Boris Johnson threw another hand grenade into the Tory Brexit civil war today as he decried Theresa May's 'outrageous' Chequers plan.
At a packed rally at party conference in Birmingham, the former foreign secretary delivered a stark ultimatum that the PM must 'chuck' her blueprint for ties with the EU - raging that it denied the result of the referendum and could even be illegal.
He warned that Britain had to show 'self-belief' and stand up for 'freedom' rather than be 'manacled' by Brussels - as well as jibing at Philip Hammond over dodgy Treasury forecasts.
In a tough message to the premier that provoked rapturous cheers from activists, Mr Johnson said he was asking ‘one last time’ for the Government to switch back to the ‘original plan’ the PM set out at Lancaster House.
He said: ‘For one last time, I urge our friends in government to deliver what the people voted for, to back Theresa May in the best way possible, by softly, quietly, and sensibly backing her original plan.'
Slamming his fist on the lectern, Mr Johnson said the decisions on the UK's future could not be 'fudged' as Brussels would merely take the opportunity to force the reversal of the 2016 referendum.
'Do not believe that we can somehow get it wrong now and fix it later – get out properly next year, or the year after. Total fantasy. The opposite will happen,' he insisted.
In his speech (pictured), Boris Johnson warned that Britain had to show 'self-belief' and stand up for 'freedom', as well as jibing at Philip Hammond over dodgy Treasury forecasts
The hall at the conference centre in Birmingham was packed for Mr Johnson's address today
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis (pictured centre) was in the front row for Boris Johnson's speech in Birmingham today
Mr Johnson's father Stanley (left) and sister Rachel (right) were also in the hall to hear his words today
Organisers had to open another tier in the hall to accommodate the demand today, with around 1,500 people squeezing into the hall.
Eurosceptics including David Davis, Steve Baker, Priti Patel, Iain Duncan-Smith, Owen Paterson and Jonathan Redwood were in the front row. Mr Johnson's father Stanley and sister Rachel were also in the crowd.
Mr Johnson blasted: ‘What the Chequers proposals show is that the United Kingdom, for all its power and might and network of influences around the world, for all its venerable parliamentary history, was ultimately unable to take back control.
‘And instead of reasserting our ability to make our own laws, the UK will be effectively paraded in manacles down the Rue de la Loi like Caractacus.’
Mr Johnson said 'after 1000 years of independence this country might really lose confidence in its democratic institutions'.
He said he was devastated that ‘we should be so demoralised and so exhausted as to submit those institutions – forever - to foreign rule'.
‘If I have a function here today – it is to try, with all humility, to put some lead in the collective pencil, to stop what seems to me to be a ridiculous seeping away of our self-belief, and to invite you to feel realistic and justified confidence in what we can do,’ he said.
Mr Johnson warned that pushing ahead with the Chequers blueprint could fuel far-right and far-left sentiment in the UK.
'If we get it wrong, if we proceed with this undemocratic solution, if we remain half-in half out, we will protract this toxic tedious business that is frankly so off-putting to sensible middle of the road people who want us to get on with their priorities,' he said.
'If we cheat the electorate – and Chequers is a cheat - we will escalate the sense of mistrust.
'We will give credence to those who cry betrayal, and I am afraid we will make it more likely that the ultimate beneficiary of the chequers deal will be the far right in the form of Ukip.'
In a sharp swipe at Mr Hammond, Mr Johnson said the party must not try to chase Jeremy Corbyn on tax and spend.
The Chancellor said yesterday some taxes would rise to fund extra spending on the NHS announced by Theresa May in the summer.
Mr Johnson said: 'We should set our taxes at the optimum rate to stimulate investment and growth, and we should be constantly aiming not to increase but to cut taxes.
'Mindful of the insight of the great 14th century Tunisian sage Ibn Khaldoun – picked up by Arthur Laffer – that you can often cut taxes to increase yields.
'We should have as our objective – as soon as possible – to cut taxes for those on low and modest incomes, because it is Conservative to give people back control of their money.'
Mr Johnson also rejected claims from Downing Street that there is 'no alternative' to Chequers - saying Mrs May herself had set the correct course in her original Lancaster House 'road map' speech.
'This is the moment – and there is time – to chuck Chequers, to scrap the Commission’s constitutionally abominable Northern Ireland backstop, to use the otherwise redundant and miserable “implementation period” to the end of 2020 to negotiate the Super-Canada free trade agreement, to invest in all the customs procedures that may be needed to ensure continued frictionless trade, and to prepare much more vigorously for a WTO deal,' he said.
'And if we get it right, then the opportunities are immense.'
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith – who was sat in the front row watching Mr Johnson – heaped praise on the speech and warned Mrs May the Tory party ousts leaders who do not listen to its members.
Asked if Mr Johnson could be the next Tory leader if the PM refuses to ditch her Chequers plan, he said: ‘The beauty of the Conservative Party and why it is the longest standing political party and most successful political party pretty much in the developed world is because it knows when it has to make a change.
Slamming his fist on the lectern, Mr Johnson said the decisions on the UK's future could not be 'fudged' as Brussels would merely take the opportunity to force the reversal of the referendum
Mrs May has tried to shrug off the dramatic challenge to her Brexit plan from Mr Johnson
‘It gets to that point and discovers that actually, the party’s collective intelligence is telling the leadership – you are in the wrong place.
‘Sometimes, and I have stood as leader myself, you need to recognise that they are saying something to you.
‘And you need to bear that in mind because not just them, but vast swathes of the country are saying –be proud, we are British, we don’t need to be on bended knee to the EU, we don’t need to be begging them for deals, we need to be telling them that if you want to do business with the fifth largest economy in the world you have got to come to us and tell us what you are going to do to make that deal.’
Mr Duncan-Smith praised Mr Johnson for spelling out an upbeat Brexit message.
He said: ‘He was also very clear that he wanted to support the prime Minister but on the Lancaster House speech – in other words standing up to take control of our rules our laws and our borders and Chequers does no deliver on almost every area where we become rule takes rather than rule makers.
‘And I think this is a message to the Government – look, you can see 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.
‘And I have to tell you, I want the Prime Minister to reflect that tomorrow.
‘We tried – she sent Chequers o the EU and they said they didn’t like it.
‘We need to tell them now – if you want free trade, you have got to break the backstop nonsense, otherwise we are going to WTO. #
‘She would get a standing ovation and the country will back her because they want to get out, that is what they voted for.’
He hit back at Tory MPs who say Mr Johnson has been overreaching himself, saying: ‘I think some of my colleagues in government have been under reaching themselves and therefore they needed a little lesson in what politics is all about.
‘Politics is about delivering what people ask for. We had a referendum – the biggest turn out ever in British history and they voted to leave and they wanted to get on with it.’
Mr Johnson was met by a scrum of photographers as he arrived at the conference centre in Birmingham this morning, but refused to answer questions on whether he is trying to humiliate Mrs May.
A small welcoming committee of Brexit-backing MPs had also been standing out in the cold waiting for his arrival.
The group - including Andrea Jenkyns, Ross Thomson, Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Ben Bradley - shook his hand and shared a few brief words with the ex minister as he strode into the Hyatt hotel.
But Mr Johnson remained tight-lipped out his hotly anticipated speech - refusing to answer if he was making a thinly veiled pitch for the Tory leadership.
Miss Jenkyns told MailOnline: ‘People are eager to see Boris - he really connects with our activists.
‘As a Brexiteer, I’m hoping that he spells out his views for Brexit and how the current issues with the government’s proposals can be overcome.
‘Our country is crying out for a Brexit vision.’
Asked if she backs Mr Johnson to be leader of the Tories, she said: ‘I quite openly back him.
Activists had queued round the block at the conference to see Mr Johnson's intervention
Mr Johnson was flanked by MPs including Conor Burns (left) as he made his first appearance at the Tory conference this year
The former foreign secretary was greeted by a praetorian guard of supportive MPs as he arrived at the gathering in Birmingham
‘But this is not about that today. It is about him connecting with our activists.’
The appeal of Mr Johnson to the party rank-and-file was underlined by the sight of scores of activists queuing round the block to get into the venue for his speech, more than 90 minutes before it was due to kick off.
Mr Johnson's father Stanley was in the front row of the 1,500-seater auditorium.
He was seen sharing a friendly chat with former Cabinet minister and leading Brexiteer Priti Patel.
Tory MPs Owen Paterson, Zac Goldsmith and Peter Bone were also in the hall to hear the speech.
A clearly tetchy Mrs May was repeatedly grilled over her rival's manoeuvring during a round of interviews earlier - but tried to ignore the questions by talking about her other priorities.
With a grim smile, Mrs May said she expected Mr Johnson's speech to be a 'lively event'.
But she insisted she was focused on improving opportunities for young people and delivering her Brexit deal.
Downing Street made a bold bid to distract from the circus around Mr Johnson today by unveiling the government's post-Brexit immigration policies, saying EU nationals will in future be treated the same as people from all around the world.
Mrs May herself will not be watching Mr Johnson's intervention as she is due to be doing interviews.
Meanwhile, the PM's allies launched a series of vicious barbs at the ambitious politician - with one bald MP joking that he would be 'washing my hair' rather than watching Mr Johnson speak.
In his speech Mr Johnson will also hit back at Philip Hammond for planning to increase taxes and accuse him of abandoning 'Conservative values'.
The Chancellor sent a clear signal yesterday that next month's Budget will include tax rises to pay for a multi-billion pound planned rise in NHS spending.
But Mr Johnson will return fire, saying the party should 'follow our conservative instincts' and focus on core Tory issues such as law and order and tax cuts to beat Labour at the next election.
'In what allies openly described as an alternative leader's speech, he will suggest the party has moved too far to the Left and should instead take 'basic conservative ideas and fit them to the problems of today'.
Mrs May appeared not to know exactly when Mr Johnson was speaking as she referred to an 'evening' event when he is actually due on stage at 1pm
Mr Johnson came through security with other Tory members before being whisked away to make his final preparations for his speech
Mr Johnson left his Oxfordshire home for the conference centre in Birmingham this morning
Couched as an attack on Mr Corbyn, Mr Johnson's speech contains a series of barely disguised barbs at the Prime Minister and her Chancellor.
He will say the Tories must not 'lose our faith in competition and choice and markets' or follow the Labour leader and 'treat capitalism as a kind of boo word'.
Mr Johnson will tell the Conservative Home event: '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.
'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.'
hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/10/02/queues-round-the-block-for-boris-johnsons-tory-conference-speech/
Main photo article Boris Johnson threw another hand grenade into the Tory Brexit civil war today as he decried Theresa May’s ‘outrageous’ Chequers plan.
At a packed rally at party conference in Birmingham, the former foreign secretary delivered a stark ultimatum that the PM must &...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/10/02/13/4698218-6230665-image-a-20_1538483630387.jpg
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