Boris Johnson on Tuesday promised new policies to cut childcare costs, improve the National Health Service (NHS) and help people to buy their own homes as he sought to shore up his leadership. More than 40 per cent of Conservative MPs voted no confidence in him on Monday evening, but the prime minister told his cabinet it was time to move on.
“We’re able now to draw a line under the issues that our opponents want to talk about, and we’re able to get on with talking about what I think the people in this country want us to,” he said.
Mr Johnson will make a speech on housing this week and outline plans to help the economy next week in an effort to show that his government still has a vision to advance. His government will also publish legislation to unilaterally disapply parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, a move that will please some of his backbenchers but will anger others.
Some of the prime minister’s allies said on Tuesday that he had settled the leadership issue by winning the confidence vote regardless of the size of the margin. But rebels suggested they could seek to change the rule that protects Mr Johnson from another challenge for 12 months.
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Former Brexit minister David Frost said Mr Johnson needed to change course if he was to put his premiership back on track. “I think basically the problem is there isn’t a particularly recognisably Conservative proposition for people to get behind. The government’s economic policy particularly, though not only that, has drifted away from where the core of the supporters and voters and membership want to go and we need to get back to it,” he told the BBC.
Lord Frost said the government should reverse tax increases introduced in recent months, including a hike in corporate tax rates and a National Insurance increase.
“It is not Conservative to be raising taxes and it is undermining growth and prosperity. We need to improve productivity and investment, not weaken it, so I think that is the path he should be going down and there are quite a few other things too.”
Mr Johnson’s official spokesman defended the government’s record on taxation, saying it was necessary to get the balance right to protect public finances while boosting the economy.
“We recognise the overall tax burden is higher than it has been, but that is for pragmatic reasons because of the global challenges we’re facing due to the pandemic and the war in Europe,” the spokesman said. “Some of the changes that we have made are to ensure the government and the public services are able to tackle some of these challenges. For example, it is because of things like the levy that our NHS is able to start making inroads into the Covid backlog. So it’s always about getting the balance right and the chancellor and the prime minister have been very clear that as we move away from these unique challenges of the global pandemic and the war in Europe, the intention is to further reduce taxes.”
