The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Brexit will ‘let British lion roar’, says Boris
Foreign secretary says country should stop treating Brexit like it is a ‘plague of boils’
Boris Johnson tried to fire up Tory activists and lift the nation by declaring Brexit will “let the British lion roar”.
The foreign secretary said the country was treating the referendum result like a “plague of boils” when it should “seize the opportunities” that leaving the EU provides.
In a rousing conference speech, he also sought to play down Cabinet divisions with a public show of support for the Prime Minister, who has faced calls to sack him for his disloyalty.
He praised Theresa May’s “steadfastness” in handling the fallout from the vote and insisted ministers shared the same Brexit vision.
“She won more votes than any party leader and took this party to its highest share of the vote in any election in the last 25 years,” he said, of what is widely seen as a humiliating poll for Mrs May.
“The whole country owes her a debt for her steadfastness in taking Britain forward as she will to a great Brexit deal based on that Florence speech on whose every syllable, I can tell you, the whole cabinet is united.”
Mr Johnson has been accused of manoeuvring against his boss by presenting his own red lines for a Brexit deal without her approval.
Her grip on the party has been weakened after her gamble of a snap general election backfired, costing the Tories their Commons majority.
In a bid to lift the mood at the conference, Mr Johnson said: “It is time to stop treating the referendum result as though it were a plague of boils or a murrain on our cattle or an inexplicable aberration by 17.4 million people.”
Calling for Britons to “let that lion roar”, he added: “It is time to be bold, and to seize the opportunities and there is no country better placed than Britain.”
In a television interview, Mrs May dismissed the suggestion conference was in a miserable mood.
Asked whether she was personally happy in her job, she said: “Yes. It’s not miserable and the reason it’s not miserable is because as Prime Minister I can ensure that Government takes decisions that really improve people’s lives.”
Earlier, she said she does not want a Cabinet of “yes men” and believes that government benefits from hearing “different voices” in policy discussions.
But she stressed the whole Cabinet, including Mr Johnson, had signed up to the negotiating position she set out in a speech in Florence last month.
Mr Johnson was on the receiving end of jibes from Cabinet colleagues on the third day of the Manchester conference.
Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, mocked his colleague’s infamous promise of a £350m weekly NHS windfall from leaving the EU as he outlined defence spending he said would genuinely be worth that figure.
In a dig at his colleague, he said army cadets are “instilling values of resolve and service, discipline and loyalty – from which we can all learn”.
Mr Johnson reeled off a series of his own gags, including suggesting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn should be sent to space.
“We have a growing space programme run by my brother, Jo Johnson, and I have a candidate for the first man we gently blast into orbit.
“That is the superannuated space cadet from Islington, and I know he has an innocent and vole-trousered air, but his domestic policies would rack up unfair debts for our children and grandchildren and his foreign policies would imperil not just this country but our friends and neighbours as well.”
In a series of attacks, he condemned Mr Corbyn’s nationalisation plans as a “display of economic masochism that would do incalculable damage to the future of our children”.
“That’s the difference between this Conservative Party and the Labour Party,” he said.
“We want a country with a government that works for everyone. Corbyn wants a Britain where everyone works for the government.
“This battle of ideas is not lost in memories of the 1970s.
“It is back from the grave.
“Its zombie fingers straining for the levers of power and that is why we cannot rest.”
Earlier, Home Secretary Amber Rudd told party activists in Manchester that security services had foiled seven terrorist plots this year