Theresa May has started borrowing Jeremy Corbyn's campaign slogans

'Theresa May might be copying Jeremy's words but no one will believe it,' says Labour source

Theresa May is so displeased with the election result she appears to have resorted to co-opting and commandeering one of Jeremy Corbyn's cornerstone slogans.

In the first parliamentary sitting since last week’s election, the Prime Minister borrowed a phrase regularly used by the Labour leader in the party’s 2016 leadership contest and the recent election campaign.

Quoting Mr Corbyn verbatim in the Commons on Tuesday, Ms May said opportunity and prosperity needed to spread to every part of Britain so that “no one and no community is left behind”.

During his campaign to become leader last summer, Mr Corbyn often called for “no one and no community to be left behind”. The slogan was a key part of his campaign, forming both the tagline for one of his campaign videos and being included in his digital democracy manifesto.

The Labour leader continued to use the saying in his recent election campaign, even touting it during the launch of Labour’s local election campaign in April.

A Labour source told The Independent that while Ms May appeared to be emulating Mr Corbyn’s catchphrase, the public would not assume the similar rhetoric translated into similar policy formulation.

“Theresa May might be copying Jeremy's words but no one will believe it. She just fought an election promising to carry on the cuts to schools, hospitals, police and social care of the last seven years while gifting tax giveaways to the super-rich,” the source said.

“Labour has a serious plan to invest in communities, put more money in people's pockets and ensure opportunities for all, to transform Britain for the many, not the few.”

This is not the first time Ms May has been accused of borrowing Labour Party rhetoric. During the Prime Minister’s speech at the beginning of May, she appeared to espouse variants of the Labour campaign slogan (for the many, “not the privileged few”), and the shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s tagline (a prosperous country, but “a country where prosperity and security is shared by all”). Ms May made no nod to the origin of the phrases.

During the first sitting of the Commons, Mr Corbyn was given a standing ovation by Labour MPs. Borrowing Ms May’s now infamous “strong and stable” slogan, the leader quipped Labour is ready to offer “strong and stable leadership in the national interest” if Ms May fails to form a “coalition of chaos” with the Democratic Unionist Party.

Continuing to poke fun at the Conservatives, Mr Corbyn also announced democracy was a “wondrous thing” that could produce “very unexpected results”.

Ms May’s decision to call a snap election spectacularly backfired, with Mr Corbyn's party defying expectations and increasing its share of the vote by 9.6 per cent and gaining 262 seats.

Labour not only won a larger share of the vote in the election than Tony Blair achieved when he took power in 2005 but increased the Labour vote by the largest margin in any election since 1945.

Britain has been left with a hung parliament, with the Conservatives failing to secure a Commons majority and being forced to enter talks with the DUP about a deal to support their minority government.

There has been a massive backlash against the Northern Irish party's socially controversial record. Their policies include blocking gay marriage and preventing an extension of abortion rights to Northern Ireland.