BORIS Johnson yesterday pledged to “repay the trust” of voters in the north of England who helped install him back in 10 Downing Street last week.
The Prime Minister made the remarks during a “symbolic” visit to Tony Blair’s old Sedgefield constituency in County Durham, which fell to the Tories on Thursday night in a dramatic night of losses for Labour.
In front of a crowd of newly elected MPs from the region and supporters, gathered at a local cricket club, he claimed to be committed to increasing equal access to opportunity across the country, under the banner of one-nation Conservatism.
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“We believe in giving opportunity to everyone,” he told them. “We believe that talent is evenly distributed throughout our country, but opportunity is unfairly distributed. We are going to rectify that as a one-nation Conservative Government, as a people’s government, that is what we are going to do.”
Sedgefield was one of a swathe of seats across the North, Midlands and north Wales once known as Labour’s “red wall” that turned blue last week as the Tories scooped up an 80-seat majority in the new House of Commons.
It is thought lifelong Labour voters lent their vote to the party, once hated in traditional industrial communities, in large part due to the systematic dismantling of mining communities during Margaret Thatcher’s era. Commentators have noted that many may have done so only because of their support for Brexit.
In his speech, Johnson acknowledged how difficult the switch must have been to make. “I can imagine people’s pencils hovering over the ballot paper and wavering before coming down for us and the Conservatives,” he said. “I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us.
“And I want the people of the North East to know that we in the Conservative Party, and I, will repay your trust – and everything that we do, everything that I do as your Prime Minister, will be devoted to repaying that trust.”
Johnson insisted his Government’s priorities and those of its new supporters are the same. “It is getting Brexit done but it is also delivering on our National Health Service, our education, safer streets, better hospitals, a better future for our country,” he said.
I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us
“We are going to recover our national self-confidence, our mojo, our self-belief. It is going to be a wonderful, wonderful time for our country. Our country will stand tall in the world.”
Meanwhile recriminations within Labour are continuing following the party’s worst performance in a general election since 1935. While some claimed Corbyn should have been clearer on the Brexit issue, others have claimed that it was the fault of others in the party who persuaded him to adopt a position of supporting a second referendum.
Labour MP for York Central, Rachel Maskell, said: “We’ve all got to take responsibility. I don’t think apportioning blame to a complex situation in a simplistic way is really the way to approach this.”
Johnson is expected to announce a minor government re-shuffle as early as tomorrow rewarding loyalists during the election campaign and potentially sacking those who he considered damaging to the campaign.
Former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who was sacked by Johnson in July, has been tipped as a possible to replace former Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan, who has stood down as an MP.
Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove may be given an expanded brief, including leading post-Brexit trade negotiations. Meanwhile, it has been reported that Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, Trade Secretary Liz Truss, and Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith are most at risk of not making the new line-up.
Johnson will also seek to fill vacancies for Welsh Secretary and environment minister as part of the overhaul.
MPs will then return to Parliament on Tuesday to be sworn in and the Queen will attend the former State Opening with “reduced ceremonial elements” on Thursday to set out the new Government’s proposed policies and legislation in her speech.
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The Prime Minister has also vowed to reintroduce his Withdrawal Agreement Bill to Parliament before Christmas, which could happen by the end of this week.
It would see MPs begin the process of considering legislation that would pave the way for the UK to leave the EU on January 31. Talks about a future trade and security relationship will begin almost immediately.
Former Conservative deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine, who opposes Brexit and backed the Liberal Democrats in the election, told Radio 4’s Today Programme: “We’ve lost. Brexit is going to happen and we have to live with it.” Asked whether he would support any future campaign to rejoin the EU, he said it take 20 years or more for the issue to be raised again.
Meanwhile, former Ukip Scotland leader and MEP David Coburn has joined the Conservatives, claiming he would help Johnson “save the Union” during a second independence referendum.
In 2015, Coburn faced calls to resign over a series of offensive remarks about SNP Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, who the MEP repeatedly referred to as Abu Hamza, the North London radical cleric convicted of terrorism offences. Coburn quit the party last December but in April was left humiliated when Nigel Farage refused to let him stand again in EU elections for his new Brexit Party.
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