Tory conference: was Theresa May’s speech enough to keep her in the job?
PM closes Conservatives’ annual meeting with speech promising end to austerity if party backs her
Theresa May has pledged to end austerity and release money into public services, in a clear pitch to both the Tory party and UK voters to keep her in power.
Addressing the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham today, the prime minister said: “A decade after the financial crash, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and their hard work has paid off.”
May vowed to bring forward plans for a new public spending review that would ensure “support for public services will go up”. In a message directed at the whole country during her closing speech, she promised: “Because you made sacrifices, there are better days ahead.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
As the Financial Times notes, the PM “is fighting to contain her party’s civil war on Brexit and will, in the next few weeks, try to break the deadlock in her negotiations with the EU”.
Delivering what The Times describes as “an explicit warning” to her MPs, she said that replacing her as leader and choosing a hard Brexit would derail these future spending plans, which could only happen once “we’ve secured a good Brexit deal for Britain”.
The PM’s speech “was clearly better than last year’s”, if only because “the set remained intact and no comedian handed her a P45”, says the London Evening Standard.
All the same, May definitely “goes home much stronger than when she arrived”, says The Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow.
At its heart, her speech was “a giant job interview for Tory MPs to keep her as leader beyond March... my future, in your hands”, says The Sun’s Tom Newton-Dunn.
Alongside her rhetorical pledge to end austerity, there were two big policy announcements. The PM said there would be a “step change” in how cancer is diagnosed, with a strategy aimed at increasing the early detection rate, from around 50% today to 75% by 2028.
May’s second big announcement was plans to scrap the current cap on how much councils can borrow to fund the building of new houses, which she said “doesn’t make sense”. The move will be welcomed by campaigners, “who have long argued that lifting the cap will help stimulate more public building”, says the FT.
The PM also used her speech to take a swipe at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s “bogus solutions” - but actually “did Corbyn the honour of hijacking his agenda”, says The Guardian’s Sparrow. The lifting of the housing cap has been a “long-standing Labour policy”, reports Sparrow, who claims that May has “belatedly realised that Corbyn is on the right side of public opinion on austerity”.
On the whole, though, the speech “was accomplished and bought May some time”, says The Times’ Tim Shipman. “Unfortunately for her, that might only be a fortnight as we await the EU’s next move,” he adds.
The Spectator’s James Forsyth agrees, saying that while May will “send activists home in better heart than they expected this morning”, the “European Council in two weeks time means Brexit will soon reassert itself”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What Mike Huckabee means for US-Israel relations
In the Spotlight Some observers are worried that the conservative evangelical minister could be a destabilizing influence on an already volatile region
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Airplane food is reportedly getting much worse
Under the radar Cockroaches and E. coli are among the recent problems encountered in the skies
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: November 19, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is Lammy hoping to achieve in China?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary heads to Beijing as Labour seeks cooperation on global challenges and courts opportunities for trade and investment
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Who will replace Rishi Sunak as the next Tory leader?
In Depth Shortlist will be whittled down to two later today
By The Week UK Last updated
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The Tamils stranded on 'secretive' British island in Indian Ocean
Under the Radar Migrants 'unlawfully detained' since 2021 shipwreck on UK-controlled Diego Garcia, site of important US military base
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published