NOW RUTH OPENS FIRE ON BORIS

Scathing attack as she urges party to back May on Brexit

RUTH Davidson has launched a scathing attack on Boris Johnson after he branded Theresa May’s Brexit strategy ‘deranged’.

The Scottish Conservative leader yesterday threw her weight behind the Prime Minister after the former Foreign Secretary launched a devastating attack on the Chequers deal as the party’s conference began in Birmingham.

In a direct plea to senior Brexiteers, Miss Davidson urged critics of Mrs May to ‘calm down’ and let her do her job.

She said it was not ‘wise’ to use the word ‘deranged’ when referring to the strategy – only for one of her own Scottish Tory MPs to condemn the ‘faux outrage’ over Mr Johnson’s latest remarks.

Miss Davidson will today use a speech on the main conference stage to square up to plotters within her party.

She will tell them to back Mrs May’s Brexit

plan – or risk handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to Downing Street.

Speaking yesterday, Miss Davidson said: ‘I think part of what the party should be doing is giving her the space to get in and get the deal done and I think perhaps some of the noises off need to calm down.’

Asked what she made of Mr Johnson calling the deal ‘deranged’, she said: ‘I don’t particularly use language like that when I’m discussing areas of geopolitics and I don’t think it is wise to do so.

‘What I think is strange about some of the attacks in the newspapers today is that this is someone who was praising what the Prime Minister brought home in terms of moving on to the next stage last December, someone who was in one of the great offices of state, who was sitting around the Cabinet table, who now says he was in some ways deceived.

‘Now I don’t sit around the Cabinet table, I’m not in government. I do attend political cabinet. But I knew what was being said in December, I’m not quite sure how the Foreign Secretary didn’t.’

Asked if Mr Johnson was a hypocrite, she said: ‘He seems to be spending an

‘He now says he was in some way deceived’

awful lot of time talking about his London mayorship and very little time, in fact he hasn’t even mentioned the fact, that he was Foreign Secretary for two years and was in the room helping to influence this and, indeed, was praising it as soon ago as December.’

Miss Davidson also attacked Mr Johnson in an interview on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland. She said: ‘Now is the time for Conservatives to get behind the Prime Minister, give her the space to get the deal done and to back her to deliver for the country. In terms of a period of silence, I would be very welcoming of one.’

But Aberdeen South Tory MP Ross Thomson criticised the response to Mr Johnson’s comments, saying politicians should be ‘allowed to express themselves freely’.

The pro-Brexit MP added: ‘Boris Johnson is a flamboyant character who has a great use of language, which he has deployed again because he knows how to get headlines.

‘There has been a lot of faux outrage but, as long as it is about policy and not the person, there is nothing wrong with what he said.

‘If we keep reacting to politicians like this, with people immediately calling for an apology, politicians will never say what they think.’

The Scottish Conservative leader will use a speech at her party’s conference in Birmingham today to tell Brexiteers it is in ‘the national interest’ to back the Chequers plan.

She will insist that failing to do so will increase the chances of a general election which Labour could win.

Miss Davidson, who had a private meeting with Mrs May late on Saturday, will say the coming weeks and months are ‘crucial’ and that the party needs to go back to Conservative principles ‘of country, of duty, of practicality and of delivery’.

She will tell delegates: ‘As we approach these crucial few weeks and months, we need to go back to our Conservative principles. The principles of country, of duty, of

‘Boris has a great use of language’

practicality and of delivery. The belief that every prudent act is based on accommodation and accord, that the best is the enemy of the good if it stops us improving the outcomes for the country. The attitude that listens, eyebrows raised, to ivory-towered schemes of the ideological puritan and replies, “Aye, right”.

‘It’s this practical, pragmatic and utterly Conservative approach that will get us through. Because, when the future of our country is at stake, it is essential.

‘Here’s the truth: we can agree a Brexit deal under the Conservatives or we can risk handing the keys of Downing Street to Jeremy Corbyn.

‘I know which one I believe is in the national interest. I stand by the Prime Minister.’

Meanwhile, Chancellor Philip Hammond also slammed Mr Johnson, saying he had no grasp of ‘detail’.

Speaking ahead of his speech to the Conservative conference today, Mr Hammond shrugged off his cautious ‘Fiscal Phil’ image and openly mocked Mr Johnson by doing an impression of his trademark plummy vowels and bluff manner.

Asked about Mr Johnson’s attack on Mrs May’s Brexit plan, he said: ‘Boris is a wonderful character, but he’s never been a detail man. I’ve had many discussions with him on Brexit.’

‘Boris sits there and at the end of it he says, “Yeah but, er, there must be a way, I mean, if you just, if you, erm, come on, we can do it Phil, we can do it. I know we can get there”.

‘And that’s it!’ exclaimed the Chancellor.