Image source, EPA

The Scottish government has written to the UK government urging ministers to condemn violence surrounding Catalonia's independence referendum "unequivocally".

External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop told the Scottish Parliament: "The violent scenes witnessed on Sunday were shocking and unnecessary. This is a view shared amongst the international community.

"The Scottish government are particularly disappointed by the response of the UK government to the violent scenes.

"Yesterday I wrote to the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urging the UK, as a friend and ally of Spain, to issue a more robust statement unequivocally condemning the use of violence by Spanish police to suppress the peaceful expression of political views in Catalonia, and communicating in the strongest possible terms our serious concerns."

Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw suggested the actions of Spain's government and police "will have proved to be wholly counter-productive".

Theresa May has insisted that the themes of Boris Johnson's conference speech "reflect" her position on Brexit.

"If you look at the issues that Boris has been talking about, they reflect the position we've taken in the Florence speech, setting out a vision of what this country can be doing in terms of its partnership with Europe in the future," she told the BBC.

"Boris at conference is talking about a global Britain and how we can make sure that we're optimistic and ambitious - which he and I both are - for the future of this country and how we can make sure that we build that truly global Britain, bringing prosperity, bringing jobs, improving people's livelihoods but also projecting the United Kingdom around the world."

A little earlier, Theresa May sat down for an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, who suggested that "we've seen this week the foreign secretary upstage you again and again".

"This isn't about an individual personality, it's about how we can deliver for people," the prime minister told her.

Laura asks: "You've got MPs on the record saying that you should sack him, you've got ministers privately furious... if some of your colleagues are furious, aren't you?"

Mrs May repeats her point from earlier today about needing to have "different views" in cabinet and insists: "If you look at the key issue here, which is about Europe and Brexit, the cabinet came together, we agreed the government's position. I set that out in a speech in Florence."

Vicki Young
Chief Political Correspondent

We were told Boris Johnson's conference speech was entitled Let the Lion Roar - and he gets to the reason why.

He tells his party: "We are not the lion. We do not claim - like some others - to be the lion.

"That role is played by the people of this country.

"But it is up to us now – in the traditional non-threatening, genial and self-deprecating way of the British – to let that lion roar!"

There is cheering as the Conservative faithful get to their feet for a standing ovation - the most enthusiastic of the week so far.

"We export a programme to Cambodia called Neak Neng Klay Chea Sethey, which means 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'" Boris Johnson says.

"And it is thanks to the triumph of conservative values you are allowed to become a millionaire in Cambodia, without being despatched for re-education by some Asiatic John McDonnell," he adds, in reference to Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia in the late 1970s.

"We lead the world in bioscience and fintech and some branches of AI and cybernetics – and what is Labour’s first instinct on hearing the news? Tax robots and then make them join the union.

"Did Manchester become great by taxing the spinning jenny?"

Boris Johnson, a former mayor of London, recalls that "it was only eight years ago that we stood on the verge of the nastiest recession for 70 years".

"I remember being taken up on to the roof of City Hall – which I then ran – by a female American TV journalist and she said 'Mr Mayor – look around you – no one is building anything' and the irritating thing was she was right; the cranes were gone from the skyline; confidence had deserted us."

He adds: "Well look at London today, storming ahead – even if the new mayor isn’t a patch on the last guy."

Image source, PA

The audience are enjoying the jokes and have cheered - a first for the week? - calls for the UK to be more optimistic.

"We are one of the great quintessential European nations," the Brexit-supporting foreign secretary says.

"In many ways the most influential European nation of all."

Boris Johnson says the UK is "a society that welcomes talent, that welcomed my ancestors from France, Russia, Turkey and heaven knows where.

"A society that does not judge you for where you come from or your background or how you live your life, provided you do no harm to others.

"That is the syncretic genius of our country."

Syncreticism is the blending of different belief systems into one system, or the reconciliation of different principles.

The foreign secretary praises the UK's role around the world, calling Nigerian Islamist militant group "numbskulls" along the way.

"I have seen the 800 British troops in Estonia and congratulated them on resisting the honey traps allegedly placed in their way by Russian intelligence," he says.

"At least they said they had resisted," he adds to laughter.

"We want a country with a government that works for everyone," Boris Johnson says.

"Corbyn wants a Britain where everyone works for the government."

Boris Johnson continues the conference theme of defending free market capitalism in his own inimitable style.

He says Labour polices would mean "going back to the 1970s [which] sounds to too many people like a massive joint revival concert by David Bowie, Led Zep and the Rolling Stones.

"And that is because people can remember the Stones and Bowie and Led Zep, monuments of global culture - but they have totally forgotten that those bands, along with so many other wealth creators were driven overseas by Labour's 83% tax rate."

He argues that, all over the world, "free markets and deregulation and privatisation have helped lift more people out of poverty than ever in history".