Boris Johnson ignores pleas to restrain rhetoric

Boris Johnson ignored pleas to restrain rhetoric as Tory MPs gathered for their party conference.

Boris Johnson has ignored pleas to restrain his rhetoric as Conservative MPs gathered in Manchester for their annual conference.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning local time, Mr Johnson insisted he had been a “model of restraint” after accusations his inflammatory language around Brexit was inciting violence.

And he doubled down on the language for which he was castigated last week, repeating his claim that the Benn Act, which demands he ask for a Brexit extension if there is no deal by October 19, was a “surrender’’ position.

“Obviously the chances of a deal or no deal depend very much on the common sense of our friends and partners. It has not been helped by the surrender act,” he said.

He admitted that “Everybody should calm down” over Brexit but, asked if that included him, he responded: “I think I’ve been the model of restraint.”

The row over the Mr Johnson’s prorogation of parliament and his behaviour in the Commons last week has cast a shadow over the Tory conference, which is expected to lay bare the deep divisions within the party.

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However the Tories have already started using the conference to sharpen their pitch for an expected election, along the lines of their conference slogan “Getting Brexit Done’’. They are also warning a general unity government — threatened by the opposition parties to avoid a no deal Brexit — would be an electoral disaster.

On the first of a three-day conference in Manchester there were clear lines drawn: that the Conservatives wouldn’t do a deal with the Brexit party at any seats in an election and that the rebel 21 Tory MPs who have had the whip withdrawn, would not cross the floor in any unity government that would put Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in charge.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, warned the Tory party faithful that any general national unity government, as threatened by the Scottish Nationalists, would be a “Remoaner coup’’.

He insisted if there were such a development, which he labelled a “Gnu’’, ”Their come-uppance will be in the ballot box when we come to a general election.’’

While he was speaking to a standing ovation, a colourful parade of union protesters with anti-Tory messages braved the rain to march, chanting, down Mancunian streets.

Mr Rees-Mogg added: “Fear nothing that they do, fear nothing of their schemes and stratagems, because ultimately we will have a general election and parties that deny democracy get into great trouble when people have the chance to vote…. the Liberal Democrats, when they did that the last two times they got wiped out in a general election. How sad that would be.’’

Mr Rees-Mogg also warned that other countries, “if they had got any sense’’ would leave the EU.

“I think the problems with the euro are so deep-seated that the current euro project, the European Union project, can’t last long into the future. But things often last longer than one anticipates.’’

The Tory conference also saw a theme emerge of trashing the “middle muddle’’ Liberal Democrats, which are perceived to be an electoral threat.

The latest polling suggests the Conservatives have a 10 to 12 point lead over Labour, but Labour got a small boost from its party conference in Brighton last week, and the Liberal Democrats continue to gather momentum.

The Liberal Democrats, who have vowed to revoke Brexit altogether, have climbed to 20 per cent in the polls, while Labour has vacillated on its official Brexit position.

Yesterday Mr Rees-Mogg said of the Liberal Democrat leader: “Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat by name but not by nature. Liberal in accepting the yoke of Brussels, Democratic only in her own mind. It is they who have taken an extreme position — they want to cancel Brexit entirely without giving the people a say.’’

Meanwhile Mr Johnson, due to make his headline speech to conference on Wednesday, continued to insist that he was working toward a deal.

“I do think there’s a good chance (of a deal) and we’re working incredibly hard,” he told the BBC. “We will continue to work tomorrow and in the course of the next few days to see if we can get this thing over the line. And there’s a good chance.”

However Democratic Union party leader Arlene Foster, speaking at a conference fringe event, ruled out having regulatory checks on the Ireland border on anything but agriculture.

She said.“ We’ve been very clear about all of that. Some people don’t understand that when we set out our position, we meant it. The whole raison d’etre of the DUP is the union.”

Ms Foster flagged that a backstop time limit might be an option but said she didn’t believe it was on offer at the moment.

She also said the DUP would support a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

“Putting Jeremy Corbyn into government is not something the DUP will ever be accused of,’’ she said.

Elsewhere both the trade minister Liz Truss and Mr Rees-Mogg suggested that there may be the numbers in parliament to pass a new version of a Brexit deal through parliament.