Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson is set to deliver a major speech which will call on the Government to unite over Brexit in what some may consider a veiled leadership move.
Mr Johnson will tell an audience at the JCB headquarters in Rocester that Britons “have been drifting too far apart” and will urge the Government to focus on issues that drove the 2016 referendum.
The Tory Brexiteer, who will speak in Staffordshire at 11am on Friday, will also use his keynote address to call for action on the pay gap and careful thinking on immigration.
“Yes, it (Brexit) was about democracy,” Mr Johnson will say. "But that vote was also triggered by a feeling that, in some way, the people of this country have been drifting too far apart and in areas where we need to come together."
Mr Johnson will also use his keynote address to call for action on the pay gap and careful thinking on immigration, adding: "We all know about boardroom pay and the huge expansion in the last 25 years of the gap between the remuneration of FTSE100 CEOs and the average workers in their firms.
"We know one of the ways big corporations have held wages down is that they have had access to unlimited pools of labour from other countries.
"Now, I am a free-market capitalist and a passionate believer in the benefits of migration, but there must be a balance and if an influx of labour is being used not only to prevent investment in capital equipment but also in the skills and prospects of young people, then we need to think carefully about how we control immigration.”
The move follows a bid by Theresa May to talk to prominent MPs and opposition leaders about Brexit in the wake of the Government's crushing Commons defeat, a change of political tack that Jeremy Corbyn branded a "stunt".
Additional reporting by Press Association.
