Boris: We’ve only got 18 months to repay voters’ trust
THE Prime Minister has told his army of new MPs they have just 18 months to show first-time Tory voters that they will ‘repay their trust’.
In a rousing address at Westminster, Boris Johnson told his 109 new MPs that he was ‘in awe’ of their achievements last week, when many of them overturned big Labour majorities to help him secure a landslide victory.
Sources in the behind-closeddoors meeting revealed that Mr Johnson repeatedly stressed the need for the Conservatives to ‘repay the trust of the millions who voted for us’.
The premier said it had ‘not been easy’ for many lifelong Labour supporters in the Midlands and the North to abandon their tribal loyalties and support the Conservatives.
But he added: ‘They have changed our party for the better – and they have allowed us to begin the work of changing the country for the better.’
The PM also singled out former Remainers who backed the Conservatives because they recognised the need to deliver on Brexit. He said that it was vital that the new relationship with the EU demonstrated the ‘warmth, sympathy and love’ many felt for Europe.
And he predicted that leaving the EU would be the trigger for a national healing process after three-and-a-half years of rancour and division. According to one source in the room, he declared: ‘We need to get on with the healing. Let the healing fountain of Brexit juices start! Let people come together.’ But Mr Johnson also warned his audience that the Government needed to act quickly to show that it was responding to the concerns of its new voters, not just by delivering on Brexit, but also by meeting pledges on the NHS and schools and investing billions in improving the infrastructure and opportunities in left-behind areas.
Stressing the need for urgency, he said: ‘Time is a wasting asset. The future of this government will be set in the first 18 months.
We have got to get it right now. It is vital that we get off on the right foot.’
As Mr Johnson left the reception, one member of parliamentary catering staff told him she voted for him. He said: ‘Thank you very much.’
The speech came as the PM hosted a reception for MPs on the Commons terrace, attended by Sajid Javid, Liz Truss, Matt Hancock, Alok Sharma, former prime minister Theresa May and Gavin Williamson.
Speaking after the event, former Brexit secretary David Davis said: ‘That room hasn’t been that full for one of those functions since the year I came in, ‘87.
‘That was the last time we had a majority this big, and that was the triumphant Thatcher after her third election when Labour was flat on its back.’
He added: ‘The one thing about our prime minister is he absolutely knows how to work a crowd. I think the substantive thing he had to say was we have to justify their trust. We have to earn their trust.
‘A lot of people in there did not expect to be there.
‘These are seats where you wouldn’t have gone in thinking I’m going to win, or even I’ve got a decent chance.
‘These are Labour communities, not just Labour voters and that was why we all sort of didn’t believe it. So when it happened, it was a sociological change as much as a political one. We have to entrench it.’
Fellow Tory Mark Francois said: ‘He made a particularly good joke, we turned Redcar to Blue... Unsurprisingly it was very upbeat and went down very well down there.’
Asked how the speech was, Sajid Javid said afterwards: ‘Fantastic. People’s government.’
Meanwhile, Matt Hancock said that it was ‘very cheerful’.
Earlier, Mr Johnson told his new army of MPs in Westminster Hall after a photograph that they had ‘changed our party for the better’.
And he asked his colleagues about his Brexit deal, in full Christmas pantomime style: ‘What culinary characteristic does it have?’ They replied: ‘Oven ready!’
‘It’s vital we get off on the right foot’