Time to shape up, May sends out warning to feuding Cabinet members

Theresa May will send out a warning to her feuding party, including Boris Johnson, when she gives her conference speech later today.

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In a coded warning to prospective rivals like Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister will urge colleagues to “look beyond the gossip pages of newspapers” and focus on delivering change for “ordinary working people”.

Addressing delegates on the final day of a subdued party conference, the Conservative leader will also send a clear signal that she intends to remain at the helm, insisting it has never been her “style” to “retreat in the face of difficulty”.

“It is when tested the most that we find that our capacity to rise to the challenge may well be limitless,” she will say.

Today’s speech by the Prime Minister seeks to draw a line under a summer of squabbling and positioning by Cabinet members amid expectations of a leadership battle. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis were put forward as early favourites among the Brexiteers, with Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd the frontrunners for the Remainers.

Tensions with Number 10 appeared to reach a new high in the run-up to Mrs May’s Florence speech, after Mr Johnson used an article in the Telegraph to set out his own red lines on Brexit. And Mrs May faced criticism at the weekend after refusing to say whether the former mayor of London was “unsackable”.

However, Mr Johnson used his own address to delegates yesterday to put on a show of support for the Prime Minister. Citing the result in June, he pointed out that Mrs May had not only won the election but took the party “to its highest share of the vote in any election in the last 25 years”.

He went on to argue that “the whole cabinet” was united on “every syllable” of the proposals set out in her Florence speech. “The whole country owes her a debt for her steadfastness in taking Britain forward... to a great Brexit deal,” he said.

But Mrs May will take further steps to reassert her authority today as she calls on Cabinet colleagues to “shape up and give the country the government it needs”. “Beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster... the daily lives of ordinary working people go on. They must be our focus today,” she is expected to say.

She will also reinforce her message that she intends to lead the party into the next election.

“It has never been my style to hide from a challenge, to shrink from a task, to retreat in the face of difficulty, to give up and turn away. It is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless,” she will say.

Fox rules out third attempt

Trade Secretary Liam Fox has ruled himself out of making a third bid for the Conservative Party leadership.

The North Somerset MP has led two unsuccessful campaigns for the role in recent years, including in 2016 when he ran against Theresa May.

However, when asked if he would consider standing again, the Brexiteer quickly dismissed the suggestion. He said: “Twice bitten, twice shy.”

It followed reports that David Davis planned to retire once the Article 50 process was complete in 2019.

Sources later claimed this was meant as a “lighthearted remark”.

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