May declares end to austerity
Theresa May promised an end to austerity as the prize for a good Brexit deal, as she appealed to her party to ‘‘stick together’’ for the sake of Britain.
The prime minister said voters needed to see ‘‘the end is in sight’’ for the squeeze on public finances if the Tories stayed in power, and pledged to turn on the spending taps next year.
She said that a decade after the financial crash, ‘‘people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off’’.
May used her party conference speech to rebrand her divisive Brexit plan with not a single mention of the word Chequers in her hour-long address, instead calling it ‘‘our proposal’’.
In a stern warning to MPs who preferred Boris Johnson’s vision of a Canada-style deal with the EU, May said a divided party would ‘‘risk ending up with no Brexit at all’’ by paving the way for a Jeremy Corbyn government.
She reached out to Labour voters ‘‘appalled by what Jeremy Corbyn has done’’ to his party, saying the Tories were the party that ‘‘delivers on the issues they care about’’ while being ‘‘decent, moderate and patriotic’’.
May strode onstage in Birmingham to the Abba song Dancing Queen, and brought the house down by repeating her much-mocked dance moves seen on a trip to Africa this summer.
In contrast to last year’s conference speech, when she was ambushed by a prankster and lost her voice on a set that fell apart, May gave a confident, polished performance that earned her a standing ovation. She made just three policy announcements – new cancer targets, a fuel duty freeze and removing the cap on council borrowing for new housing.
Many Cabinet ministers and MPs believe this will be her last conference as leader, and she was dealt a fresh blow when party grandee Sir Oliver Letwin said she should stand down once Britain had left the EU. Nevertheless, May was determined to set out plans for a 2022 election victory with or without her. She said austerity had brought down the national debt and people needed to know that ‘‘because you made sacrifices there are better days ahead’’ and that ‘‘support for public services will go up.’’
Downing Street later stated public spending would increase regardless of a Brexit deal but admitted extra money would be reliant on economic growth. May said the fuel duty freeze showed workers with stretched budgets that ‘‘we get it’’. And by ending a cap on council borrowing for new homes, she said she hoped to boost construction, telling young people ‘‘we will help you get on the housing ladder’’.
May, who has a fortnight to make progress in Brexit negotiations before a crucial meeting of EU leaders on Oct 17, said she was ‘‘not afraid’’ to leave the EU without a deal, but that would be a ‘‘bad outcome’’.
She urged MPs to ‘‘come together’’ and support her deal, accusing opponents of acting not in the national interest, but ‘‘their own political interest’’.
In a challenge to Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, she said: ‘‘A Brexit that might make Britain stronger 50 years from now is no good to you if it makes your life harder today.’’
– Telegraph Group