Rapturous cheers as Boris demands: We must chuck Chequers
HUNDREDS of Conservative activists cheered and whooped yesterday as Boris Johnson delivered his eagerly awaited denunciation of Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint – and her wider agenda.
Rapturous applause outstripped any yet given to speakers in the official main conference as he branded the plan named after the PM’s country residence a “humiliating cheat and an outrage” and urged her to “chuck Chequers” – the slogan sported on badges worn by many at the event.
Activists had deserted senior Cabinet ministers’ speeches in the main Birmingham conference hall to queue for as long as four hours to get into the 1,500-seat arena and hear their Brexiteer hero. The loudest cheers came as he railed against the Chequers plan, over which he quit as Foreign Secretary.
Policies
Further unnerving rivals fearing a Johnson leadership bid, he spent the first two thirds of his speech on a passionate plea for the party to get back to its Thatcherite roots on domestic policies ranging from home ownership to law and order, tax cuts and backing business.
But he and allies also held back from demanding that Mrs May be dumped now, instead urging her to revert to the hardline Brexit vision in her Lancaster House speech in January last year.
He told activists: “For one last time, I hope you will join me in urging our friends in government to deliver what the people voted for, to back Theresa May in the best way possible, by softly, quietly, Mr Corbyn was called an ‘EU patsy’ and sensibly supporting her original plan, and in so doing show confidence in conservatism and in our country.”
Only “EU patsy” Jeremy Corbyn and Ukip would benefit “if we cheat the electorate – and Chequers is a cheat”, he warned and the British people would find it hard to forgive the Government if it “got it wrong and bottled Brexit now”.
His 30-minute speech included many of his trademark humorous quips but much was delivered in an unusually sober style, fuelling speculation that it was a fledgling leadership bid.
Likely rival and Home Secretary Sajid Javid was left addressing a half-empty main conference hall as activists sought to bag a place at Mr Johnson’s lunchtime fringe meeting.
They heard Mr Johnson complain it was “so sad and so desperately wrong” that the UK was preparing to agree a deal that would make it harder, if not impossible, to strike free trade deals around the globe.
It would stop Britain setting its own import tariffs, laws and regulations, he said.
“That is politically humiliating for a £2trillion economy,” he protested.
Mrs May told broadcasters she was meeting activists rather than watching Mr Johnson’s speech and that while “Boris always puts on a good show, what matters to people is what we are delivering for them on the things that affect their day to day lives.”
She defended the Chequers plan and insisted she was in her job “for the long term”.
She also pointedly noted that Mr Johnson “was part of the Cabinet that signed up to the Chequers agreement” before he quit days later.