Dancing to a new beat: May declares an end to austerity
THERESA MAY promised an end to austerity as the prize for a good Brexit deal, as she appealed to her party to “stick together” for the sake of Britain.
The Prime Minister said voters needed to see “the end is in sight” for the squeeze on public finances if the Tories stayed in power, and pledged to turn on the spending taps next year.
She said that a decade after the financial crash, “people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off ”.
Mrs May used her party conference speech to rebrand her divisive Brexit plan, with not a single mention of the word Chequers in her hour-long address, instead calling it “our proposal”.
In a stern warning to MPS who preferred Boris Johnson’s vision of a Canada-style deal with the EU, Mrs May said a divided party would “risk ending up with no Brexit at all” by paving the way for a Jeremy Corbyn government.
She reached out to Labour voters “appalled by what Jeremy Corbyn has done” to his party, saying the Tories were the party that “delivers on the issues they care about” while being “decent, moderate and patriotic”.
She said past Labour leaders such as Gaitskell, Attlee and Callaghan, were “proud of Britain” and had “basic qualities that everyone could respect”, but under Mr Corbyn “what has befallen Labour is a national tragedy”.
Mrs May strode onstage in Birmingham to the Abba song Dancing Queen, and brought the house down by repeating her much-mocked dance moves seen on a trip to Africa this summer.
In contrast to last year’s conference speech, when she was ambushed by a prankster and lost her voice on a set that fell apart, Mrs May gave a confident, polished performance that earned her a standing ovation. She made just three policy announcements – new cancer targets, a fuel duty freeze and removing the cap on council borrowing for new housing.
Many Cabinet ministers and MPS believe this will be her last conference as leader, and she was dealt a fresh blow when party grandee Sir Oliver Letwin said she should stand down once Britain had left the EU. Nevertheless, Mrs May was determined to set out plans for a 2022 election victory with or without her. She said austerity had brought down the national debt and people needed to know that “because you made sacrifices there are better days ahead” and that “support for public services will go up”.
Downing Street later stated public spending would increase regardless of a Brexit deal but admitted extra money would be reliant on economic growth. Mrs May said the fuel duty freeze
showed workers with stretched budgets that “we get it”. And by ending a cap on council borrowing for new homes, she said she hoped to boost construction, telling young people “we will help you get on the housing ladder”.
Mrs May, who has a fortnight to make progress in Brexit negotiations before a crucial meeting of EU leaders on Oct 17, said she was “not afraid” to leave the EU without a deal, but that it would be a “bad outcome”.
She urged MPS to “come together” and support her deal, accusing opponents of acting not in the national interest, but “their own political interest”. In a challenge to Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-mogg, she said: “A Brexit that might make Britain stronger 50 years from now is no good to you if it makes your life harder today.”
She warned disunity risked “ending up with no Brexit at all … If we stick together and hold our nerve, I know we can get a deal that delivers for Britain.”
‘Twice in a century, Britain came together to beat the odds and build a better future. We must recapture that spirit of common purpose’
LABOUR has become the Jeremy Corbyn party, Theresa May said yesterday, as she urged Tories to win over millions of voters “appalled” by his actions and the anti-semitism scandal.
The Prime Minister accused the Labour leader of betraying his party’s legacy and the “common values that once bridged our divide”, adding that Mr Corbyn’s policies would have been rejected by a succession of his predecessors.
Mrs May received a standing ovation at the start and end of her hour-long, 7,200-word speech Our Future Is In Our Hands as she set out her vision for the Conservative future after Brexit.
Dancing Queen
The Prime Minister attempted to defy expectations from the off. In a move that surprised even her husband and closest advisers, she took to the stage dancing to Abba, embracing the mockery of her dancing during a visit to Africa earlier this summer.
Tory activists were delighted, standing to applaud as she beamed behind the podium when the strains of Dancing Queen faded. Her confident start dispelled concerns that the conference was in for a repeat of last year, when her speech ended in disaster after she was targeted by a prankster, lost her voice and the set fell apart.
“There are some things about last year’s conference I have tried to forget,” she said. “But I will always remember the warmth I felt from everyone in the hall. You supported me all the way – thank you.”
Lessons of the past
After her humorous opening, Mrs May changed tone by speaking of the centenary of the end of the First World War. Hailing the “determination that transformed our country”, she praised the men and women who rebuilt Britain.
“Twice in a century, Britain came together to beat the odds and build a better future. We must recapture that spirit of common purpose,” she said. “Because the lesson of that remarkable generation is clear: if we come together, there is no limit to what we can achieve. The future is in our hands.”
Poison politics
Mrs May warned that “something is wrong with politics” as “rigorous debate” had increasingly become a “confrontation between enemies”.
She said it was not just politicians but their families who were increasingly being targeted, highlighting the “sickening” abuse that Jacob Reesmogg’s children faced recently from a far-left anarchist.
She paid tribute to Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, who was subjected to racist and misogynistic messages online. “The first black woman ever to be elected to the House of Commons receives more racist and misogynist messages today than when she first stood over 30 years ago,” she said.
“You do not have to agree with a word Diane Abbott says to believe passionately in her right to say it, free from threats and abuse.”
Invoking the memory of Jo Cox, the Labour MP murdered in her constituency in 2016, the Prime Minister called for Britain to “rise above the abuse”.
“Let’s make a positive case for our values that will cut through the bitterness and bile that is poisoning our politics,” she said. “Let’s say it loud and clear: the Conservatives will always stand up for a politics that unites us rather than divides us.”
The Jeremy Corbyn party
Labour, the Prime Minister, said, had become the “Jeremy Corbyn party”. While the party was once proud of Britain’s institutions, the Armed Forces and the nation, today Mr Corbyn “rejects the common values that once bridged our political divide”.
She contrasted his behaviour with that of his predecessors. Lord Kinnock, she said, would not have stood by while MPS faced deselection and needed police protection. James Callaghan would not have asked Russia to confirm the findings of the intelligence services in the Salisbury spy poisonings, while Clement Attlee would not have told Jews they did not know the meaning of anti-semitism. Highlighting the scandefence dal that has engulfed Labour, she said: “What has befallen Labour is a national tragedy. What has it come to when Jewish families today seriously discuss where they should go if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister? When a leading Labour MP says his party is ‘institutionally racist’?”
A party of patriotism
With millions “appalled by what Jeremy Corbyn has done to Labour”, Mrs May said the Tories had an opportunity to win a new generation of voters. She said: “We must be a party that is not in thrall to ideology, but instead by enduring principles. For me they can be summed up in three words – security, freedom, opportunity.” She said the Tories were the party of diversity, highlighting Sajid Javid, son of a Pakistani bus driver, Esther Mcvey, who revealed this week she had been in care, and Ruth Davidson, who is expecting a baby with her fiancée.
The end of austerity
In her most significant announcement, Mrs May promised to end austerity as a prize for getting a good Brexit deal.
She said that after the financial crash and years of austerity, people needed to know their sacrifice and hard work had paid off. “The end is in sight,” she said.
It is likely to be welcomed by Cabinet ministers such as Gavin Williamson, the Secretary, and Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, who have been pushing for more funding in the spending review. However, the Treasury is likely to be concerned that such action could make it more difficult to bring down the national debt. Mrs May said: “The British people need to know that the end is in sight, 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.”
National security
The security of the nation was “one of my most important responsibilities as Prime Minister”, she said. That included the Government’s decision to
expel 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent attack.
“In Parliament, I received almost universal support – from the SNP to the Liberal Democrats and the Labour backbenches,” she said. “There was just one dissenting voice – Jeremy Corbyn.”
The Labour leader refused “to lay the blame squarely where it belonged”, instead suggesting Russia could verify the findings of the security services: “Imagine if he were Prime Minister.”
Building Britain
In a major policy announcement, she said the Government would scrap the cap on how much local authorities could borrow to build new homes. This would see 10,000 houses a year built. “We will only fix this broken market by building more homes,” she said. “Solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy agenda of our generation. It doesn’t make sense to stop councils playing their part. We will help you get on the housing ladder, and we will build the homes this country needs.”
She hinted at action in other “broken markets”. The Government is already bringing in an energy price cap to limit the amount customers can be charged, and there have been calls for similar action to be taken against mobile phone companies. She said: “Any companies charging their customers a ‘loyalty penalty’ should know we will take action.” And after a year of chaos on the railways, she conceded that “on some routes the service has not been good enough” and vowed: “We will fix that.”
Joke’s on Boris
Mrs May peppered her speech with jokes – several at the expense of Boris Johnson, who was reported to have told foreign diplomats “f--- business” in response to concerns about “Project Fear” Brexit warnings.
She said: “To all businesses, large and small, you may have heard that there is a four-letter word to describe what we Conservatives want to do with you. It has a single syllable, it is of Anglo-saxon derivation, it ends in the letter ‘K’. Back business.”