Theresa May gives standing ovation to speech branding Boris Johnson 'irrelevant and offensive'

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND -  Theresa May gave a standing ovation to a speaker who branded the former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson "offensive" and an "irrelevance."

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the former director of the Confederation of British Industry, Lord Digby Jones, said that Johnson's recent comments about business leaders were deeply offensive.

Asked about corporate concerns over Brexit earlier this year, Johnson reportedly replied: "F*** business." 

Referring to Johnson's comments, Jones said it showed up Johnson for the "irrelevance" he had become.

"Business is so important that when I heard a former Foreign Secretary say 'F business' it showed him up for the irrelevance and offensive person he is and I take great exception to that."

He later added that "wealth creators don't like business haters," in an apparent reference to both Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The comments were applauded in the conference hall with the prime minister subsequently giving Jones' speech a standing ovation.

Watch Theresa May give a standing ovation to Digby Jones

The row came after Johnson launched an attack on May's handling of Brexit in an interview in the Sunday Times suggesting her Chequers plan to leave the EU was "deranged."

Johnson told the Sunday Times that "unlike the prime minister I campaigned for Brexit" and suggested that the party could win the next general election if it had a popular leader, as it did when he twice won the London mayoral election.

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