Boris Johnson lampoons ‘raucous squawkus from anti-AUKUS caucus’

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rallied his Conservative party faithful on Wednesday night.

A typically bullish Boris Johnson addresses the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Picture: Getty Images

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson touted a new defence deal with Australia and the US as he rallied his Conservative Party faithful on Thursday (AEDT).

The new alliance, dubbed AUKUS, infuriated France after Canberra cancelled a $90bn contract for French submarines.

“I know that there has been a certain raucous squawkus from the anti-AUKUS caucus,” he joked as he closed the Conservatives’ four-day annual conference in Manchester. “But AUKUS is simply a recognition of the reality that the world is tilting on its economic axis and our trade and relations with the Indo-Pacific ­region are becoming more vital than ever before.”

In the Tories’ first in-person event since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Johnson vowed an overhaul to wean the UK economy off cheap foreign labour after Brexit.

He shrugged off panic buying at petrol stations, bare supermarket shelves and retailers’ warnings of a bleak Christmas.

In characteristically bullish form, Mr Johnson said the short-term pain was worth it in the long-run for the economy. There was little new policy detail in the 45-minute speech, and Mr Johnson framed a broader narrative that the departure from the EU presents a historic opportunity.

“We are dealing with the biggest underlying issues of our economy and society, the problems that no government has had the guts to tackle before,” he said.

“We are embarking now on the change of direction that has been long overdue in the UK economy,” he added, vowing no return to the pre-Brexit model of “uncontrolled immigration”.

Instead, British businesses will have to invest in their workers and technology to push the country “towards a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy”.

In the meantime, the Tory government has agreed to a limited number of short-term visas to lure truck drivers and poultry workers from eastern Europe.

“Yes, it will take time, and sometimes it will be difficult, but that is the change that people voted for in 2016,” he said, referring to the Brexit referendum.

Mr Johnson hit back at Conservative right-wingers aghast at Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s warnings that taxes will have to go up to pay for the government’s pandemic spending.

Margaret Thatcher would have “wagged her finger and said more borrowing now is just higher interest rates, and even higher taxes later”, he said.

He also talked up Britain’s ­action on climate change and the need for global co-ordination, ahead of convening the two-week COP26 climate summit from ­October 31 in Glasgow.

AFP