Theresa May: 'Good' Brexit deal will mean end to austerity
During her speech in Birmingham, Theresa May says the Tories need to show voters they are "not just a party to clean up a mess".
Friday 5 October 2018 13:43, UK
Theresa May has signalled an end to the age of austerity - provided she can secure a "good" Brexit deal.
Ten years after the financial crash, the prime minister said the British people were crying out for light at the end of the tunnel and "our message to them must be this: 'we get it'".
Delivering her speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Mrs May said the Tories needed to show voters they were "not just a party to clean up a mess", but also capable of guiding Britain to a "better future".
She said: "Sound finances are essential but they are not the limit of our ambition.
"Because you made sacrifices, there are better days ahead.
"So when we've secured a good Brexit deal for Britain, at the spending review next year we will set out our approach to the future. Debt as a share of the economy will continue to go down, support for public services will go up.
"Because a decade after the financial crash, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off."
In what was overall a positive and upbeat speech, Mrs May declared: "If we come together, there is no limit to what we can achieve. Our future is in our hands."
But the headlines in the days and weeks leading up to this conference have been anything but positive and upbeat for the PM.
There has been near constant speculation about her leadership and how much time she has left in Downing Street, with further fuel poured on the fire when Tory MP James Duddridge submitted a letter of no confidence in Mrs May on the morning of her speech.
However, the PM seemed relaxed and at ease as she walked on stage to ABBA's Dancing Queen, jiving as she approached the podium.
The unexpected entrance was a light-hearted nod to footage of her dancing during a recent trip to Africa that went viral.
She also made light of her difficult turn at last year's conference - when she was handed a P45 by a prankster, was overwhelmed at points by coughing fits and saw the backdrop behind her begin to fall apart.
"You'll have to excuse me if I cough during this speech; I've been up all night supergluing the backdrop," Mrs May joked.
During the speech, she announced:
:: A new cancer strategy to increase early detection of the illness and save 55,000 lives a year by 2028;
:: A freeze in fuel duty for the ninth successive year;
:: An auto-compensation system for train passengers, so they won't have to "waste more time" getting their money back;
:: A lifting of the cap on councils borrowing to fund new developments to help fix the "broken" housing market and build "the homes this country needs".
In the run-up to the conference, the PM has come under pressure to abandon her Chequers plan for Brexit - but in her speech, Mrs May made clear she was sticking to her guns on Brexit.
"If we stick together and hold our nerve, I know we can get a deal that delivers for Britain," she said.
Mrs May did not use the word "Chequers" in her speech, but aides insisted this was not intended as a signal that she has moved away from the blueprint agreed by her Cabinet in July.
And while she did not mention Boris Johnson by name, there were two pointed rebukes for her former foreign secretary, who used a high-profile speech at a conference fringe event to criticise her Brexit plan.
First, she said those who want to deliver Brexit "need to come together now", and warned: "If we don't - 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."
Then Mrs May ridiculed Mr Johnson's reported "f*** business" comment, saying businesses should know 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 businesses".
The PM again made clear she holds calls for a second referendum in the highest contempt, declaring such a move would be a "politicians' vote" which would see the public being told "they got it wrong the first time and should try again".
Turning her fire to Labour, Mrs May claimed the party would take the country back to "square one" if it got into power.
She said the ascendancy of the left in the party was a "national tragedy" and that the solutions offered by Jeremy Corbyn - including nationalising industries and offering shares for workers - were "bogus solutions that would makes things worse".
Mrs May made a pitch for voters who she said were turned off by Mr Corbyn's vision for the country and Labour's antisemitism row, saying she wanted the "decent, moderate and patriotic" Conservatives to be "a party for the whole country".
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab praised the PM, saying afterwards she had demonstrated "very strong leadership" in what was a "personal" speech.
Responding to the PM's speech, Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery said the Tories were simply offering voters "pinched ideas and tinkering around at the edges, relying on petty attacks to cover up their lack of vision".
He said austerity "is not an economic necessity" and warned: "As long as Britain has a Conservative prime minister, we'll never see an end to austerity."
Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said Mrs May was "dancing on the head of a pin, confronted by an audience full of people plotting to oust her".
The Confederation of British Industry welcomed her "unambiguous call to back business" but the group raised concerns about the government's new immigration system, describing it as a "wrong turn".