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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Theresa May scraps borrowing cap for councils to build new homes – Politics live

Afternoon summary

  • Theresa May has used her closing speech at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham to announce that she is getting rid of the cap on what councils can borrow to build homes. As the Press Association reports, she said the government will scrap the cap on the amount local authorities can borrow against their housing revenue account assets. Before the introduction of the cap under Margaret Thatcher, councils built around 10,000 homes a year - but that figure has subsequently dipped as low as 100. The amount of extra investment in housing could be around £1bn a year, but this is dependent on how many councils decide to borrow. May told the Tories:

Solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation. We cannot make the case for capitalism if ordinary working people have no chance of owning capital.

The Local Government Association described the move, which involves lifting a Labour policy, as “fantastic”. (See 2.46pm.)

  • May told Tories that splits in the party could halt Brexit. Stressing her opposition to a second referendum, she warned:

If we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own visions of the perfect Brexit, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all.

  • She claimed that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party had rejected the “common values” that used to be shared by both main parties. She told the Tories:

What has befallen Labour is a national tragedy.

Would Neil Kinnock, who stood up to the hard-left, have stood by while his own MPs faced deselection, and needed police protection at their party conference? Would Jim Callaghan, who served in the Royal Navy, have asked the Russian government to confirm the findings of our own intelligence agencies? Would Clement Attlee, Churchill’s trusted deputy during the second world war, have told British Jews they didn’t know the meaning of antisemitism?

What has it come to when Jewish families today seriously discuss where they should go if Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister? When a leading Labour MP says his party is ‘institutionally racist’? When the leader of the Labour party is happy to appear on Iranian state TV, but attacks our free media here in Britain? That is what Jeremy Corbyn has done to the Labour party.

Here is our main story on the speech.

And here are verdicts on the speech from a Guardian panel: Matthew d’Ancona, Katy Balls, Dawn Foster and David Shariatmadari.

That’s all from me for the day.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said Theresa May was being “blind” to reality if she thought the UK’s best days lie ahead. In a statement he said:

The prime minister danced around the key issues – the disastrous impact of Tory austerity and a Tory hard Brexit.

There is a massive gulf between her rhetoric and the reality of what is now facing the UK. If Theresa May genuinely believes that the UK’s best days lie ahead then she is being wilfully blind to that reality.

We are just months away from a potentially disastrous hard Brexit – or the utter catastrophe of a no-deal outcome.

The SNP Scottish government has listened to the concerns raised by businesses, and repeatedly set out a compromise position – remaining in the single market – that will protect jobs, business, including our fishing industry, and the economy as a whole.

In contrast, the prime minister has pandered to her party’s Brexit extremists, and treated the devolved administrations and the business community with contempt.

No one seriously believes the UK’s best days lie ahead under this disastrous, bungling Tory government – and the sooner Mrs May realises that and commits to averting a hard Brexit the better.

Lifting cap on borrowing for councils to build homes is 'fantastic', says Local Government Association

The Local Government Association says the decision to lift the borrowing cap for councils that are building houses is “fantastic”. This is from its chairman, Lord Porter. (Porter is a Conservative, but in his LGA capacity he frequently criticises the government over local authority funding.) He said:

Today’s speech by the prime minister shows that the government has heard our argument that councils must be part of the solution to our chronic housing shortage.

It is fantastic that the government has accepted our long-standing call to scrap the housing borrowing cap. We look forward to working with councils and the government to build those good quality affordable new homes and infrastructure that everyone in our communities need.

Our national housing shortage is one of the most pressing issues we face and it is clear that only an increase of all types of housing – including those for affordable or social rent – will solve the housing crisis.

The last time this country built homes at the scale that we need now was in the 1970s when councils built more than 40 per cent of them.

Councils were trusted to get on and build homes that their communities needed, and they delivered, and it is great that they are being given the chance to do so again.

Other housing bodies that have welcomed the announcement include the Chartered Institute of Housing, which said it was “excellent news”, and the Royal Institute of British Architects, which said it was “delighted”.

And here is Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, on the speech.

As somebody who takes dancing seriously, I was delighted to see Theresa May show that she is developing her new hobby. But she was dancing on the head of a pin, confronted by an audience full of people plotting to oust her.

She said the Conservatives must be a ‘party for the whole country’, yet she has overseen widening divisions in our society. Trapped by the rabid ideologues of the Conservative right-wing, Mrs May has been driven to illiberal extremes on Brexit, welfare and immigration, to name but three.

We are pleased to see her finally lift the borrowing cap on councils so they can build houses, a policy I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues have pushed for in coalition. The Conservatives’ long-held resistance to this sensible, pragmatic policy has only deepened the housing crisis.

Ed Conway, Sky’s economics editor, says the markets did not react much to Theresa May’s speech.

But the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope thinks May went on a spending spree.

And here is the main Labour party response to the speech. It’s a statement by Ian Lavery, the party chair. He said:

While the country is crying out for real change, all Theresa May and her party offer are pinched ideas and tinkering around at the edges, relying on petty attacks to cover up their lack of vision.

Austerity is not an economic necessity. It is a political choice made by the Conservatives to hack away at our public services and communities, leaving workers worse off while gifting huge tax cuts to big business. And as long as Britain has a Conservative prime minister, we’ll never see an end to austerity.

Theresa May has shown her party offers no answers, no ideas, and no hope for communities held back for too long. Labour has put forward a radical and credible plan to transform our economy, public services and towns and cities. A plan to rebuild Britain for the many, not the few.

Labour says claim austerity is over is 'complete con'

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that Theresa May’s claim that austerity is ending is “a complete con”.

May's speech - View from Brussels

A distinct lack of bombastic rhetoric on Brexit in Theresa May’s speech was welcomed in Brussels. But her strident rejection of the EU suggestion that Northern Ireland should in effect stay in the customs union to avoid a hard border disappointed the more optimistic diplomats in the Belgian capital.

There just doesn’t seem to be any fudge open on the issue of avoiding a hard border. Some EU diplomats had perhaps naively hoped there might be a little movement on the issue. Some engagement with the notion that keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs area isn’t all that dramatic. A “rational discussion”, one called it. But the prime minister framed the issue as a constitutional one again.

With just over two weeks to go until the “moment of truth” EU leaders summit, May said in her speech there were “better days ahead”. Not imminently, by all accounts. “Popcorn time”, added one cynical eurocrat.

With Boris Johnson’s rally the biggest draw on the fringe, MPs were keen to see if Theresa May would deliver a direct riposte to the former foreign secretary’s claim that her Chequers plan was a “betrayal”.

But she did not mention him by name, simply saying:

We have had disagreements in this party about Britain’s membership of the EU for a long time. So, it is no surprise that we have had a range of different views expressed this week. But my job as prime minister is to do what I believe to be in the national interest.

She also made an oblique reference to Johnson’s recent “fuck business’ comment. She said:

To all businesses – large and small – you may have heard that there is a four-letter word to describe what we Conservatives want to do to you.

It has a single syllable. It is of Anglo-Saxon derivation. It ends in the letter ‘K’.

Back business.

Here is Rupert Harrison, who was chief of staff for George Osborne when Osborne was chancellor, on the decision to lift the cap on what councils can borrow to build houses.

May's speech - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

And this is what political journalists and commentators are saying about the speech.

Generally they are very positive - some people think it’s her best yet - although there is quite a lot of scepticism about whether she can deliver.

From the Sunday Times’ Tim Shipman

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

From Politico Europe’s Tom McTague

From Good Morning Britain’s Anne Alexander

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From the Economist’s Anne McElvoy

From the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour

From ITV’s Carl Dinnen

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From HuffPost’s Paul Waugh

From the Guardian’s Owen Jones

From the Manchester Evening News’ Jennifer Williams

From the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush

Updated

A Tory source has been briefing on the speech. My colleague Pippa Crerar has the highlights.

Here is the full text of the speech.

Theresa May's speech - Snap verdict

Theresa May’s speech - Snap verdict: By the relatively low standard of what was expected, that was a success - probably even a triumph. Theresa May came to Birmingham with the Conservative party in full circular firing squad mode, with Boris Johnson poised to launch a quasi leadership challenge and her Chequers plan heading for the morgue. She goes home much stronger than when she arrived. Mostly that’s just a short-term bounce - fundamentally, May’s problems are just as serious as ever - but conferences are largely about party management, and this has gone about as well as it could in the circumstances.

And the speech will probably have made a difference. It was well delivered, well written, her self-deprecatory joke as she arrived was a revelation (May has never been associated with humour) and it had an upbeat message that gives the Tories something to sell to the voters.

One of the features of the conference is that the Tories are now taking the threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn very seriously and May devoted much more of her speech than is usual to the opposition. Many Labour MPs will probably agree with every word she said about Corbyn’s anti-West, anti-Nato instincts (see 12.08pm and 12.23pm) - although this was not a line of attack that did much good at the election. May also come out with a reasonably good critique of the main economic policies announced in Liverpool - starting a debate that will run until polling day.

But she did not just criticise Labour. Crucially, and much more importantly, she did Corbyn the honour of hijacking his agenda. As I write it is hard to know the full significance of her announcement about councils no longer having a cap on what they can borrow and to build homes (a long-standing Labour policy), but potentially it could be big. And she has also, belatedly, realised that Corbyn is on the right side of public opinion on austerity. Like him, she is now saying it must end. (See 12.56pm.)

So it was a good speech, because it was persuasive. But to be great, a speech has to be true as well, and May was stretching credibility to its limits, and almost certainly beyond, when she announced austerity is over and better days are ahead. Health and social care need huge injections of money, and the the government has not even begun to explain where it will come from. Many of the austerity benefit cuts are now baked in, and will suppress incomes for years ahead, regardless of May’s sunny rhetoric. And of course there’s Brexit, which May’s own economists are telling her will make the UK poorer. Her bold prospectus went down well in the hall, but her words will probably sound very hollow in the months and years to come.

Updated

May says, where Labour wants to scrap academies and free schools, the Tories will build more.

She says the Tories have the chance to be the moderate, patriotic party the country needs.

We stand at a pivotal moment in our history. It falls to this party to lead the country through it, she says.

Our future is in our hands. Together, let’s build a better Britain.

And that’s it. The speech is over.

Updated

May says end of austerity in sight and spending on public services will rise

May says, after a decade of austerity, people need to know that their sacrifice has paid off.

Getting to this turning point is not easy, she says.

Fixing the finances was necessary.

There must be no return to the uncontrolled borrowing of the past.

She goes on:

But the British people need to know the end is in sight – we get it.

She says there are better days ahead.

In the spending review next year, borrowing will go down, and spending on public services will go up.

  • May says the end of austerity is in sight and spending on public services will rise.

Updated

May is now on the passage about fuel duty. See 8.26am.

May announces abolition of cap on what councils can borrow to build houses

May says it is not enough for the Conservatives to criticise.

They must respond to people’s concerns, she says.

She says the government has acted to reform corporate governance and to cap energy bills. And it has launched a review of the railways.

She is also committed to fixing the housing market.

You cannot believe in the benefits of capitalism if you don’t own capital, she says.

She summarises some policy steps already taken, including the announcement this week about a higher stamp duty for foreigners buying homes in the UK.

But you need to build more homes, she says.

She says the last time the UK was building enough homes, 50 years ago, councils played a big role.

Solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy crisis facing the country.

  • May says she is scrapping the cap on what councils can borrow to build houses.

Updated

May says Corbyn's employee ownership plan would be 'giant stealth tax on enterprise'

But the effects of the crash are still being felt, she says.

Too many people haven’t had a decent pay rise.

She says some people still feel the economy is not working for them.

All Labour offered was bogus ideas that would not work, she says.

She says its flagship announcement would mean the government confiscating 10% of big companies.

She says Labour depicted this as employee ownership. But much of the money would go to the government.

She says this would be “a giant stealth tax on enterprise”.

People with money in pension funds would lose out, she says.

And the nationalisation plans are flawed too, she says. If you nationalise a service, people pay for it twice – as customers, and as taxpayers.

She says one Labour estimate is that this would cost £1tn.

These plans would hurt people, she says.

Updated

May says for young people the biggest business event in their lifetime was the banking crisis.

Thanks to Labour, the country was not prepared.

It fell to the Tories to clear up the mess, she says.

She says unemployment is down, youth unemployment is at a record low, and fewer children are growing up in workless homes.

We should be proud of our record, she says.

May says people in business may have heard there is a four-letter word to describe what the Tories want to do to them. It is a four-letter one, an Anglo-Saxon one and it ends with the letter k: Back business.

Under her government, Britain is open for business, she says.

May talks about the young people she met in Africa. Some were inspired to be doctors or lawyers. Some may even have been inspired to become dancers - or maybe not, she jokes.

May says around the world extreme poverty has been cut in half over the last 20 years, and life expectancy has improved.

These are the effects of free markets, she says.

She says the Tories should defend free markets, and talk about their benefits.

The people who tore down the Berlin Wall were the many, not the few.

And when the many have the freedom to choose, they choose freedom.

May says she recently became the first British PM to visit Kenya for 40 years.

They want to trade with us, she says. But no PM had visited since Margaret Thatcher.

May says:

Don’t let anyone tell you we don’t have what it takes. We have everything we need to succeed.

The UK will show what it has in the festival being planned for 2022, she says.

May says she believes the UK’s best days lie ahead.

I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise.

Britain will be a champion for free trade across the world.

Our greatest asset is our talent, she says.

Updated

May claims Tory disunity could lead to Brexit being reversed

May says the party needs to come together. They need to face up to what is at risk. Labour would accept any deal from Brussels, regardless of how bad it was for the UK. But they would reject any deal May brings back, regardless of how good it is for the UK.

They are playing politics, she says.

May says there are people demanding a second referendum.

They call it the people’s vote. But we had a people’s vote, and the people chose to leave.

A second referendum would be a politicians’ vote, she says. It would be politicians asking for a different result.

If the Tories don’t unite, “we risk ending up with no Brexit at all”.

  • May claims Tory disunity could lead to Brexit being reversed.

Updated

May says, with control of the UK’s borders, the government can give back to the British people power over who comes in.

In future people will be admitted if they have the skills we need.

Those people will receive a welcome.

But the government will be able to reduce the numbers, she says.

And this policy will force employers to spend more on training workers.

Updated

May says, if you do not get what you want in a negotiation, you must propose an alternative.

She summarises her Chequers plan (although without calling it Chequers).

She says Nicola Sturgeon claims to stand up for Scotland. But she would lock Scotland into the common fisheries policy for ever.

That’s not stronger for Scotland. That’s a betrayal of Scotland.

Updated

May says she has treated the EU with nothing but respect. She expects it to do the same.

Britain isn’t afraid to leave the EU with no deal if it has to, says May

May turns to Brexit.

She says the government must honour the result of the referendum.

But it must also maintain a good relationship with the EU.

She says no one wants a deal more than her. But she is not prepared to accept any deal.

Britain isn’t afraid to leave with no deal if it has to.

This gets a round of applause.

She says no deal would be tough. There would be tariffs imposed.

It would be difficult at first, although eventually the UK would prosper, she says.

She says they need to send a clear message: the two choices offered by the EU (Norway or Canada) are unacceptable.

Updated

May says Corbyn would 'outsource our conscience to the Kremlin'

May says the most difficult moments for her as PM are when she has to take national security decisions, as when she ordered a retaliatory attack after Assad’s use of chemical weapons.

Or when she took the decision to expel Russian diplomats after Salisbury.

In parliament she received almost universal support. There was just one dissenting voice: Jeremy Corbyn. He wanted the UK government to get Russia to check the findings of its chemical analysis, and he refused to say Russia was to blame.

Corbyn wants to get rid of nuclear weapons in the hope other nations will follow.

And Corbyn thinks Nato provokes Russia, instead of realising that it protects the west.

And Corbyn only approves of military intervention if the UN security council agrees. That would mean Russia having a veto.

We cannot outsource our conscience to the Kremlin.

Updated

May announces new cancer strategy to increase early detection

May says cancer can strike anywhere. She says her goddaughter had cancer, was treated but, sadly, died.

  • May announces a new cancer strategy to increase early detection.

She says she wants to increase the cancer detection rate. The NHS will invest in more scanners.

By 2028 55,000 more people than today will be alive five years after their diagnosis.

Updated

May is now talking about the NHS. She says she has promised it extra funding.

So when people say the Tories don’t care about the NHS, tell them about that, she says, or tell them about the Tory MPs who work for the NHS in their spare time, or tell them about the prime minister who is a diabetic. Or tell them about James Brokenshire, back serving in the cabinet after being treated for cancer.

And the Tories stand for opportunity – like the opportunity that allowed an immigrant to come to the UK and see his son become home secretary.

Or the opportunity that means you could spend time in care and end up in cabinet (a reference to Esther McVey).

Or the opportunity that allows your Windrush parents to come to the UK and see you become the Tory candidate for London mayor.

Or the opportunity that allows you to have a child with your partner and be leader of the opposition in Scotland.

Updated

May says with freedom comes responsibility – to obey the law even if you disagree with it, to preserve the environment, and to consider the effect of actions on other people.

Updated

May says the words that sum up what she wants the Tories to stand for are security, opportunity and freedom.

May says the Tories must be:

A party that is decent, moderate and patriotic. One that puts the national interest first. Delivers on the issues they care about. And is comfortable with modern Britain in all its diversity.

We must show everyone in this country that we are that party.

A party that conserves the best of our inheritance but is not afraid of change. A party of patriotism but not nationalism. A party that believes in business but is not afraid to hold businesses to account.

A party that believes in the good that government can do but knows that government will never have all the answers. A party that believes your success in life should not be defined by who you love, your faith, the colour of your skin, who your parents were, or where you were raised – but by your talent and hard work.

Above all a party of Unionism, not just of four proud nations, but of all our people.

A party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone who is willing to work hard and do their best.

May says Corbyn's Labour rejects 'common values' that used to unite parties

May says Labour used to think this too.

But now she looks at them and thinks that is not the case.

She says every Labour government ran out of money, and left the economy in a mess. But at least they were proud of our institutions, of our armed forces, of Britain.

She can still see that Labour party in the Commons, she says - “but not on the front bench”.

She says another party occupies prime position: “the Jeremy Corbyn party”.

The Jeremy Corbyn party rejects these “common values” that used to breach the party divide.

She asks whether Jim Callaghan would have asked the Russians to verify a poison they used, or whether Attlee would have told British Jews they were not English.

What has it come to, she asks, when a Labour MP asks whether his party is institutionally racist? Or if the Labour leader appears on Iranian TV but attacks the free media in Britain.

Updated

May urges Tory MPs to set 'standard for decency'

May says people who go into office face abuse.

She says they all saw the far-left activist abusing Jacob Rees-Mogg and his family.

But it is not just people on the right who get abused. She says Diane Abbott gets more abuse now than when she became an MP. You don’t have to agree with Abbott to know that is unacceptable, he says.

She says the Tories have more MPs than any other party. They can set a “standard for decency”.

She urges people to rise above abuse, and make a positive case for their values.

Conservatives will always stand up for a politics that unites us rather than divides us.

Updated

May says this is why people get involved in politics: to make the country better.

It is not always glamorous. She has seen the trailers for Bodyguard.

And let me tell you – it wasn’t like that in my day.

(A discreet shagging joke – which goes down well in the hall.)

Updated

May says the government wanted to ensure that people did not die in vain in the first world war. There was a desire to make Britain a fairer place.

The same thing happened after the second world war, she says.

Democracy became stronger, a place where every person has their voice.

A more secure future was established.

We must recapture that spirit of common purpose ... If we come together there is no limit to what we can achieve. Our future is in our hands.

Updated

May talks about a war memorial near the hall, and refers to the selflessness of the war generation.

Her father’s cousin fought and died at Passchendaele, she says. She looked up his grave when she attended a memorial there. “We will remember them.”

May says there are some things she would rather forget from last year. But she is grateful for the support she had from everyone in the hall as she tried to finish her speech.

Theresa May's speech

Theresa May arrives on stage to Dancing Queen, swaying her hips, in a self-deprecatory reference to the only story anyone remembers from the Africa trip.

Updated

Cox is now quoting Milton.

Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam.

In the press room journalists laugh. But he does get a round of applause here too as he winds up, as a tribute to his performance. You can see why he earns so much in the courtroom, although it was quite OTT, and probably hard for anyone not a fully paid-up Brexiter to take 100% seriously.

Cox says, as a lawyer, he has negotiated many agreements over the years.

The nature of a negotiation is, with apologies to the Rolling Stones, “that you can’t always get what you want”.

But now we have reached the critical moment, he says. We must put aside our differences and ensure that the decision of 23 June 2016 “is not set at nought by those who would have us remain in the European Union”.

That would have “catastrophic” consequences, he says.

He says the Tories are the optimistic, he says. We need not fear, he goes on.

We believe that a nation like the United Kingdom will soon be able to gather her strength and ... step out into the world as a free, independent and sovereign [nation].

Cox says pragmatism will be required in the Brexit negotiations.

The “special genius” of the British has been the ability to find compromises which may not possess ideological purity, “but which work”.

Cox, who voted leave, is speaking about Brexit.

He has a deep, rich, almost Churchillian voice - although he seems to be teetering on the edge of parody. He is speaking about the importance of honouring the result of the EU referendum.

He says he accepted the offer to join the government because he admires May’s determination to implement the referendum result and deliver Brexit.

Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, is the special guest introducing Theresa May. He’s not exactly an A-lister, although, if he was charging, he would not come cheap. Until he became a minister, he was about the highest-earning MP (he’s a QC).

Here is the text of the Duddridge letter.

This is from my colleague John Crace.

My colleague Pippa Crerar is in the hall for the speech. I’ll be following it on TV from the press room. Pippa has spotted this:

Here is the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on the Duddridge letter. She has posted a Twitter thread starting here.

Speaking about his decision to join those MPs calling for a no confidence vote in Theresa May (Andrew Bridgen is one, but others have not gone public), James Duddridge said he was submitted a letter “with heavy heart”. He said:

The prime minister seems incapable of doing this. I have not met a single MP who thinks she will lead us into another election after the last disastrous snap election.

We will fail to cut through on issues other than Brexit until we are beyond Brexit, yet the can is kicked further and further down the road.

I write this with heavy heart, however we now need a proper leadership election and to move on.

The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope reckons Duddridge’s letter will take the total in Sir Graham Brady’s drawer (see 11.17am) to 36. But no one knows for sure. And it is possible for MPs to retract their letters.

This is from the BBC’s Richard Moss.

Theresa May is heading for the conference hall.

Tory MP James Duddridge says he has submitted letter calling for no confidence vote in May

The Conservative MP James Duddridge has submitted a letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, demanding a vote of no confidence in Theresa May, according to Sky.

Duddridge was on the Today programme this morning explaining, in blunt and uncompromising terms, why he thought Boris Johnson would be a better leader than May. (See 8.41am.) But he found it hard to explain why, given his views, he had not already called for a no confidence vote. It looks as if he has now decided to put his money where his mouth is.

At least, we assume he has done so. Yesterday Brady said some of those MPs who say they have submitted letters have not actually done so. If Brady gets 48 letters (15% of the parliamentary party), he has to call a no confidence vote. At the moment it is assumed that there are around 30 letters in his desk, but no one knows for sure, and Brady won’t say.

If you are looking for a round-up of the conference coverage in today’s paper, ConservativeHome has a good summary.

But presumably Theresa May won’t be reading it. According to a story in the Sun, she has stopped reading the daily papers “to protect her from a daily diatribe of woes” - although she does apparently occasionally take a look at the Times.

Members queuing at the start of the conference ahead of Theresa May’s speech.
Members queuing at the start of the conference ahead of Theresa May’s speech.
 Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Extracts from Theresa May's speech

Theresa May’s speech today is entitled “Our future is in our hands”. According to the extracts released overnight, she will the UK’s best days are ahead.

She will say:

I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise.

Don’t let anyone tell you we don’t have what it takes: we have everything we need to succeed ...

She will also attack Labour, claiming that it is the Conservatives who are the “decent, moderate and patriotic” party. She will say:

Millions of people who have never supported our party in the past are appalled by what Jeremy Corbyn has done to Labour.

They want to support a party that is decent, moderate and patriotic. One that puts the national interest first. Delivers on the issues they care about. And is comfortable with modern Britain in all its diversity.

We must show everyone in this country that we are that party.

A party that conserves the best of our inheritance but is not afraid of change. A party of patriotism but not nationalism. A party that believes in business but is not afraid to hold businesses to account.

A party that believes in the good that government can do but knows that government will never have all the answers. A party that believes your success in life should not be defined by who you love, your faith, the colour of your skin, who your parents were, or where you were raised – but by your talent and hard work.

Above all a party of Unionism, not just of four proud nations, but of all our people.

A party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone who is willing to work hard and do their best.

Theresa May working on the text of her keynote speech in her hotel room for the Conservative party conference
Theresa May working on the text of her keynote speech in her hotel room for the Conservative party conference Photograph: POOL/Reuters

Theresa May’s queue-generating powers are just as great as Boris Johnson’s, according to LBC’s Theo Usherwood.

Guto Harri, who worked as Boris Johnson’s communications chief when Johnson was mayor of London, used to be a big supporter (as you would expect). But recently he has become disillusioned with his former boss, and this morning he told LBC that Johnson “didn’t really hack it” as foreign secretary.

As LBC reports, Harri said Johnson was no longer a potential great statesman.

Boris, sadly, has gone back into the camp of being a bit of a national treasure, but these days perhaps only for a small and diminishing gang in the Conservative Party.

He’s gone away from being the potential great statesman that he was.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the government’s decision to freeze fuel duty since 2010 is now costing the Treasury around £9bn a year.

Mundell confirms Scottish Tories 'very frustrated' by Boris Johnson

The Scottish secretary David Mundell has been speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland, describing Boris Johnson as a “huge distraction”.

Asked if Johnson’s proposals for a “SuperCanada” plan for Brexit were endandering the union, Mundell replied:

I can’t accept a border down the Irish Sea which is what comes with the free trade agreement that the EU is proposing, so those people who glibly say that a Canada plus agreement is on the table are wrong. It’s only on the table for part of the UK and to me that isn’t acceptable. A deal which provides differential arrangements for different parts of the UK is a threat to the integrity of the UK.

Mundell was also asked about reports earlier in the week about Scottish Tories having a secret “stop Boris” plan (apparently codenamed Operation Arse, but GMS is a family show so did not reference to this). He said:

I think colleagues in Scotland are very frustrated by Mr Johnson’s behaviour, constantly seeking to detract from the prime minister, putting forward stunts and press releases and being a huge distraction at a time of such significance of our country.

Mundell also insisted that May’s new immigration restrictions, announced yesterday, would not negatively impact on Scotland, which has such different demographic needs to the rest of the UK.

The Irish are intensifying talks with EU leaders ahead of the anticipated UK proposal for the Irish border proposal. (See 9.24am.)

The EU is also working on a proposal which sources say will look “very different to the one in March” involving checks away form the border in vessels and stepped up surveillance for counterfeit and sub-standard goods in the market.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is meeting Michel Barnier tomorrow while Ireland’s minister for European affairs, Helen McEntee, is today at the European parliament as part of a two-day visit to reinforce the need to ensure a border deal before any agreement on the Uk’s withdrawal from the EU. And Sinn Fein’s Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill will meet Barnier on Friday, along with SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, and representatives from the Alliance and Green parties.

Boris Johnson's 'end-of-the-pier show' speech had no new answers, says Lidington

David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister and Theresa May’s de facto deputy, has done a round of media interviews this morning. They were relatively low-key, but a few lines emerged. Here they are:

  • Lidington refused to rule out the government proposing a plan for the Irish backstop that would involve Northern Ireland having different regulations from Great Britain. This could involve goods having to undergo checks as they move from Britain to Northern Ireland, something the DUP would strongly oppose. Yet when Lidington was asked if he could assure Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, that this would not happen, he replied:

I think that Arlene and her colleagues have no doubt about this prime minister and this government’s commitment to the union of the United Kingdom ...

I cannot negotiate on air when there’s a very complex negotiation going on at the moment, but I think we could not have been clearer as a government that that the union matters.

The “backstop” is the arrangement promised by the UK and the EU designed to ensure that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit. But how this will be achieved has not been agreed. The UK government says it wants to ensure that it is never needed anyway because the main Brexit settlement will not require a hard border.

  • He said the government would bring forward new, “more detailed” proposals for the backstop “very soon”.
  • He said Boris Johnson’s did not provide new answers to Britain’s Brexit problems in his speech yesterday. Asked about the former foreign secretary’s intervention, Lidington said:

He’s always got some well-crafted lines and it’s the end-of-the-pier show sort of event. What he’s not done is, I think, provide any new answers to some of the questions that have been raised - that if you’re going to advocate a trade arrangement with the EU that looks like the Canadian one, well, then you have to deal with the reality that Canadian goods coming into the EU are subject to all sorts of checks and inspections, paperwork and bureaucracy which would significantly increase costs for British business if they had to go from the current seamless arrangements to those ...

I don’t think he’s answered the question about the Irish border either, so I think that people are entitled to their views and people do express views at fringe meetings, always have done in the 30-plus years I’ve been going to Conservative party conferences, but I think that what we’ll see this afternoon is the membership rallying behind the prime minister, because they know that in her they’ve got a leader who is putting the country first, who is motivated only by a sense of patriotic duty to get the best deal for every part of the UK.

I think that really is a load of nonsense. When I talk to my cabinet colleagues, either formally or informally, what I find is men and women who are focused relentlessly on the job in hand.

A general view of the Conservative party annual conference at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham.
A general view of the Conservative party annual conference at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

On the Today programme this morning James Duddridge, a Brexiter Conservative MP and a supporter of Boris Johnson, said that the Brexit negotiations had been “an absolute disaster” and that Theresa May was not providing proper leadership. He told the programme:

We need a strong leader and we haven’t got that at the moment.

Boris yesterday was inspirational, motivational and rallied the troops, rallied politicians, something you could get behind and that’s what we need, we need a leader not a chief executive, an administrator, we need a vision to go forward and that’s what Boris presented yesterday.

We haven’t got someone that can effectively negotiate with the European Union at the moment, the Brexit negotiations have been an absolute disaster.

The cabinet, the team were railroaded into Chequers, the prime minister is haemorrhaging support in cabinet and in her party, no-one seriously expects her to fight another general election, yet we limp on and pretend we’re all behind a leader who is not delivering.

But Duddridge also admitted that, despite thinking that May was not doing a good job, he had not submitted a letter to the chair of the backbench 1922 committee asking for a vote of no confidence. Asked why not, he replied:

At some point I certainly need to do that, I haven’t been one of those 48 but if there is a vote of no confidence she’s got to go, I personally have no confidence in her leadership over delivering Brexit ...

Well I think a lot of people are hoping that she’ll change over Brexit but again and again she’s not changing, she’s not listening, she’s not delivering, so we live in hope ... my support for her is wearing thin to the point of being invisible.

May announces fuel duty freeze despite Treasury concerns about £800m cost

When Theresa May announced in June that the government was going to increase NHS funding by £20bn a year over five years, she indicated that taxes would have to go up to pay for it. “We as a country will be contributing a bit more,” she said.

But, judging by the overnight announcement ahead of May’s big speech to the Conservative conference today, ministers remain very squeamish about raising taxes. In fact, May is announcing what is effectively a significant tax cut, costing the Treasury £800m a year. She is freezing fuel duty, for the ninth year in a row.

This counts as a tax cut because the Treasury budgets on the basis that fuel duty will go up. But the fact that it has been frozen for almost a decade shows that, in practice, raising more money from fuel duty has become politically impossible - at least for a Conservative government, sensitive the Sun campaigning and the concerns of “white van man”.

According to the Sun, which broke the news of the announcement last night, the move will save motorists £1.20 every time they fill up a 60 litre average tank. The Tories have released some extracts from May’s speech and, on this issue, she will say that the difference it makes to have a “little bit of money left to put away at the end of the month” isn’t “measured in pounds and pence” (which is confusing because that is exactly how most people do measure having extra money). May will go on:

It’s the joy and precious memories that a week’s holiday with the family brings. It’s the peace of mind that comes with having some savings.

Many people in towns and cities across our country, cannot take these for granted. They are the people this party exists for. They are the people for whom this party must deliver ...

Some have wondered if there would be a thaw in our fuel duty freeze this year. Today I can confirm that in the budget later this month, the chancellor will freeze fuel duty again. Money in the pockets of hard working people from a Conservative government that is on their side.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, does not seem very happy about the move. Recently in the Commons he said that freezing fuel duty for three years would cost the Treasury £38bn, “twice as much as we spend on all NHS nurses and doctors each year”, and he hinted strongly that he wanted to end the freeze. In the Conservative press notice released overnight he is quoted as saying this tax cut “has come at a significant cost to the Exchequer”, but that it is justified because “the high oil price and the near-record pump price of petrol and diesel are also imposing a significant burden on motorists”.

This is very unusual. When chancellors announce tax cuts, they almost never talk about the negative impact on the public finances. This reads like a statement included at Hammond’s request to highlight his reservations.

In her speech May will also claim that the Tories are “a party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone who is willing to work hard and do their best.” Her is our overnight preview from my colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Pippa Crerar.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Shaun Bailey, the newly-selected Conservative candidate for London mayor, speaks.

10.15am: Panel discussion on preparing for the 2022 election.

11.30am: A guest speaker introduces the prime minister.

11.45am: Theresa May speaks.

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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