Boris Johnson opens confidence debateBoris Johnson is opening the debate on the confidence motion in the government.
He starts by complaining that MPs could be spending their time on something more useful.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, points out that it is the government that scheduled this debate, and tabled the motion.
Labour tried to have a no confidence debate last week, but the government refused it, on the grounds that the wording of the motion offered by Labour was unacceptable.
Johnson claims he ‘got the big calls right’ as he defends record of his governmentJohnson says some people think his departure will prove the end of Brexit. He urges his party to prove them wrong.
And he says Keir Starmer thinks Johnson’s resignation will mean a Labour victory at the next election. Johnson says he thinks Starmer will proved wrong on that.
Summing up his record he says:
We’ve had to take some of the bleakest decisions since the war and I believe that we got the big calls right.
Johnson is now recalling his trip in an RAF Typhoon jet at the weekend. He recalls taking the controls. But he handed back the controls, he says.
He says he is doing the same with the Conservative party.
He is now using the passage about the “twin engines of this Conservative government” that he used in his Farnborough Air Show speech this morning. (See 3.56pm.)
Boris Johnson entertained some of his supporters at Chequers at the weekend and, according to Emilio Casalicchio in his London Playbook briefing, he treated them to a tub-thumping speech. Casalicchio says:
It was classic BoJo: Relentless in its optimism and laced with gags. “It was the sort of speech you could have imagined him delivering in 2024 and getting a mandate from the country with,” the pal said. “It was almost as if he was convincing those die-hard loyalists in front of him that he’s still the best man for the job.” Another said the speech was “incredible” and contained lots of laughter and tears, with guests asking each other “what the hell” critics had done in bringing him down.
It sounds like the Chequers speech was a rehearsal for this one.
Labour’s Kevin Brennan says the country is supposed to operate on the good chaps theory of government. But Johnson has been a “bad apple”, he says.
Johnson does not engage with his argument. Instead he says:
I am proud of the way I have been able to offer leadership in difficult times.
This is from Labour’s Alex Cunningham on the opening of this debate.
Amazing – the Tory MPs who fought to ditch liar Johnson now cheering his latest lies to the rafters. Weird.
— Alex Cunningham MP (@ACunninghamMP) July 18, 2022 And this is from Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, on one of the claims in Johnson’s speech.