MAMMA MAY-A!
To the strains of Abba, the PM danced her way back to authority with a bravura speech that savaged Corbyn, put Boris in his place – and promised an end to austerity
THERESA May last night pledged an end to austerity – whatever the result of Brexit talks.
In an upbeat speech to the Tory conference, she called a halt to eight years of spending cuts, promising ‘better days ahead’.
The Prime Minister cast off her reputation for caution – and delighted party activists – by dancing onto the podium to the strains of Abba’s Dancing Queen.
She urged her divided country and party to unite, insisting: ‘If we come together, there is no limit to what we can achieve.’
Mrs May also pitched for the centre ground deserted by Labour, vowing to build council houses, tackle rip-off firms and transform cancer treatment.
She savaged Jeremy Corbyn and called on Tories to back her Brexit strategy at a ‘pivotal moment in our history’. Leaving the hall to the tune of Electric Light Orchestra’s cheery hit Mr Blue Sky, the Prime
Minister appeared to have seen off the immediate prospect of a leadership challenge from Boris Johnson.
The biggest shift in Tory strategy came in the pledge to end austerity and Downing Street said it did not depend on the outcome of the Brexit talks.
This seemed to confirm Mrs May has overruled Philip Hammond, who this week warned of the damage that a no deal exit would cause.
In a further blow to the Chancellor, Mrs May announced she was ending the Treasury’s ban on local authorities borrowing to build council houses. ‘ The British people need to know that the end is in sight,’ she said. ‘And our message to them must be this – we get it.
‘We are not just a party to clean up a mess, we are the party to steer a course to a better future. Sound finances are essential, but they are not the limit of our ambition. Because you made sacrifices, there are better days ahead.’
The Tory leader said there would be no return to ‘uncontrolled’ borrowing, adding: ‘Debt as a share of the economy will continue to go down, support for public services will go up.’
In a speech hailed as the best of her tenure, the Prime Minister:
Set the NHS a target to diagnose three quarters of cancer cases early within ten years, saving 55,000 lives;
Savaged Boris Johnson for his ‘f*** business’ response to the Brexit concerns of firms;
Freed councils to build an extra 10,000 homes a year;
Launched a passionate defence of her Chequers plan for Brexit – without mentioning it by name;
Announced that fuel duty would be frozen for the ninth consecutive year, at a cost of £800million to the Treasury;
Warned Eurosceptic MPs they could be left with ‘no Brexit at all’ if they continued to undermine her.
Expectations were low following last year’s disastrous conference speech in which Mrs May lost her voice and accepted a P45 from a protester while the set collapsed around her.
Yesterday’s event threatened to get off to an equally bad start after Eurosceptic MP James Duddridge, a cheerleader for Mr Johnson, announced he was submitting a letter of no confidence in her leadership just minutes before she took to the stage. Onlookers then questioned the wisdom of deploying the Eurosceptic attorney general Geoffrey Cox as her warm-up act after he launched a defence of Chequers.
But the PM stunned the faithful by reprising the ‘Maybot’ dance moves she showcased on a tour of Africa.
Aides said she had discussed the music, but not dancing to the podium. ‘She just did it – I was as amazed as anyone,’ one said.
This week’s conference has been overshadowed by Tory infighting over Brexit. On Tuesday, Mr Johnson gave an alternative leader’s speech in which he accused Mrs May of ‘cheating’ Leave voters and urged her to ‘Chuck Chequers’.
Yesterday, she used her speech to urge her party to unite to take on both Brussels and Labour.
The PM said the Tories had a duty to protect Britain from Mr Corbyn, saying his hard-Left policies would wreck the economy and cost families £1trillion.
But she also hit out at the Labour leader over his attacks on the free Press and refusal to tackle a culture of bullying and anti-Semitism fuelled by some of his supporters.
Mrs May described the fate of the Labour Party as a ‘national tragedy’, questioned Mr Corbyn’s patriotism and said past leaders like Clement Attlee, Jim Callaghan and Neil Kinnock would be appalled by his conduct and policies. But she acknowledged that Mr Corbyn’s focus on austerity had proved seductive to some voters.
The Tory leader defended the free market while warning: ‘Some markets are still not working in the interests of ordinary people.
‘Employment is up, but too many people haven’t had a decent pay rise. The deficit is down, but achieving that has been painful. And our economy is growing, but some communities have been left behind.’
Downing Street was braced for signs of dissent over the Chequers plan and Mrs May did not use the ‘C-word’ in the hall, instead describing it as ‘our proposal’.
She said it would deliver on the referendum result and ‘protect hundreds of thousands of jobs’ in a way which no alternative could. She said the Canada- style trade deal favoured by Mr Johnson would ‘carve off Northern Ireland’, while a Norway- style deal favoured by some Remainers would ‘keep us in the EU in all but name’.
But Eurosceptic Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said last night: ‘It’s no good just dropping the word Chequers from the speech but continuing with the policy.’