Evening summary
- Ruth Davidson has used her conference speech to call for a“practical, pragmatic” approach to Brexit. The Scottish Tory leader said:
Friends, as we approach these crucial few weeks and months, we need to go back to our Conservative principles. The principles of country, of duty, of practicality and of delivery. The belief that every prudent act is based on accommodation and accord.
That the best is the enemy of the good if it stops us improving the outcomes for the country. The attitude that listens, eyebrows raised, to ivory-towered schemes of the ideological puritan and replies: aye, right.
It’s this practical, pragmatic and utterly Conservative approach that will get us through.
And let me be clear today: the best way to tax international companies is through international agreements, but the time for talking is coming to an end and the stalling has to stop. If we cannot reach agreement the UK will go it alone with a digital services tax of its own.
Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful. In return we heard jibes from senior leaders. And we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation, where the EU’s theological approach allows no room for serious compromise. And yet we are expected to cast aside the territorial integrity of our own country. If the EU want a deal, they need to get serious. And they need to do it now.
Labour’s mass complaint to the press regulator Ipso over this summer’s press coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to a Tunisian cemetery in 2014 has been dropped, according to individuals at the newspapers involved.
The party made the unprecedented decision to complain against most national newspapers, complaining that the Sun, the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Express and Metro had misrepresented the event, which saw the Labour leader attend a ceremony commemorating Palestinians who died in the country.
The party had complained that the articles suggested he was commemorating members of the Black September terrorist group or those who carried out the 1972 Munich massacre, which Corbyn denied. Any Ipso investigation could have forced the party to disclose extra details and supporting evidence, while also forcing the press regulator to rule on a definitive series of events.
It is not clear why the complaint will not be going further, although one possibility is that Labour simply allowed the complain to time out. An Ipso spokesperson declined to comment.
The ‘unlikely conference photo of the day’ award goes to my colleague, Lisa O’Carroll.
Betty the badger, meets the heritage sites campaigners outside Tory conference pic.twitter.com/nF2Lga1qDA
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) October 1, 2018
Several people have noted the slightly sparse crowd in the auditorium for Jeremy Wright’s speech, among them his shadow (and Labour deputy leader) Tom Watson.
I got a bigger audience for my conference speech than Jeremy Wright - and I didn’t even do a conference speech. pic.twitter.com/i06M3CSflT
— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) October 1, 2018
The final speech of the day went to the new-ish culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, and it’s fair to say this was one which will not go down as a coded leadership bid – mainly, I’m afraid, as it was really very dull.
It was a mainly a run-through of the UK’s cultural and sporting highlights and triumphs – rather cheekily Wright added Europe’s Ryder Cup win to a list of events “won by Britons”.
The highlights, such as they were, comprised a brief mention of Theresa May’s plan for a post-Brexit festival, and a reference to the fact his predecessor in the job, the more tech-friendly Matt Hancock, had planned to appear at the conference as a hologram.
The Brexit event, Wright said, would be “a festival of national pride and international impact in 2022”.
He also said:
And while we’re on that subject, some of you may have heard that I might be delivering this speech as a hologram. To those of you who have spent the last 5 minutes thinking this is the most realistic hologram you’ve ever seen, I should make it clear that I decided not to.
At this moment, and especially on a subject like Brexit, I don’t think our political debate needs more virtual reality, it needs more actual reality. And the reality is we are leaving the European Union.
A worrying sight perhaps for Theresa May, after the scenery failures that dogged her leader’s speech last year.
Uh oh... #cpc18 pic.twitter.com/a2EXHVNIS2
— rajeev syal (@syalrajeev) October 1, 2018
Ruth Davidson calls for "practical, pragmatic" approach to Brexit
The bulk of Ruth Davidson’s speech is a plea for a sort of practical centrism, particularly around Brexit. She appeals for politics to “look beyond the sound and fury that passes for our politics just now, where the extremes get ever louder and the centre falls to silence”.
In particular, she argues for pragmatism over Brexit, urging people to support Theresa May’s Chequers plans, with comments which could definitely be seen as a jab at Boris Johnson and other more hard Brexiters:
Friends, as we approach these crucial few weeks and months, we need to go back to our Conservative principles. The principles of country, of duty, of practicality and of delivery. The belief that every prudent act is based on accommodation and accord.
That the best is the enemy of the good if it stops us improving the outcomes for the country. The attitude that listens, eyebrows raised, to ivory-towered schemes of the ideological puritan and replies: aye, right.
It’s this practical, pragmatic and utterly Conservative approach that will get us through.
Because, when the future of our country is at stake, it is essential.
Here’s the truth: We can agree a Brexit deal under the Conservatives, or we can risk handing the keys of Downing Street to Jeremy Corbyn. I know which one I believe is in the national interest. I stand by the prime minister.
Davidson also argues that a “chaotic Brexit” could break up the union:
Let’s remember this also: the rock upon which this party is founded is a belief in the unity of this country and the enterprise of its people. So let’s commit to making this our number one priority: to make sure that the union – our union - emerges stronger, not weaker, from these next few weeks – because thatis what matters the most.
She gets a standing ovation from the delegates.
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Next up to speak is Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Tories and a perennial conference favourite, mainly as she’s one of the very few senior Conservatives who knows how to properly deliver a speech. She gets a rousing reception, even though TV cutaway shots seem to show the conference hall is by no means full of delegates.
Michael Gove is the next speaker in the hall, and he is clearly in the mood to take on Boris Johnson’s role as the delegates’ favourite cabinet turn. The start of his speech has very little to do with the environment, his ministerial responsibility, and is instead firmly based on bashing Labour.
Gove spends some time condemning what he calls “unacceptable antisemitism” in the Labour party. It is notable that, unlike James Brokenshire, who spoke before, Gove does not mention tackling anti-Muslim hatred, something the Conservatives face accusations of harbouring.
More widely on Labour Gove said, applause:
This week, in this party, for the sake of our children, let us commit to unite so that the Moscow-loving, Hamas-hugging, high-taxing, moderate-bashing, job-destroying, national anthem-avoiding, NATO-hating, class war-provoking, one-man museum of economic folly that is Jeremy Corbyn, is never let anywhere near Downing Street.
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The highlight of a chaotic and poorly attended Leave Means Leave lunchtime event in the city centre was a standoff between hard Brexit campaigner Richard Tice and a noisy group of pro-remain demonstrators wearing blue t shirts patterned with the EU flag.
Polly Ernest, from the Stand of Defiance European Movement (SODEM) claimed Tice’s hands were shaking when challenged, and said he accused them of trying to support “a losers vote” in the form of a second referendum.
Only a handful of journalists attended despite the offer of free alcohol from pub chain Wetherspoon’s “non-EU drinks menu” and the promise of a short bus tour around the city of Birmingham, although that was not helped by the fact that PR agency involved only came on board at the last minute.
Nor was there any sign of Tim Martin, the Wetherspoon boss, who had billed as attending but in fact was not able to turn up until 4pm.
Leave Means Leave plans to hold a string of rallies around the country in the coming weeks, including on on Saturday in Torquay where Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg will share a stage and organisers hope almost 2,000 people will attend.
Richard Tice, the organisation’s chairman, said he was on a “save Brexit tour” in opposition to May’s Chequers proposals “to focus on the message that no deal is no problem”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the darling of the Tory grassroots, has said Brexiters must “get away” from the “Ukip-isation” of Brexit in order to win back the votes of young people.
“I think there’s lots of failures of propaganda really that we have allowed Brexit to be about immigration or putting up barriers or not liking going on holiday in Europe. It’s none of that. It’s about who runs your government, do you or somebody else,” he said.
“I think that’s a really popular argument with young people and we need to get out there and make it and try and get away from the Ukip-isation of Brexit. I think the Ukip view, you may think it’s odd for me to say, of some sepia tinted 1950s view of Brexit has never been my vision of Brexit. Its about being a global nation rather than a narrow European one.”
Rees-Mogg, who has been viewed as a potential successor to May, said that it was time for the Tories to focus more on their domestic policy agenda.
“Once we have delivered Brexit we have to get on with health and housing, we have to be saying to people ‘we are going to improve your life’,” he said.
In a swipe at the party leadership, he added: “What resonates with people is when you say ‘we will make your lives a little bit better’ and frankly we are not saying that at the moment.”
The afternoon speeches have begun, and first up is housing and communities secretary James Brokenshire. He begins with an emotional section about the lung cancer which forced him to step down from the cabinet at the start of the year:
Friends, it’s been quite a year for me and today is a particular personal milestone. When I addressed our conference 12 months ago, I didn’t know it, but I had lung cancer...
When you receive a cancer diagnosis, when you are forced to confront your own mortality head on, it makes you appreciate what’s important… what makes life worth living.
I know I couldn’t have got through this period without the incredible love and support of my wife Cathy and our three children, Sophie, Jemma and Ben.
They’ve kept me positive, they’ve helped get me through surgery, through my recovery and back to strength.
But I also know that if it wasn’t for our amazing NHS I wouldn’t be here today. They saved my life and in some way will have touched the lives of every person in this hall. To all those who work in our NHS - thank you.
Lunchtime summary
And let me be clear today: the best way to tax international companies is through international agreements, but the time for talking is coming to an end and the stalling has to stop. If we cannot reach agreement the UK will go it alone with a digital services tax of its own.
Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful. In return we heard jibes from senior leaders. And we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation, where the EU’s theological approach allows no room for serious compromise. And yet we are expected to cast aside the territorial integrity of our own country. If the EU want a deal, they need to get serious. And they need to do it now.
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Here’s some more thoughts on Hammond’s speech via Twitter:
Philip Hammond's speech showed why the Tories are struggling to take on Corbyn: he identified problems with British capitalism but offered no answers. https://t.co/7edN3ktomA
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) October 1, 2018
I think this is really significant. Hammond says that while he doesn’t think Labour’s answers are the right ones, their questions needs a response. Just a bit late to start worrying about left behind Britain though, isn’t it? https://t.co/e3SrVxqCTX
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 1, 2018
Philip Hammond says this is one of the things Conservatives can tell their children. I imagine school playgrounds all over the country are erupting with excitement. pic.twitter.com/Kv6JTP49oF
— Isabel Hardman (@IsabelHardman) October 1, 2018
Instant verdict on Hammond speech: It was certainly what pundits like to call “wide ranging” – usually a shorthand for a minister wandering off piste in an attempt to burnish their leadership credentials. At this conference virtually every minister is on some manoeuvres of some sort, so perhaps not so much can be read into it.
In fact, after the excitement of the chancellor’s overnight attack on Boris Johnson, the speech was largely a much-as-expected defence of Chequers, of his economic record, and an attack on Labour, which the one notable announcement of tackling the tax schemes of web giants.
In terms of outside comment, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, attacked the speech as showing a party that is “increasingly irrelevant and cut off from the real day to day life most people experience”.
Adam Marshall, head of the British Chambers of Commerce, said firms would feel “heartened by the chancellor’s forthright support for business as the foundation of both a strong economy and a strong society”.
Hammond ends with a robust defence of the government’s (and thus his) economic record, and attacking that of Labour.
He concludes:
I have set out my argument for the renewal of our economic creed to secure for Britain the benefit of the market economy for the years to come, to ensure it can respond to the concerns and meet the aspirations of the next generation.
Because Corbyn’s plan offers no future for Britain, and it is our duty to provide a better answer – to make the case for the long term over the short term. For the substantial over the superficial. For evolution over revolution.
And that is it from the chancellor.
Hammond calls for 'digital services tax' on web giants
Hammond has a long section of his speech devoted to the difficulties caused by the dominance of a handful of tech giants, and says that if there cannot be international agreement the UK could push ahead with its own “digital services tax”. This would make it harder for companies such as Amazon to avoid taxation, something ministers have mooted before.
He said:
Just as, in late 19th century America, concerns about the near-monopoly of Standard Oil and the railroad cartels led to the introduction of the world’s first anti-monopolies legislation, so today, the expansion of the global tech giants and digital platforms, while of course bringing huge benefits to consumers, raises new questions about whether too much power is being concentrated in too few global technology businesses.
That is why I have asked President Obama’s former chief economist, Jason Furman, to lead an expert panel to review the UK’s competition regime, to ensure it is fit for the digital era. And it isn’t just competition policy that needs updating. We can tell them how we have led the debate on reforming the international tax system for the digital economy, insisting that the global internet giants must contribute fairly to funding our public services.
And let me be clear today: the best way to tax international companies is through international agreements, but the time for talking is coming to an end and the stalling has to stop.
If we cannot reach agreement the UK will go it alone with a digital services tax of its own.
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One of the more curious parts of Hammond’s speech came when he talked about EU opposition to elements of the Chequers plan.
“Mr Tusk says it won’t work,” he said. “But that’s what people said about the lightbulb in 1878.”
If you’re being pedantic, given Joseph Swan actually demonstrated the electric lamp in 1878, people could see for themselves that it would work.
Hammond is now on the obligatory “attack Labour” part of the speech, saying Jeremy Corbyn and his party put “political ideology above real-world solutions for real people”. He says:
All they do is look it up in the socialist manual. Railways? Nationalise them. Wealth? Confiscate it. Run out of money? Just borrow more. Answers from a discredited ideology that will never solve real-world problems.
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Hammond is talking at length about technological change, saying it will “define the future of our country and our party” far more than Brexit. This will involve reassuring people, he says:
I understand that my enthusiasm for driverless cars may not be so readily shared by someone who earns their living as a cab driver, and that home 3D printing may look more of a threat than an opportunity to someone who works for a parcel delivery firm.
So we have to take our people with us, be open with them about the scale and nature of the change that is coming; about the disruption that change on this scale will inevitably bring; set out clearly the benefits that individuals and families will see from the digital age and how we will help them to prepare for it and deal with the consequences of it; reassure the very many who will worry about what new technologies mean for their job security, worry that the gains will be made by the few and that they will be left behind.
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After a slightly low-key introduction from Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury – we get praise for Philip Hammond and the obligatory joke about cheese – we now have the chancellor’s speech.
Hammond begins with some fairly general words about Brexit, stressing that even after departure the UK and EU will keep many strong cultural and economic links. He mentions the Chequers plan and has to wait for some applause from the crowd, which will presumably cheer Theresa May.
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Back in the conference hall, in something of a change from the usual speeches, the business secretary Greg Clark is appearing via a video link from a Coventry factory, where he is wandering about and chatting to staff. There is some talk of humans and robots working together collaboratively, which will presumably delight my colleague, John Crace. Much of the rest of the audio is a bit muffled, so I’m not always sure what else he’s chatting about.
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Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, has attacked the cabinet for failing to adequately apply the ideals of capitalism to government as Britain prepares to leave the EU.
The MP for Witham said ministers had failed to “step up” and apply the values of Margaret Thatcher to policies or defend the free market from attacks by Jeremy Corbyn.
At a Taxpayers’ Alliance fringe meeting at the conference, she said:
I am really bored of Conservative politicians [speaking] about their love of the free markets, particularly those who are in government who have done nothing to change government policy.
The last time when the Conservative party was truly on the side of business was when we had exceptional leadership under Margaret Thatcher.
My party really has to get itself together now, it’s got to stop being so regressive in government, our politicians and ministers as well. If you have the privilege of being in government, you step up and apply Conservative values.
Patel also claimed suppliers operated as cartels within her former department:
In my last government department, I discovered that 90% of the budget was spent with 10 key suppliers which, in my line of work that’s a cartel. That has to be smashed up and that’s exactly what I did in Dfid.
I fell out with everyone in government about it particularly the Cabinet Office ... After Brexit, we need to encourage more diversity and greater market engagement. Government has got to really scrub itself up, cut out the preferred suppliers. The whole culture is cronyism and it’s interfering with the functioning of government.
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As the speeches go on in the hall, Theresa May and Philip Hammond have been on a visit to meet some apprentices at a business in Birmingham.
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As Chris Grayling addresses the conference – he has again apologised for the timetabling chaos on the railways, announced an easier compensation scheme for delayed passengers, and some new spending on A roads – Labour has sent out a swift response to Raab’s speech. The shadow Brexit minister Paul Blomfield said:
Dominic Raab spoke for nearly 30 minutes, but he could have saved everyone’s time and said just three words: nothing has changed.
The Brexit secretary offered no credible plan to break the deadlock in negotiations, no credible plan to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland and no credible plan to protect jobs and the economy. It was a speech that offered no solutions on Brexit.
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Raab also has some tough words for those seeking a second Brexit referendum:
I’ll tell you what’s not democracy. The efforts of a small, but influential group of senior politicians and establishment figures to overturn the result of the referendum. They want to stop us leaving.
You can just picture them, sitting in an expensive advertising agency, discussing how to claim that black is white. ‘Our research shows that the public doesn’t like the idea of a second referendum. That’s all right – we’ll rebrand it a people’s vote. They might buy that.
‘But there’s a real sense that leave won fair and square. Most people just want to move on. Don’t worry – we’ll bankroll a campaign to scare the wits out of them. Hang on – the Project Fear stuff didn’t work too well first time around.
‘That’s because it wasn’t scary enough. This time we’ll claim that no deal means patients won’t get their medicines, mobile phone roaming charges will go through the roof and space debris will fall from the sky.’
Honestly, it would be pathetic if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Raab also includes a long section about his father, who was among the Jewish people who fled the Nazis in Czechoslovakia, and attacks Labour over antisemitism.
Updated
EU needs to 'get serious' on negotiations, Raab says
The Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, has had some tough words for Brussels in his speech to conference, saying the EU had not matched the UK’s “ambition and pragmatism” at the Salzburg informal summit.
He told the hall:
Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful. In return we heard jibes from senior leaders. And we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation, where the EU’s theological approach allows no room for serious compromise.
And yet we are expected to cast aside the territorial integrity of our own country. If the EU want a deal, they need to get serious. And they need to do it now.
Raab also insisted a no-deal departure was possible:
Some people say that no deal is unthinkable. Wrong. What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo into signing a one-sided deal against our country’s interests.
He added:
The reality: yes, there are risks and potential short-term disruption, but we’ll deal with any problems that might arise in the event of no deal in a calm and sensible manner.
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It wasn’t only Baiba Braže (see 9.52am)who wasn’t too impressed with Jeremy Hunt’s “the EU is the new Soviet Union” speech yesterday, as my colleague in Brussels, Jennifer Rankin, reports.
In her speech to the conference, Esther McVey mainly gave a defence of universal credit and the government’s wider welfare policies, and bashed Labour. In terms of news she announced a deal with Citizens Advice to provide support and advice on UC, and a partnership with the children’s charity Barnardo’s to give care leavers work experience in their shops.
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At his fringe event this morning, the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, claimed the UK had become too timid in responding to international crises. Asked if he was concerned that some allies believed the UK was in retreat from the international arena, he said:
I think our confidence was knocked by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan … actually we became too timid in terms of saying: ‘Do we get involved?’
Where Britain’s strength has always been as a nation is to have the confidence and the belief to say we’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do, it’s in our national interest to do.
Citing recent involvement in Afghanistan as well as the airstrikes on Syria earlier this year, he added: “Intervention, when it is thought through, when it is properly considered, is the right thing to do. And Britain is an important part in making that happen.”
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For those awaiting a particular speech, there has been a slight change to the conference hall line-up and Dominic Raab will now speak before Chris Grayling. Anyway, business has begun, with Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, starting to speak. She begins with a fairly long and unfocused attack on Labour and Momentum.
In the meantime, Theresa May has arrived with Philip Hammond.
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The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph: 'Hunt: EU behaving like Soviet Union' #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/R1mQkKoJ0S
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 30, 2018
Jeremy Hunt has followed up his somewhat bellicose speech to the conference yesterday – where he compared the EU to the Soviet Union – with an interview in the Daily Telegraph in which he called on Theresa May to summon up the “Dunkirk spirit” to resist a bad deal from Brussels.
All this might go down well with the Tory faithful, but it did not impress Latvia’s ambassador to the UK, Baiba Braže, who has actually lived under Soviet rule.
Dear @faisalislam , just FYI - Soviets killed, deported, exiled and imprisoned 100 thousands of Latvia's inhabitants after the illegal occupation in 1940, and ruined lives of 3 generations, while the EU has brought prosperity, equality, growth, respect. #StrongerTogether https://t.co/BNUvmsgXnR
— Baiba Braže 🇱🇻 (@BaibaBraze) September 30, 2018
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I just listened back belatedly to Hammond’s interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, in which the chancellor mainly talked about Brexit, expressing his confidence a deal will eventually happen, and pouring yet more cold water on the Canada-style proposals put forward by more eager Brexiters.
“The problem is it’s not available – it’s not on offer,” he explained. “You have to understand the position of the people you’re negotiating with.”
Asked whether this year’s Tory conference showed a party “at war with itself at the highest levels” over Brexit, Hammond did not seek to completely reject this: “No one has ever tried to conceal the fact that we have differences of opinion about this issue.”
He tried to not talk anymore about Johnson, but did politely damn him as “a big picture man”, and thus perhaps not suited to the “meticulous attention” needed with Brexit.
If you missed it, in his Daily Mail interview Hammond did a brief impersonation of Johnson’s bumbling style. Sadly, there is as yet no audio available, but this is what he said about Johnson discussing a Canada-style deal. Even as a transcript it sounds pretty realistic:
Boris sits there and at the end of it he says, ‘Yeah but, er, there must be a way, I mean, if you just, if you, erm, come on, we can do it Phil, we can do it. I know we can get there.’ And that’s it.
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My colleague Pippa Crerar has been at an early fringe event with the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, who was asked about his slightly curious comment earlier this year that Russia should “go away and shut up”.
Defence sec @GavinWilliamson, asked by @IsabelOakeshott about “shut up and go away” remarks: “It’s one of my great virtues, or great faults, that I’m blunt. I’m afraid I’m never going to change. That’s just what is in the DNA of a Yorkshireman. You do have to be blunt in life.” pic.twitter.com/qM1MIW8F3y
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 1, 2018
Hammond is undertaking a busy round of interviews, in which he has spent much of his time either talking up the Chequers plan or – when asked by interviewers – talking down Boris Johnson. Here are a few of the quotes, harvested from the Press Association.
On Good Morning Britain about Johnson’s Brexit ideas:
It isn’t about taking back control, it’s about fantasy world. The European Union have been very clear that as they negotiate with us they have their red lines, just as we have our red lines, and they are not prepared to negotiate for a free trade agreement which includes the whole of the United Kingdom because of the impact that would have on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
We can spend our time sitting at a table, banging it and demanding something that our negotiating partners have clearly told us is not on offer, or we can try to find a way through with a solution that works for Britain and will also be acceptable to them within their red lines.
On BBC Radio 5 Live, where he predicted the Chequers plan would be enacted:
I think it’s more likely than not that we will achieve a negotiated agreement with the EU, and I think that because when I talk to other member states of the EU I hear that what they want is a smooth exit for the UK.
Of course they are disappointed that we are leaving, but they accept now that we are.
I think there is a commonality of interest which, in the end, will allow us to find a way forward. It won’t be easy and there will no doubt be more tough rhetoric and tough talking before we get there, but I expect that will be the outcome.
Updated
Philip Hammond reiterates his criticisms of Boris Johnson
Welcome to the second day of the Conservative party conference in Birmingham and for one day only you have me, Peter Walker, in the chair in place of Andrew Sparrow. If Sunday was marked by some brutal, rats-in-a-sack jostling among senior Tories, it’s looking much the same today. The one surprise might be the main protagonist so far: Philip Hammond.
The usually carefully-spoken chancellor heralded his speech to the main hall later this morning with an interview in the Daily Mail in which he indulged in this year’s main conference sport: making fun of Boris Johnson.
Hammond, no fan of the former foreign secretary, not only dismissed Johnson’s future leadership prospects – “I don’t expect it to happen” – but indicated he believed Johnson was weak on detail (not an uncommon charge) and that his main political achievement was London’s “Boris bike” bicycle hire fleet.
The chancellor is touring the broadcast studios this morning and is in no apparent mood to back down. On ITV’s Good Morning Britain, when asked about Johnson’s chances of taking the top job, he said: “My position - I repeat it today - is I don’t believe that will happen.”
Speaking to Sky News, Hammond took a swing at opponents of Theresa May’s Chequers plan for Brexit, the most vocal of whom is Johnson: “If I may say so, I don’t think that everybody who has expressed an opinion on it really understands what Chequers is about.”
Here is the schedule for the day in the main conference hall. Plus there are plenty of fringe events that my colleagues will be atttending.
Morning:
Esther McVey (pensions secretary)
Chris Grayling (transport)
Dominic Raab (Brexit)
Greg Clark (business)
Philip Hammond (chancellor)
Afternoon:
James Brokenshire (housing and communities)
Michael Gove (environment)
Ruth Davidson (Scotland)
Jeremy Wright (culture)
Like Andrew, I will endeavour to respond to questions. Unlike Andrew, however, I’m not very practised at the live blog, so if you really want an answer, a tweet to @peterwalker99 might be your best bet.
Right. Let’s do this.
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