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Boris Johnson – 2019 Speech at Conservative Manifesto Launch

Below is the text of the speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in Telford on 24 November 2019.

Good afternoon everybody. Wonderful to see everyone here today. Thanks for coming along this afternoon

We are now as you know less than three weeks away from the most critical election of modern memory

when the stakes for this country have seldom been higher and the choice has never been starker

because in just the last few days we have heard from every other party haven’t we?

As they have launched their manifestos

and we have heard

how they would keep us stuck in the same rut

how they would consign this country to yet more delay and yet more frustration and parliamentary paralysis

and how they would refuse yet again to honour the will of the people

how they would refuse, every other party, to get Brexit done

The Lib Dems want to revoke Brexit

the Scots Nationalists want to cancel Brexit and have another referendum on Scotland as well

as for Labour – as for Labour, they will plainly give in to Nicola Sturgeon and waste the whole of next year in two more referendums, one on Scotland and one on the EU

except that Jeremy Corbyn won’t tell us whether he would even be willing to advise people to vote in favour of his own deal

He used to be indecisive – now he’s not so sure

Do we want that kind of leadership my friends? Do we want more delay? Do we want more dither and drift and deadlock and division?

Do we want 2020 to be a year of defeatism and despair?

No we don’t. We want to move forward because this country has an incredible future

and here – there it is – I believe is at least the partial blueprint for that future

Here is the route map to take us forward

because unlike any other party standing at this election

We’re going to get Brexit done

with a deal that is pre-cooked, ready to go, oven-ready as I keep saying, approved not just by our friends in the EU but by every single one of the 635 Conservative candidates standing at this election

a deal that will allow us to deliver absolutely all the opportunities of Brexit

from freeports to free trade to cutting VAT on sanitary products and improving the welfare of animals

Get Brexit done – and we restore confidence and certainty to business and families.

Get Brexit done – and we will see a pent-up tidal wave of investment into this country.

Get Brexit done – and we can focus our hearts and minds on the priorities of the British people,

because it is this one nation Tory party that is already embarked on the biggest cash boost for the NHS for a generation

and today in this manifesto we pledge 50,000 more nurses and their bursaries and 50 million more GP surgery appointments

and today we make this guarantee to the British people

that we will tackle crime with 20,000 more police officers and tougher sentencing

that we will sort out our immigration system with a points-based Australian style system

that we will invest millions more every week in science, in schools, in apprenticeships and in infrastructure and control our debt at the same time

and that we will reach net Zero by 2050 with clean energy solutions

and that we can do all these things, here’s the kicker, we can do all these things without raising our income tax, VAT or National Insurance Contributions. That’s our guarantee

and in this manifesto there is a vision for the future of this country in which we unite and level up

with infrastructure, education and technology

and it is appropriate of course that we are here in Telford

because here more than 200 years ago

the phlegethontian fires of Coalbrookdale

created the first industrial revolution

and this whole region was a giant crucible

in which colossal quantities of hydrocarbons were burned to smelt iron and steel

and turn water into steam and power

and it is an incredible thing that here once again

in the West Midlands

a new industrial revolution is taking place

not by burning coal

not by emitting CO2

but thanks to British ingenuity we can make electrons swoosh so efficiently from anode to the cathode, or possibly vice versa, but that’s the right idea.

that after decades of trying we can make electric cars

and we can make electric buses

and it won’t be long before we will be making electric or part electric planes

and we in this one nation Conservative government do not want to wait to begin this future

because we believe that after three and a half years of being held back by a broken parliament

it is time to unleash the potential of the whole country

and to forge a new Britain

and yes I am proud that we have in our national capital the greatest city on earth

but I know and every survey confirms

that genius, talent, ability, flair – all are distributed evenly throughout the UK

Opportunity is not distributed evenly

and I passionately believe that with education, infrastructure, technology

we can tackle that unfairness

we can unleash that potential and we can make those investments

precisely we one nation Conservatives because we also support a dynamic market economy

and that is why we are cutting taxes for small businesses

and why when people get up at the crack of dawn to prepare their family business

and when people take out a mortgage to fund a new venture

or when they risk everything on a new product or try to find a new market

we don’t sneer at them

we cheer for them

and that is the choice at this election

that is the choice between out and out retrograde socialism and sensible one nation conservatism

You can come with us, and have a government that backs our armed forces as a power for good around the world

or you can have Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party who has said he wants to scrap them

We support our police, putting more and more on the street, support them in fighting knife crime –

they say stop and search is inappropriate and oppressive

We want higher wages, and are raising the living wage by the biggest ever increase

Corbynomics, McDonnellnomics, means higher taxes for everyone

we stand up for the people of this country when other nations threaten us with harm

and it was quite incredible that when Russia ordered the Salisbury poisonings

Corbyn seemed actually to take the side of Moscow

Above all, and here’s the most important difference we face in the next few days

we will get Brexit done, we will end the acrimony and the chaos

they want to rip up our deal – and negotiate a new one

but we don’t yet know of a single Labour MP or indeed any other MP who would support it

in fact we don’t know if anyone believes in Mr Corbyn’s new deal apart from Mr Corbyn – and not even he believes in it

can you imagine the negotiations that would take place if a Corbyn-Sturgeon were to come in

What on earth are they supposed to think in Brussels?

Bonjour monsieur Corbyn comment allez vous? tell us about this that deal you want…

what do you mean you don’t really want it? What do you mean you don’t really believe in it or want to advocate it? Who does believe in it?

Not Monsieur McDonnell? not Monsieur Starmer? not Madame Abbott??

Then who does believe in it??

it would be farcical, it would be comical, if the consequences of that approach were not so disastrous for this country and for our prospects next year

Let’s give that madness a miss

I want you to imagine what the country could be like in just 10 years

if we can get a working majority on the 12th of December

I want you to look forward to a Britain where the streets are safer, where the air is cleaner, where we have built 40 new hospitals as a direct result of the decisions taken in the last 3 months

a Britain where the ten year olds are not only doing better at reading and writing and maths but doing better across the whole country

and where in ten years time scientists are starting to reap the huge rewards from our plans to double spending on for research

from AI to the gigafactory for batteries that we will inaugurate

to the new space ports in Cornwall and Scotland that will send British made satellites in to the heavens and drive one of our most exciting industries.

a Britain where we are uniting and levelling up

where great new infrastructure is helping to rebalance the economy, delivering Northern Powerhouse rail AND a metro style system for the whole of the west midlands

a Britain where left behind towns have recovered their vibrancy and commercial life and optimism, with shops and businesses made possible by better transport and fantastic broadband

and then in turn where better infrastructure is allowing us to build thousands of superb new homes, hundreds of thousands, on brownfield sites – giving young people the prospect of home ownership that they currently don’t have

that every survey shows is what people in this country wants

a Britain where the landscape is made more beautiful by the planting of millions of trees that also help us to deal with climate change

and in ten years time I confidently prophesy that we people will be passionately proud of their Scottish identity, and their Welsh and Northern Irish, and yes their English identity. And that will be a great thing.

But we will also all be proud strong and whole United Kingdom, more united than ever, flying that red white and blue Union flag that represents the best of our values, from democracy and the rule of law

from free trade to free speech to the freedom to love whomsoever you choose

from championing 12 years of quality education for every girl in the world

to protecting the planet’s wildlife from the tragedy of habitat loss and extinction

and a Britain that is able to lead the world – as we do – in tackling climate change and to reduce our CO2 to net zero by 2050 not because we hate capitalism, and want to destroy it, and want pointlessly to make an enemy of enterprise

but because the private sector makes the brilliant technical breakthroughs that enable us to cut CO2

AND pay for great public services and create great high skilled jobs

And that is the vision we are offering – to make this country the greatest place to live, to breathe, to be, to raise kids, to start a business

the greatest place on earth

and I propose that we get on with it now

I don’t want to waste 2020 in two more referendums

I want it to be an exciting and productive year, a year of prosperity and growth

Do you want to wake up on Friday 13th December and find a nightmare on Downing Street, a Corbyn-Sturgeon coalition of chaos?

I say let’s go carbon neutral by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by Christmas!

Let’s go for sensible moderate but tax cutting, one nation Conservative government, and take this country forward.

26/11/2019
Sajid Javid – 2019 Speech in Bolton

Below is the text of the speech made by Sajid Javid, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Bolton on 26 November 2019.

Good afternoon.

I’m very pleased to be here at the Bolton Lad’s & Girls Club.

When I were a lad, you wouldn’t have been able to keep me away from a place like this.

When I was Home Secretary, and a bit more grown-up…

… I saw the impact that Onside Youth Zones had in giving young people “somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to”.

It’s a real comfort to hard-working families to have services like this in the area.

So I’m very proud that one of my first priorities as Chancellor was a £500million Youth Investment Fund.

It was inspired by youth centres like this, and I hope has the potential to leave a legacy just as lasting.

Amazingly, this club was founded 128 years ago.

Back then, Bolton, Bury and Rochdale – where I’ve also been today – had the legacy of being boomtown milltowns.

They’d been the engines of the Industrial Revolution.

With more spinning machines than a general election.

Some of those machines were still whirring in recent memory too.

In the 1960’s, my Dad got off a plane in Heathrow and made his up to Rochdale, to find work in a cotton mill.

After standing outside the mill for weeks, he got his first job, then started a family.

He came up here with a sense of hope and opportunity.

But I know that’s not how everyone in towns like this feel about their future now.

Last night I stayed with family in Rochdale….

… and this morning had the profound experience of walking down memory lane, talking to residents of the street that was my first home.

It’s clear there’s still a lot of pride around here – and there should be.

But it’s also true that too much of that is about the past, rather than the present or future.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that most people here voted Brexit.

They wanted change.

They wanted government to listen.

And now they want to Get Brexit Done…

… and end the dither and delay in parliament.

That’s the only way for their voices to actually be heeded, and to protect the fabric of our democracy…

… and it’s the only way to unlock our politics so we can get on with all the other things that need to change.

That’s not just resonating in towns like this.

I’m visiting every corner of our country during this campaign, and I’m hearing the same thing everywhere.

It’s time to end the paralysis in parliament, bring the country together, and look to the future.

The Conservatives are the only party pledging to do that.

On Sunday we launched our manifesto to Get Brexit Done, and unleash Britain’s potential.

If we are elected by the British people on December 12th, we will pursue a bold agenda.

We will finally leave the European Union in January…

… and get to work on seizing the opportunities from that – including a best-in-class free trade deal.

We will protect the historic Union of the United Kingdom, instead of spending £150million two more referendums, as the Prime Minister has reaffirmed today.

We will boost our public services – building on our record NHS funding, investing in our schools, and putting 20,000 more police officers on our streets.

And we will deliver an infrastructure revolution – probably the biggest our country has seen in decades.

We have a positive agenda for Brexit and beyond.

It’s one of the most ambitious platforms in a generation.

It will change this country for the better…

… improve the lives of workers, families and businesses up and down the country…

… and prepare us for the challenges of the future.

We can choose that clear and responsible path…

… or as I will explain today, we can choose Labour’s fantasy economics…

… a dangerous and disingenuous agenda that threatens to unravel the hard work of the British people over the last decade….

…and hit them with twelve taxes for Christmas.

You can trust in the direction that we will take the country, because our manifesto builds on all of the plans we have already put in train during just over 100 days.

I’m proud of how much our government has achieved under fresh leadership in that time.

And I’m excited by how we can move our country forward in the next few years if the British people put their faith in us.

Our manifesto includes more measures to help working people:

Cutting National Insurance Contributions for working people.

Our major boost to the National Living Wage.

And the Triple Tax Lock – something Labour will not and cannot commit to.

We will also lay the foundations for our future prosperity, and bring our country together, with an infrastructure revolution.

We have already electrified the railway line from Bolton to Manchester, Preston and Blackpool.

At our budget in the new year we will electrify the nation’s ambitions on transport.

From the biggest ever pothole-filling programme…

… to intra-city deals that give city regions like Greater Manchester the funding to upgrade their bus, tram and train services to make them as good as London’s.

And all of this underpinned by a credible set of fiscal rules that will allow us to invest in infrastructure while keeping a lid on debt, borrowing and interest.

We understand that the only way to sustainably fund world-class public services is to maintain economic credibility, and to cultivate a dynamic market economy.

And the policies laid out in our manifesto are the most comprehensively costed that any party has ever published.

We are absolutely committed to being responsible custodians of taxpayers’ money – your money.

Why should you expect anything less?

If you hire anyone, any business, to do a job….

You want to know that they’ll do the job competently…

…that they’ll do what they promised…

… and that they’ll deliver it at the same cost you agreed…

If they didn’t, you’d lose faith in their service.

That principle is even more important in a democracy.

At this election you are putting your trust in the people who are going to run the government and spend your money for up to five years.

They told businesses they had nothing up their sleeves, then announced the biggest share confiscation plan from private investors in the developed world.

They said they’d reached the ‘limit of their ambitions’ for nationalisations, and then announced two more.

They said they weren’t planning a so-called windfall tax, and announced one two days later.

They said they’d fully cost their manifesto….

Not only did they barely bother to pretend to do so, they then announced a new £58billion commitment two days later!

Now, the PM has already pointed out the massive Brexit-shaped hole in Labour’s plans.

That in itself is a huge failure of transparency, leadership and responsibility.

There’s another hole too – a financial blackhole.

You may remember at the start of this campaign we estimated the cost of Corbyn to be £1.2 trillion.

It’s a big number.

It’s hard to comprehend so many zeros.

And it was right for people to interrogate the assumptions in that costing.

Well now they’ve released their final plans, and the direct cost of Corbyn is confirmed.

£1.2 trillion of extra spending over the next five years.

And it could actually be worse than we feared.

If anything it’s an underestimate.

Labour’s costings document shamelessly overlooked many of the commitments in their manifesto.

59 of which don’t have enough detail for us to cost fairly, so we have left those out.

The kindest interpretation you could have about Labour’s approach is that it’s primary school politics not grown-up government.

Rainbows every day and free teddy bears for all.

But it won’t be all gain, no pain.

It can’t be.

You can’t defy basic economic principles any more than you can defy the laws of physics.

Labour would hit ordinary workers and families hard from different directions:

By wrecking the economy.

By hitting lower and middle income earners directly with huge tax hikes.

And by undoing the hard work of the last decade…

… meaning more debt, less wealth creation, and ultimately less money for public services.

First, let’s consider the impact the wider economy has on individual workers and families.

Labour want you to see a big Santa bag of goodies.

But the closer you look, it’s just a big bag of coal.

This Labour manifesto is a recipe for disaster.

What would that look like?

I’ll tell you how that would play out.

Imagine the nightmare on Downing Street on Friday 13th.

The pound crashing in the early hours of the morning as Corbyn inches toward a majority…

Foreign investors rushing their money out of the country in fear of exchange controls…

A dramatic downgrade of government debt credit ratings…

And the cost of our debt spiralling out of control as confidence in the British government collapses.

All that means it won’t even take months and years for an economic crisis.

It’ll happen in days and weeks.

A crisis by Christmas.

And who will pay the price for this?

You.

Ordinary workers.

Families up and down the country.

When an economic downturn comes, it’s never the rich that take the biggest hit.

They have their buffers and financial safety nets.

It’s people on low and average earnings that pay.

Fewer jobs, lower wages and higher prices.

Higher interest rates will increase mortgages.

Pension pots will be slashed.

So before they’ve even had a chance to implement their ideological experiments, a Corbyn government will already be a risk most people cannot afford.

Secondly, Labour will hike taxes on the many, not the few.

They talk about soaking the rich, and try to scare people about billionaire bogey-men.

It’s all so simple they say.

And they try to distract people with impressive sounding headline spending figures.

But the ‘ying’ to that ‘yang’ is the cost it will exact on ordinary voters.

Labour’s numbers only add up with significant tax rises for the 95%, not just the 5.

They say they want to raise £83bn in new taxes every year.

As Chancellor I can tell you, you can’t simply raise that amount of money from such a small group of people.

But it’s worse than that because there’s currently an £385bn financial hole in Labour’s plans.

And that means tax hikes on hard-working families on lower and middle incomes, like many of the proud people of Bolton.

“It’s ludicrous to suggest that Labour could fund its ever-growing and expensive wish-list simply with tax rises on just a tiny number of very wealthy people.

Because it will be ordinary families who will end up paying.”

Those last few sentences were not my words, but those of a man who was Labour’s Shadow Chancellor just four years ago.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Institute of Fiscal studies are unequivocal about Labour’s claims that they can raise £80billion from the highest earners:

That is simply not credible.

Labour is wrong to say their spending spree can be paid for by one segment of society – everyone will pay.

26/11/2019
Jeremy Corbyn – 2019 Press Release on the Chagos Islands

Below is a press release issued by the Labour Party on 22/11/2019.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, responding to news that the UK has ignored a deadline to give up control of the Chagos Islands, said:

“It’s clear that in refusing to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and defying the UN General Assembly and International Court of Justice, this Conservative government shamefully considers itself to be above international law.

“A Labour government will end colonial rule. We immediately will enact our manifesto promise to allow the people of the Chagos Islands and their descendants the right to return to the lands from which they should never have been removed.”

23/11/2019
Andrew Gwynne – 2019 Press Release on the Conservative Party Manifesto

Below is a press release issued by the Labour Party on 23/11/2019.

“This is a no-hope manifesto, from a party that has nothing to offer the country, after spending ten years cutting our public services to the bone. This pathetic offer from Boris Johnson’s Tories means more cuts, more failure and more years of Brexit uncertainty.

“Young people can’t afford to buy a home, older people are going without the care they need, our NHS is heading into the worst winter crisis on record and millions of children are growing up in poverty.

“The only people who benefit from this no hope manifesto are big business and the super-rich who don’t want to see the real change this country needs.

“This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to elect a Labour government that will transform our country, with a manifesto that offers real change, and take on the vested interests holding people back.”

23/11/2019
Angela Rayner – 2019 Press Release on Tuition Fees

Below is a press release issued by the Labour Party on 19/11/2019.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on the launch of the Lib-Dems’ manifesto tomorrow and their new announcement on schools, said:

“This is an austerity manifesto from a party that has recently welcomed in many former Tory MPs with open arms.

“Young people getting into debts today of over £55,000 will never forget the Lib-Dems’ betrayal on tuition fees and austerity.

“Voting for the Lib-Dems in this election is a wasted vote that will only open the door to a post-Brexit Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage alliance with Donald Trump to sell off our NHS.”

19/11/2019
John McDonnell – 2019 Press Release on Poverty

Below is a press release issued by the Labour Party on 19/11/2019.

Labour is tomorrow pledging to wage war on the “ten modern scourges of poverty” and reverse the damage that a decade of austerity under the Tories has caused.

The party is publishing a new Report – “Poverty Britain” – which highlights ten ways the Tories have failed to tackle poverty and entrenched hardship in society.

The report includes new analysis that shows:

Wage stagnation under the Tories has cost the average worker around £6,300 in lost wages.

Food banks have given out 65 million meals in the last five years, the equivalent of a meal for every person in the whole of the UK.

There are now over 20 million adults with no savings, an increase of nearly three million since 2010/11.

A near 50 per cent increase in the number of children in severe low income and deprivation between 2011/12 and 2017/18.

Poverty in families where someone is disabled has risen by over a million since 2010.

In-work poverty has increased by 1.5 million since 2010/11.

John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:

“Poverty in Britain is now the most visible and widespread it has been in decades.

“This new report shows the Tories have failed to tackle ten modern scourges of poverty, each becoming more entrenched on their watch.

“The next Labour government will wage war on poverty in all its forms, eliminating in-work poverty, ending austerity and raising living standards across the country.

“The choice at this election couldn’t be clearer: more stress and struggle for millions to make ends meet under the Tories or real change with Labour.”

Labour will:

Introduce immediately a Real Living Wage of £10 an hour for everyone over 16

Eliminate in-work poverty over the course of our first parliament

Scrap Universal Credit, the benefit cap, the Two Child limit and end the freeze on working-age benefits.

Rebuild a social security system dedicated to dignity, universalism and ending poverty.

Clamp down on problem debt by capping credit card and overdraft repayments so that borrowers never repay more in interest than they originally borrowed.

Expand free childcare, open 1,000 new Sure Start centres and provide universal Free School Meals for all primary school children

Tackle the Tories’ productivity crisis with a programme of large scale investment in skills, infrastructure and innovation

Set a target for ending the need for food banks altogether within our first three years, and halve food bank usage within our first year.

End rough sleeping within a Parliament, starting with a plan to ring-fence an extra 8,000 homes for people with a history of rough sleeping and £100 million to tackle immediate winter pressures.

Protect pensioner incomes by legislating to keep the Triple Lock on state pensions as well as guaranteeing free TV licences, free bus passes and Winter Fuel Payments.

Bring justice for women born in the 1950s affected by the Tories’ changes to the State Pension age

19/11/2019
Conservative Party – 2019 Press Release on Labour’s Pension Plans

Below is a press release issued by the Conservative Party on 19/11/2019.

New analysis of Corbyn’s tax raid on pensions reveals that 10 million savers could lose an average of over £11,000 and be forced to delay retirement by almost three and a half years.

Labour’s plans for a massive tax raid on the retirement savings of more than 10 million British people include a Financial Transactions Tax which experts have warned will hit pensions the hardest.

On top of this their plans to seize ten per cent of private firms would see shares tumbling – undermining the savings of hardworking people.

Analysis from the Conservative Research Department found that savers in the South East will be the hardest hit with a loss of over £14,000 whilst those in the East Midlands face the longest delay to their retirement, having to work for another four years.

On top of this, nearly eight in ten of those saving for retirement would be hit with a double whammy with Labour’s plans to renationalise the assets they have invested in – a move the CBI said would mean ‘workers and older generations could end up poorer as a result’.

‍Region Labour’s Pension Tax (£) Extra Months to Work

England 11,167 44
East Midlands 6,150 50
Greater London 12,871 45
North East 9,758 38
North West 6,835 47
South East 14,270 40
South West 7,407 45
West Midlands 10,729 41
Northern Ireland 13,718 35
Scotland 10,653 41
Wales 11,691 36
United Kingdom 11,253 43

Commenting, Therese Coffey, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, said:

“Corbyn’s Pension Tax will see ten million savers facing a huge bill forcing them to delay their retirement for almost three and a half years.

“This is just one of the ways a Corbyn government would hammer hardworking people on top of his plans to hike up taxes by £2,400 a year, as well as the cost of his plan for unlimited immigration and the chaos of 2020 being dominated by two more referendums – one on Brexit and another on Scottish independence.

“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party can get Brexit done with a deal, get parliament working again and turbocharge our economy to unleash Britain’s potential.”

19/11/2019
Conservative Party – 2019 Press Release on Child Murderers

Below is a press release issued by the Conservative Party on 19/11/2019.

Adults who murder children will be imprisoned for life, without parole, under tough new justice plans to be introduced by a Conservative majority Government.

Whilst murder already attracts a mandatory life sentence, the vast majority of convicted murderers do not spend their whole life in prison.

The next Conservative majority Government will reform the law to make sure that the premeditated murder of a child is set a Whole Life Order – meaning that a prisoner will never be eligible for release.

This follows a commitment already made by the Government to toughen sentences for the most serious violent and sexual offenders by abolishing early release at the half way point of a convicted criminal’s sentence.

The move is part of a package of measures to improve the way justice works for law abiding British people. As well as clamping down on the early release of serious criminals, it contains plans to cut crime by reducing reoffending through a doubling of the number of prisoners in employment six weeks after their release. These include:

A dedicated Prison Education Service to oversee the education and skills training offered across all jails.
Prisoners to be offered more hours of work whilst in jail to provide them with the opportunity to learn new skills and better prepare them for employment on release.

More prison workshops where prisoners can be employed in dedicated workspaces

A dedicated work coach in every prison to link inmates with local jobcentres ahead of their release.

Commenting on the new announcements, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said:

There can be no more sickening injustice than that of heartbroken parents watching the killer of their child walk free.

That’s why under a Conservative majority Government the law will be rewritten to be absolutely clear: any murderer who denies a young, innocent child the right to life surrenders their own right to liberty. They do so permanently, and they do so without exception.

There is nothing we can do to take away the pain of the families of murdered children. So we must do everything in our power not to compound it.

What you need to know:

A Conservative majority Government will change the law so that adults who commit premeditated murder of children will serve their whole life in prison without parole.

‍We will change the law so that adults who murder children will be imprisoned for life without parole.

‍We will reform the life sentence regime for murder by revising Schedule 21 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and setting a Whole Life Order (a life sentence with no parole eligibility) as the starting point for all adults who murder children.

This would apply to all convicted adult murderers over 21 who commit the premeditated killing of a child aged under 16 with intent to kill. The current rules require the murder to be of multiple children, or to be sexually or sadistically motivated, to attract a Whole Life Order, which is too restrictive. The sentencing decision in any given case would continue to rest with the judge.

The new policy will be subject to the usual judicial discretion.

A Whole Life Order in these cases will be the starting tariff, however judges will be able to depart from this if there are exceptional mitigating circumstances in an individual child murder case.

A Conservative majority Government will introduce measures in prison to give better chances to offenders once they have been released, double the number of prisoners in employment six weeks after release and reduce reoffending.

We will create a dedicated Prison Education Service focused on work-based training and skills.

‍This new service will oversee the education and skills training offered across all jails. This will build upon the new Prison Education Framework issued in April 2019, and provide a new focus across the whole system on raising educational standards of all prisoners serving sentences in England and Wales. To track progress and ensure prison regimes are delivering good results, we now require basic literacy and numeracy testing on reception into prison and at point of release.

We will increase the hours worked by prisoners and give them the opportunity to develop new skills.‍

The next Conservative government will increase the total number of prisoners in prison-based industries, and the total number of hours worked, every year of the next Parliament.

More prison workshops to provide the setting for skills to be developed.

‍As our prison estate is expanded, renovated and modernised, with capital expenditure of £2.75 billion, we will be able to create more space for prison workshops where prisoners can be employed in dedicated workspaces. New prisons planned at Glen Parva in Leicestershire and at Wellingborough will include dedicated workshop facilities.

A dedicated work coach for every prison.

‍From 2020 we will guarantee a work coach in every prison in the country, to provide support from an early stage of an offender’s sentence, through to the point of release. This will involve CV support and opportunities to develop skills and links to employers in the community.

19/11/2019
Boris Johnson – 2019 Press Release on Knife Crime

Below is a press release issued by the Conservative Party on 19/11/2019.

A Boris Johnson majority government would take a tough new approach to tackling knife crime and serious violence, the Prime Minister has announced today.

Under the new plans:

Anyone caught unlawfully with a knife will be immediately arrested, charged within 24 hours and in court within a week – three times faster than the current average.

Police will be empowered to target known knife carriers with a new court order, making it easier for officers to stop and search those known in the past to have carried weapons.

Violence reduction units – multi-agency teams made up of the police, social services and other agencies – will be boosted by £35 million next year to champion preventative work and stop violence from happening in the first place.

The plans build on the success of increased use of stop and search in the past year, which has led to a 22 per cent increase in arrests for possession of weapons.

Commenting on the new announcements, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

“A majority Conservative government would come down hard on the scourge of knife crime.

“We have committed to putting an extra 20,000 police officers on our streets, but they need to have the powers to act decisively and effectively to prevent crime and see that offenders face justice.

“That’s why today we are announcing greater freedoms for the police to use stop and search on individuals who are known to have carried knives in the past. We are also speeding up prosecutions to make sure the threat of being caught is always an effective deterrent.

“Just as with our plans to improve schools and hospitals, we can only do any of this if we end the gridlock in parliament with a Conservative majority government.

“We had to call this election to end that deadlock and now the choice is simple. Either we can have more confusion and delay with Jeremy Corbyn, who wants to call two more chaotic referendums next year, or we have a Conservative government who will get Brexit done and focus on the people’s priorities like tackling violent crime, improving our NHS and investing in schools across the country.”

What you need to know:

Knife crime is blighting some of our communities – having a devastating impact on young people.

Hospital admissions for assault by a sharp object were up by 15 per cent in 2017-18 – the latest date for which records are available – in comparison to the previous year. The year 2017-18 was the year with the lowest number of stop and searches. Fortunately, in 2018-19 the police carried out 55 per cent more stop and searches to look for weapons. This has had a positive effect with a 22 per cent increase in arrests for possession of weapons.

Adult offenders caught with a knife following stop and search will be arrested on the spot, cautioned or charged within 24 hours, and have their first court appearance in less than a week.

Most of them will be sentenced there and then. All those who receive a community order, suspended sentence, or immediate custodial sentence will also receive a Serious Violence Reduction Order. So, from the moment they walk out of court (or out of the prison gates on licence) they would face more of a chance of being caught. They will know that if caught with a knife again, they will be very likely to receive an immediate custodial sentence.

90% of those dealt with by the police for possession of knives are charged, the other 10% are given cautions.
Therefore we not are proposing to take away the police discretion to give cautions (rather than charging) in appropriate cases.

We will introduce a new Serious Violence Reduction Order to enable the police to stop and search habitual knife carriers without suspicion – helping to get more weapons off our streets.

As proposed by the think-tank the Centre for Social Justice, and backed by Lord Hogan-Howe, these orders will allow police to target known knife carriers, so stop and search tactics can be a more effective deterrent.

This power would be in addition to the two main types of existing stop and search powers – Section 1 and Section 60.

A Serious Violence Reduction Order would act like a personalised Section 60 search power for individuals who have, in a criminal court of law been proven to have been in possession of an offensive weapon. This would include pointed or bladed weapons, firearms, and corrosive substances.

The Order would apply to both custodial and non-custodial sentences, thus ensuring that every offender – from the moment they are sentenced at court or from when they leave prison on licence – would face an increased risk of detection. This would help to focus our response on what is a relatively small proportion of dangerous offenders.
Polling by the Centre for Social Justice found that 70 per cent of non-white people would support Serious Violence Reduction Orders.

We will invest £35 million in eighteen Violence Reduction Units next year to enable them to implement a long term, multi-agency, preventative approach – helping to stop violence from happening in the first place.

In parts of the country with violent crime hotspots such as London, Manchester, Hampshire and the Midlands, the police, councils, and other agencies will have the resources they need to better coordinate their response to knife crime – sharing data on violence and investing in preventive measures to intervene early in the right places. This extra funding will give the units the certainty they need to plan for the future – hiring more staff and helping more young people.

19/11/2019
Jeremy Corbyn – 2019 Speech on Broadband

Below is the text of the speech made by Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Opposition, on 15 November 2019.

Thank you for that welcome.

At the start of this election I promised to put forward the most radical and exciting plan for real change the British public has ever seen.

We haven’t even launched our manifesto yet, but our campaign is already electric. On the ground it’s bigger and more exciting than 2017.

And I’ll let you into a little secret – when our manifesto arrives next week, it’s going to knock your socks off.

I don’t want anyone to be able to say, a few years into a Labour government, that nothing ever changes or that politicians are all the same.

I want everyone to feel the positive difference to their own life when you have the government and the people working together, collectively, to take on the system and make life better for the many, not the few.

And do you know what? We’re so confident that’s what our manifesto will do that today we want to give you a sneak peek.

A taster of the kind of fresh, transformational policies that will change your life.

So here it is: a Labour government will make broadband free for everybody.

And not just any broadband, but the very fastest. Full-fibre broadband to every home, in every part of our country, for free – as a universal public service.

And once it’s up and running, instead of you forking out for your monthly bill, we’ll tax the giant corporations fairly – the Facebooks and the Googles – to cover the running costs.

That is a policy for the many.

Making broadband free and available to all will open up opportunities for everybody.

It will put us at the cutting edge of social and economic change.

Because what we’re about is building a country that’s fit for the future.

The internet has become such a central part of our lives. It opens up opportunities for work, creativity, entertainment and friendship.

What was once a luxury is now an essential utility.

That’s why full-fibre broadband must be a public service, bringing communities together with equal access in an inclusive and connected society.

Fast and free broadband for all will fire up our economy, deliver a massive boost to productivity and bring half a million people back into the workforce.

It will help our environment and tackle the climate emergency by reducing the need to commute.

And it will make our country fairer, more equal and more democratic.

The full-fibre broadband Labour will deliver is the gold standard. It is the fastest, most secure and most reliable form of broadband, using fibre optic cables to take data directly into people’s homes and businesses.

And it will help to boost 5G to people’s phones too.

Full-fibre will deliver lightning-fast download times.

It will put an end to patchy and slow coverage once and for all.

And it will save the average household £30 a month on bills.

Britain’s broadband network is lagging well behind other countries.

Just 8 to 10 per cent of the UK has access to full-fibre broadband, compared to 98 per cent in South Korea.

Something clearly isn’t working.

This is core infrastructure for the 21st Century. I think it’s too important to be left to the corporations.

The most efficient and rapid way to deliver a broadband network fit for our times, and make it a genuine public service for all, is for the public to take control.

So under our plans, we will create a new public enterprise – and we’ll call it British Broadband.

British Broadband will oversee a publicly-owned full-fibre network and deliver free broadband to every home, with a phased roll-out over ten years.

To do that we will bring the relevant parts of BT, including Openreach, into public ownership.

By creating British Broadband as a public service, we will lead the world in using public investment to transform our country, reduce people’s monthly bills, boost our economy and improve people’s quality of life.

And it will have national security benefits too.

To me, that’s common sense. The corporations have been unable or unwilling to roll out full-fibre fast enough, and they have little incentive to invest in rural and remote parts of Britain.

But under our plan, the priority will be those with least connectivity, mainly in rural and remote areas but also in some inner-city areas, unlocking new opportunities across huge swathes of our country.

And we will then move on to towns, giving a boost to local economies and making it easier for people to run successful businesses outside the big cities.

And finally, we will complete the roll-out in the well-connected urban centres.

Ask people about their experience with private broadband companies and many will tell you about internet dropouts and hours spent on hold listening to Vivaldi, waiting to speak to an overworked and underpaid customer service worker who probably can’t fix the problem anyway.

Full-fibre will provide the most reliable service, and British Broadband will be properly staffed, with guaranteed jobs for everyone currently working in broadband.

Under public ownership, key universal services can be run for the British people instead of for profit.

In July, when he was running for Conservative leader, Boris Johnson also promised to make full-fibre broadband available across the country – except he expected you to pay for it.

But it will surprise nobody that this was just another case of Johnson’s signature move: the broken promise.

So what is he now offering instead? A low-budget option using old copper cables that are already out of date.

Johnson’s plans are yet another billionaire wealth grab, bunging public money to big corporations including Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin instead of putting the technology in the hands of the British people.

We need real change.

But I know the question that will be on everyone’s lips: ‘how are you going to pay for it?’

Well let me tell you.

The initial upgrade to our infrastructure will be funded through our Green Transformation Fund.

And when it comes to the running costs, we’re not going to put that onto the British public, who have already forked out far too much for rip-off broadband.

Instead, a Labour government will close down tax tricks used by giants like Google and Facebook, who make millions in Britain while paying next to nothing to the public purse.

I pay my tax.

Everybody in this room pays their tax.

Small businesses pay their tax.

So why can’t the giant multinationals?

They think they can get away with not paying their share. Well I’ve got news for them: not anymore.

Labour believes that the British people deserve the very best.

As a country we should be proud of our history of building treasured public institutions and services.

In the 19th Century it was the public waterworks.

In the 20th Century it was our fantastic National Health Service, freeing people from the fear of illness.

British Broadband will be our treasured public institution for the 21st century, delivering fast and free broadband to every home.

Only the government has the planning ability, economies of scale and ambition to take this on.

This is a mission for everyone to get behind.

Together we will build a new, universal public service delivering the fastest broadband free to everyone.

This will be at the heart of Labour’s plans to transform the future of our economy and society.

Labour will put wealth and power in the hands of the many, while Boris Johnson’s Conservatives will only look after the privileged few.

It’s time to make the very fastest full-fibre broadband free to all, in every home, in every corner of our country.

It’s time for real change.

Thank you.

17/11/2019