Theresa May will today warn her squabbling Cabinet to stop fighting and ‘do our duty by Britain’.
After a fraught week in Manchester, the Prime Minister will tell the Conservative conference it is time for the party to ‘shape up’ and focus on delivering for voters.
Mrs May will also unveil a string of policy initiatives.
Theresa May will today warn her squabbling Cabinet to stop fighting and ‘do our duty by Britain’
Plans include what one senior Tory described as a ‘revolution in housebuilding’ designed to win over the under-40s.
Mrs May’s rallying call follows a day in which:
- Boris Johnson was cheered after a barnstorming speech in which he said it was ‘time to be bold’ and embrace the opportunities of Brexit;
- Cabinet ministers continued to round on the Foreign Secretary for intervening on Brexit before conference;
- Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a ban on the sale of acid to under-18s following a string of attacks;
- Mrs May faced calls to sack Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan after he said Brexit was the result of a ‘tantrum’ by the working classes;
- Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon publicly called for an increase in the military budget;
- Priti Patel said voters were ‘right to be angry’ about waste in the £13billion aid budget as she announced a crackdown on fatcat contractors.
The Tories’ annual gathering has been overshadowed by Cabinet infighting sparked by Mr Johnson’s decision to go public with his concerns about the Government’s direction on Brexit.
Last month he published an unauthorised 4,000-word essay laying out his personal manifesto for Brexit. Then, on the eve of the conference, he used an interview to lay out his own ‘red lines’.
After a fraught week in Manchester, the Prime Minister will tell the Conservative conference it is time for the party to ‘shape up’ and focus on delivering for voters
The Prime Minister will use her set-piece speech today to say it is time to end the civil war and start focusing on the needs of ordinary families.
Mrs May will say the Conservatives should be ‘not worrying about our job security, but theirs. Not addressing our concerns, but the issues, the problems, the challenges, that concern them.
Not focusing on our future, but on the future of their children and their grandchildren – doing everything we can to ensure their tomorrow will be better than our today.’
Invoking Winston Churchill, she will say: ‘Let us go forward together. Let us fulfil our duty to Britain.’
She will go on: ‘Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs. For beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues – the daily lives of ordinary working people go on. And they must be our focus today.’
The Foreign Secretary received a rapturous reception from activists yesterday as he set out an upbeat vision of life outside the EU. But he has faced a backlash from colleagues.
Boris Johnson was cheered after a barnstorming speech in which he said it was ‘time to be bold’ and embrace the opportunities of Brexit
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon openly mocked him from the conference stage, while Brexit Secretary David Davis took a thinly-veiled swipe at him.
Allies of Mrs May believe Mr Johnson’s actions were the result of a leadership bid that has backfired.
But friends of Mr Johnson insist his motives have been misunderstood. One ally said: ‘It’s not about disloyalty. He feels he will be judged on Brexit and he was worried that things might be going wrong, but it’s all fine now.’
Tory aides last night said Mrs May would use today’s speech to reflect on the lessons of the June election which saw the Tories surrender their Commons majority.
The party has spent much of this week soul-searching about their failure to connect with younger voters.
Mrs May has already announced plans to cap tuition fees and invest an extra £10billion in the Help to Buy housing scheme.
Today she is expected to set out housebuilding plans. Chancellor Philip Hammond has been examining plans to release more public land.