‘Britain’s best days lie ahead of us’, says May
PM attempts to win over Leavers in crunch speech
THERESA MAY will today attempt to persuade Conservative Eurosceptics she believes in Brexit by insisting Britain’s “best days lie ahead of us”.
In a high-pressure speech in which her claim that she is in the job for the “long-term” will be put to the test, the Prime Minister will say the future is “full of promise” because the country has “everything we need to succeed”.
At a Conservative Party conference which has been racked by divisions over Mrs May’s Chequers Brexit plan, the PM is under huge pressure to win over the Tory faithful after Boris Johnson yesterday said her proposals are an undemocratic “outrage” that would subvert the will of the people who voted to quit the EU.
In a rebuke to the ex-Foreign Secretary, who quit the Cabinet in July in protest at Chequers, she will tell grassroots in Birmingham: “I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise.
“Don’t let anyone tell you we don’t have what it takes: we have everything we need to succeed.”
Mr Johnson also launched an attack on Mrs May’s domestic policies, calling for her curbs on police stop and search powers to be overturned and criticising her characterisation of some aspects of business as “morally dubious”.
Hitting back, the Prime Minister will insist the Tories should be in a party that “believes in business but is not afraid to hold businesses to account”.
She will restate Tory values and suggest she does not plan to veer left to counter growing fears in the party about the threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, insisting the Tories are “decent, moderate and patriotic”, representative of “everyone” and “comfortable with modern Britain in all its diversity”.
Mrs May yesterday insisted she will remain in post after Brexit to focus on domestic policy.
The PM, who will be under even greater pressure today following the debacle of last year’s conference speech when she was handed a P45 form by a prankster, suffered a coughing fit and spoke amid a collapsing backdrop, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “I’m in this for the long term, not just for the Brexit deal but actually for the domestic agenda we are setting out at this conference.”
But Mrs May was warned by senior Brexiteers that she has been put on notice to “chuck Chequers”.
Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the party, said Tory chiefs had to recognise when the membership is “saying something to you”. And former Cabinet Ministers Owen Paterson and John Redwood said Mrs May had to understand that mainstream opinion in the party was bitterly opposed to her plan.
Mr Duncan Smith, who was among the crowd alongside other Eurosceptic MPs for Mr Johnson’s speech, said: “This is a message to the Government.
“This hall could have been filled half again by people wanting to hear an upbeat message about who we are and where we are going.”
THE GOVERNMENT is to change the law to enable heterosexual couples to enter into civil partnerships, Theresa May has announced.
Ministers said the move, announced at conference yesterday, was an “important step forward for equality”.
It follows a Supreme Court ruling that legislation on civil partnerships, currently open only to same-sex couples, was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Government said extending them to opposite-sex couples in England and Wales would provide greater security for those who wanted legal recognition for their relationship but did not want to get married.
In a statement Mrs May said: “This change in the law helps protect the interests of opposite-sex couples who want to commit, want to formalise their relationship but don’t necessarily want to get married.
“As Home Secretary, I was proud to sponsor the legislation that created equal marriage.
“Now, by extending civil partnerships, we are making sure that all couples, be they same-sex or opposite-sex, are given the same choices in life.”
When civil partnerships were created by Labour in 2004, they were exclusively for same-sex couples, who had been unable to obtain any recognition in law for their relationships.
But after the Government acted in 2014 to enable same-sex couples to enter into marriage, the pressure from campaigners to extend civil partnerships to opposite sex couples intensified.
We are making sure all couples get the same choices in life. Prime Minister Theresa May.