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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Conservative conference 2017: Ruth Davidson suggests she would have sacked Boris Johnson over Brexit articles - Politics live

Philip Hammond delivering his conference speech.
Philip Hammond delivering his conference speech. Photograph: Chris Radburn/REX/Shutterstock

Afternoon summary

  • Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, has become the latest senior party figure to criticise Boris Johnson for using newspaper articles to set out his personal Brexit demands. She suggested she would have sacked him if she had been prime minister. (See 3.43pm.) Earlier Philip Hammond, the chancellor, also said Johnson should remember that he can be sacked. (See 9.47am.) Hammond and Damian Green, the first secretary of state, have also insisted that, contrary to what Johnson wants, the Brexit transition could last a bit longer than two years. (See 11.48am.)
  • Hammond has also said the government must not underestimate the difficulties of Brexit. (See 12.34pm.) This passage in his speech seemed to be clearly aimed at Boris Johnson, who has constantly dismissed negativity about Brexit by stressing the need for optimism.
  • Phillip Lee, a justice minister, has told a fringe meeting that the welfare state is like a “Ponzi scheme” close to collapse. (See 5.15pm.)

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is attracting huge audiences at his fringe meetings at the conference. These are from the latest.

My colleague Jonathan Jones has written an analysis of what the picture of Boris Johnson out jogging with the Sun editor Tony Gallagher tells us about power today.

Welfare state like a 'Ponzi scheme' close to collapse, says minister

At the SMF/Opinium fringe earlier the justice minister Phillip Lee, who is a doctor, also described the welfare state as being like “a Ponzi scheme” close to collapse. He said:

Fundamentally, when it comes to the under 44s, to say to them, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to tax you even more in work, whilst you’re struggling with a family, whilst you’re wondering about whether you’re going to be paying for your kids’ education, all those sorts of things, oh, by the way, we’re also going to tax you even more because this Ponzi scheme that we’ve had in play for pensions and for healthcare and for social care for the past 30 years is about to collapse, so therefore we want you to work really, really hard, but when you get to 65, it’s not going to be there.’ Hands up who thinks that’s a really compelling narrative? That suddenly, you’re going to go, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what I want to vote for.’

Lee was speaking in the context of why young people might be losing faith in the system and making a point about health and social care costs and pension liabilities rising. He probably didn’t intend his words to be taken as a firm prediction that the welfare state will be abandoned at some point in the medium term, but that is unlikely to stop Labour press releasing about this soon.

Greg Clark, the business secretary, used his speech to announce the universities that will form the Faraday Battery Institute. They are: Imperial College London, Newcastle University, University College London, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and University of Warwick.

In his speech Clark said:

Through the Faraday Research Challenge we are cementing our position as the ‘go-to’ destination for battery technology so we can exploit the global transition to a low carbon economy.

The Faraday Battery, Institute will have a critical role in fostering innovative research collaboration between our world-leading universities and world-beating businesses to make this technology more accessible and more affordable.

The CCHQ briefing note describes the institute as a £65m initiative, although when Clark announced it in July it was only a £45m project.

Greg Clark speaking at the conference.
Greg Clark speaking at the conference. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/Reuters

Here is more footage of the disruption of the Jacob Rees-Mogg fringe.

The Conservative party is in danger of seeing its supporters die off, the justice minister Phillip Lee told an SMF/Opinium fringe meeting. He said:

I do think it is hugely important, in fact I’d say this issue [appealing to younger voters], the challenge the Conservative party faces, is the challenge, actually. Nick Clegg made some headlines recently for saying that Brexit wouldn’t have happened because of natural wastage now. Rather unpalatable, but I wonder actually, in ten year’s time, because of natural wastage, whether we’re going to be in a similar losing position.

Here is John Howell, Boris Johnson’s successor as MP for Henley, saying Johnson should “keep his bloody mouth shut”.

Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, has just finished his speech to the conference. He said that the government would extent “smart ticketing” (ie, non-paper tickets) across most of the rail network by the end of the year. He told the conference:

Our railways haven’t made nearly enough progress in using new technology for rail tickets. Last year I said to you that we needed to get rid of the paper ticket on our trains.

Since then we’ve been working on plans to achieve that.

So today I am setting out details of our £80m programme to bring smart ticketing ….. using mobile phones, barcodes and smartcards across almost all of the rail network by the end of next year.

It’s what passengers want. And we will deliver it.

In a briefing note CCHQ said that technology allowing customers to replace a paper season ticket with a smart card, or a ticket on a phone, would be trailed by the end of the year. It also said that there would be “faster progress on pay-as-you-go on commuter franchises with Great Northern, Southern, C2C and Thameslink deploying their system widely by early next year” and that Grayling would be “challenging the industry to accelerate proposals for the next generation of interoperable, pay-as-you-go smart ticketing systems.”

Chris Grayling.
Chris Grayling. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/Reuters

This is from the New Statesman’s George Eaton.

A deposit return scheme aimed at slashing plastic pollution came a significant step closer on Monday with environment secretary Michael Gove saying he will work with the industry to see how a scheme can be implemented in England.

Gove announced a four-week call for views to inform how a deposit return scheme (DRS) would be designed. The government’s working group on the issue will also consider DRS for metal and glass containers.

Over eight million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year, with 80% coming from land. Plastic bottles are a major contributor with a million made every minute and the rate rising quickly. At least a dozen nations already have DRS, in which a small deposit is paid when purchasing the bottle which is then returned when the empty bottle is brought back.

In Germany and Denmark, which have DRSs, over 90% of bottles are returned. In England, just 57% of plastic bottles are recycled, mostly through streetside collection schemes. Gove was pressured this summer by opposition parties and NGOs to introduce an DRS in England, and Nicola Sturgeon announced in September that Scotland would introduce a DRS.

Conservative colleagues may be losing patience with Boris Johnson. But his recent Brexit interventions have boosted his popularity amongst the membership at large, a ConservativeHome survey of party members suggests. It has Johnson as favourite amongst Conservative members for next party leader.

Here is an extract from Paul Goodman’s write up.

What a difference four weeks or so can make. At least if you write a personal manifesto for Brexit – brimming with vim and devastating in timing.

For there can be no doubt that it is his recent Daily Telegrapharticle, combined with his combative stance since, that has boomeranged the Foreign Secretary back to the top of the survey.

That said, his 21 per cent total is solid rather than spectacular: roughly where the leading candidate’s tends to be each month.

Davidson suggests she would have sacked Boris Johnson over his Brexit articles

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, has suggested she would have sacked Boris Johnson if she were prime minister for his recent interventions on Brexit. As PoliticsHome reports, she told a fringe meeting:

I have a lot of MSPs at this conference - if any of you think about writing anything without telling me that runs counter to Conservative policy, you’re out on your ear because nobody is unsackable.

Johnson has used two newspaper interventions to set out Brexit proposals going beyond agreed public policy: a long article in the Daily Telegraph before Theresa May’s Florence speech, and a Sun interview on Saturday setting out four red lines on Brexit.

Ruth Davidson.
Ruth Davidson. Photograph: Chris Radburn/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

These are from the Economist’s Adrian Wooldridge.

Michael Gove's speech - Summary

Here are the main points from Michael Gove’s speech.

This government has announced a ban on the plastic microbeads which pollute our seas.

And we are looking to go further to reduce plastic waste by working with industry to see how we could introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.

At the moment the maximum sentence for animal cruelty is just six months.

I believe that when we face deliberate, calculating and sadistic behaviour, we need to deploy the full force of the law to show we will not tolerate evil.

Which is why we will bring forward legislation to increase punishments for the most horrific acts of animal cruelty to five year sentences.

Animals are sentient beings, they are in our care, they deserve our protection.

  • He said Brexit would allow Britain to develop better alternatives to the common fisheries policy and the common agricultural policy.

Take the EU’s common fisheries policy - it has been economically and environmentally disastrous.

Lack of control over our own waters has gone hand in hand with drastic overfishing and the depletion of a wonderful, renewable, natural resource.

Outside the EU we can do so much better.

And the EU’s common agricultural policy has been a failure - environmentally damaging and socially unjust.

It’s damaged natural habitats, hit biodiversity and harmed wildlife.

The number of farmland birds has reduced by more than half, pollinators such as wild and honey bees have suffered a drastic decline in numbers, and our rivers and chalk streams have seen fish stocks decline and small mammals disappear.

On top of that, the CAP has channeled hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to the already wealthy, simply because of the amount of land they have.

That is plain wrong.

  • He described the Conservative party as Britain’s “most ambitious, green party”.

Conservatism is rooted in nature. In respect for human nature. And in reverence for the natural world.

Each of us has an attachment to a special part of this beautiful country, somewhere we call home or know as a haven of peace, somewhere enchanted by childhood memories of play, adventure and exploration.

And as Conservatives, as those whose love of country is rooted in love of home, we are instinctive defenders of beauty in the landscape, protectors of wildlife, friends of the earth.

The first, and still the most ambitious, green party in this country is the Conservative party.

Michael Gove arriving to speak on the platform at the conference.
Michael Gove arriving to speak on the platform at the conference. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/Reuters

The immigration minister, Brandon Lewis, confirmed that freedom of movement will end in March 2019 at an Institute for Government fringe and gave a new timeline for post-Brexit immigration policy.

Following the Guardian leak of an August draft the government’s white paper on post-Brexit immigration policy, which had been expected early this month, has now delayed until “late autumn”, he said.

The white paper will followed by an framework immigration bill in the new year but Lewis made clear that the meat of the new approach to EU migrants will not become clear until secondary legislation is published next autumn, after the migration advisory committee reports on the impact of migrant labour on the UK market and students.

This means that the crucial detail of the new immigration policy will not become clear until a few months before Brexit in March 2019 and at the fringe meeting Bronwen Maddox of the Institute for Government said she was “very sceptical” that even that timetable would be met.

The minister also twice referred to the “compliant environment” rather the previous Home Office term of ‘hostile environment” to tackle illegal immigration, suggesting that the term has now been rebranded because it is gaining a toxic reputation.

Lewis also tried to play down the scale of recent mistakes made by the Home Office by claiming that most of those reported in the press involved “cases on which the Home Office could not comment” and so were only side of the story. He said had personally written apologies the next day to all the 100 EU nationals who had mistakenly been told to leave the country this summer.

Bradley says government wants UK to be 'safest place in world to go online'

In her speech to the conference Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, said the government would be publishing an internet safety green paper next week. She said she wanted Britain to be “the safest place in the world to go online”.

The strategy will:

  • Propose a code of conduct for social media companies.
  • Encourage social media companies to ensure that safety is taken into account from the start when new products are designed.
  • Promote online safety education in schools.

Giving more details Bradley said:

As part of the strategy the government will work with industry to introduce a new code of practice - giving guidance to social media companies on what action they should take against unacceptable behaviour online. By setting voluntary minimum standards, the code will tackle major issues such as trolling and abuse.

The strategy will also provide support to new innovative businesses in the UK by embedding the principle of ‘safety by design’ into the development of new technology. This means that companies will need to think about internet safety during the design process of their products so that safety features are embedded from the outset.

To ensure that children, parents and carers can be better supported on online safety there will also be a strong focus on education. As part of the national curriculum schools will be encouraged to help children stay safe online by teaching them safety skills. Government will also work alongside the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCCIS) and other organisations to ensure that online safety tools are easily available to parents.

Karen Bradley.
Karen Bradley. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has put out this statement about the Philip Hammond speech.

It was a speech that contained more smears on Labour than Tory policy announcements. But it betrays how fearful the Tories are of the challenge posed by Jeremy Corbyn.

There was nothing of real substance on infrastructure, on tackling the housing crisis, the funding shortfall in our NHS and care system, and nothing at all for hard working families who are struggling to keep up with rising prices.

The chancellor this morning admitted he will borrow £10bn for a housing policy that will only help a few, and which is derided by many of his predecessors even in his own party. Yet he will do nothing for the low paid struggling under the Tories Universal Credit mismanagement, or hard pressed public-sector workers. Real wages are lower today than when the Tories first came to power

On infrastructure spending, he has no plans to end the north-south divide on infrastructure spending. Philip Hammond has announced a mere drop in the ocean compared to what has already been cut with government investment spending £19 billion lower than in 2010. Communities in the north of England will not be fooled when this government plans to invest in transport just one-fifth in the North of what it will spend in London.

Here is a video of the protest at the Jacob Rees-Mogg fringe.

Protest at the Jacob Rees-Mogg fringe.

Institute of Directors says 'little red meat' for business in Hammond's speech

The Institute of Directors says there was “little red meat” for business in Philip Hammond’s speech. Stephen Martin, the IoD director general, said:

The chancellor was right to praise the virtues of our market-based economy and emphasise the strengths of the UK’s many innovative and entrepreneurial business.

Actions speak louder than words, however, and he must back up his support for business in the upcoming Budget. There was little red meat for business leaders today, and if he wants to unleash the nation’s potential, he must use the Budget to boost investment by individuals and companies.

As revealed by our survey this morning, business investment tipped into negative territory in August. The IoD has, therefore, called on the chancellor to prioritise tax changes to boost entrepreneurial companies, including raising the annual investment allowance cap to £1m, and relieving restrictions on reliefs for investing in start-ups and growing companies.

Here are two blogs on Philip Hammond’s speech that are worth reading.

The housing crisis is at the root of the Tories’ woes; it’s hard to sell capitalism to those without capital. But beyond promising an extra £10bn in funding for Help to Buy (which merely inflates demand, rather than increasing supply), Hammond’s speech offered no solutions to the problem. The chancellor spoke of “the pressure on living standards caused by slow wage growth and a spike in inflation”. Yet after the longest fall in real wages since the Napoleonic Wars, he was notably short of answers.

Hammond devoted most of his address to an attack on Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s left-wing economics. He gave a very decent PPE essay on why their solutions haven’t worked in anytime or place. Though, the problem is the examples cited are either historical—the 1970s—or sound over the top: Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe. But if the Tories want a contemporary example of what can happen with powerful unions holding a Labour administration to ransom, they should point to the Birmingham bin strike. Indeed, the Tories’ reluctance to try and turn this strike in Britain’s second city into a national issue is perplexing.

The Telegraph’s Michael Deacon has a transcript of the conversation between Jacob Rees-Mogg and one of the protesters who disrupted his meeting.

The British Chambers of Commerce is also suggesting Philip Hammond should have gone further in his speech. This is from Adam Marshall, the BCC director general. In a statement he said:

Philip Hammond’s defence of capitalism and markets will be welcomed by businesses. Yet the fight-back for a strong, competitive market economy has only just begun ..

Philip Hammond is right that skills, infrastructure, and housing are some of the keys to boosting productivity. The government’s challenge is to be much, much bolder, using the power of its balance sheet to invest and deliver – and signal to the world that the UK remains a great place to do business for many years to come.

This is what the Press Association has filed about the Rees-Mogg protest.

A Tory conference event featuring Jacob Rees-Mogg has descended into chaos after protesters mobbed the high-profile backbencher.

Demonstrators holding up placards chanted “Tories out” at the packed meeting on Brexit.

Conservative supporters returned fire, shouting “Labour scum”.

Rees-Mogg was mobbed by a couple of protesters who harangued him directly about his views on abortion.

The MP for North East Somerset, speaking from a lectern, appealed for calm.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let us have a proper and thoughtful debate,” he said.

Karla, who did not want to give her surname, challenged the Tory MP about reports he profited from an abortion drug despite being opposed to terminations in all circumstances.

The 31-year-old, from the outskirts of Manchester, said: “I think it is very hypocritical that you profit from a drug that allows for abortions.”

Rees-Mogg replied: “That story is not true.”

CBI says Hammond's speech offered 'slim pickings' and 'weak on action'

Here is Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI director general, on Philip Hammond’s speech.

The chancellor has given a passionate defence of free markets and the importance of business and government working to tackle inequality. That is necessary, but not sufficient.

The UK is facing a generation defining-challenge. A potent cocktail of Brexit uncertainty and dogma-driven politics on both left and right threatens jobs, investment and living standards. Now is not the time for half measures.

The speech shows a government strong on diagnosis, but weak on action. Businesses looking for clear vision and urgent delivery have been left with slim pickings. Renewing the UK’s creaking infrastructure will unlock regional growth and living standards, as will improving access to housing. But they are only parts of the puzzle.

It is time for honesty about the challenges we face. Our economy is under threat – it has moved from the top of the G7 to the bottom. Faltering consumer and business confidence risks lowering living standards. Rising inflation is putting pressure on households.

The solution must be for responsible business and government to grow our way out of austerity. But this can only happen with clarity, unity and action. Today’s speech was only one step in that direction.

This must be the most negative comment the CBI has issued about a party conference speech from a Conservative chancellor for years.

Anti-austerity protesters disrupt Rees-Mogg fringe meeting

The Press Association has snapped this.

A Tory conference event featuring Jacob Rees-Mogg has descended into chaos after protesters mobbed the high-profile backbencher.

My colleague Jessica Elgot is there.

Hammond's speech - Snap verdict

Unusually, that was a speech without any new policy announcements, because CCHQ released the ones about Help to Buy and money for transport in the north at the weekend and last night. That means instead people will be focusing on Philip Hammond’s argument.

And Hammond did have a thesis. He has been complaining in public and in private about being sidelined during the election campaign, and not being allowed to make the economic case against Labour, and today it felt as if was unleashing all the points he would rather have been making in the spring. It felt like market economics for beginners and it meant much of the speech had the tone of a lecture (leavened by some second-rate jokes).

As a summary of the worst aspects of the 1970s, it was fine as far as it went. But as a critique of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, it felt half-cocked. To demolish your opponents, you first have to understand them properly and to describe Labour simply as “a party taken hostage by a clique of hard-left extremist infiltrators” is to miss the fact, even if there has been a leftwing takeover, that alone doesn’t explain the extraordinary appeal Corbyn’s message has for a substantial minority of the electorate. Equally, when state ownership of the railways and other utilities is mainstream in Europe, to start evoking Cuba, Zimbabwe and Venezuela (Hammond had the good sense to leave out North Korea, even though he included that in the list this morning - see 9.47am) just seemed wide of the mark.

There are credible criticisms that can be made of Labour’s economic programme: it is over-reliant on assumed revenue from business taxes, the party has little appetite for hard choices, and so far policy development has been quite superficial. But Hammond did not make these arguments. A bigger problem, though, was that he was defending the market economy on the grounds that it raises living standards and ignoring the fact that over the last decade it has to a large extent failed on this front.

Philip Hammond.
Philip Hammond. Photograph: David Hartley/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Hammond's peroration

Here is Hammond’s peroration.

So Conference, we will deliver a Brexit that works for Britain and in doing so, we will unleash our nation’s potential. We have a fundamentally strong economy. We’re rebalancing our public finances. We’re addressing the productivity gap. We’re investing in Britain’s future. But we hear the concerns of a generation that feels excluded from the opportunities their parents enjoyed. We hear the concerns of millions of households, impatient at the long slog back from Labour’s recession. We hear them and we will respond to them.

But we can only do so by harnessing the power of the market economy to deliver a brighter future. And that means re-fighting a battle we thought we had won against an opposition determined to put Britain’s prosperity at risk.

We will not let that happen. We will not allow Britain’s prosperity to be threatened, our security to be undermined. We will take on the false promises of Corbyn’s Labour and one by one we will expose them for the fallacies that they are. We will not allow the past to triumph over the future. We will not allow the politics of fear to trump the politics of progress.

Conference, the Conservative party is the most successful political organisation in history, flexible and adaptable, responding to a changing world. But resolute and unmoving in its principles and values.

We will see off this threat to our fundamental freedoms. We will deliver on our promise to the next generation.

We will do it together.

And we will do it for Britain.

Hammond says government must not underestimate difficulties of Brexit

Hammond says the government must be “clear-eyed” about the problems involved with Brexit.

And as we tread that terrain, we need the path well-lit; the hazards well signposted.

The future prize is great. If we get this right – Britain will have a bright future beyond Brexit. But to get to it, we must be clear-eyed about the challenges along our way.

We must not downplay the difficulties nor underestimate the complexities. This will be one of the most challenging tasks ever undertaken by a peacetime government but with focus and determination and unity, we will succeed.

  • Hammond says government must not underestimate difficulties of Brexit.

Updated

Hammond says Brexit will involve complicated decisions; it is not a binary choice, he says.

Our objective is to make Britain safer, stronger, and richer.

And as the prime minister said in Florence, ten days ago, that objective is what will guide us in our negotiations. I don’t pretend it will be a simple process.

There are moments in history when the choice is binary, like the decision in the referendum last year. But there are other times when the challenge is more complex.

Now is such a time, as we pick our way carefully and cautiously across the difficult terrain of EU negotiation, to ensure we arrive in good order on the fertile plains at the other side.

Hammond calls for Brexit talks to be accelerated

Hammond calls for the Brexit talks to be accelerated.

We must resolve the short term challenge of uncertainty around this process by accelerating the talks and delivering a time-limited interim period of around two years for our businesses to adjust.

Hammond says the government must now now implement Brexit.

As I have said before, [people] didn’t vote to get poorer or to reduce trade with our closest neighbours and biggest trading partners. The British people have chosen independence, over integration.

And as we implement their decision, we must use that independence in our nation’s best interest to protect our jobs, to strengthen our economy and to safeguard our prosperity.

We are leaving the EU, not leaving Europe.

Our economic future will remain closely linked with the EU for many good reasons.

But our political future will be our own. Our EU partners can go their way, we wish them well. But we will not join them on a voyage to ever closer union.

Hammond says government must remove Brexit uncertainty

Hammond turns to Brexit.

The process of negotiating our exit from the EU has created uncertainty so investment has slowed as businesses wait for clarity. So before we can reap the benefits of our strong economic fundamentals and the investment we are making in the future we must remove this uncertainty.

Hammond turns to Help to Buy, and the plan to spend an extra £10bn on it.

As Conservatives, we have always supported young people and families to achieve their dreams of home ownership. Our “help to buy ISA”, launched in 2015, has helped more than a million people to save for their own home.

And “Help to Buy: Equity Loan” has achieved much higher take-up than we expected, helping 130,000 families so far with a deposit for their own home.

This morning, the prime minister and I have visited two of them in their new home in Salford, hearing first-hand how Help to Buy made their dream of home ownership come true. But that success means the original funding allocated to the scheme will run out before the scheme was expected to end.

So today, I can announce an extra £10bn in funding to provide loans under the scheme through to 2021. Helping an estimated 130,000 more homebuyers over the next few years. Renewing our Conservative commitment to Britain’s property owning democracy for the next generation.

Updated

Hammond confirms a £300m investment in transport in the north that was briefed overnight.

Opening up derelict land for development for housing and for jobs. Connecting our communities to make them more productive. And so today I am announcing a further £300m to future-proof the railway network in the north, ensuring HS2 infrastructure can link up with future Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Rail projects while keeping open all options for services through Manchester Piccadilly.

Hammond says low skills partly explain why wages are low. That is why in hte budget he announced measures to reform technical education. The government is also committed to a new national retraining scheme, he says.

And sometimes wages are too low because firms don’t invest. The government set up a patient capital review to encourage investment, he says, and the government is investing in infrastructure.

Hammond turns to wages. They are too low, he says.

But now we need to tackle the stagnation in wages. Britain’s productivity growth, along with many other developed countries, slowed to a snail’s pace in the wake of the financial crisis – and has remained stuck there since. We need to get it moving, although we definitely don’t need Momentum.

Because you can’t do it by the kind of short-cuts and smoke and mirrors we were offered at Brighton last week.

Anyone with a GCSE in economics can tell you that pouring borrowed money into a state controlled, Union-dominated economy will produce inflation, not growth. The truth is that while the best British businesses can beat the world, other parts of our economy need help to grow.

In many areas of our country, in many sectors of our economy, and in many individual firms, productivity is just too low and that means for many, wages are just too low.

Hammond says Britain must embrace the future.

The future is coming and we must be the Party that embraces it, not fights it. Because it is change that will deliver the progress we are committed to. We have a phalanx of entrepreneurs and investors who have taken these breakthrough technologies from the labs of our world-leading Universities, to the factories and business parks of Britain creating the jobs and the wealth and the tax revenues that will sustain the Britain of the future.

Hammond says income inequality has “fallen to its lowest level in over three decades”.

And debt is due to begin falling next year, he says.

Hammond says he has to be “open and honest” about the challenges facing the country.

We face an immediate challenge managing uncertainty about the outcome of our Brexit negotiations. We face a medium term challenge of restoring our public finances to balance and starting to pay down our debts – so we do not burden the next generation with the cost of our mistakes. And we face a longer term challenge of raising Britain’s productivity – increasing the amount we produce in each hour we work – so that we can get wages growing more quickly, without simply stoking inflation and so we can fund our public services to support our ageing population.

Hammond says the economy is “fundamentally strong”.

Conference, our economy is not broken: it is fundamentally strong. And while no one suggests a market economy is perfect, it is the best system yet designed for making people steadily better off over time and underpinning strong and sustainable public services for everyone.

As this model comes under renewed assault, we must not be afraid to defend it.

The market economy frees people and businesses, encourages them to create, take risks, give ideas a go because they can see the results and benefit from their success.

Hammond mentions some election successes.

Under Ruth Davidson’s dynamic leadership we saw Scotland sending 13 Conservatives to Westminster – re-establishing an assertive Scottish Conservative voice in our UK parliament for the first time in two decades, (and, believe me, as Chancellor, I have already found out just how assertive!). Ruth, you’ve put Nicola Sturgeon on notice, and your campaign was an inspiration to all of us.

In the Midlands, we won seats such as Stoke-on-Trent South for the first time in over 80 years and in Copeland we saw Trudy Harrison cement her historic by-election victory. But still, overall it wasn’t the result we all worked for and we lost too many valued parliamentary colleagues.

Hammond says there were some “substantial achievements” at the election.

A Conservative prime minister returned to Number 10 in 2017 with our biggest share of the vote for 30 years. And at 43%, Theresa May won a clearer, stronger mandate in the popular vote in Britain than Angela Merkel in Germany.

(Hammond is making a false comparison. Germany has a multi-party political system, so comparing Merkel’s vote with May’s is not fair.)

Hammond accuses Labour of offering “simple solutions”.

It’s a wicked and cynical business offering superficially simple solutions to complex challenges: But colleagues, we need to listen to those fears and concerns, we need to acknowledge the weariness at the long slog back from Labour’s recession, the pressure on living standards caused by slow wage growth and a spike in inflation. The frustration among the young who fear that the combination of student debt and sky high rents and house prices will condemn them never to access the opportunities of property ownership their parents enjoyed.

Hammond says John McDonnell thinks our system is broken.

He says McDonnell welcomed the financial crash, saying what it was what he had been waiting for.

McDonnell was sacked by Ken Livingstone for being too leftwing, he claims.

Hammond says the party has to understand why it is having this argument.

They thought they had won this argument; that everyone embraced market economics.

The few MPs who opposed this were treated in parliament as museum pieces, as dinosaurs.

But now the dinosaurs have broken out. Labour conference was a political version of Jurassic Park.

Hammond says the Tories must also offer a better way forward.

As Labour abandons the centre ground of British politics, the Tories will take it, he says.

He says the Tories must make a commitment to the next generation that their children will be better off. “That is the Conservative definition of progress,” he says.

Hammond says the Tories will always do what is right for Britain.

What is right for Britain now includes keeping Jeremy Corbyn and his clique far away from power, and even a sniff of it.

Corbyn is a clear and present danger to Britain, he says.

He says by abandoning Labour, Corbyn has abandoned the interests of working people.

Hammond says last week’s Labour conference showed it is a party taken hostage by a hard left clique of infiltrators.

Labour offered a negative agenda of failed ideas, from a bygone era, threatening our freedom, he says.

He says the Tories must take on Labour and defeat them.

I promise you this: we will defeat them by the power of our argument ... by the logic of history.

He says the Tories will not defeat Labour by intimidation, and the “undertones of lawlessness” on offer last week.

Hammond says after Margaret Thatcher became prime minister the UK blazed a trail, that ultimately saw countries in Eastern Europe following Britain and become prosperous.

He says there are some countries that have not followed this model.

He visited Cuba as foreign secretary he says. There are cows in the field, but no milk in the shops. That is what happens when the government tries to control prices.

He says Zimbabwe is also a basket case. And Venezeula, following policies backed by Jeremy Corbyn, is failing. But Corbyn won’t say a word against it.

Oh, Jeremy Corbyn - lost your voice, have you?

Hammond refers to the speech William Hague gave as a teenager at the Tory conference in 1977. Hague spoke about the need for people to be free from the hands of the state, he says.

Hammond says it is necessary to make those arguments again.

And the Tories have to make these arguments with conference.

He says he understands the reluctance people have about talking about the 1970s. He has children himself, he says. He knows young people don’t remember this.

But they have to make the arguments again.

We know what state control does to industries, he says. They were all inefficient. The unions knew that, under state control, they would never go bust. So the losses piled up.

The Labour government responded by borrowing money. And Labour had to go to the IMF to borrow money.

He says inflation reached 26.9% in 1975. There was a brain drain as people went abroad.

He says the top rate of income tax was 83%. And the top rate of tax on interest and dividends was 98%.

There was not much investment, he says.

This went on until 1979, when people voted to put Labour’s failed experiment behind them, he says.

Hammond starts with a joke: what a privilege it is to be in Manchester, “but all of us united”.

(I presume he was being ironic.)

Philip Hammond's speech

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is about to deliver his conference speech.

The warm-up speech is being delivered now by Ben Houchen, who was elected as the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley earlier this year. Labour were expected to win, and Houchen says his victory took people by surprise.

Green and Hammond tell Boris Johnson Brexit transition may last longer than two years

At a fringe meeting at the conference Damian Green, the first secretary of state, said the Brexit transition could last “a few months” longer than two years. He said:

The phrase the prime minister used [in her Florence speech, for the length of the transition] was ‘around two years’ but that means a few months either way.

Boris Johnson used his Sun interview to say the transition should not last “a second” longer than two years. Green is now the second cabinet minister this morning to say, effectively, that the cabinet is not accepting his condition. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, did the same earlier. (See 9.47am.)

Gauke refuses to delay universal credit roll out, but promises to offer more advance payments

David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, has just finished his speech to the conference. He rejected calls from 12 Tory MPs to delay the roll out of universal credit, but he announced that fresh guidance will be issued to benefit offices to ensure more people are offered advance payments. He told the conference.

I understand the concerns that have been raised that, when people first claim, they have to wait six weeks or more before they receive a penny.

It is the case that what you get in universal credit depends on what you have earned over the previous month, so payments are made in arrears.

But I am determined to ensure that those who need support earlier in the month will get it. It is already the case that if people need help before the first full benefit payment, they can quickly get an advance to help tide them over.

Increasing numbers of people now claim this – since June, the majority of claimants did so. However, I can announce today that we are refreshing the guidance to DWP staff to ensure that anyone who needs an advance payment will be offered it up-front. Claimants who want an advance payment will not have to wait six weeks. They will receive this advance within 5 working days.

And if someone is in immediate need, then we fast track the payment, meaning they will receive it on the same day.

Universal credit is working. So I can confirm that the rollout will continue, and to the planned timetable. We’re not going to rush things – it is more important to get this right than to do this quickly, and this won’t be completed until 2022. But across the country, we will continue to transform our welfare system to further support those who aspire to work.

Updated

Gove says Brexit will boost exports of pigs' ears

Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has told a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference that Britain will be able export more pigs’ ears after Brexit. As the Press Association reports, he said leaving the EU would enable UK farmers to do away with ear tags and introduce their own “traceability methods” on livestock.

There are some cuts of the animal that are hugely popular with the British consumer, others a little less. But some of those cuts are hugely popular elsewhere, say, for example, pigs’ ears are a delicacy in China.

Gove explained that “one of the reasons” why Britain has not been “as successful as we might have been at selling pigs’ ears to China is that EU rules dictate that pigs, like all livestock, have ear tags”. After Brexit these rules would not apply, he said.

And as a result we can have pigs’ ears that don’t need to be pierced. Unpierced pigs’ ears are worth more.

We will have a fair, competitive advantage - we can sell more pigs’ ears to China and that means there can be more bacon and pork and ham from the other joints of the animal that are popularly sold here.

So by selling more sows’ ears to China we can buy more silk purses for British farmers.

Theresa May, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, have this morning been visiting a family in Manchester who bought their home using Help to Buy.

Theresa May, Philip Hammond (left) and Sajid Javid (right) visit the home of Rebecca Coulton in Manchester.
Theresa May, Philip Hammond (left) and Sajid Javid (right) visit the home of Rebecca Coulton in Manchester. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves a house after speaking with a family in Manchester on the sidelines of the Conservative Party conference on October 2, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / HANNAH MCKAYHANNAH MCKAY/AFP/Getty Images
Theresa May leaves a house after speaking with a family in Manchester. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/AFP/Getty Images

Sky’s Alan McGuinness says May managed a joke about her husband’s lack of DIY skills.

Letwin says taxes should go up because 'we aren't spending enough on social care'

Sir Oliver Letwin, the former Cabinet Office minister and government policy chief when David Cameron was prime minister, was also on the Today programme this morning. In a clear sign that this is one of CCHQ’s “lines to take”, he followed Philip Hammond (see 9.47am) in arguing that Jeremy Corbyn wants to turn the UK into Venezuela. Letwin said:

Jeremy Corbyn is setting out a Venezuela-style socialism ... I think it is socialism red in tooth and claw, actually.

Right before our eyes there is Venezuela. It has followed a programme remarkably similar to that which Jeremy Corbyn is advocating, with disastrous results.

Repeating and developing an argument he first made on the Today programme in the summer, Letwin also said that taxes should go up to pay for more spending on social care. Asked if he favoured tax increases, he replied:

Yes, I think in the case of social care for the elderly and the NHS, which are the guts of the argument at the moment about public services and incredibly important to millions of people in this country, the fact is we aren’t spending enough on social care at the moment. That is causing severe strain to the NHS. I don’t believe we should try to fund that through massive extra borrowing. I think we should be willing to raise taxes somewhat to do that.

Just to put this in context, it is worth pointing out that Letwin is not someone who has always been seen as one of the Conservative party’s lefties. He used to work in Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit in the 1980s and as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury in 2001 he caused controversy by suggesting public spending should be reduced to 35% of GDP.

Even in Henley, where Boris Johnson used to be MP, Tories think he should be sacked, according to the current MP there, John Howell. This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary, has just finished his speech to the conference. He said the government’s decision to abolish tolls on the Severn bridges would boost the economy of south Wales by up to £100m a year.

No other policy will have such an immediate impact on growing the economy in south Wales and the south west of England than our decision to abolish the tolls on the Severn crossings.

After 50 years of having to pay to enter Wales, I’m grateful to my Cabinet colleagues, particularly Chris Grayling who understood the significance of this policy.

The announcement has been one of my proudest moments as secretary of state.

25 million vehicles cross the bridges every year, with a cost of up to £20 a time.

Anyone living and working in south Wales, knows how important this.

Just think – no tolls, no booths, no charges, no long queues to get into Wales.

This decision will immediately boost the economy of south Wales by £100m a year.

And we all have something to offer that benefits the whole of the UK.

On the Today programme this morning Sam Gyimah, a justice minister, said the Tories sounded “too managerial” at the general election and like a party that had turned its back on modern Britain. He told the programme.

Too often, we have sounded managerial. We have made dealing with our debts, and dealing with the day to day, almost sound like that stands in the way of still being able to imagine a world in which people can have a prosperous future ...

[At the general election] we sounded like we had turned our back on modern Britain.

In his morning interviews Philip Hammond, the chancellor, was defending his plan to spend another £10bn on Help to Buy.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank says the programme has helped better off households.

David Mundell, the Scottish secretary, was the first speaker in the conference hall this morning. As my colleague Toby Helm points out, interest was relatively limited.

Tom McTague at Politico Europe has a very interesting story. He says Theresa May is “leaning” towards a Brexit deal that would see the UK continuing to maintain regulatory equivalence with the EU.

Here’s an extract.

UK officials who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity believe May is “leaning” toward a lasting agreement with Brussels to maintain equivalent rules and regulations with the EU, potentially for decades after Brexit, in a move which would be far closer to Hammond’s position than Johnson’s ...

“The PM is leaning to convergence based on advice,” one senior official said. “The divergence lot will have to persuade her against, I believe” ...

The Treasury and some of the prime minister’s most senior Brexit advisers are privately pushing May to agree to “converge” with Brussels regulation once Britain leaves the bloc so as not to restrict the UK’s access to the single market after a proposed two-year transition, officials, political aides and government ministers said.

According to two people, the Treasury is privately telling the prime minister it would be “mad” to cut off Britain’s access to trade with the EU in return for freedom to set Britain’s own regulation at home and hypothetical free-trade deals with other countries, which may take years to negotiate and have no guarantee of replacing trade lost with the Continent. The British economy would not benefit from a policy of regulatory divergence with the EU for up to 30 years, according to one estimate shared at senior levels of government.

In his Sun interview at the end of last week Boris Johnson explicitly ruled this out. He said:

There is no point in coming out of the EU and then remaining in rotational orbit around it. That is the worst of both worlds. You have to be able to have control of your regulatory framework.

If May were to decide on a Brexit outcome involving regulatory equivalence, Johnson - and perhaps some other pro-leave cabinet ministers like Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, or Michael Gove, the environment secretary - could end up resigning, although McTague says May’s allies think some sort of compromise might be possible that could avert this.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has been responding on Twitter to Philip Hammond’s Help to Buy proposals.

Philip Hammond's morning interviews - Summary and analysis

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, covered a lot of ground during his morning interview round. Here are the key points.

  • Hammond insisted that Boris Johnson was sackable. (See 8.06am.)
  • Hammond said the Brexit transition period could last a bit longer than two years. In his Sun interview Johnson said that it should not last “a second” longer than two years. Hammond said that that was a “rhetorical flourish” and that Theresa May set out the government’s position in her Florence speech, where she said the transition would last “around two years”. He said:

We had a cabinet discussion before the speech and the whole cabinet signed up to that position. That is our position.

When it was put to him that this could mean three years, he said that would be “stretching the point” given what May said.

The prime minister was very precise in what she said. At the moment that points to a period of around two years. That leaves us some flexibility, but the degree of precision that business needs to start planning.

Hammond also admitted that he had originally favoured a transition of three to four years. But he said that the government had decided against this, partly because ministers feared that asking for a transition period lasting longer than two years could lead to the deal being voted down by parliaments in other EU countries which might have to ratify such a deal.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg admires “rhetorical flourish” as, in her words, a “posh insult”. Hammond was effectively saying Johnson was just wrong to be so specific.

  • Hammond said businesses needed to know within months what would happen after Brexit otherwise they might cancel investment in the UK. He said:

We have got businesses that have to make decisions over the next few months. Some of those decisions, once made, will be irreversible. And if we don’t give business clarity about the future, they will have to make decisions assuming the worst possible. It’s not an outcome I expect to happen, but that is what they will have to do.

  • He said Johnson’s comments could weaken the government’s Brexit negotiating position. He said:

The more we can show unity, the stronger our negotiating position in the EU would be. David Davis [the Brexit secretary] is doing a great job in Brussels, but his hand would be strengthened where it is clear that he has a united government behind him and a clear position.

  • Hammond rejected claims that the announcement of an extra £10bn for Help to Buy meant the Tories had found “the magic money tree”. All the party’s policy announcements this week were costed, he said.

These are all carefully costed, carefully managed commitments. The £10bn is loan money. The £10bn will be be added to the Help to Buy equity loan fund ... This is money that will be lent to individuals who will pay it back.

  • Hammond claimed that his economic plans were more responsible than Jeremy Corbyn’s. He said:

What Jeremy Corbyn is proposing to do is to borrow large amounts of money simply to pour into public spending, to forgive existing debts, to give people handouts. He is offering people promises that simply cannot sustainably be delivered.

  • Hammond claimed that Labour’s economic policies would fail because Corbyn was not committed to the market economy. He suggested that Corbyn would make the UK more like North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela. He said:

The problem with the propositions we heard at Brighton last week [is] that they have all been tried before and they have all failed before, in Britain in the 1970s and all around the world. And it is not a coincidence that, with the notable exceptions of North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela, the entire world had embraced the market economy. And it has done it because it is the proven, demonstrably sustainable way of delivering rising living standards for people across the world, in the developed countries and the developing countries alike.

Since 1979, when Britain turned its back on the policies of Corbyn and McDonnell revival show this week, living standards in this country have doubled. We have seen across the world millions of people being brought out of poverty by the operation of the market economy. And we have to defend this model as the best model ever invented for delivering prosperity to our people.

One obvious problem with Hammond’s argument is that, for many people, living standards have not been rising since the financial crash.

Another, as my colleague George Monbiot points out, is that Hammond’s assessment of Labour’s policies is just too extreme to be credible.

  • Hammond refused to rule out raising taxes. He did not even play down the prospect of their being necessary. Asked about the possibility of taxes having to go up, he replied:

We will have to be prepared to support the economy during this difficult period.

He also said the Treasury needed to retain “the flexibility ... to support the economy”.

Sir Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s former communications chief, says the problem for Hammond may be that he might not be able to get tax rises through the Commons.

  • Hammond said that, contrary to a story in the Sunday Times last week, he did not text Johnson on election night offering to support him as next Tory leader. Hammond said:

I did not text Boris Johnson during that morning and offer him my support.

  • Hammond said that he would support May if she wanted to fight the next election as leader. He said:

The prime minister has my 100% support. She has indicated that she intends to fight the next election as leader of the Conservative party. If she does so, she will have my support.

This was not quite the impression Hammond gave when asked about this on a recent trip to Scotland.

  • He refused to criticise the Spanish government for their response to the independence ballot in Catalonia. It was important to “maintain the rule of law”, he said. On this topic he and Johnson are, for once, on the same page. As BuzzFeed reports, Johnson has received a lot of criticism overnight for not speaking out against the Spanish government’s actions.
Theresa May and Phillip Hammond leave the Midland Hotel at the start of day two of the Conservative conference this morning.
Theresa May and Phillip Hammond leave the Midland Hotel at the start of day two of the Conservative conference this morning. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Updated

Boris Johnson has been out for a run at the Tory conference in Manchester this morning with the Sun editor, Tony Gallagher.

Johnson set out his four Brexit red lines in an interview with the Sun on Saturday. The Sun responded with an editorial headed “Bang on, Boris”, saying that it agreed with all four points and that “the PM must listen to him.”

Today’s Sun editorial contains a further positive plug for Johnson.

Boris has laid out what he thinks ­Britain unshackled from the dead hand of Brussels could look like, but there is still a lack of genuinely big ideas on the domestic front.

The paper is also today saying that the Foreign Office should take control of the foreign aid budget, another intervention to give Johnson something to smile about on his jog.

Boris Johnson (right) goes for a jog with Sun editor, Tony Gallagher.
Boris Johnson (right) goes for a jog with Sun editor, Tony Gallagher. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Q: Are you the kind of chancellor who would raise taxes if necessary?

Hammond says this was always going to be a turbulent time.

He will support the economy as necessary, he says.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary soon.

Hammond says the ideas announced by Labour in Brighton have all been tried before and have failed before.

It is no coincidence that, apart from countries like North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, countries around the world have embraced the market economy.

Living standard have doubled in the UK as a result of this model.

Q: You are having to copy Corbyn’s policies. And on this programme earlier Oliver Letwin said the Tories should even consider raising taxes to pay for better services.

Hammond says the Tories believe in low taxes.

Q: Lots of Tory chancellors have raised taxes when necessary. Would you do so?

Hammond goes back to housing, and says young people feel the system is rigged against them.

Q: People think the announcements you are making show you have found the magic money tree.

Hammond says his proposals are sound.

Q: Where is the £10bn for help to buy coming from?

It is loan money, says Hammond.

Q: If Jeremy Corbyn announced this, you would say he is borrowing irresponsibly.

Hammond say Labour’s plans are not responsible.

Q: This is money that will go to rich developers.

Hammond says help to buy is just a loan.

Updated

Q: Is this a moment for the country to be aware that there are difficult times coming?

Hammond says the underlying position for the economy is strong.

But there are short-term challenges.

The uncertainty created by Brexit is one of them.

The soon that can be addressed, the sooner the economy will start growing properly again.

Q: Are banks and businesses saying they need certainty by early next year?

Hammmond says some businesses have already made decisions.

He is hearing a plea from them. They don’t want to have to make decisions on the worst possible assumptions.

Q: Is Boris Johnson sackable?

Hammond says he always operates on the principle that “everyone is sackable”.

Q: Are you the one who is always gloomy about Brexit?

Hammond says he hopes he is realistic.

Philip Hammond's Today interview

Nick Robinson is interviewing Philip Hammond now on Today.

Q: Hasn’t it come to something when an organisation like the British Chambers of Commerce has to tick you off as a party for disunity?

Hammond says Theresa May’s Florence speech moved things forward on Brexit.

Business needs certainty, he says. They need to make decisions looking ahead at least three or four years.

Q: I suspect you agree with every word of what the BCC said.

Hammond says business does need certainty.

Q: And Boris Johnson undermined that.

Hammond says May set out an agenda in Florence.

The whole cabinet signed up to it, he says.

Q: She did not say what Johnson did, which was that the transition should not last a second longer than two years.

Hammond says that was a “rhetorical flourish”.

He admitted he originally favoured a longer transition.

But the cabinet looked at all the factors, including the issue of possible votes in other European parliaments.

Updated

Philip Hammond tells Boris Johnson he is sackable

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is giving the main speech at the Conservative conference this morning and he has been doing a round of morning interviews. But, like all Tory politicians, he has found it hard get more than 90 seconds into an interview without being asked about Boris Johnson.

Johnson, the foreign secretary, has form for making unofficial policy interventions that overshadow Tory conference and what his party leadership wants to talk about, and this year he picked a fight over Brexit. In an interview with the Sun on Saturday, he announced his personal four red lines on Brexit, all of which go beyond agreed cabinet policy.

Yesterday, when Theresa May was asked whether Johnson was “unsackable”, she refused to deny it - implying that he is.

But other Tories feel less beholden to Johnson and they have been saying that he is not indispensable. In an interview on Sky News a few minutes ago, when asked whether Johnson could be sacked, Hammond said:

We all serve at the prime minister’s pleasure. I have to say that I’ve always operated on what I think is the prudent assumption, from a personal point of view, that no minister is unsackable ...

The more we can show unity, the stronger our negotiating position with the European Union would be.

Other Conservatives have also urged Johnson to shut up, with varying degrees of subtlety. On the BBC Radio 4’s Westminster House last night Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, put it diplomatically. He said:

I think that all Conservatives, all members of the government and all backbenchers, we have a common task that we share. We need to pull together and make sure that we are delivering for the country ... I think we have a very simple straightforward task at this conference, and it’s to demonstrate that we are a grown up party which cares more about the future of our country than about the particular career prospects of any individual.

On the same programme Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, was more direct. She said:

If [Johnson] can’t give up the oxygen of publicity - he’ll still be delighted by the fact that everybody’s talking about him now - if he can’t stop setting down arbitrary red lines, then yes he has to go. And the chief whip or the prime minister has to deliver that message. I don’t think I can be clearer: if Boris or his acolytes are listening now, the parliamentary party has had enough and actually it is now time for everybody to get back on track.

Morgan was a firm remain supporter during the referendum, and so you might expect her to be critical of Johnson. But Tim Loughton, a pro-leave former minister, also told the Westminster Hour it was time for Johnson to zip it. Loughton said:

Frankly I was one the same side of the argument as Boris and I worked with Boris on the leave side but I think saying the things he’s saying at the moment isn’t helpful for the country and for brexit and for the government.

Johnson himself claims not to be able to understand what all the fuss is about. He told the Daily Telegraph:

I think actually if you studied what I said, it was basically government policy. I think it’s extraordinary that so much fuss has been made about repeating government policy, but there you go.

Doubtless there will be much more of this as the day goes on.

Aside from the Boris Johnson shenanigans, the Conservatives are trying to hold a conference. Here is what is coming up.

10am: David Mundell, the Scottish secretary, speaks.

10.40am: Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary, speaks.

11.15m: David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, speaks.

11.40am: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, speaks.

2.30pm: Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, speaks.

3.05pm: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, speaks.

3.40pm: Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, speaks.

4.05pm: Greg Clark, the business secretary, speaks.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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