May wins over Boris
PM’s Brexit address is ‘gonna be great’ says Johnson as he backs her upbeat message
‘Is he your new best friend?’
BORIS Johnson gave his seal of approval to Theresa May’s landmark Brexit address last night as she promised a ‘ bright future’ for Britain outside of the EU.
The Foreign Secretary said ‘it is gonna be a great speech’ after a two- and- a- half hour Cabinet meeting that was designed to tie ministers to the Prime Minister’s vision of Brexit.
In her speech today, Mrs May will hail Britain’s ‘exceptional national talent for creativity and an indomitable spirit’ as she insists the country will thrive away from the Brussels bloc. She will cite the UK’s ‘considerable’ strengths, including an ‘enthusiasm for innovation, an ease of doing business’ and some of the best universities in the world.
Her optimism appeared to have won the backing of all wings of her Cabinet, as Mr Johnson and Chancellor Philip Hammond – who have been at loggerheads all summer over Brexit – emerged from the meeting side by side. After a reporter shouted, ‘Is he your new best friend?’, both men -– who will today flank the Prime Minister in Florence along with Brexit Secretary David Davis – smiled.
Mr Johnson appeared to have blown the Prime Minister’s preparations for the speech off course last week by setting out his own upbeat Brexit plan in a 4,200-word newspaper article. It was suggested he felt compelled to offer an optimistic vision of Britain’s life outside the EU.
Over the course of an extraordinary few days, Mr Johnson was then forced to deny he was planning to resign if he did not get his way over his demands that Britain should stop handing big sums to Brussels.
Although he later backed away from the brink, the Foreign Secretary last night appeared to have helped force Mrs May to strike a positive tone in today’s address.
Mrs May gathered her ministers in Downing Street to brief them on the speech in a special session of the Cabinet after flying back from the UN General Assembly in New York. After they arrived at 10am, ministers were given half an hour to read Mrs May’s 5,000word speech, before she joined them to chair the extraordinarily long meet- ing. Each minister was given the chance to speak, with the whole Cabinet in attendance, except for Scottish Secretary David Mundell who was on a trade visit to Argentina.
A source said: ‘It was all very positive. Everybody had their say on the speech and the whole room welcomed the optimistic tone of the speech. Everybody seemed to leave content.’
Another source said ministers had shown their approval of the speech by banging on the desk as the meeting was drawn to a close.
Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke said ministers were ‘ very united, very good, all behind the speech’. Asked whether Mrs May had the support of the Foreign Secretary, he said: ‘She has the backing of the Cabinet, from all of us.’
Over the course of the summer, ministers had been divided between those such as Mr Hammond who favour a Swiss-style deal in which Britain would continue to pay for access to the single market, and those such as Mr Johnson, who want a looser arrangement along the lines of the EU’s free trade agreement with Canada.
But Mrs May has sought to bridge the gap, insisting it is not a ‘binary’ choice and she would be seeking a ‘bespoke’ arrangement rather than a pre-existing, ‘off-the-shelf’ model.