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Tag: Boris Johnson

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Article on the Oxford Vaccine

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Article on the Oxford Vaccine

    The article by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 16 March 2021. The article was published in The Times and republished by the Government.

    It was in September last year that I felt the first stirrings of optimism about the coronavirus vaccine. I was at the Edward Jenner institute in Oxford, standing behind a scientist as she looked at some magnified blood samples.

    There were two sets of slides — one from subjects who had been given the vaccine prototype, and one from a control group. The slides from the control group were more or less blank, whereas the slides from the vaccinated group were full of dots — lots of dots. The dots were antibodies. I could tell from the excitement of the scientists that this was promising and that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine looked as though it would work.

    After exhaustive tests, so it has proved. That vaccine is safe and works extremely well, and now, only six months later, it is being made in multiple places from India to the US, as well as Britain, and it is being used around the world.

    It is relatively easy to distribute, since it can be kept in an ordinary fridge, and under the terms of the deal struck between Oxford and the UK government it is being dispensed at cost. You may wonder why we have done it that way, or why the taxpayer has already spent hundreds of millions of pounds, through Covax and other schemes, to put jabs in the arms of other populations.

    The answer is blindingly obvious — the principle of enlightened self-interest that underlies the integrated review of UK security, defence, development and foreign policy that is published today.

    Successful as the UK vaccination programme may be, there is little point in achieving some isolated national immunity. We need the whole world to be protected. We need the whole world to have the confidence to open up for trade and travel and holidays and business, all the things that drive jobs and improve our lives at home.

    The objective of Global Britain is not to swagger or strike attitudes on the world stage. It is to use the full spectrum of our abilities, now amplified by record spending on both defence and science, to engage with and help the rest of the world. That is how we serve the British interest, and I mean the economic interest of people up and down the country. And as the vaccine programme begins to inspire a new global hope, we want to use this moment to heal, both literally and figuratively.

    The UK is using its G7 presidency to foster ideas for a new world treaty on pandemic preparedness so that next time humanity avoids the sauve qui peut squabbling that has disfigured the last 12 months. There is work to be done on the sharing of data, on the tracking of zoonotic diseases, on quarantine protocols and how to marshal drugs and personal protective equipment.

    It is obvious from our experience that this would be good for Britain as much as the rest of the world. As we prepare to build back better, we are working with the World Trade Organisation and its new director-general, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, not only to revive world trade but to address the stagnation that pre-dated the pandemic.

    At the Cop26 summit in Glasgow the UK is leading the world in the campaign to reduce CO2 emissions and arrest the overheating of the planet. Britain was the first major western country to commit to the goal of net zero by 2050 and it is wonderful — and moving — to see how other countries are now pledging themselves to the same goal.

    Those pledges will be hollow, however, without serious commitments, mainly to the use of new technology, that will make those reductions happen. Again, we in the UK are taking those big and bold steps, not only because it is good for the world but because these green technologies, from wind to hydrogen to carbon capture, have the potential to create hundreds of thousands of high-wage, high-skill jobs in Britain.

    It is thanks to our history and geography that the UK is already in many ways more global than our comparators. We have a vast diaspora of people, perhaps five or six million, living abroad, far more as a proportion than most others in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. We may have only 1 per cent of the world’s population, but we are the fifth biggest exporter of goods and services.

    And we have a third invisible diaspora, far more important and more fruitful even than people or goods, and that is the vast dispersal of British ideas, and British values, puffed around the world like the seeds of some giant pollinating tree. I mean everything from habeas corpus and parliamentary democracy to freedom of speech and gender equality. Sometimes these ideas have flourished, and put forth great roots and branches. Sometimes, frankly, they still fall on stony ground.

    So under this integrated review we will work ever harder, and give ourselves all the tools we need, to co-ordinate with like-minded democracies in the US, in Europe and around the world to protect and advance those ideas and beliefs against those who oppose them. These values are not uncontested. They are far from universal. That is why the world needs Global Britain more than ever and, to be truly prosperous and successful, Britain needs to be global.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Address to the UN Security Council on Climate and Security

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Address to the UN Security Council on Climate and Security

    The address made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 23 February 2021.

    For more than 75 years, this Security Council has been tasked with maintaining peace and security and it’s been difficult. We haven’t always agreed about how to achieve that goal.

    But one thing is absolutely clear to me: that we are committed to tackling threats to our security, and as you’ve heard from Antonio, and from Nisreen it is absolutely clear that climate change is a threat to our collective security and the security of our nations.

    And I know there are people around the world who will say this is all kind of “green stuff” from a bunch of tree-hugging tofu munchers and not suited to international diplomacy and international politics.

    I couldn’t disagree more profoundly.

    The causes of climate change we’ve got to address, but the effects as you’ve heard from Nisreen, and as you’ve heard from Antonio, in those speeches just now, are absolutely clear.

    Think of the young man forced onto the road when his home becomes a desert, one of 16 million people displaced every year as a result of weather-related disasters – weather-related disasters that are associated with climate change.

    He goes to some camp, he becomes prey for violent extremists, people who radicalise him and the effects of that radicalisation are felt around the world.

    “Think of the girl who drops out of school because her daily search for water takes her further and further from her family – and into the clutches of human traffickers and the international criminal gangs who profit from them.

    Or think of a farmer who has lost harvest after harvest to drought and then switches to poppies because poppies are a hardier crop, with the impacts that the opium crops have on the streets of all our cities, quite frankly.

    Or think of the impoverished and fragile nation whose government collapses when critical infrastructure is overwhelmed by increasingly frequent extreme weather – of a kind that sends shockwaves of instability around the world.

    Now if that kind of result, in terms of political, economic, humanitarian impact, if that was being triggered by some kind of despotic warlord or civil war, then nobody would question the right and the duty of this UN Security Council to act, and therefore this is not a subject we can shy away from.

    This isn’t by the way, like so many of the issues that I know you confront, Antonio, this isn’t some bafflingly complex diplomatic minuet, this isn’t some modern equivalent of the Schleswig-Holstein question – can you remember the answer to the Schleswig-Holstein question, Antonio? I bet you can.

    People know the answer to climate change and they know how to tackle this crisis.

    And as Bill Gates put it in his new book, what we’ve got to do is go from 51 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year to net zero, so the increase in global temperatures remains at manageable levels. And as we do so we must support the most vulnerable and fragile nations that are feeling the effects of climate change, help them to adapt and to build resilience.

    And that’s what we’re doing. So last year [sic: 2019] we passed a law committing us, the UK, to achieving net zero carbon-emissions by 2050. And we’ve pledged to slash emissions by 68 per cent by 2030, that’s the steepest reduction for any major economy.

    Our climate finance commitments for the next five years, supporting the rest of the world to achieve this, stand at £11.6 billion. And, ahead of the COP26 summit we’re going to be putting climate change firmly at the top of the agenda for our G7 presidency as well.

    So my message to you all today is now the UN Security Council has got to act too.

    Because climate change is a geopolitical issue every bit as much as it is an environmental one. And if this Council is going to succeed in maintaining peace and security worldwide then it’s got to galvanise the whole range of UN agencies and organisations into a swift and effective response.

    “If we don’t act now, when will we act? That’s my question. When are we going to do something if we don’t act now?

    When changing sea levels are affecting our navigation around our coasts? Or when, as Nisreen said, when huddled masses fleeing drought or wildfire, or conflict over resources arrive at our borders?

    Whether you like it or not, it is a matter of when, not if, your country and your people will have to deal with the security impacts of climate change.

    So let’s do what this Council was created to do and let’s show the kind of global leadership that is needed to protect the peace, the security and the stability of our nations, of our regions and of our world.

    Thank you all very much.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Catch-Up Education Funding

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Catch-Up Education Funding

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 24 February 2021.

    Teachers and parents have done a heroic job with home schooling, but we know the classroom is the best place for our children to be.

    When schools re-open and face to face education resumes on 8 March, our next priority will be ensuring no child is left behind as a result of the learning they have lost over the past year.

    This extensive programme of catch-up funding will equip teachers with the tools and resources they need to support their pupils, and give children the opportunities they deserve to learn and fulfil their potential.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Roadmap Statement in the House of Commons

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Roadmap Statement in the House of Commons

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 22 February 2021.

    Mr Speaker, with permission, I will make a Statement on the roadmap that will guide us

    cautiously but irreversibly –

    towards reclaiming our freedoms while doing all we can to protect our people against Covid.

    Today’s measures will apply in England,

    but we are working closely with the Devolved Administrations who are setting out similar plans.

    The threat remains substantial, with the numbers in hospital only now beginning to fall below the peak of the first wave in April.

    But we are able to take these steps because of the resolve of the British public

    and the extraordinary success of our NHS in vaccinating more than 17.5 million people across the UK.

    The data so far suggests both vaccines are effective against the dominant strains of Covid.

    Public Health England has found that one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces hospitalisations and deaths by at least 75 per cent.

    And early data suggests that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine provides a good level of protection,

    though since we only started deploying this vaccine last month, at this stage the size of its effect is less certain.

    But no vaccine can ever be 100 per cent effective,

    nor will everyone take them up,

    and like all viruses, Covid-19 will mutate. So, as the modelling released by SAGE today shows, we cannot escape the fact that lifting lockdown will result in more cases, more hospitalisations and sadly more deaths.

    This would happen whenever lockdown is lifted, whether now or in six or nine months, because there will always be some vulnerable people who are not protected by the vaccine.

    There is therefore no credible route to a Zero Covid Britain or indeed a Zero Covid World

    and we cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental well-being, and the life-chances of our children.

    And that is why it is so crucial that this roadmap should be cautious but also irreversible.

    We are setting out on what I hope and believe is a one way road to freedom.

    And this journey is made possible by the pace of the vaccination programme.

    In England, everyone in the top four priority groups was successfully offered a vaccine by the middle of February.

    We now aim to offer a first dose to all those in groups 5 to 9 by 15 April,

    and I am setting another stretching target: to offer a first dose to every adult by the end of July.

    As more of us are inoculated, so the protection afforded by the vaccines will gradually replace the restrictions

    and today’s roadmap sets out the principles of that transition.

    The level of infection is broadly similar across England, so we will ease restrictions in all areas at the same time.

    The sequence will be driven by the evidence, so outdoor activity will be prioritised as the best way to restore freedoms while minimising the risk.

    At every stage, our decisions will be led by data not dates,

    and subjected to four tests.

    First, that the vaccine deployment programme continues successfully;

    second, that evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths;

    third, that infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS;

    and fourth, that our assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of Covid that cause concern.

    Before taking each step we will review the data against these tests and because it takes at least four weeks for the data to reflect the impact of relaxations in restrictions

    and we want to give the country a week’s notice before each change –

    there will be at least five weeks between each step.

    The Chief Medical Officer is clear that moving any faster would mean acting before we know the impact of each step,

    which would increase the risk of us having to reverse course and re-impose restrictions.

    I won’t take that risk.

    Step one will happen from 8 March, by which time those in the top four priority groups will be benefiting from the increased protection they receive from their first dose of their vaccine.

    Mr Speaker, all the evidence shows that classrooms are the best places for our young people to be.

    That’s why I’ve always said that schools would be the last to close and the first to reopen.

    And based on our assessment of the current data against the four tests, I can tell the House that two weeks’ from today pupils and students in all schools and further education settings can safely return to face-to-face teaching,

    supported by twice-weekly testing of secondary school and college pupils.

    Families and childcare bubbles will also be encouraged to get tested regularly.

    Breakfast and afterschool clubs can also re-open – and other children’s activities, including sport, can restart where necessary to help parents to work.

    Students on university courses requiring practical teaching, specialist facilities or onsite assessments will also return

    but all others will need to continue learning online, and we will review the options for when they can return by the end of the Easter Holidays.

    From 8 March, people will also be able to meet one person from outside their household for outdoor recreation – such as a coffee on a bench or a picnic in a park – in addition to exercise.

    But we are advising the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable to shield at least until the end of March.

    Every care home resident will be able to nominate a named visitor, able to see them regularly provided they are tested and wear PPE.

    And finally we will amend regulations to enable a broader range of Covid-secure campaign activities for local elections on 6 May.

    As part of Step one, we will go further and make limited changes on 29 March, when schools go on Easter holidays.

    It will become possible to meet in limited numbers outdoors, where the risk is lower.

    So the Rule of Six will return outdoors, including in private gardens

    and outdoor meetings of two households will also be permitted on the same basis, so that families in different circumstances can meet. Outdoor sports facilities – such as tennis and basketball courts, and open-air swimming pools – will be able to reopen

    and formally organised outdoor sports will resume, subject to guidance.

    From this point, 29 March, people will no longer be legally required to stay at home

    but many lockdown restrictions will remain.

    People should continue to work from home where they can and minimise all travel wherever possible.

    Step two will begin at least five weeks after the beginning of step one

    and no earlier than 12 April, with an announcement at least seven days in advance.

    If analysis of the latest data against the four tests requires a delay, then this and subsequent steps will also be delayed to maintain the five week gap.

    In step two non-essential retail will reopen, as will personal care including hairdressers I’m glad to say, and nail salons.

    Indoor leisure facilities such as gyms will re-open, as will holiday-lets, but only for use by individuals or household groups.

    We will begin to re-open our pubs and restaurants outdoors

    and Hon Members will be relieved there will be no curfew

    and the Scotch Egg debate will be over because there will be no requirement for alcohol to be accompanied by a substantial meal.

    Zoos, theme parks and drive-in cinemas will re-open

    as will public libraries and community centres.

    Step three will begin no earlier than 17 May.

    Provided the data satisfies the four tests, most restrictions on meetings outdoors will be lifted, subject to a limit of thirty.

    And this is the point when you will be able to see your friends and family indoors – subject to the Rule of Six or the meeting of two households.

    We will also reopen pubs and restaurants indoors

    along with cinemas and children’s play areas,

    hotels, hostels, and B&Bs.

    Theatres and concert halls will open their doors,

    and the turnstiles of our sports stadia will once again rotate

    subject in all cases to capacity limits depending on the size of the venue.

    And we will pilot larger events using enhanced testing, with the ambition of further easing of restrictions in the next step.

    Step 4 will begin no earlier than 21 June.

    With appropriate mitigations, we will aim to remove all legal limits on social contact,

    and on weddings and other life events.

    We will re-open everything up to and including nightclubs,

    and enable large events such as theatre performances above the limits of step 3, potentially using testing to reduce the risk of infection.

    Mr Speaker, our journey back towards normality will be subject to resolving a number of key questions and to do this we will conduct four reviews.

    One will assess how long we need to maintain social distancing and face masks.

    This will also inform guidance on working from home – which should continue wherever possible until this review is complete.

    And it will be critical in determining how Parliament can safely return in a way that I know Hon Members would wish.

    A second review will consider the resumption of international travel

    which is vital for many businesses which have been hardest hit

    including retail, hospitality, tourism and aviation.

    A successor to the Global Travel Taskforce will report by 12 April so that people can plan for the summer.

    The third review will consider the potential role of Covid-status certification in helping venues to open safely

    but mindful of the many concerns surrounding exclusion, discrimination and privacy.

    And the fourth review will look at the safe return of major events.

    Mr Speaker, as we proceed through these steps we will benefit from the combined protection of our vaccines and the continued expansion of rapid testing.

    We will extend the provision of free test kits for workplaces until the end of June

    and families, small businesses and the self-employed can collect those tests from local testing sites.

    Mr Speaker, in view of these cautious but I hope irreversible changes, people may be concerned about what these changes mean for the various support packages, for livelihoods for people and for the economy.

    So I want to assure the House, we will not pull the rug out.

    For the duration of the pandemic, the government will continue to do whatever it takes to protect jobs and livelihoods across the UK.

    And my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor will set out further details in the Budget next Wednesday,

    Finally, Mr Speaker, we must remain alert to the constant mutations of the virus.

    Next month we will publish an updated plan for responding to local outbreaks,

    with a range of measures to address variants of concern, including surge PCR testing and enhanced contact tracing.

    We can’t, I’m afraid, rule out re-imposing restrictions at local or regional level if evidence suggests they are necessary to contain or suppress a new variant which escapes the vaccines.

    Mr Speaker, I know there will be many people who will be worried that we are being too ambitious and that it is arrogant to impose any kind of plan upon a virus.

    And I agree that we must always be humble in the face of nature and we must be cautious

    but I really also believe that the vaccination programme has dramatically changed the odds in our favour and it is on that basis that we can now proceed.

    And of course there will be others who will believe that we could go faster on the basis of that vaccination programme

    and I understand their feelings and I sympathise very much with the exhaustion and the stress that people are experiencing and that businesses are experiencing after so long in lockdown.

    But to them I say that today the end really is in sight and a wretched year will give way to a spring and a summer that will be very different and incomparably better than the picture we see around us today.

    And in that spirit, I commend this Statement to the House.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on the Roadmap Announcement

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on the Roadmap Announcement

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 22 February 2021.

    Today I’ll be setting out a roadmap to bring us out of lockdown cautiously. Our priority has always been getting children back into school which we know is crucial for their education as well as their mental and physical wellbeing, and we will also be prioritising ways for people to reunite with loved ones safely.

    Our decisions will be made on the latest data at every step, and we will be cautious about this approach so that we do not undo the progress we have achieved so far and the sacrifices each and every one of you has made to keep yourself and others safe.

    We have therefore set four key tests which must be met before we can move through each step of the plan.

     

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Speech to the Munich Security Conference

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Speech to the Munich Security Conference

    The speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 19 February 2021.

    There is a habit of turning up at occasions such as these and announcing portentously that the West is locked in terminal decline, the Atlantic alliance is fractured, and NATO is in peril, and everything we hold dear risks being cast into oblivion.

    And that industry of pessimism has thrived recently, perhaps even in Munich.

    So without wishing for a moment to downplay the challenges and dangers we face, in the teeth of a global pandemic, let me respectfully suggest that the gloom has been overdone and we are turning a corner, and the countries we call the “West” are drawing together and combining their formidable strengths and expertise once again, immensely to everybody’s benefit.

    As you’ve seen and heard earlier, America is unreservedly back as leader of the free world and that is a fantastic thing.

    And it’s vital for our American friends to know that their allies on this side of the Atlantic are willing and able to share the risks and the burdens of addressing the world’s toughest problems

    That is why Global Britain is there and that is exactly what Global Britain is striving to achieve.

    I’m delighted to report that I detected precisely that willingness among my fellow G7 leaders when I chaired a virtual meeting earlier today. The shared goals of the UK’s presidency of the G7 are to help the world to build back better and build back greener after the pandemic and minimise the risk of a catastrophe like this happening again.

    We all have lessons to learn from an experience that none of us would want to repeat.

    At the last UN General Assembly, I proposed a five-point plan to protect the world against future pandemics and today the G7 agreed to explore a Treaty on Pandemic Preparedness, working through the World Health Organization, which would enshrine the actions that countries need to take to safeguard everyone against another Covid.

    I intend to bring together my fellow leaders, scientists and international organisations for collective defence against the next pathogen, just as we unite against military threats.

    The heroic endeavours of the world’s scientists produced safe and effective vaccines against Covid in barely 300 days. In future we should aim to telescope that even more: by drawing together our resources, we should seek to develop vaccines against emerging diseases in 100 days.

    Even in the early weeks of the pandemic, I hope that we in the UK resisted the temptations of a sauve qui peut approach and tried to keep the flame of global cooperation alive.

    We helped to establish COVAX, the global alliance to bring Covid vaccines to developing countries, and today Britain ranks among COVAX’s biggest donors, with the aim of supplying a billion doses to 92 nations, and we will also share the majority of any surplus from our domestic vaccination programme.

    When Oxford University and AstraZeneca began their momentous effort against Covid, their express aim was to design a vaccine that would be cheap to obtain and easy to store, so that it could be speedily administered by every country.

    Protecting ourselves also means tracking the virus’s mutations, and nearly half of all the genome sequencing of possible Covid variants, anywhere in the world, has taken place in the UK.

    Now we need to mobilise our shared expertise to create an early warning system for the next pathogen, enabled by a worldwide network of pandemic surveillance centres, and the UK intends work alongside the WHO and our friends to bring this about.

    If anything good can possibly come from this tragedy, we have at least been given the chance to build a global recovery on new and green foundations, so that humanity can prosper without imperilling the planet.

    To that end, as you’ve just been hearing from John Kerry, Britain will host COP-26 in Glasgow in November and I’m delighted that America under President Biden’s leadership has rejoined the Paris Agreement.

    The UK’s aim will be to help to rally as many countries as possible behind the target of Net Zero by 2050.

    We were the first industrialised nation to adopt this goal and we have made it legally binding and published our plan for a Green Industrial Revolution to show how we will get there, so I hope that other countries will follow the UK’s example.

    But we can only address global problems alongside our friends, and extend Britain’s influence around the world, if the UK itself and our own citizens are safe, including from the terrorist threat we all face.

    The starting point of our Integrated Review of foreign, defence and development policy – which will be published next month – is that the success of Global Britain depends on the security of our homeland and the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area.

    If climate change and pandemics are silent and insidious threats, hostile states may seek to harm our people in direct and obvious ways, as the Russian state did with reckless abandon in Salisbury three years ago, only to collide with the immovable rock of trans-Atlantic solidarity, sanctions and coordinated diplomatic expulsions, an outstanding act of collective security, for which I once again thank our friends.

    If we are to assure our safety, our democracies need to strengthen their capabilities to meet the rigours of an ever more competitive world.

    And it is precisely for that reason, so that we can keep our people safe, by fulfilling our obligations to NATO and enhancing the UK’s global influence, that is the reason I have decided to bolster our armed forces with the biggest increase in our defence budget since the Cold War.

    The UK’s defence spending will rise by £24 billion over the next four years, comfortably exceeding the NATO pledge to invest 2 percent of GDP, and ensuring that we retain the biggest defence budget in Europe and the second largest in NATO, after the United States.

    We will focus our investment on the new technologies that will revolutionise warfare – artificial intelligence, unmanned aircraft, directed energy weapons and many others – so that we stand alongside our allies to deter any adversary and preserve the peace.

    This year, the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will embark on her maiden deployment, sailing 20,000 nautical miles to the Indo-Pacific and back.

    On her flight deck will be a squadron of F35 jets from the US Marine Corps; among her escorts will be an American destroyer, showing how the British and American armed forces can operate hand-in-glove – or plane-on-flightdeck – anywhere in the world.

    But investing in new capabilities is not an end in itself. The purpose of the military instrument is to strengthen diplomacy and therefore maximise the chances of success.

    We do not wish to live in a world of unchecked rivalry or decoupling or obstacles to sensible cooperation and global economic growth. Nor are we concerned solely with trade: I hope the UK has shown by our actions that we will defend our values as well as our interests.

    In leaving the European Union we restored sovereign control over vital levers of foreign policy.

    For the first time in nearly 50 years, we now have the power to impose independent national sanctions, allowing the UK to act swiftly and robustly. Our first decision was to create a Magnitsky regime designed to punish human rights offenders. The UK then became the first European country to sanction senior figures in Belarus after the stolen election. We have now imposed sanctions on over 50 human rights violators, including from Russia, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.

    We have consistently spoken out against China’s repression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang province – and we will continue to do so. We have introduced new measures to ensure that the supply chains of UK companies are not tainted by the violations in Xinjiang. After China broke a treaty and imposed a repressive national security law on Hong Kong, the UK offered nearly 3 million of the territory’s people a route to British citizenship. We acted quickly and willingly – with cross-party support at home – to keep faith with the people of Hong Kong.

    Now that we have left the EU, Parliament has a greater say over foreign policy and this has only reinforced our national determination to be a Force for Good in the world.

    Britain is working alongside France, Germany and the United States in a trans-Atlantic quad to address the most pressing security issues, including Iran.

    And I sense a new resolve among our European friends and allies to come together and act again with unity and determination, and we witnessed that spirit after the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny, as he recovered in a hospital bed in Berlin.

    While NATO was being written-off in some places, the supertanker of European defence spending was quietly beginning to turn, and while this delicate high seas manoeuvre is far from complete, and the vessel needs to alter course a good deal more, the fact is that NATO defence spending – excluding the United States – has risen by $190 billion since the Wales summit in 2014.

    When our allies on the eastern flank sought reassurance about their security, NATO responded by deploying a multinational force in Poland and the Baltic states and the UK was proud to make the biggest single contribution, leading the battlegroup in Estonia, showing that we mean it when we say that our commitment to European security is unconditional and immoveable.

    I believe that Europe increasingly recognises the necessity of joining our American friends to rediscover that far-sighted leadership and the spirit of adventure and trans-Atlantic unity, that made our two continents great in the first place.

    A new world is rising up around us, patterns of trade and commerce are changing, the global centre of gravity is moving eastwards, the technological revolution proceeds with blistering speed. But none of us should fear or resent these changes.

    Free societies are united by their faith in liberal democracy, the rule of law and free markets, which surely comprise the great trinity of human progress.

    Free countries – many of them located far beyond the geographical “West”, by the way – possess a boundless and inherent ability to release the talents and enterprise of their people to master and adapt to change.

    It is no coincidence that of the 10 most innovative nations in the world – as ranked by the Global Innovation Index in 2020 – all but one are liberal democracies.

    There is no reason why our countries should not be stronger and safer in 2030 – or indeed 2050 – than today, provided we share the burdens, compete successfully and seek out friends and partners wherever they may be found. I have invited South Korea, and Australia and India to attend the next G7 summit as guests, alongside leading international organisations.

    So let’s resist any temptation to bemoan the changes around us.

    Let’s build a coalition for openness and innovation, reaching beyond established alliances and the confines of geography, proud of our history, but free of any temptation to turn back the clock, and harnessing the genius of open societies to flourish in an era of renewed competition.

    Let’s respectfully dispel the air of pessimism that has sometimes attended our conferences.

    America and Europe, side by side, have the ability to prove once again the innate advantages of free nations, and to succeed in forging our own destiny.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Creating New Vaccines

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Creating New Vaccines

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister on 19 February 2021.

    Perhaps more than ever, the hopes of the world rest on the shoulders of scientists and over the last year, like countless times before, they have risen to the challenge.

    The development of viable coronavirus vaccines offers the tantalising prospect of a return to normality, but we must not rest on our laurels. As leaders of the G7 we must say today: never again.

    By harnessing our collective ingenuity, we can ensure we have the vaccines, treatments and tests to be battle-ready for future health threats, as we beat Covid-19 and build back better together.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 15 February 2021.

    Today the national vaccination programme continues to power past the target we set six weeks ago with more than 15 million people vaccinated across the UK.

    And once again I pay tribute to the astonishing efforts of everyone involved – the GPs, the nurses, the volunteers, the army and the pharmacists like Hardik Desai – who rallied local volunteers to vaccinate 3,000 people in his village hall in Ticehurst in Sussex, while keeping his pharmacy open – and of course I thank all of you who have come forward to be vaccinated.

    This is an unprecedented national achievement but it’s no moment to relax and in fact it’s the moment to accelerate because the threat from this virus remains very real.

    Yes, it’s true, we have vaccinated more than 90 per cent of those aged over 70 but don’t forget that 60 per cent of hospital patients with Covid are under 70.

    And although the vaccination programme is going well, we still don’t have enough data about the exact effectiveness of the vaccines in reducing the spread of infection.

    We have some interesting straws in the wind. We have grounds for confidence. But the vaccinations have only been running for a matter of weeks – and while we are learning the whole time – we don’t today have all the hard facts that we need.

    And the level of infection remains very high, with more people still in hospital today than at the peak last April and admissions running at 1,600 a day.

    So we have to keep our foot to the floor. And I can tell you today that the next million letters are landing on people’s mats right now, offering appointments to the over-65s and we are also contacting all those aged between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions, as well as adult carers.

    And if we can keep this pace up – and if we can keep supply steady – and I hope and believe we can – then we hope to offer a vaccination to everyone in the first nine priority groups – including everyone over 50 – by the end of April.

    And at the same time we will be giving second doses to millions of the most vulnerable within twelve weeks of the first.

    So this moment is a huge step forward but it’s only a first step.

    And while it shows what the country can do we must be both optimistic but also patient.

    And next week I will be setting out a roadmap saying as much as we possibly can about the route to normality even though some things are very uncertain.

    Because we want this lockdown to be the last. And we want progress to be cautious but also irreversible.

    So please continue to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

    Thank you.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Forthcoming G7 Meeting

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Forthcoming G7 Meeting

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 14 February 2021.

    The solutions to the challenges we face – from the colossal mission to get vaccines to every single country, to the fight to reverse the damage done to our ecosystems and lead a sustainable recovery from coronavirus – lie in the discussions we have with our friends and partners around the world.

    Quantum leaps in science have given us the vaccines we need to end this pandemic for good. Now world governments have a responsibility to work together to put those vaccines to the best possible use. I hope 2021 will be remembered as the year humanity worked together like never before to defeat a common foe.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Joining CPTPP

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on Joining CPTPP

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 31 January 2021.

    One year after our departure from the EU we are forging new partnerships that will bring enormous economic benefits for the people of Britain.

    Applying to be the first new country to join the CPTPP demonstrates our ambition to do business on the best terms with our friends and partners all over the world and be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade.