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...
ANALYSIS: What did we learn from Boris Johnson's big speech? In short, not a great deal that we didn't already know.
But this was clearly a leadership pitch and in that sense it gave us a clearer sense of what Johnson's future campaign might look like.
On Brexit, there was a lot of angry rhetoric about the Chequers plan - much of which we've heard before - but again very little in the way of alternative solutions. He said the UK should pursue a Canada-style free trade deal and reject the European Commission's proposal for a Northern Ireland backstop, but offered no suggestions for how this could possibly avoid a hard border in Nothern Ireland.
The speech contained plenty of red meat for Tory members, with tough language on Europe and Jeremy Corbyn, an impassioned defence of free markets and a call for lower taxes.
But Johnson twinned this with a much softer passage on housing, where he spoke at length about people being locked out of home ownership and living in poor conditions.
The former foreign secretary wants to be seen as a leader in waiting - the inevitable successor to Theresa May. The hype around this speech, perhaps more than anything in it, will have helped him achieve that and the rabble-rousing rhetoric will undoubtedly go down well with many party members.
However, it's not the Tory faithful that is most likely to put a stop to Boris Johnson's prime ministerial ambitions - it's Tory MPs. Most insiders believe the former foreign secretary would have a good chance of winning if he makes it onto the members' ballot in any leadership election. But to do that he needs to secure the backing of more than 100 Tory MPs - and that's where his problem lies.
Many MPs have little patience for their party conference being overshadowed by what many see as yet more of Johnson's showboating. So while today's speech may have increased the likelihood that the Tory faithful would vote for Prime Minister Johnson, it might also make it more likely that they'll never get the chance to do do.
Claire Perry, the business minister, has issued a withering putdown of Boris Johnson's speech.
She tells 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? But behind the scenes all the deadly serious work of delivering Brexit goes on."
Tory Eurosceptic MP James Duddridge has welcomed Boris Johnson's speech...
It's fair to say DUP leader Arlene Foster wasn't overly impressed with Karen Bradley, the Nothern Ireland secretary, praising the BBC earlier...
This is an interesting development that we'll be keeping a close eye on...
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is currently addressing the conference.
He jokes about introducing new technology in the NHS and says he has "been able to consult widely about this in the last few days, because CCHQ’s given everyone my phone number".
Hancock says the NHS is still the biggest buyer of fax machines in the country and possible even the world - something he says is "putting even greater pressures on our NHS staff".
He adds:
"In some hospitals a nurse still goes round with a clip board to find out where beds are in use and where they’re empty. It doesn’t have to be that way."
Anti-Brexit Tory MP Anna Soubry is scathing about the party's young activists...
Veteran Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh has reacted negatively - and somewhat bizarrely - to the government's plans to allow straight couples to enter into civil partnerships...
FULL STORY: DUP threatens to torpedo Theresa May's Brexit proposals and say they could vote with Labour
All of Britain's major television broadcasters have written to Downing Street to complain about Theresa May's refusal to conduct interviews with several TV stations during this week's party conference.
In a letter to Robbie Gibb, the prime minister's director of communications, Sky News, BBC News, ITV, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News and ITN said they wanted to "formally complain" about the situation, which they likened to Donald Trump's treatment of journalists...
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