Delay Brexit again and Tories face extinction, warns Boris
Trump accentuates the positive – and eliminates the negative – on his visit to No 10 and Whitehall
BORIS JOHNSON has warned Tory MPS that “delay means defeat” as he told a leadership hustings the Conservative Party faced “extinction” if Britain was not out of the EU by Oct 31.
Setting out his pitch to be the next prime minister to 100 of his colleagues, he said the Tories were “facing an existential crisis”. He ruled out an early general election and said he was against a second referendum.
Mr Johnson told One Nation, the group of moderate Tories whose support could make or break the leadership ambitions of the 11 contenders left: “We we must get ready, eventually, to beat Jeremy Corbyn and put Farage back in his box. We are facing an existential crisis and will not be forgiven if we do not deliver Brexit [by] Oct 31.
“I believe I am best placed to lift this party, beat Corbyn and excite people about Conservative values.
“Unless we get on and do [Brexit] we will be punished for a very long time. There is a very real choice between getting Brexit done and the potential extinction of this great party, but I believe I can take on Farage and win back the voters being won over by him.”
Earlier in the day, Mr Johnson met senior members of the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteers, telling them: “Delay means defeat.”
Mr Johnson also told the One Nation group: “I don’t want a no-deal Brexit. No one sensible should. But in order to be successful we must get ready for it.”
Sources close to Mr Johnson said he had turned down an invitation from Donald Trump for a meeting last night because it clashed with the hustings event. Instead, Mr Johnson spoke to him by telephone. Mr Trump told a press conference he would do “a very good job” as prime minister.
Mr Johnson’s earlier pitch to the ERG board, in the office of Owen Paterson, the former Cabinet minister, was attended by Iain Duncan Smith, Priti Patel, Theresa Villiers, Sir Bernard Jenkin, Steve Baker, Mark Francois and Sir Bill Cash. They later spoke to fellow Brexiteer Dominic Raab.
Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Paterson later had a “long-arranged” meeting with Mr Trump at the US ambassador’s residence, but would not comment on whether they had told the president who they had chosen to back between Mr Johnson and Mr Raab.
Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign won the backing of three moderate Tory MPS who declared him a “proven winner” last night.
The trio – Rishi Sunak, Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden – said his values could “inspire the country and revitalise our party”.
It will come as a blow to Michael Gove, who was previously supported by Mr Sunak, the communities minister, and Mr Jenrick, a Treasury minister, during the leadership contest in 2016. Mr Gove is tonight expected to say he would be prepared to delay Brexit until 2020.
All three endorsed Mr Johnson and said he could beat Mr Corbyn and “excite people about Conservatism” in an article for The Times.
Lord Bell, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, wrote to Tory MPS yesterday telling them Mr Johnson was “the only person” who could deliver Brexit and see off the Brexit Party and Labour.
Last night Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader, who met the president yesterday, said he was planning to open his own trade talks directly with White House staff.
He said that he was “left with the impression that we are behind the curve” in preparation for talks that will start formally after Brexit.
He told LBC: “Given this lack of preparedness, I am very keen to get a delegation of industrialists and business [people] together to fly out to Washington to meet Bob Lighthizer, the Trump administration’s trade negotiator and perhaps start these discussions.”
DONALD TRUMP paid a valedictory tribute to Theresa May’s negotiating skills as he said she would not get “the credit you deserve” if Britain leaves the EU with a Brexit deal.
The president said the Prime Minister had “teed up” a deal that he believes will eventually be agreed by the two sides, and joked: “She’s probably a better negotiator than I am.”
In a typically unpredictable press conference at the Foreign Office, Mr Trump caused controversy by suggesting the NHS will be on the table in a future trade deal, and revealed that he turned down a request for a meeting from Jeremy Corbyn.
With the First Lady and other family watching from the front row of a covered courtyard, he also discussed topics including Huawei and Iran.
Brexit
Mr Trump credited himself with predicting the result of the 2016 EU referendum and said Brexit “will happen and it probably should happen”.
He praised Mrs May for doing “a very good job” in getting the negotiations to this point and suggested her successor would agree a deal based on her work.
He said: “She has got it, in a sense – that deal is teed up. I think they have to do something.” Turning to Mrs May, he added: “Perhaps you won’t be given the credit that you deserve if they do something but I think you deserve a lot of credit. I really do.
“This is a great, great country and it wants its own identity. It wants to have its own borders, it wants to run its own affairs. This is a very, very special place and I think it deserves a special place.”
Asked whether she should have taken Mr Trump’s advice and sued the EU, Mrs May said: “It will be for whoever succeeds me as prime minister to take this issue forward. I seem to remember the president suggest I sued the European Union, which we didn’t do. We went into negotiations and we came out with a good deal.”
Mr Trump responded: “I would have sued and settled, maybe, but you never know. She’s probably a better negotiator that I am.”
Earlier, during a meeting with business leaders, Mr Trump had urged Mrs May to “stick around” and conclude an Anglo-american trade deal but she said she would be resigning on Friday. “I’m a woman of my word,” she said.
NHS ‘on the table’
The US is ready to sign a “phenomenal” trade deal after Brexit, the president said, but put himself at odds with Tory leadership contenders by saying the NHS must be “on the table”.
Mr Trump said a bilateral deal could double or triple the volume of trade between the countries as long as there was no limit to the scope of negotiations.
He said: “When you’re dealing in trade, everything is on the table, so NHS or anything else … everything will be on the table, absolutely.”
Mrs May appeared to be taken aback, retorting: “The point in making trade deals is of course that both sides negotiate and come to an agreement.”
While Britain already buys medical products from the US, Mrs May and several of the contenders to succeed her have said they would never allow the US to build and run privatelyfunded hospitals as part of the NHS.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, immediately tweeted: “Dear Mr President. The NHS isn’t on the table in trade talks – and never will be. Not on my watch.” Tory leadership contenders Dominic Raab, Sam Gyimah and Rory Stewart also pledged the NHS would not be part of a trade deal. Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary and former health secretary, previously said he agreed with Mr Hancock’s stance.
Last night the president appeared to backtrack over his comments on the NHS, telling Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain: “I don’t see it being on the table. Somebody asked me a question today and I say everything is up for negotiation, because everything is. But I don’t see that as being, that’s something that I would not consider part of trade. That’s not trade.”
‘Negative’ Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn asked for a meeting with Mr Trump after he had announced he would be boycotting Monday night’s state dinner at Buckingham Palace.
Mr Trump said he did “not know him, never met him, never spoke to him” but turned down the meeting because he said Mr Corbyn was “somewhat of a negative force”. He said: “He wanted to meet today or tomorrow and I decided I would not do that.
“I think people should look to do things correctly as opposed to criticise. “I really don’t like critics as much as I like and respect people who get things done – so I decided not to meet.”
Huawei
Mr Trump tried to defuse the Huawei row, saying intelligence-sharing would continue regardless of whether it was allowed to bid for 5G contracts in the UK. Huawei is legally obliged to share information with its Chinese government, which some ministers feared could compromise national security.
A final decision is yet to be made but Mr Trump said he expected the “incredible intelligence relationship” with the UK to continue either way.”
‘I don’t know Gove’
After it emerged that Mr Trump had a 20-minute phone call with Boris Johnson on Monday night, he heaped praise on the former foreign secretary and his successor Jeremy Hunt but to laughter said he did not know Michael Gove. He said: “I know Boris. I like him. I have liked him for a long time. I think he would do a very good job. I know Jeremy, I think he would do a very good job. I don’t know Michael – would he do a good job, Jeremy?” Mr Hunt smiled and said: “Of course.” Sources close to Mr Gove said discussions were ongoing about a meeting with Mr Trump today. Mr Trump appeared to have forgotten Mr Gove interviewed him for The Times in 2017.