“If we are making progress and are on the verge of a Deal, and we’ve had a good EU Council in October and we’re 99 per cent of the way there on Halloween are we seriously saying we wouldn’t take a bit more time to get the deal done?”
“No department will be more affected by No Deal than Defra and I’ve done my best to mitigate the damage. No Deal would be a challenge but it has to be on the table. It’s not the best option.”
Last night Rory Stewart vowed to “unleash the talent on the backbenches rather than having lunatic SpAds in No10 telling you what to do”
“I have a clean skin. I can of course deliver Brexit but then we have to pick the Party up and move together and I can do that. It’s not about the six months but the next six years”
Says this narrative is a “unicorn” -
“We don’t need a Brexiteer as PM”
“We need entryism from people we agree with. We want compassionate, thoughtful, freedom loving, rightminded people to join. If you call that entryism then I am all for it.”
“There is a feminist agenda that is in favour of positive discrimination which puts me off the label.”
“I don’t believe you should be judged on what you say but what you do. As a war crimes lawyer I took on the very worst cases against women”
Says he “picks up the slack at home and I’ve said I’ll introduce day one paternal rights so working women can fulfil their potential”
He says ruling anything out is “weakening our hand with the EU... If I become PM we are leaving at the end of October”
“I’m an entrepreneur who has been doing deals all my life. I negotiated the new BBC licence fee and the new doctors contract. I met Macron and Merkel today in Portsmouth and a hardline approach will lead to a hardline response. They‘ll wait for Parliament to block no deal”
He says: “I would not call a snap general election. I am not Theresa in Trousers.”
“He focuses on communicating to his voters and we don’t spend enough time communicating. Social media is so important. I did a lot of it at Health. It’s harder at FCO. There are a lot of boring handshakes on social media.”