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...
The former foreign secretary suggests his party must attack Labour, rather than "aping" them, in a thinly veiled reference to chancellor Philip Hammond's speech yesterday:
Johnson hits out at Philip Hammond, the chancellor, who earlier in the week mocked his record as Mayor of London.
He says as Mayor he cut crime by 20 per cent, reduced tube delays, introduced new buses, built new museums and lowered council tax, among other things.
He says that, under current mayor Sadiq Khan, the number of new-builds is falling because "Labour gets tangled in its cynical political objectives".
Johnson is laying out a clear policy manifesto. He talks about increasing home ownership, taking on the big housebuilders "who are abusing their dominant position", and giving councils a greater share of council tax.
Boris Johnson says he visited Peru during his time as foreign secretary and wondered why it had taken 52 years for a British foreign secretary to visit.
Answering his own question, he says:
"Our global strategy - our commercial, our political, our diplomatic strategy, was focused on the EU."
This was right in the 1970s, he says, "but makes much less sense today" when 95 per cent of the world's growth is forecast to come from outside the EU.
"The conspicous failure of markets does not mean that state control is better", Johnson says.
He says it is "astonishing" that in his conference speech last week Jeremy Corbyn had "nothing to say" about wealth creation..."the grafters and the grifters, the innovators and the entrepreneurs".
On a tangent, he calls for the reintroduction of "systematic stop-and-search to end the politically correct nonsense that has endangered the lives of young people in our capital and elsewhere."
He says "on no account can we try to follow Corbyn and treat capitalism as some kind of boo word".
Here we go. Boris Johnson is on to Brexit. He says it is "sad and desperately wrong" that the government's current Brexit strategy will make it harder for the UK to do trade deals with other countries and would leave the UK "locked in the tractor beam of Brussels". That gets a huge clap.
Johnson says it is "politically humiliating" and suggests the authors of the Chequers plan "risk prosecution" under a 14th century statute "which says no foreign government should have jurisdication in this country".
Chequers would mean the entire economy would be "exposed perpetually" to regulations that could have been "expressly designed by foreign competitors" to damage the UK, he says.
Continuing his attack on Theresa May's Chequers plan, Johnson says:
"That is not pragmatic, that is not a compromise. It is dangerous and unstable, politically and economically. This is not democracy. That is not what we voted for. It is a constitutional outrage. It's not taking back control, it's forfeitting control."
He says the Chequers proposals show the UK "was unable to take back control" and mean Britain would be "effectively paraded in manacles" around Brussels.
More rapturous applause....
Urging Theresa May to return to the princples of her Lancaster House speech, Johnson says:
"This is the moment to chuck Chequers, to scrap the Commission's constitutionally abominable Northern Ireland backstop, to use the otherwise redundant and miserable implementation period to negotiate the super Canada free-trade agreement, to invest in all the customs procedures that we will need to ensure frictionless trade and and to prepare much more vigorously than hitherto for coming out on WTO terms.".
That gets a prolonged and hearty round of applause - the biggest so far.
He continues:
"If we get this right, it can be win-win for both sides of the Channel.
If we get it wrong – if we bottle Brexit now – believe me, the people of this country will find it hard to forgive.
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.
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."
Wrapping up, Boris Johnson says:
"And so 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. And in so doing to believe in conservatism and to believe in Britain.
Because if we get it wrong we will be punished. And if we get it right we can and will have a glorious future and this government will be remembered for having done something brave and right and remarkable and in accordance with the wishes of the people.
He gets a huge standing ovation from an audience that appeared to love every word.
Breaking: Boris Johnson accuses Theresa May of trying to 'manacle' the UK as he tilts to Tory leadership
NEW: Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, has threatened to block the EU's access to British satellite facilities after Brexit
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