Theresa May's conference speech: Back me or risk Brexit
Dancing on stage and self-deprecation went a long way as the prime minister doubled down on her Brexit plan.
Wednesday 3 October 2018 21:48, UK
The letters stayed up. The cough sweets were left in their packet.
There was a millisecond at the end of the speech where Phillip May nearly tripped up and took his wife with him.
But he regained his footing, and this speech in Birmingham was a moment of catharsis for the prime minister.
Certainly dancing on to stage was brave, but self-deprecation goes a long way in the era of world leaders such as Donald Trump.
Just a day before, Boris Johnson's jokes contained references suggesting she should be prosecuted under ancient statutes. Most of Theresa May's jokes were aimed at herself.
Most of all, however, this speech and this conference were about a prime minister who is not backing down on her Brexit plan.
Indeed she may well go further.
Some Brexiteers had promised staged walkouts in the conference, but there were none.
And yet there was only one element of sugar-soaping.
She did chuck Chequers, but in name only. On the substance of the policy that caused so much trouble, she doubled down on the concept of a common rule book.
The PM is now defining her Brexit plan as an unwavering commitment to maintain frictionless trade with EU.
She said: "Our proposal is for a free trade deal that provides for frictionless trade in goods. It would protect hundreds of thousands of jobs in the just-in-time supply chains our manufacturing firms rely on.
"Businesses wouldn't face costly checks when they export to the EU, so they can invest with confidence," she added, confirming what she said in a Sky News interview on Tuesday that World Trade Organisation tariffs would apply after a "no deal" Brexit.
She was cheered by a Brexity audience after she said "Britain isn't afraid to leave with no deal if we have to".
But her real message was this: "But we need to be honest about it. Leaving without a deal - introducing tariffs and costly checks at the border - would be a bad outcome for the UK and the EU."
And again she ticked the Brexit box of decrying a second referendum - but then said something she has previously left to others.
Back me - or risk Brexit entirely.
She said: "Those of us who do respect the result - whichever side of the question we stood on two years ago - need to come together now.
"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."
This was a direct warning to Boris Johnson.
Jacob Rees-Mogg was in the sights of another comment: "A Brexit that might make Britain stronger 50 years from now is no good to you if it makes your life harder today."
After each such comment the look of relief on her face when this audience cheered and clapped and did not protest and boo was palpable.
The entire narrative arc of the speech was about unity in party and nation.
It was the polar opposite to her 2016 "citizens of nowhere" speech from the same stage, acclaimed at the time, but which turned the Brexit result in to a brooding culture war.
Above all this was the sign of a PM rolling a pitch for further compromise in upcoming home straight Brexit negotiations.
Her great hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel of the Brexit process and of a decade of austerity for a government to have the time and fiscal space to make a big impact.
Lifting the cap on council borrowing to fund housebuilding has been long demanded and a version of that proposal has long been Labour policy.
But it is a potential game changer, unlike other piffling housing market interventions over the past decade, and the evidence for this is that the Treasury has long hated the policy, fearful of the lack of central control over large scale forms of public borrowing.
It was a more detailed offer than that of Boris Johnson.
It was pitched in a different part of the political spectrum, designed to appeal to moderates, alienated by extremes in both main parties.
Indeed Mrs May took great delight in turning Boris Johnson's alleged expletives about the business community on their head, saying Tories should "back business".
The speech and the conference definitively buys her time.
The promise is of a bright Brexit future - but only if her party unites around her vision.
Undoubtedly it was short on policy.
But in a tumultuous and tough time, this went as well as could be expected for the PM in Birmingham, though you could say the same for the opposition leader last week, too.
And the animus that motivated Johnson-supporting MP James Duddridge to try to trip up the speech by announcing his submission of a letter to the 1922 calling for a leadership contest remains.
When she has to make further compromises - perhaps an interim customs union - it will surely crystallise again.