Page 16 QQQ Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Is his plan more Bertie Wooster
than rocket booster?
He is also said to be considering
proposals from Chancellor Sajid
Javid for a £100billion to help
bridge the North/South divide.
The idea would see an arms-
length body established with five
years’ funding to support invest-
ment outside London and improve
the UK’s infrastructure, which he
described as being ‘creaking and
in desperate need of upgrading’.
Mr Johnson has also commis-
sioned work on plans to raise the
starting threshold for paying
National Insurance to £12,500, at a
cost of £11billion a year.
This is on top of a campaign
pledge to raise the starting thresh-
old for paying 40p tax from £50,
to £80,000, at an annual cost to the
Exchequer of £9billion.
He has ordered a review of stamp
duty to prevent it ‘choking’ the
property market. And in a major
shift, he has also authorised Mr
Javid to tear up Philip Hammond’s
tight spending rules which were
designed to finally eradicate the
huge budget deficit left behind by
the last Labour government. The
new approach was welcomed by
Tory MPs last night. Robert Hal-
fon, chairman of the education
committee, said: ‘Boosterism is agreat phrase for putting rocket
boosters under the economy which
is what we have got to do. We have
to relax the spending rules in order
to boost funding for infrastructure,
affordable housing and so on
because our infrastructure is
crumbling. Put that together with
tax cuts for the lower paid and you
have got a winning formula.’
Vicky Ford, chairman of the all-
party infrastructure group, said:
‘Boris is a great believer in the
power of infrastructure spending
and he is right that, when done
well, it drives economic growth.’
Mr Johnson has already irritated
the former chancellor by pledging
to spend the £26billion ‘fiscal head-
room’ that Mr Hammond set aside
to cope with the economic fallout
of a possible No Deal Brexit.
A source close to Mr Hammond
pointed out the headroom was
simply additional borrowing the
Government could take out with-
out breaching its spending rules.
‘It’s not free money,’ they said.
Mr Johnson’s upbeat phrasereflects his belief that he can
change the political and economic
landscape through sheer force of
will and self-belief. But he has yet
to explain how he will fund a mas-
sive increase in spending if the
economy takes a downturn.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies
has described Mr Johnson’s longtime when the UK’s national debt
is standing at a record £1.8trillion,
equal to 87.4 per cent of GDP.
The Institute for Government
also pointed to figures last year
suggesting that leaving the EU
without a deal would increase bor-
rowing by more than £50billion a
year, squeezing the scope for invest-
ment in other areas.
Today, Mr Johnson will promise
farmers a ‘better deal’ after Brexit
in a speech in South Wales. He will
pledge they will be ‘selling ever
more, not just here but around the
world’. Ahead of the visit, he told
the Daily Telegraph: ‘I will always
back Britain’s great farmers... we
need to make sure Brexit works for
them. That means scrapping the
common agricultural policy and
signing new trade deals.’aster’ by pushing for a No Deal Brexit. After
the meeting, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Behind all
of the bluff and bluster, this is a government
that is dangerous.
‘I think if he were in this room right now,
he would deny this vehemently, but I think
he wants a No Deal Brexit.’
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth David-
son has also made it plain she will not sup-
port the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Despite that, Mr Johnson promised he
would be ‘doing everything’ to help her to
become Scotland’s next first minister in the
2021 Holyrood election.
He said: ‘I am lost in admiration at whatSturgeon: ‘Dangerous’ PM doesn’t want deal
By Daniel Martin
Policy EditorTHE Prime Minister endured a bruising
encounter with Nicola Sturgeon yester-
day as he urged her to work with him on
planning for a No Deal Brexit.
On his first visit north of the border since
becoming Prime Minister, Mr Johnson was
booed as he arrived at Bute House, the offi-
cial residence of the Scottish first minister.
He told Miss Sturgeon: ‘The UK will be
leaving the EU on October 31 come what
may.’ He also said there was ‘no reason’ for a
second referendum on Scottish independ-
ence and that the vote in 2014 had been a
‘once-in-a-generation’ event.
Mr Johnson’s comments came after the
first minister warned his ‘hard-line’ govern-
ment was driving the country towards ‘dis-
she has achieved. I am a massive fan of the
way she has taken the argument to those
who would destroy our union.’
After her meeting with the Prime Minister
at Holyrood, Miss Davidson said: ‘We had
an incredibly constructive meeting.
‘We covered a number of areas, talking
about Brexit, the need to make sure we can
get a deal across the line.
‘We talked about how we can continue to
take on Nicola Sturgeon and oppose her
obsession with another independence
referendum.’
Earlier, Mr Johnson hit out at the SNP’s
‘campaign to destroy the union’ as he vis-
ited the Faslane naval base on the Clyde.
Asked if he was ruling out a second refer-
endum during his premiership, Mr Johnsonsaid: ‘It was a once-in-a-generation consul-
tation of the people, we did it in 2014 and
the people were assured then that it was a
once-in-a-generation consultation.
‘I see no reason now for the politicians to
go back on that promise.’
Mr Johnson urged Miss Sturgeon to work
with him on No Deal planning so the whole
country can ‘enjoy a bright future outside
of the EU’.
n The Conservatives yesterday topped a poll
in Wales, where Mr Johnson will go today.
The YouGov poll for ITV put the Tories on
24 per cent, while Labour suffered its lowest
rating ever at 22 per cent.
The Brexit Party stood at 18 per cent, the
Liberal Democrats at 16 per cent and Plaid
Cymru at 15 per cent.BOOSTERISM
BORIS Johnson has ordered the
Treasury to embrace a new philoso-
phy of ‘Boosterism’ as it prepares for
an emergency Budget this autumn.
Senior Tories said the new Prime Minis-
ter had made it clear he wants ‘rocket
boosters’ placed under the economy in
the run up to Brexit, with a huge invest-
ment in infrastructure and an end to the
tight austerity spending rules that have
characterised the last decade.
Senior City sources say that Mr Johnson’s
economic credo combines a Blairite enthusi-
asm for infrastructure spending, coupled with
a Thatcherite belief in the power of tax cuts
to stimulate the economy. One said: ‘He was
asked to explain his economic philosophy
and said, in a word: Boosterism.’
The new mantra is set to get its first outing
in an emergency Budget pencilled in for the
first week of October – less than a month
before Britain is due to leave the EU.
A Government source last night said: ‘He
believes in the power of infrastructure to
boost economic growth. He saw it during his
time as London Mayor and he wants to take
that effect nationwide.
‘You have already heard him talk about
accelerating the roll-out of super-fast broad-
By Jason Groves
Political Editor
That’s me: Boris visits naval base in Scotland
yesterday with jacket displaying his titleSAMCAM ‘IS ADVISING
CARRIE ON LIFE IN NO10’
‘It’s not free
money’‘The power of
infrastructure’‘There’s no stopping
him. First the fence
and now a garden shed’band and commissioning new rail lines and
you are going to hear a lot more.’
Mr Johnson has already announced plans
for a new generation of intercity rail routes,
starting with a high-speed trans-Pennine line
from Manchester to Leeds.
list of costly spending pledges as
‘extraordinary’. While former Tory
chairman Lord Patten warned he
was in danger of making Labour
‘look like fiscal moderates’. Mr
Johnson’s apparent willingness to
hike borrowing is likely to raise
eyebrows on financial markets at aBy Jack Doyle
Associate EditorCARRIE Symonds has received advice on
being ‘First Lady’ from Samantha Cam-
eron, the Mail understands.
The revelation came as Boris Johnson
and Miss Symonds moved into Downing
Street yesterday. The couple will live in
the four-bedroomed flat above No 11 used
by Theresa and Philip May and, previ-
ously, David and Samantha Cameron.
Mr Johnson and Miss Symonds were
staying in a government-owned grace
and favour flat in Admiralty House, off
Whitehall, while Mrs May’s possessions
were relocated.
In preparation for her own move, Miss
Symonds has made contact with Mrs Cam-
eron – who lived there from 2010 to 2016.
A friend said: ‘SamCam has been giving
Carrie some advice on living in No 10.
They’re friends; she wants to help out.’
It was confirmed yesterday that there
will be no additional cost to the taxpayer
from Mr Johnson’s 31-year-old partner
moving in. Last week the Mail revealed
she would be the first female prime min-
isterial consort since Norma Major not to
have her own taxpayer-funded office in
Downing Street.
Mrs Cameron, Cherie Blair and Gordon
Brown’s wife Sarah had full-time staff to
organise their diaries, host charity events
and handle media inquiries.
Sources confirmed Mr Johnson and MissSymonds are bringing their own furni-
ture and would not be using money from
the public coffers to buy a bed or any
furniture, as has been reported.
Miss Symonds will end her low profile
later this month by making her first pub-
lic speaking engagement since becoming
‘First Lady’. Alongside environmental
activists including Chris Packham, she will
take part at a panel event at Birdfair, a
birdwatching conference at Egleton in
Rutland on August 16.
The Question Time-style panel will be
chaired by Dominic Dyer, head of the
Badger Trust, which opposes the Govern-
ment’s controversial cull of the animals.
Miss Symonds, who is a campaigner for
the environmental charity Oceana, has
championed animal welfare causes.
Yesterday she used Twitter to condemn
British hunters who travel to Iceland to
shoot puffins and bring their carcasses
home as trophies. She tweeted: ‘Just
can’t understand why anyone would
want to shoot them. Mad.’
It came as 12 celebrities, including
singer Ellie Goulding and actor James
Norton, wrote to Mr Johnson urging him
to make tackling the world’s climate
emergency a ‘top priority’.PAGE 18