Boris Johnson is gearing up to make his grab for glory and show why he should replace Theresa May as Conservative Party leader at a conference fringe event today.
The ex-Cabinet member – responsible for sparking a grudge match between Brexiteers and supporters of the Prime Minister – is giving a speech today to restate his opposition to her Chequers plan for Brexit.
It comes amid a deep divide within the Tory party after Chancellor Philip Hammond launched a savage attack on Mr Johnson in a series of newspaper interviews at the beginning of the week.
As well as re-iterating his opposition to Theresa Mays plan for leaving the EU, Mr Johnson is expected to tell Tories to focus on law and order, tax cuts and house-building in order to defeat Labour.
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It is seen as a rebuke to the Chancellor who yesterday said taxes will rise to help pay for the £20 billion spending boost promised to the NHS.
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Mr Hammond mocked his former Cabinet colleague by mimicking his style of speaking in an interview with the Daily Mail, in which he predicted that Mr Johnson will never become PM.
Accusing Mr Johnson of lacking the attention to detail to succeed in grown-up politics, he dismissed the super-Canada Brexit deal favoured by the former foreign secretary as a fantasy world plan.
Leaked extracts of his speech suggest Mr Johnson will position himself as the man to lead the fight against Jeremy Corbyns Labour at the fringe meeting later today.
In what may be seen as a swipe at Mrs Mays focus on righting burning injustices in society, he will urge the party not to ape Corbyn but to take basic conservative ideas and fit them to the problems of today.
We must on no account follow Corbyn, and start to treat capitalism as a kind of boo word, he will say.
We cant lose our faith in competition and choice and markets but we should restate the truth that there is simply no other system that is so miraculously successful in satisfying human wants and needs.
We should set our taxes to stimulate investment and growth. We should be constantly aiming not to increase but to cut taxes.
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It is the conservative approach that gets things done, so lets follow our conservative instincts.
Attacking Mr Corbyns leaders speech to Labours conference in Liverpool last week, Mr Johnson will say: It was astonishing that he had absolutely nothing to say about the wealth-creating sector of the economy – the people who get up at the crack of dawn to prepare their shops, the grafters and the grifters, the innovators, the entrepreneurs – he didnt mention any successes.
We Conservatives know that it is only a strong private sector economy that can pay for superb public services and that is the central symmetry of our one nation Toryism.
Mr Johnsons visit to the party conference is a one-day event amid mounting criticism of his recent actions in speaking out against the government.
He used a Sunday Times interview to describe Mrs Mays Brexit policy deranged and preposterous.
Unlike the Prime Minister, I fought for this, he said, in what is seen as a clear push towards a leadership bid.
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And yesterday, as the PM celebrated her 62nd birthday, Boris was seen running through a field of wheat near his Oxfordshire home – another dig at his party leader.
Mr Johnson is not speaking from the stage at this years conference, after walking out of Cabinet in July in protest at the plan agreed at Chequers for the UKs future relationship with the EU.
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But his scheduled speech on the fringe is the hottest ticket of the four-day gathering, with activists expected to start queuing hours early for what is certain to be a jam-packed event.
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