Andrew Neil's withering take on Boris Johnsons party conference speech

7 October 2021, 08:32 | Updated: 7 October 2021, 08:34

Andrew Neil's withering take of Boris Johnson's speech

EJ Ward

By EJ Ward

This is Andrew Neil's withering take on Boris Johnson's speech which had more alliteration than a West Coast poet from the 1960s on LSD, but was light on policy.

Andrew Neil says Boris Johnson won't be at all concerned that businesses did not seem keen on his Conservative Party conference speech.

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari the veteran broadcaster said the PM's focus would now be on "bolstering the red wall."

Watch: 'He doesn't need to announce everything': Zahawi defends PM's conference speech

"It's clear the 2019 election was a watershed in British politics," Mr Neil said, suggesting the middle class were more likely to vote Labour with the working class voting Tory, turning a "century of voting on its head."

Read more: Boris Johnson faces backlash over ‘economically illiterate’ conference speech

The Spectator Chairman told Nick this was Boris Johnson in "world king" mode and the first conference for five years when the party was not in crisis.

Read more: 'They belong in jail': Boris Johnson backs targeting eco-protesters

Boris Johnson opens his keynote speech paying tribute to the NHS

He pointed out that the country had suffered for two years with the pandemic but people but there was an "expectation we'd get some policy now."

"This winter we're going into a serious cost of living crisis which will hit the poorest most of all, we don't know when the shortages on the supermarket shelves or the petrol forecourts will end.

"We don't know what the policy is on social care, we don't know what the policy is on the NHS, other than to bung it more money, and we don't know what 'levelling up' means."

"You can have more alliteration, as Mr Johnson had, than a West Coast poet from the 1960s on LSD. That's all fine.

"But we're a country with major problems and we need to know the Government's solution to these problems and on that Mr Johnson had not a jot."

Watch the whole exchange in the video at the top of the page.

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