Full text: Boris Johnson’s Tory fringe speech

Good afternoon my friends and fellow ConHomers. It is great to be here in Birmingham where so many thoroughfares in the city are already named after our superb Conservative mayor. I know this conference is going to be a staggering success because just in the last couple of days about a dozen far left Momentum activists have kindly pledged their loyalty by ringing my private mobile phone. I put them straight on to Brandon.

As Paul Goodman might confirm, I am not naturally of a timid disposition. It is not my way to confide my innermost fears. But since this is only a fringe meeting, unlikely to be widely reported, I will reveal that I have one overriding anxiety about the current political scene, both domestic and international. It isn’t global warming or terrorism or Rouhani’s Iran or Putin’s Russia – real though all those challenges are. It’s not the negotiating tactics of Jean-Claude Juncker – before or after lunch.