Theresa May says Boris Johnson's conference speech 'has been looked at'

The Prime Minister will not personally watch the Foreign Secretary address party members

Theresa May said Boris Johnson's speech has been checked (Getty Images)

Theresa May has said Boris Johnson’s conference speech has been “looked at” by her officials in advance, amid anger around the Foreign Secretary’s repeated media interventions that have destabilised her government.

The Prime Minister was pushed in morning interviews to say whether she had pre-checked Mr Johnson’s party conference speech, which she will not personally watch, after he appeared to diverge from her position in newspaper articles.

Ms May attempted to underline that she and the Boris have an agreed position on policy, though reports at the weekend suggested the Foreign Secretary believes the PM’s tenure will be over within a year.

On the same day Mr Johnson gave an interview to The Sun in which he set out Brexit demands which appeared to go further than Ms May had in her speech on EU withdrawal in Florence the week before.

That followed another 4,000 word article written by Mr Johnson, which precipitated speculations that he was abaout to launch a leadership bid. There have since been angry responses from fellow Tories accusing him of destabilising the Government and making Jeremy Corbyn more likely to take power.

Asked if she had checked Mr Johnson's speech in advance, Ms may told Sky News: “There are normal ways and processes of these things to make sure things get looked at."

Pressed again, she said: “His speech has been looked at, don’t worry.”

Ms May confirmed at an event at her party's conference in Manchester last night that she would not be attending Mr Johnson's speech on the conference floor.

She said on Tuesday: “What Boris is going to be doing today at conference is setting out what our plans are for global Britain, how optimistic we are about what we can achieve as a country once we leave the European union.

“He and I are both ambitious and optimistic about the opportunities for global Britain.”

Speaking to BBC News, Ms May said that she did not want a cabinet of “yes men” around her and that her Government had come to an agreed position on Brexit in her Florence speech.

On Channel 4 television programme aired on Monday night featured friends of Mr Johnson saying the Foreign Secretary believed Ms May could be pushed from office within a year and that he could have one last shot at getting into Downing Street.