By Lucy Caulkett-
Theresa May says leadership is not about having ”yes men” around the table, but about having a range of voices.
The prime minister said the foreign secretary’s vision of Brexit reflected the government’s approach.
DELIVERY
“This isn’t about an individual personality, it’s about how we can deliver for people,” Theresa May added.
Mr Johnson has delivered his party conference speech, saying it is time to “let the British lion roar”.
Boris Johnson’s recent comments on Brexit – including setting out “red lines” in a newspaper article led to calls for his dismissal.
However, the prime minister told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg that strong leadership involved “having a range of voices sitting around the table”.
Responding to some Tory figures’ concerns she was being undermined by the foreign secretary, she said: “It doesn’t undermine what I’m doing at all.”
Ahead of its publication, Downing Street’s audit of how people from different backgrounds are treated was said to contain “uncomfortable truths”
When Boris Johnson set out his Brexit “red lines” at the weekend, triggering anger from some colleagues and accusations that he was targeting Mrs May’s job. However, Theresa May rejected claims that Johnson’s public stance was contrary to the government’s position on Brexit.
“If you look at the issues Boris has been talking about they reflect the position we’ve taken in the Florence speech, setting out a vision of what this country can be doing in terms of its partnership with Europe in the future,” she said. The prime minister also pushed the focus away from the safety of Boris Johnson’s job by stating that the British people are more interested in the safety of their own future jobs.
“Crucially, there’s a lot of talk about Boris’s job or this job or that job inside the cabinet.”Actually what people are concerned about – they don’t want us to be thinking about our jobs they want us to be thinking about their jobs and their futures.
“What government is for is about delivering for the public. That’s where our focus must be.”
In his much-anticipated speech in Manchester, Mr Johnson called for Brexit to be a moment of national renewal.
The foreign secretary told Tory activists the UK “can win the future” and should stop treating the referendum result as if it were “plague of boils”. Johnson had also praised Theresa May’s “steadfast” leadership over Europe and insisted the whole cabinet was united behind her aim of getting a “great Brexit deal”.
AUTHOURITY
She insisted she had the authority and ideas to improve the Tories’ standing – and that her party was still setting the political agenda, adding that she had “listened” to voters’ concerns on tuition fees and home ownership.
May repeated her “mission” in government, as set out when she took office, “to ensure that we no longer see people in this country that feel left behind”. When asked by a BBC Breakfast journalist whether there were any “red lines” which Mr Johnson himself should not cross, she replied:
“I don’t set red lines. Everybody uses this phrase ‘red lines’. I don’t set those sort of red lines,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“All I would say is actually I think leadership is about ensuring you have a team of people who aren’t yes men, but a team of people of different voices around the table, so you can discuss matters, come to an agreement and then put that government view forward, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
On BBC Radio 4’s Today, Mrs May said the foreign secretary and the rest of the cabinet were united behind her Brexit strategy, insisting that European leaders knew what the UK wanted and that her Florence speech had “changed the dial”.
“What I am very clear about is of course the prime minister is in charge,” she said.
IGNORED
Mrs May conceded that the election had revealed that many people felt “left behind and ignored” but she insisted that change would not happen overnight and no “great phrase” would transform things. May’s handling of the ongoing perception that Boris Johnson undermines her was perfect and showed her to be a true leader.
Boris Johnson has always been very vocal, sometimes appearing too forward, but indirectly revealing in the process his natural appetitie for the top job. Outwardly, Johnson acknowledges Theresa May’s position as the one in the driver’s seat, but passionately often publicly reveals hs ideologies on various issues related to Brexit.