Conservative conference: Boris Johnson demands Theresa May 'chuck Chequers' in highly anticipated speech - as it happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson demanded Theresa May "chuck Chequers" as he delivered a hotly-anticipated speech on the third day of the Conservatives' annual conference in Birmingham.
The former foreign secretary addressed a rally of over 1,000 people, where he laid out what was widely seen as a manifesto for his potential leadership bid.
He accused Ms May of seeking to leave the UK "in manacles" and called her Brexit plan "dangerous and unstable...an outrage".
Earlier, Sajid Javid, the home secretary, outlined the government's plans for post-Brexit immigration in a wide-ranging address that many saw as fleshing out his own leadership ambitions.
As it happened...
David Gauke, the justice secretary, is now speaking from the platform.
He announces a new crackdown on drug kingpins in prisons, including a new financial crime unit that will freeze the assets of criminals behind the trade in illegal drugs. The government will also commit £5m for a new "Secure School" to help improve education for young people in custody.
David Gauke is making the case for a new drive to boost rehabilitation and cut reoffending among prisoners.
He says:
"We need offenders to make the right choice, to reject a life of criminality and take the opportunity to work, accept responsibility and be part of society. Reforming the way that we get offenders to do that is my mission, and what I hope defines me as justice secretary.
Getting prisoners rehabilitated will reduce crime and ensure there are fewer victims of crime in future. It will also cut the £15bn cost that reoffending has on society."
Sajid Javid is now addressing the conference hall. He tackles the issue of Brexit early on and denounces calls for a second referendum:
"To meet our best potential, we need to bring the country together. The worst way to do that, would be to backtrack on the referendum result.
If Brexit feels like a dividing line in our country now, just imagine what it would feel like if we didn’t follow-through with the result of the referendum.
There’s something very ‘Liberal Democrat’ about saying: 'That referendum was a total nightmare, let’s have another one!'
We all agreed to honour the result, so let’s get on with it. No second-guessing. No best-of-three. One vote, one mandate, one nation moving forwards together."
Sajid Javid tears into Jeremy Corbyn, saying as prime minister the Labour leader would be "a threat to our national security".
He says:
"Not all threats come from outside. Anything that undermines our response to threats is a threat itself.
Imagine having someone in No 10 who has voted against vital counter-terrorism legislation.
Someone who refuses to condemn the Kremlin over an attack on our soil. Someone who seriously suggested sending a nerve agent sample to Vladimir Putin, to see if the Russians could tell us what it was.
Who compared the actions of the US military, our closest ally, to Daesh. Who voted against banning Al Qaeda.
This is the truth, these are the facts, nd on these facts alone, Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to our national security.
And let me tell you something else, this isn’t a party political point, because a vast number of Labour MPs know this is right.
If Mr Corbyn were ever to be prime minister this behaviour wouldn’t just be naïve, it wouldn’t just be misguided - it would be downright dangerous.
And it is our duty to stop him."
Sajid Javid unexpectedly pays tribute to Diane Abbott, his Labour shadow, who he says has shown "guts and determination":
"If you look at some countries across Europe, populist, nationalist - even outright racist – parties have won significant numbers of seats.
Not here.
We see people from diverse backgrounds succeeding in all walks of life, and at all levels.
This progress is happening in our politics too. That requires role models and pioneers - people on all sides, including people we wouldn’t normally praise in our party conference.
People like Diane Abbott. Yes, Diane Abbott. We might disagree with the shadow home secretary on almost all her policies.
But it takes guts and determination to become the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons, and we should pay tribute to that."
Boris Johnson is in Birmingham and is due to address a rally around 1.00pm - a speech many expect will be a potential leadership pitch... We'll be bringing you that live. Stay tuned!
People have already been queuing to see Boris Johnson for over an hour. The auditorium where he is due to speak holds over 1,000 people and it's likely to be packed to the rafters. There's no doubting the former foreign secretary's appeal among Tory members.
Boris Johnson has just started speaking. He jokes about his speech not attracting much coverage - knowing full well the media and most of the Tory party are watching his every word.
There's also a below-average joke about Birmingham, the jist of which is that many of the roads are named after the city's mayor, Andy Street.
Launching an early attack on Jeremy Corbyn, Johnson says the Tories "can take on this Tony Benn tribute act and wallop it for six". He says:
"We cannot, we must not and we will not let this weasly cabal of super-annuated, Marxist and Hugo Chavez-admiring, antisemitism-condoning, Kremlin apologists anywhere near the government of this country."
That gets a rapturous round of applause from the packed room.
Boris Johnson moves swiftly onto the issue of housing, saying it is "disgraceful" that the UK has lower rates of home ownership than France or Germany.
He says the issue is an "open goal" for the Tories, adding: "The facts of life do turn out to be Conservative".
He says Jeremy Corbyn's agenda is "diamterically opposed to the interests of most families".
Recalling his time as a local newspaper reporter in Wolverhampton, he recounts visiting a family living in a house ridden with damp, saying"
"I thought what a difference it would make to that family if they'd been able to take back control, to coin a phrase - to buy that flat."
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