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Boris Johnson hits out at Chequers 'outrage' in pitch to Tory members May appeals to ‘decent patriots’ in effort to halt Johnson leadership bid
(about 4 hours later)
Boris Johnson has savaged Theresa May’s Chequers plan as he made a direct pitch to the Tory faithful for his own domestic policy agenda based on traditional “one nation” Conservative values. Theresa May will declare that the Conservatives can represent the “decent, moderate and patriotic” as she seeks to reassert her authority on Wednesday, a day after Boris Johnson made an overt pitch for the leadership of the party.
The former foreign secretary unleashed a fresh wave of leadership speculation after he blew into the Conservative party conference for just a few hours to rally the party membership behind his Brexit plans. The prime minister will try to set out her political values after a testing day in which she conceded that Johnson’s crowd-pleasing pitch to a capacity audience of 1,500 had made her “cross” because of his rejection of her Brexit strategy.
He ruled out backing a second referendum and urged the Tories to take the battle directly to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, rather than trying to ape his strategy. Delegates queued for up to four hours and Brexit-backing MPs turned out in force to hear the former foreign secretary call May’s Chequers deal an “outrage” in a speech that raised the pressure on May to show Conservatives that she has a compelling long-term vision.
In an explosive speech to a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference – watched by leading Brexiters including David Davis, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel – Johnson said the only winners from a Chequers-style Brexit would be the far right and far left of British politics. The prime minister will use her keynote speech in Birmingham to attack Jeremy Corbyn by arguing that “millions of people who have never supported our party” are appalled by what he “has done to Labour”.
“If we get it wrong, if we bottle Brexit now, believe me, the people of this country will find it hard to forgive,” he told the 1,500-strong audience. “If we get it wrong, if we proceed with this undemocratic solution, if we remain half in, half out, we will protract this toxic tedious business that is frankly so offputting to sensible middle-of-the-road people who want us to get on with their priorities.” Appealing for centre ground votes, May will add: “They want to support a party that is decent, moderate and patriotic. One that puts the national interest first, delivers on the issues they care about and is comfortable with modern Britain in all its diversity.”
Johnson, who quit the cabinet in protest at Chequers, called on his fellow Brexiters to pile pressure on the prime minister to dump her plan and revert to her original Lancaster House proposals, even though it would mean ripping up everything agreed with Brussels so far. Drawing upon Corbyn’s “for the many, not the few” slogan, May will conclude by saying that the Conservatives should be: “A party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone who is willing to work hard and do their best.”
“This is not pragmatic, it is not a compromise. It is dangerous and unstable – politically and economically,” he said. “This is not democracy. This is not what we voted for. This is an outrage. This is not taking back control: this is forfeiting control. The prime minister will announce that fuel duty will be frozen for the ninth year in a row in the budget later this month at an estimated cost to the Treasury of £800m, after having considered letting the levy rise with inflation. “Money in the pockets of hardworking people from a Conservative government that is on their side,” May will say.
“I urge our friends in government to deliver what the people voted for, to back Theresa May in the best way possible, by softly, quietly, and sensibly backing her original plan.” May is under intense pressure to deliver a confident address after last year’s disaster, where she struggled to get through her speech because of a persistent cough and letters on the backdrop gradually began to fall off.
He rejected as “total fantasy” the idea that it would be possible to “bodge” Brexit now and then negotiate a better deal after leaving in March 2019. Earlier, in his only appearance at party conference, Johnson had made a leadership pitch by spelling out his own domestic policy agenda in a 40-minute speech in which he called for a return to optimism and said that the government should tackle the housing crisis.
He also suggested that Chequers would embolden those who wanted a second referendum, which he said would be “disastrous” for trust in British politics. “People would see that they would simply be being asked to vote again until they give the answer the remainers want,” he said. Johnson said: “If I have a function here today it is to try, with all humility, to put some lead in the collective pencil, to stop what seems to me to be a ridiculous seeping away of our self-belief, and to invite you to feel realistic and justified confidence in what we can do.”
Johnson was given a rapturous reception on a scale not seen so far inside the main hall. May later declared herself “cross” with her former cabinet colleague, accusing him of being ready to tear up her guarantee to Northern Ireland that there would be no customs border in the Irish Sea. The MP urged the Tories to take the fight to Labour but said they would not succeed by imitating them or “by capering insincerely on Labour turf – we won’t get anywhere by metaphorically acquiring beards and string vests and allotments, but by systematically pointing out the damage they would do.”
The prime minister said she did not watch Johnson’s address, preferring to talk to activists. But she told the BBC: “There are one or two things that Boris said that I’m cross about. He wants to tear up our guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland. We have a guarantee for the people of Northern Ireland and we are upholding that. Our Chequers plan does that. It is the only plan on the table at the moment that does.” He added: “Surely to goodness we can take this Tony Benn tribute act and wallop it for six.”
May said that “Boris always puts on a good show”, but noted he was “a key part” of the discussions at her country residence that ended with the plan being agreed in July. The former foreign secretary said that the housing crisis was a “massive opportunity” for the Tories even though it has worsened during the party’s eight years in power. “If we rise to the challenge, if we get it right, it is an open goal, because this is one of those critical issues where … the facts of life do always turn out to be Conservative.”
The bulk of Johnson’s speech was devoted to setting out his alternative domestic policy vision, amid fears in the highest ranks of the Tory party that it has become so mired in Brexit that the electorate is no longer aware of what it stands for. At least fifteen hard Brexit MPs watched Johnson’s speech, with former ministers David Davis, Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith all watching from the front row, enough to make the approval of a final Brexit deal by parliament uncertain. Father Stanley and sister Rachel were also in the audience.
“If I have a function here today,” he told his audience, “it is to try, with all humility, to put some lead in the collective pencil, to stop what seems to me to be a ridiculous seeping away of our self-belief, and to invite you to feel realistic and justified confidence in what we can do.” Johnson repeated his criticisms of May’s proposals for a post-Brexit Britain, warning that “Chequers is a cheat” and would “escalate the sense of mistrust” people have about politicians. “If we get it wrong – if we bottle Brexit now – believe me, the people of this country will find it hard to forgive,” he said.
Johnson attempted to return to the political centre with a series of domestic policy proposals after recent remarks about Muslim women resembling letterboxes and Chequers being a “suicide vest” prompted accusations of Islamophobia. “This is not pragmatic, it is not a compromise. It is dangerous and unstable – politically and economically,” Johnson told the ConservativeHome event. “This is not democracy. This is not what we voted for. This is an outrage. This is not taking back control: this is forfeiting control.”
His alternative prospectus for the Tory party included tackling the housing crisis, which he described as a “massive opportunity” for the party even though it has worsened during its eight years in power. May said she did not watch the speech as it was delivered and said that she was “cross” with Johnson because “he wants to tear up our guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland” because of his refusal to support her Chequers plan, which she says would uphold the soft border in Ireland.
“If we rise to the challenge, if we get it right, it is an open goal, because this is one of those critical issues where … the facts of life do always turn out to be Conservative.” Few believe that Johnson has sufficient support in parliament to unseat May when the Commons returns next week, but the prime minister’s performance on Wednesday will nevertheless be closely scrutinised. Former leader Smith succumbed in October 2003, although the Brexit negotiations are at such a delicate stage that a leadership challenge would represent a significant complication.
He also set out his vision for a low-tax, pro-business economy and called for an increase in stop and search, dismissing a reduction in use of the policing tool – driven by the prime minister amid concerns about the impact on communities – as “politically correct nonsense”. The party leadership also went to considerable effort to dilute the impact of Johnson’s speech by unveiling its post-Brexit migration policy, starting with May advocating the plans in morning television interviews and the home secretary, Sajid Javid, giving further details of the tiered immigration system on the conference floor an hour before Johnson spoke.
Johnson urged the Tory party to take its fight to Labour, which was widely regarded to have had a successful conference last week, saying: “Surely to goodness we can take this Tony Benn tribute act and wallop it for six.” It requires 48 Conservative MPs writing to Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, to trigger a confidence vote in the prime minister. But Brady told a fringe meeting that people should be cautious about believing what backbench Tories tell the media about what they have done.
He added: “Not by imitating them, not by capering insincerely on Labour turf – we won’t get anywhere by metaphorically acquiring beards and string vests and allotments – but by systematically pointing out the damage they would do. Instead of aping Corbyn, we have to take our basic Conservative ideas and fit them to the problems of today.” “There are instances where I will see a Conservative colleague on the television saying they have written a letter to me when they haven’t. I will see them on the television saying they had withdrawn the letter to me, when they haven’t sent it in the first place. You have to be careful what you believe,” Brady said.
Johnson listed his achievements as mayor of London, a reminder to colleagues of his ability to win over a predominantly liberal electorate, and a retort to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, who had suggested his greatest success to date had been the “Boris bike” cycle-hire scheme.
He congratulated Hammond over his view that the former foreign secretary would never become prime minister. “It was the first Treasury forecast in a very long time that had a distinct ring of truth about it,” he said.
Even before his arrival in Birmingham, Johnson had overshadowed the event, first of all by attacking May’s Brexit plan as “deranged” and then by appearing to parody the prime minister’s infamous runs through fields of wheat.
Rumours of a potential leadership bid were bolstered when Tory and Vote Leave donors including the hedge fund billionaire Michael Hintze and the political strategist Mark Fullbrook, who is Lynton Crosby’s business partner in the UK, were spotted in the audience.
A series of senior Tory figures including the chancellor, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, and the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, have been among those who have criticised Johnson over his constant attacks on May’s Brexit plans, as well as his attempts to overshadow the conference.
Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson
Theresa MayTheresa May
ConservativesConservatives
Conservative conference 2018Conservative conference 2018
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