine attempts to secure the best possible terms of exit. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said the prime minister was "deluding herself" about her plan to stay in power until the next election. "Neither the public nor Tory MPs believe her fantasy of staying on till 2022," he said. "Theresa May leads a zombie government." The next general election is not scheduled to take place until May 2022, by which point Mrs May - if she stayed in Downing Street - would have been prime minister for nearly six years. In the immediate aftermath of her party's failure to win June's general election outright, several MPs called on her to consider her position. Former Chancellor
summary: Some Conservative backbenchers have said they do not believe Theresa May will be able to fight the next general election as prime minister.