Boris Johnson launches explosive direct attack on Theresa May's vision in blatant leadership speech to Tory conference 2018
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- 02 Oct 2021
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Boris Johnson today launched an explosive direct attack on Theresa May's vision in a blatant leadership speech to the Tory conference.
Around 1,500 activists packed out a hall to hear the mop-haired MP trash their own leader's agenda in Birmingham.
Mr Johnson - who is going through a messy divorce and being investigated by the party for alleged Islamophobia - packed out a fringe meeting with queues around the conference centre.
By comparison the main hall has been mostly empty for much of the conference - even Chancellor Philip Hammond couldn't fill it.
The two-faced MP claimed there was a "distinct ring of truth" to Mr Hammond's jibe that he'll never be Prime Minister - and activists should support Theresa May.
But the ex-Foreign Secretary also trashed her record directly on stop-and-search, rental housing, tax rises to pay for the NHS - and most of all her 'Chequers' plan for Brexit .
Right-wing activists erupted into cheers as the mop-haired MP declared: "This is the time, this is the moment, to Chuck Chequers!".
With no sense of irony, the self-obsessed MP - who was pictured running through a wheat field to mock Theresa May - claimed he had simply come to "try with all humility to put some lead into the collective pencil".
He slammed the "total fantasy" that the government could "bodge" Brexit now and renegotiate a better deal after leaving in March.
And he warned the Prime Minister's current plan would create "distrust" among the public because it will leave Britain "paraded in manacles" with no freedom and no power.
Those who benefit would be “the far right in the form of UKIP” and the “far left in the form of Jeremy Corbyn”, he declared.
The MP added: "This is not pragmatic, it is not a compromise. It is dangerous and unstable - politically and economically.
"My fellow Conservatives, this is not democracy. This is not what we voted for. This is an outrage.
"This is not taking back control: this is forfeiting control."
Tory activists queued for up to two hours to hear the mop-haired MP speak. One queued for so long he felt faint and had to leave to fetch a drink of water.
Mr Johnson peppered his speech with trademark jokes - claiming hundreds of roads had been named after West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street.
At one awkward point he declared: "It is a disgrace that no banker went to jail for the crash of 2008."
As he paused for applause, the right wing activists sat in momentary silence, before realising they were supposed to clap.
But he got easier applause for his repeated attacks on Jeremy Corbyn.
"We cannot, we must not and we will not let this weasely cabal of superannuated Marxists and Hugo Chavez-admiring, anti-Semitism-condoning, Kremlin apologists anywhere near the government of this country!" he declared.
Mr Johnson called for the party to follow its Conservative instincts and give millions more young people the chance to become owner-occupiers.
He called for a crackdown on landbanking and encouragement for small private builders.
Mr Johnson said the big eight house-builders were abusing their dominant position.
He said councils should be given the ability to retain stamp duty, council tax, and business rates, which would act as a motive for growth.
He said: "Of course you would need to prevent councils from hiking the business rate, and you would need an equalisation formula because the yields are so different across the country."
Among the crowd in the 1,500-capacity hall were former Cabinet ministers Priti Patel and Owen Paterson, along with Mr Johnson's father Stanley. Former Brexit secretary David Davis sat on the front row to listen.
But asked if would be watching Mr Johnson's speech, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he was "going for some lunch''.
And business minister Claire Perry told Sky News: "It's a travelling circus that comes to town. He thrives on publicity, he doesn't have a policy backbone anywhere on him.
"Who doesn't want to see the court jester arrive?"
Tory MP Guto Bebb, who quit the government and now backs a 'People's Vote', said: "Boris Johnson still has no answers to the difficult questions posed by Brexit.
"Like so many of the Brexit cheerleaders, faced with this national crisis he chose to cut and run. And today we saw that he simply can’t explain how any of the contradictory promises he made to voters can be delivered."
