This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Trump congratulates Boris Johnson, saying he will be 'great' as UK's next PM – live news
Trump congratulates Boris Johnson, saying he will be 'great' as UK's next PM – live news
(32 minutes later)
The European parliament’s Brexit steering group will hold a meeting tomorrow with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, to discuss the implications of Boris Johnson’s election, Guy Verhofstadt, the parliament’s lead Brexit spokesman, says.
From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg
The @Europarl_EN’s Brexit Steering Group will hold an extraordinary meeting tomorrow with @michelBarnier to respond to @BorisJohnson's election. The meeting will be followed by an official communication. Looking forward to defending the interest of all Europeans. #Brexit
Johnson and Hunt apparently had a long conversation in the green room behind the scenes at the announcement event, that’s why it was slightly delayed - did they manage to reach an accommodation? Keeping Hunt at FCO would be big signal to party that he values stability
Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister who has been very critical of the idea of accepting a no-deal Brexit as an acceptable outcome, is not planning to resign, and has urged colleagues to support Boris Johnson. “It’s a duty of every MP to support the prime minister right now,” he told the Press Association.
Theresa May says she will give Boris Johnson her “full support” from the back benches.
Boris Johnson has tweeted this message following his election as Tory leader.
Many congratulations to @BorisJohnson on being elected leader of @Conservatives - we now need to work together to deliver a Brexit that works for the whole UK and to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of government. You will have my full support from the back benches.
Thank you all for the incredible honour you have done me. The time for campaigning is over and the time for work begins to unite our country and party, deliver Brexit and defeat Corbyn. I will work flat out to repay your confidence
From Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter
And Jeremy Hunt has sent this message to the man who beat him.
Congratulations @BorisJohnson on becoming the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Congratulations @BorisJohnson 4 a campaign well https://t.co/b1rmrIHic6'll be a great PM for our country at this critical moment!Throughout campaign you showed optimism,energy & unbounded confidence in our wonderful country & we need that.All best wishes from the entrepreneur :-)
This is from Arlene Foster, the DUP leader.
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, says she has “profound concerns” about Boris Johnson’s election, and demands that he take the threat of a no-deal Brexit off the table immediately.
Congratulations to @BorisJohnson on becoming Conservative Party Leader. Look forward to discussing our shared objectives of strengthening the Union, delivering Brexit & restoring devolution. pic.twitter.com/P8VV82UXAV
I congratulate Boris Johnson on his election as Tory leader and I will do everything possible to ensure that he respects Scotland’s views and interests. However, I have profound concerns about the prospect of his premiership and it would be hypocritical not to be frank about these. These are concerns that I am certain will be shared by the vast majority of people in Scotland who, had they been given any say, would not have chosen to hand the keys of No 10 to someone with his views and track record.
Boris Johnson will be the fifth prime minister since the second world war to have been educated at Eton College, the Press Association reports. The other four to attend the independent, fee-paying boarding school were David Cameron (prime minister from 2010-16), Alec Douglas-Home (1963-64), Harold Macmillan (1957-63) and Anthony Eden (1955-57). Like Boris Johnson, all of them were Conservative prime ministers.
Brexit of any kind would be deeply damaging to Scotland and the rest of the UK, but his public pledge to leave the EU by 31 October – ‘come what may’ and ‘do or die’ – flies in the face of logic, common sense or any basic regard for the wellbeing of the people and nations of the UK.
It means one-third of the UK’s 15 prime ministers since 1945 are Old Etonians – the name given to former pupils of the college, PA reports. Three other postwar PMs attended independent schools: Clement Attlee (Haileybury), Winston Churchill (Harrow) and Tony Blair (Fettes). The rest, including the outgoing prime minister, Theresa May, attended grammar schools.
It is a deeply irresponsible threat, and not one that should be contemplated by any serious political leader. It should now be taken off the table without delay or equivocation.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, found Boris Johnson’s victory speech (see 12.48pm and 1.28pm) “embarrassingly underwhelming”.
Sturgeon pledged that her Scottish government would be “at the forefront of all and any moves to stop Brexit and block a no-deal Brexit, as will SNP MPs in the House of Commons”, adding that these efforts were supported across the political spectrum.
This first Johnson speech is excruciatingly and embarrassingly underwhelming. It was a like an ill prepared after dinner speech at the local golf club.
Theresa May has chaired her last cabinet, and from the sound of things it was a very much an end-of-term affair, focused on praising her record and then handing over parting gifts.
From Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader
The meeting discussed funding for the NHS and how to tackle May’s much-mentioned “burning injustices”, such as access to mental health treatment, her spokesman said, and generally agreed that she had done a great job on housebuilding, employment and the economy.
Statement. Interview to follow. pic.twitter.com/d30QpKYfwb
“The PM thanked the cabinet for all they had done during her premiership, which she said had done much to improve people’s lives,” her spokesman said. She also thanked No 10 advisers and the civil service.
A source close to Boris Johnson said cabinet appointments would not be made until Wednesday evening, the Press Association reports. He is expected to spend this afternoon finalising the top ministerial team and preparing his speech for Wednesday. Johnson will also address the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs at 4pm today and visit CCHQ.
Then May’s de facto deputy, David Lidington, thanked her “for her great dedicated to public service, and her commitment to the union”, the spokesman said.
This is from Liz Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s leader at Westminster.
Finally, it was over to Michael Gove, the environment secretary, who handed over presents paid for by a cabinet whip-round – a black Liberty handbag and a crystal necklace by the French company Lalique.
The Conservative party has just thrown the UK out of the frying pan and into the fire.
May’s spokesman was pressed on precisely what bag it was, and gamely spent some time looking at the Liberty website on his phone to see if he could recognise it, but that detail will have to come later.
During the most serious political crisis in decades, a clown is set to become prime minister. But this is no joke.
Outside the Queen Elizabeth II centre in Westminster, about 100 pro-Brexit and pro-EU protesters were gathered alongside members of the press waiting for the future prime minister to emerge from the building.
People will soon realise, this isn’t as good as it gets. By electing Boris Johnson, the Conservative party has given the Welsh independence movement a gift.
Some campaigners shouted: “Bollocks to Brexit” and “You can shove your Brexit up Farage” while waving EU flags. Others were holding: “We voted leave” placards over the temporary barriers outside the centre.
With the election of Mr Johnson, the question of Welsh independence is not of ‘if’, but ‘when’.
Ruth Bradshaw, 76, who lives in London, was among the pro-EU demonstrators disappointed by the news of Boris Johnson’s victory.
“I’m here to stop Brexit,” she said. “I’m very displeased by the news Boris will be the next PM, but I have to say I’m not shocked. I think of the two remaining candidates, the one with more common sense was Mr Hunt – who was prepared to extend the deadline after Halloween.”
President Trump has congratulated Boris Johnson.
Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He will be great!
Boris Johnson’s speech was very short, and probably a disappointment to anyone expecting some trademark Johnson jokes. It was also rather thin for someone who has spent the last four weeks certain almost beyond doubt that they would become the next prime minister. But Johnson will be giving a speech in Downing Street tomorrow, which will receive more attention, he is expected to make a statement to MPs on Thursday, and he is scheduled to give a major speech at the end of this week. Now was not really the time for a major statement of intent.
Still, in an extract buried in the middle of the speech, there were two clues as to where he intends to go. Here is key passage.
If you look at the history of the last 200 years of this party’s existence, you will see that it is we Conservatives who have had the best insights, I think, into human nature, and the best insights into how to manage the jostling sets of instincts in the human heart.
And time again it is to us that the people of this country have turned to get that balance right, between the instincts to own your own home, to earn and spend your own money, to look after your own family – good instincts, proper instincts, noble instincts – and the equally noble instinct to share and to give everyone a fair chance in life. And to look out to the poorest and the neediest, and to build a great society.
And on the whole, in the last 200 years, it is we Conservatives who have understood best how to encourage those instincts to work together in harmony, to promote the good of the whole country.
And today, at this pivotal moment in our history, we again have to reconcile two sets of instincts, two noble sets of instincts, between the deep desire for friendship and free trade and mutual support in security and defence between Britain and our European partners, and the simultaneous desire – equally deep and heartfelt – for democratic self-government in this country.
What does this mean? Here are two thoughts.
Johnson stressed his desire for a partnership with the EU, not confrontation, in his first public comments as prime minister-elect. He could have gone for a reprise of his “Brexit by 31 October, do or die” campaign message, but instead he stressed the importance of having a close and friendly relationship with the EU. That final sentence could have come from a David Cameron speech. This does not necessarily tell you much – the Tory Brexiters think they have Johnson hostage, and so his room for manoeuvre may be limited – but it is interesting nonetheless.
Johnson adopted the language of one nation Conservatism, stressing the importance of caring for the “poorest and the neediest”. Johnson’s supporters claim that, on all issues other than Brexit, he is at heart a mainstream, one nation Conservative. That is hard to square with his enthusiasm for Brexit and Donald Trump, but it was a common assessment of Johnson when he was London mayor. The real question, perhaps, is whether one nation Conservatism is compatible with hardline Brexitism (which takes you towards Nigel Farage-style nativism), but it is worth noting that Johnson still wants to use this language.
Boris Johnson received 66% of the vote, on an 87% turnout.
In percentage terms, that is better than Jeremy Corbyn achieved in the last Labour leadership election, in 2016, when he got 62% of the vote on a 78% turnout (although the electorate in that contest was much larger). It is also better than Jo Swinson achieved yesterday, when she was elected Lib Dem leader with 63% of the vote on a 72% turnout.
Johnson has also done better than Iain Duncan Smith, the first Conservative leader elected by members, not just MPs. In 2001 Duncan Smith got 61% of the vote on a 78% turnout.
But Johnson has not managed to beat his old rival, David Cameron. Cameron had 68% of the vote when he won in 2005, on a turnout that was also 78%.
He says his three priorities – deliver, unite and defeat – form the acronym Dud. But that is to leave out the final plan: “energise”. So his acronym is Dude, he jokes.
He says he is now going to get on with the job.
And that’s it.
Boris Johnson says the party has to reconcile two conflicting instincts again: the instinct to work with others, and the instinct for self-government.
He says in the Financial Times this morning someone said no incoming leader had ever faced such a daunting set of circumstances.
But do you look daunted, he asks the audience. They don’t look or feel daunted he says.
He says the mantra of his campaign was to deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn.
(He used to include unite the party too, but with all the resignations, that might not have sounded such a good line.)
Boris Johnson says there will be people who question the wisdom of the decision to elect him.
No one person or party has a monopoly of wisdom, he says.
But he says over time the Conservatives have had the best instincts, and the best way of balancing instincts, like the instinct to own your own home and keep your own money, and the instinct to share.
The Conservatives have encouraged those instincts to work together, he says.
Boris Johnson is giving his victory speech.
He starts by saying Jeremy Hunt was a formidable opponent.
He was a fount of excellent ideas, all of which Johnson says he proposes to steal forthwith.
And he thanks Theresa May for her service.
Boris Johnson won with 66% of the vote.
Boris Johnson wins with 66% of the vote
Gillan said there were 159,320 people eligible to vote.
