Johnson warns Tories not to ‘ape Corbyn’
DUP leader criticises ‘diet of negativity’, as senior Tories joke at former foreign secretary’s expense
THE Tories must not “ape Corbyn” by raising tax to pay for public services, but instead believe in the Conservative value of low taxation, Boris Johnson will say today.
If the Conservatives start to treat capitalism as a “boo word” they will lose the next election, the former foreign secretary will tell a fringe event at the Conservative party conference.
His speech in Birmingham, at which he will repeat his call for Theresa May to ditch her Chequers plan for Brexit, is expected to overshadow preparations for the Prime Minister’s speech tomorrow.
Yesterday Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, announced that he would raise taxes in the Budget later this month to pay for a £20billion per year spending increase on the NHS.
Mr Johnson will attack his former Cabinet colleague by saying: “We should set our taxes to stimulate investment and growth. We should be constantly aiming not to increase, but to cut taxes.
“It is the Conservative approach that gets things done, so let’s follow our Conservative instincts.”
Mr Johnson will express concern that the Tories under Mrs May have lost confidence in capitalism and in their core ideals and believe that taxing the wealthy to pay for public services will be a hit with voters.
He will say: “We must on no account follow Corbyn, and start to treat capitalism as a kind of boo word.
“We can’t lose our faith in competition and choice and markets but we should restate the truth that there is simply no other system that is so miraculously successful in satisfying human wants and needs.”
Senior Conservatives are so concerned that Mr Johnson’s speech to 700 party members will prove more popular than anything said from the official conference stage that they have spent the first two days of the annual gathering belittling his ideas and leadership chances. Ministers including Mr Hammond have denounced Mr Johnson’s alternative plan for Brexit, set out in The Daily Telegraph last week, as unworkable, but Mr Johnson will once again argue that a Canada style free trade agreement with the EU is the way forward, rather than Mrs May’s Chequers plan.
He will also urge the party to focus on law and order, tax cuts and building more homes in order to beat Labour at the next election.
‘What we want to see, and I’m not making a comparison between Boris and the Prime Minister, is belief. We want to see that spirit’
BORIS JOHNSON’S “positive” vision for Brexit has been praised by Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, as she said she would work with him if he became prime minister.
In a major boost for Mr Johnson’s leadership ambitions, Mrs Foster endorsed the “belief” and “spirit” contained in his blueprint for Brexit.
She criticised Theresa May’s government, which needs the DUP’S votes to maintain its working majority, saying one of her biggest disappointments was the failure of ministers to “talk about the aspirations for the nation”.
She also refused to rule out backing a Canada-style deal for Brexit if an agreement could be found on avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Mrs Foster spoke to The Daily Telegraph ahead of Mr Johnson’s only appearance at the Conservative party conference, in which he will address 700 Tory voters at a fringe event in Birmingham today.
Senior Conservatives, including Philip Hammond, spent the first two days of the conference attempting to belittle the former foreign secretary, by portraying him as a shallow politician whose ideas for Brexit cannot be taken seriously.
But Mrs Foster came to his rescue by saying her confidence and supply agreement did not rely on Mrs May remaining as leader.
Mr Johnson set out a plan for a bold Brexit deal based on a Canada-style free trade agreement in a lengthy article for The Telegraph last week.
Asked if she agreed with Mr Johnson, Mrs Foster said: “In terms of the need for aspiration I think it is important that people start to talk.
“I do get very frustrated about some people in the Conservative Party. Look, it’s happening, so therefore let’s make it as good as we possibly can, instead of all of this talk about a people’s vote. I think people want that hope, they want to be positive. I think the reason why so many people are turned off by Brexit is because they are being fed a diet of negativity – whether it’s infighting, Brussels, being disrespected by people over there.
“We haven’t been able to talk about the aspirations for the nation, we’ve spent so much time arguing about what’s happened, is it going to be a disaster for Ireland in inverted commas, instead of actually focusing on what we can achieve in the UK with the Brexit negotiations.
“What we want to see, and I’m not making a comparison between Boris and the Prime Minister, is belief. We want to see that spirit.”
The Chancellor said in a newspaper interview yesterday that he did not “expect” Mr Johnson ever to be leader, and mocked his manner of speaking.
In a BBC interview, he added that “Boris Johnson is a big-picture man, a big character on the political stage… but this is a very detailed and complex negotiation. It doesn’t require big sweeping statements. It requires meticulous attention to the negotiating strategy.”
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, used her conference speech yesterday to criticise “ivory-towered schemes of the ideo- logical puritan” in what was seen as a swipe at Mr Johnson.
Others who have made jokes at his expense in conference speeches include Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, and Lord Digby Jones.
However, Mrs Foster said when asked if she could work with Mr Johnson in No 10: “Our confidence arrangement is with the Conservative Party. It was signed by the two chief whips. It is a party-to-party agreement.”
“Whoever leads the Conservative Party we will work with, as it’s in the national interest. The reason we signed the agreement was to ensure Brexit.”
Mrs May faces mounting calls to shelve her Chequers proposal. A majority of Cabinet ministers now want Mrs May to adopt a Canada-style deal as a plan B in case Chequers fails, and Mrs Foster said: “I’d have to see what that means for Northern Ireland in reality.”
She said it was wrong to suggest that the Belfast Agreement could not be altered to accommodate a final Brexit deal, an argument that has also been made by Mr Johnson.
She said: “It has been deeply frustrating to hear people who voted Remain and in Europe talk about Northern Ireland as though we can’t touch the Belfast Agreement. Things evolve, even in the EU context.”
Meanwhile, Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary, said the Government “will listen to alternative ways of delivering on the strategic criteria we have set out”, fuelling speculation that Mrs May could compromise further on Chequers or push for a Canada-style deal if Chequers fails.
He also warned that the UK is prepared to slash corporation tax in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, said that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the £40 billion divorce bill should be handed back to the public in tax cuts.