Boris Johnson sets out his Tory leadership vision... in America

Ambition: Boris Johnson set out his stall for a future leadership bid and hit out at Vladimir Putin over the Novichok interview
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Joe Murphy @JoeMurphyLondon14 September 2018
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Boris Johnson appeared to set out his stall for a future Tory leadership bid today when he said helping people “stuck in entry-level jobs” was his top priority.

He claimed the Government was not doing enough to help poor people get on — striking a contrast with Theresa May’s vow to challenge “burning injustices” in society.

Speaking at a black-tie dinner in Washington, the former foreign secretary said: “People are stuck in entry-level jobs and they’re not progressing. And we’re not focusing on those issues, we’re not helping people enough. People are not being made to feel needed enough. And it’s a serious problem.”

Mr Johnson was on stage at the American Enterprise Institute, where he collected the Irving Kristol award early today.

Asked what his top priority would be, he replied: “Social mobility. If you think back to the great achievements of the Thatcher era, it was about helping people to seize control of their own destiny. It was about buying shares or buying their own homes. We need to recover that momentum.” He linked the issue to Brexit, saying: “One of the reasons people voted to Leave was because they felt they were not getting a fair suck of the sauce bottle.”

Mr Johnson confessed his biggest mistake was thinking he could defrost relations with Moscow.

“I made the classic, classic mistake of thinking it was possible to have a ‘re-set’ with Russia... Then it just became clearer and clearer to me that that was a fool’s errand.”

Boris Johnson said Vladimir Putin was 'making a mockery of the whole thing' 
REUTERS

He branded the two suspects in the Salisbury Novichok attack “murderers”, which they have denied, and challenged them to sue him. “I’ll say it now — those two guys on Russian TV are murderers. And if they dispute that fact, they can sue me in the courts.”

Referring to a staged Russia Today television interview with the pair, he said: “And you see what’s happening now with these two characters produced in this satirical way by [President] Putin on Russian TV, asked these ludicrously patsy questions, making a mockery of the whole thing. And it really makes my blood boil … I hold that regime in absolute contempt.”

Conservative MP George Freeman today said Tory colleagues should let Mrs May stay on as leader to deliver Brexit, and then she should step down. “I think we should let the Prime Minister get Brexit over the line at the end of March and leave the longer-term debate about what our new relationship is to a new-generation leader,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. It emerged that Tory MPs backing Mrs May’s plans for Brexit have set up a new group, the Brexit Delivery Group, to face down hardcore Brexiteers. Some 60 MPs were said to have signed up.

In a 30-minute Q&A, Mr Johnson attacked Mrs May’s Chequers proposals, saying: “There is no point at all in us coming out of the EU only to remain effectively run by the EU.”

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