Tag: Boris Johnson

Below is the text of the speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 19 December 2019.

This is the moment to repay the trust of those who sent us here, by delivering on the people’s priorities with the most radical Queen’s Speech for a generation. If there was one resounding lesson from this election campaign, and one message that I heard in every corner of these islands, it is not just that the British people want their Government to get Brexit done, although they do, but they want to move politics on, and move the country on, by building hospitals, renewing our schools, and modernising our infrastructure, as well as making our streets safer, our environment cleaner, and our Union stronger. This Queen’s Speech, from this people’s Government, sets in motion a vast interlocking programme to unite and level up across the whole United Kingdom, and unleash the potential of all our people.

This one nation Government will enshrine in law record funding for our NHS, take back control of our borders with a wholly new immigration system, toughen our criminal justice system with longer sentences for the most dangerous offenders, double investment in basic science research, and protect our environment with a Bill so ambitious and so vast, that there is no environmentally friendly way of printing it off.

This is not a programme for one year or one Parliament; it is a blueprint for the future of Britain. Just imagine where this country could be in 10 years’ time, with trade deals across the world creating jobs across the UK, and with 40 new hospitals, great schools in every community, and the biggest transformation of our infrastructure since the Victorian age. Imagine British scientists using new gene therapies to cure the hitherto incurable, and leading the dawn of a new age of electric vehicles—not just cars, but planes—and pioneering solutions to the challenge of climate change. I do not think it vainglorious or implausible to say that a new golden age for this United Kingdom is now within reach. In spite of the scoffing, in spite of the negativity, in spite of the scepticism that you will hear from the other side, we will work flat out to deliver it.

Her Majesty’s Gracious Speech was expertly proposed by a beacon of our one nation Conservatism, my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch). She is not only a football coach of great distinction who has done much to champion the female game, which will be a key part of this country’s bid for the 2030 World cup, but is so personally skilled at the game, with what has been described by her adversaries as a “take no prisoners” style, that according to The Daily Telegraph—if you cannot believe The Daily Telegraph, Mr Speaker, what can you believe?—she was once barred from playing against men to protect their egos. She has even used this Dispatch Box for an impromptu game of keepy-up, using it as a goalmouth in what was probably one of the less shocking innovations tolerated by the previous Speaker.

My hon. Friend has also done pioneering work on tackling loneliness, improving dementia care, and, as we have heard, curbing the harms inflicted by gambling and alcohol. She is so dedicated to her job that she has regularly brought her son Freddie into the Lobby, so reducing the voting age to about six months. Chatham’s great parliamentary sketch writer, Charles Dickens, would himself confirm that her speech was in the very finest traditions of this House. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”]

My hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford was followed with great style by my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North (Eddie Hughes). When he addressed this House for the first time in 2017, he said:

“the good people of Walsall North…have had to wait 41 years to hear a maiden speech from their Member of Parliament. You can only imagine how disappointed they will be”.—[Official Report, 3 July 2017; Vol. 626, c. 978.]

My hon. Friend was being characteristically modest, but I cannot help noticing how the good people of Walsall North have taken drastic steps to avoid another maiden speech. They not only re-elected my hon. Friend, but they quintupled his majority just to be sure. As the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) pointed out, you wait years for a Queen’s Speech then along come two in short order—something my hon. Friend will appreciate, as one of the growing number of bus drivers’ children on the Conservative Benches. He was elected—

Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)

Will the Prime Minister give way?

The Prime Minister

I know the hon. Gentleman wants to ask about buses, but I must make progress.

My hon. Friend was elected as a blue collar Conservative from a traditionally Labour seat, a path that many have just followed. Since then, as he pointed out quite rightly, he has secured funding for a new A&E department at his local hospital and a new railway station for Willenhall. I know he comes from a Labour family. In fact, I think his brother is a Labour councillor. When he first declared himself a Conservative he felt, he said, like the black sheep of the family. All I can say is I bet that if they are watching today, they will feel nothing but pride in my hon. Friend’s brilliant speech.

Let me also welcome to his place the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition, a stickler, as we all know, for watching a Queen’s Speech at the right time. [Laughter.] Although I do not know what he has against coronation chicken, Mr Speaker. As our exchanges across the Dispatch Box come towards a close—alas—let me say that our personal relations have always been excellent. For all our disagreements, I have never doubted that the right hon. Gentleman’s beliefs are deeply held and his sincerity is to be admired. Certain members of his shadow Cabinet, on the other hand, are absolutely clear where the responsibility for the election result lies. The voters of the country have let his side down. They have forfeited the confidence of the Opposition and the time has come for Labour to take the only possible step: dissolve the electorate and replace it with a new one—at least, I think that is what the right hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) said.

For my own part, I feel a colossal sense of obligation to the electorate that I and we are humbled to serve. I say to those people who lent us their votes, however hesitantly, that this Government will now engage flat out on a programme of change for the better. Tomorrow is the day when we finally peel back the plastic wrapping, about which you have heard so much, Mr Speaker, and present our oven-ready deal. It will go into the microwave as the withdrawal agreement Bill—it works in both devices, this deal—taking back control of our money, our borders, our laws and our trade, clearing the way for an overarching programme of national renewal.

Above all, it is time to invest in the institution that gives the country its cohesion and even our national spirit—the simple and beautiful idea that whoever you are, the NHS is there for you when you fall sick. As our NHS cares for us, so we will care for the NHS, delivering the biggest cash boost in a generation, and, for the first time, this Queen’s Speech guarantees a new funding settlement in law. What will that pay for? The biggest hospital-building programme in living memory, with 40 new hospitals, 50,000 more nurses—and their bursaries—6,000 more GPs and 50 million more GP appointments, and we will introduce a new NHS visa to fast-track talented staff from overseas. We will scrap those iniquitous hospital parking charges for all staff and vulnerable people, and we will guarantee dignity and fairness for everyone in their later years with a long-term and sustainable solution to social care. Indeed, I invite cross-party work on that solution, in the spirit of co-operation that I think is supported by many, many Members on both sides of the House.

While many of these measures were indeed foreshadowed in the last Queen’s Speech, fortified by our new mandate we will go even further. We will give millions of tenants greater rights over their rented homes, abolishing no-fault evictions. We will help millions of commuters whose lives are made miserable by strike action by imposing minimum service agreements.

Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)

Will the Prime Minister give way?

The Prime Minister

I will happily give way—if the hon. Gentleman is opposed to helping struggling commuters, I am delighted to hear from him.

Alan Brown

Earlier on, the Prime Minister used the slogan, the “people’s Parliament”, but the people of Scotland rejected his Government. If he really believes in the people, is it not right that the people of Scotland should have their say in a referendum?

The Prime Minister

I think it was Nicola Sturgeon herself who said that the referendum in 2014 was a “once in a generation” event. I do not know about you, Mr Speaker, but I feel that the Scottish Nationalist party should concentrate more on delivering on the domestic priorities of the people of Scotland and rather less on breaking up our United Kingdom.

Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP)

Will the Prime Minister give way?

The Prime Minister

I believe that if I gave way to the hon. Gentleman, I would be forced to repeat the point I have just made.

We will abolish the threat of no-fault evictions, and we will take forward our plans to rejuvenate and, in many cases, to revolutionise the infrastructure of Britain, including Northern Powerhouse Rail. We will remedy the scandal that Leeds is the largest city in western Europe without light rail or a metro. We are dramatically improving local bus services, levelling up across the country to the standards set in London—at least, as they were set under a previous Mayor—and we are investing nearly £30 billion in our road network, including upgrading the A66 to be the first continuous dual carriageway across the Pennines since the 1970s.

Above all, this one nation Government will strengthen our United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—the most successful Union in history and a sacred inheritance that this Parliament will never allow anyone to rip up or rend asunder.

We will stand by one of the greatest international symbols of British courage and daring: our armed forces—the men and women who sacrifice so much to safeguard our way of life. We will protect our protectors from unfair and vexatious legal claims that undermine their morale and confidence. We will spare no effort in addressing the profound concerns of millions about the state of our criminal justice system with the first royal commission for almost 30 years, and there will be action now to impose tougher sentences on the most serious offenders.

Stephanie Peacock (Barnsley East) (Lab) rose—

The Prime Minister

If the hon. Lady wants to contest the need for tougher sentences for serious offenders, I am happy to hear her view.

Stephanie Peacock

The Queen’s Speech mentioned a sentencing Bill. Will that include provision for increasing the sentence for causing death by dangerous driving from 14 years to life imprisonment? If not, are the Government open to accepting an amendment?

The Prime Minister

The hon. Lady makes an important and valid point. I have no doubt that she reflects the concerns of her constituents, and we will certainly be looking at what we can do to make sure that people who are guilty of dangerous driving receive the penalties they deserve. I know that the Home Secretary will have listened very carefully to what the hon. Lady has said.

We will also end the dangerous practice of early release of terrorists, but our reforms will only stand the test of time if our system of government here at Westminster meets the challenge of a new era. The steady erosion of faith in politics has poisoned our public life, so we will establish a constitution, democracy and rights commission to recommend proposals to restore trust in our institutions and our democracy. As a first step, we will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 so that never again can we have the ludicrous spectacle of an Opposition party trying to defy the will of a majority of the House and running away from a general election. We will do everything in our power to restore devolved government in Stormont so that Northern Ireland is once again ruled by its own elected representatives.

Ian Paisley

Of course, we all look forward to devolved government being re-established in Northern Ireland fairly and equitably for all. Will the Prime Minister make good on his commitment for a golden age for all of the United Kingdom by making good on his promises for bus building and infrastructure in Northern Ireland so that we can all enjoy that golden age, and will he build a Boris bridge, not just the Boris bus?

The Prime Minister

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, and he can certainly be assured of my commitment to ensuring that the beautiful buses continue to be built in Ballymena. I will do everything we can to ensure that that continues to be the case. As for his desire for a bridge to connect the two biggest isles of the British Isles, all I can say is that it is a very interesting idea. I advise him to watch this space and, indeed, to watch the space between the islands, because what he has said has not fallen on deaf ears.

When it comes to standing by our friends, whether in Northern Ireland or elsewhere, one innovation that this Queen’s Speech introduces is that we will stop public bodies taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries and to develop their own pseudo-foreign policy against countries that, with nauseating frequency, turn out to be Israel.

Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)

Will the Prime Minister give way?

The Prime Minister

No.

The scale of our programme is matched only by the sense of responsibility that now falls on all of us who have been elected. Again, I congratulate all new Members, and a huge responsibility now falls on all of us to redeem and repay the trust of the British people. I say to the people of this country that we owe you, we know it and we will deliver. We have now the energy, the ideas, the mandate and the people and we will spare no effort in fulfilling that mandate. As we engage full tilt now in this mission of change, I am filled with invincible confidence in the ability of this nation, our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to renew itself in this generation as we have done so many times in the past. After the dither, after the delay, after the deadlock and after the paralysis and the platitudes, the time has come for change and the time has come for action, and it is action that the British people will get from this Gracious Speech, this most Gracious Speech. I commend it to the House.

Below is the text of the speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 17 December 2019.

Mr Speaker-Elect, I am sure that the whole House will join me in sending condolences to the families and friends of Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones, who were murdered in the terrorist attack near London Bridge during the election campaign. We pay tribute once again to the emergency services and to members of the public for the bravery they showed.

Mr Speaker-Elect, I congratulate you on your office, and the hon. Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy) who has just spoken. I do not know about you, Mr Speaker-Elect, as you survey the House from your eminence, with the characteristic beam that has brought you such deserved popularity, but I mean no disrespect to those who are no longer with us when I say that I think this Parliament is a vast improvement on its predecessor. Indeed, I would say it is one of the best Parliaments that this country ​has ever produced, with more female Members than ever before and more black and minority ethnic Members than ever before. It is also, incarnated in your person, Mr Speaker-Elect, a vastly more democratic Parliament, because it will not waste the nation’s time in deadlock, division and delay. On Friday, this Parliament will put the withdrawal agreement in the popty ping, as we say in Wales. Then this new democratic Parliament—this people’s Parliament—is going to do something. I wonder, Mr Speaker-Elect, if you can guess what it is. What is this Parliament going to do? We are going to get Brexit done. [Hon. Members: “Get Brexit done.”] Even your parrot would be able to recite that one by now.

We are going to get on with delivering the priorities of the British people—transforming the NHS; investing massively in education and the police; and uniting and levelling up across the whole UK. It is my belief that most hon. Members in this House believe we should resist the calls of those who would break up the United Kingdom. As the Parliament of the United Kingdom, we should politely and respectfully defend that partnership and the Union. I can tell the House that, after three and a half years of wrangling and division, the Government will do whatever we can to reach out across the House to find common ground, to heal the divisions of our country and to find a new and generous spirit in which we conduct all our political dealings with one another that will last beyond the immediate season of Christmas goodwill.

In that spirit, Mr Speaker-Elect, I congratulate you once again on your election and I look forward to the months and years ahead under your guidance.

Below is the text of the statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, outside Downing Street, London, on 13 December 2019.

This morning I went to Buckingham Palace and I am forming a new government and on Monday MPs will arrive at Westminster to form a new parliament and I am proud to say that members of our new one nation government – a people’s government – will set out from constituencies that have never returned a Conservative MP for 100 years and yes they will have an overwhelming mandate, from this election, to get Brexit done, and we will honour that mandate by Jan 31, and so in this moment of national resolution I want to speak directly to those who made it possible and to all those who voted for us, for the first time, all those whose pencils may have wavered over the ballot and who heard the voices of their parents and their grandparents whispering anxiously in their ears.

I say thank you for the trust you have placed in us and in me and we will work round the clock to repay your trust and to deliver on your priorities with a parliament that works for you and then I want to speak also to those who did not vote for us or for me and who wanted and perhaps still want to remain in the EU and I want you to know that we in this one nation conservative government will never ignore your good and positive feelings – of warmth and sympathy towards the other nations of Europe. Because now is the moment – precisely as we leave the EU – to let those natural feelings find renewed expression in building a new partnership, which is one of the great projects for next year, and as we work together with the EU, as friends and sovereign equals, in tackling climate change and terrorism, in building academic and scientific cooperation, redoubling our trading relationship.

I frankly urge everyone on either side of what after three and a half years after all an increasingly arid argument I urge everyone to find closure and to let the healing begin because I believe, in fact I know, because I have heard it loud and clear from every corner of the country that the overwhelming priority of the British people now is that we should focus above all on the NHS that simple and beautiful idea that represents the best of our country with the biggest ever cash boost. 50,000 more nurses, 40 new hospitals as well as providing better schools, safer streets and in the next few weeks and months we will be bringing forward proposals to transform this country, with better infrastructure, better education, better technology and if you ask yourselves what is this new government going to do, what is he going to do with his extraordinary majority.

I will tell you that is what we are going to do we are going to unite and level up – unite and level up bringing together the whole of this incredible United Kingdom. England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland together taking us forward unleashing the potential of the whole country delivering opportunity across the entire nation and since I know that after five weeks frankly of electioneering this country deserves a break from wrangling, a break from politics, and a permanent break from talking about Brexit.

I want everyone to go about their Christmas preparations happy and secure in the knowledge that here in this people’s government the work is now being stepped up to make 2020 a year of prosperity and growth and hope and to deliver a Parliament that works for the people.

Thank you all very much and happy Christmas.

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.

 

Below is the text of the speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, at Downing Street, London on 6 November 2019.

Good afternoon, I’ve just been to see Her Majesty the Queen earlier on and she agreed to dissolve Parliament for an election.

I want you to know of course that I don’t want an early election.

No one much wants to have an election in December.

But we have got to the stage where we have no choice.

Because our parliament is paralyzed.

It has been stuck in a rut for three and a half years.

I am afraid our MPs are just refusing – time and again – to deliver Brexit and honour the mandate of the people.

And I can tell you I’ve got to the stage where I have been wanting to chew my own tie in frustration because in a sense we are so nearly there.

We have got a deal, oven-ready, by which we can leave the EU in just a few weeks.

It is a great deal for this country.

It delivers everything that I wanted when I campaigned for Brexit.

We can not only take back control of our money – and yes, we will be able to spend hundreds of millions every week on our priorities such as the NHS.

We take back control of our borders – with an Australian style points-based system so that we can attract the workers – from scientists to agricultural workers – that our economy actually needs.

And we can take back control of our laws so that we can do things differently and better if we choose.

From freeports to free trade deals.

From banning the cruel live shipment of animals to cutting VAT on sanitary products.

And we can leave the EU as one UK, whole and entire and perfect as we promised.

And so it has been frankly mind-boggling in the last few weeks to see how parliament first voted to approve this deal.

And then voted for delay.

And I am afraid that it is clear that if parliament had its way.

Then this country would not be leaving even on Jan 31.

And that is of course bad for democracy.

It’s disastrous for trust in politics.

Why should MPs decide that they can cancel the result of the referendum?

I am afraid I also think that this delay is now bad for the country and for the economy.

And with every week that goes by uncertainty is deterring people from hiring new staff, from buying new homes, from making new investments.

And if we can get this deal over the line.

With a sensible majority government, we certainly can.

Then we can release that pent-up flood of investment.

Hundreds of billions are waiting to pour into the UK.

And we can inject a surge of confidence into our system and we in this government can get on with delivering on the priorities of the people.

I am very proud of what we have done in the last 108 days or whatever it is, 108 days or so. The biggest programme of NHS investment for a generation.

Lifting up the funding of schools across the country – 40 new hospitals by the way….lifting up funding of schools across the country.

Putting 20,000 more police on the streets.

An infrastructure revolution we’re planning in rail and road – from electric buses to new green cycle schemes.

Gigabit broadband in every home.

And we have the confidence as one nation conservatives to make those investments not despite our belief in a strong private sector.

But precisely because we champion this enterprise economy in the UK.

And when people get up at five am to get their businesses ready.

When they risk their own money or mortgage their own homes to develop a new product or a new venture,

When they have the guts to find a new market at home or abroad.

We don’t sneer at them.

We cheer for them and do what we can to help.

Because we understand that it is only by having a dynamic free market economy that we can deliver on our programme

of uniting this country and levelling up with infrastructure, education and technology.

And it is only if you have great public services that you can have a successful market economy.

So I say come with us. That is the choice at this election.

That’s the choice. Come with us, a government that is putting billions into education – or go with Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, because that’s the only alternative, who actually want to ban OFSTED, that protects kids from bullying.

Come with us, a government that believes in high wages and is raising the living wage to £10.50 – the biggest ever increase.

Or go with a left-wing labour party that believes in high taxes for everyone – and that voted under this government against £7,800 of tax cuts on working people. That’s what they did.

Come with us, and put in a points-based system for immigration.

Or go with Labour and a totally uncontrolled and unlimited immigration system that would put huge pressure on the NHS and other services.

Come with us, a government that believes Britain should stand tall in the world.

Or go with Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party who sided with Putin when Russia ordered poisonings on the streets of Salisbury.

Come with us, get Brexit done, and take this country forward.

This is the alternative next year: spend the whole of 2020 in a horror show of yet more dither and delay.

Imagine waking up on Friday 13th December and finding Corbyn at the head of his technicolour yawn of a coalition.

And they would spend the whole of 2020 having two referendums.

One on Scotland – because he has done a deal with the Scots nationalists to assist the break up of the union if they sustain him in power.

And another referendum on Brexit, which is meant to happen in nine months time after he has renegotiated supposedly our exit and renegotiated this deal.

And what is his plan for that renegotiation? What question would be put to the public?

We don’t know. What are the options? We don’t know.

We don’t even know what side he would take, and we don’t know what would happen if the result was either for remain or for leave.

Best of three? Call it quits?

We don’t know.

What we do know is that in any scenario the dither and the drift and the delay which is increasingly damaging for our country will just continue.

And we do know that there is only one way to avoid that nightmare and that is to vote for a moderate and compassionate one nation conservative government.

And we will make this country the greatest place to live, to raise a family, to start a business, to send your kids to school.

A country where we lead the world in cutting CO2, in tackling climate change, in clean green technology.

Where we stand up for our values around the world.

A country where everybody has the opportunity to make the most of their lives and where we work as a government to give them that opportunity from the moment they are born.

And that is our mission. If I come back here with a working majority in Parliament, then I will get Parliament working again for you.

On Day 1 of the new Parliament in December, we will start getting our deal through so we can Get Brexit Done in January and unleash this country’s potential.

We’ll put uncertainty behind us — families and businesses will be able to plan.

Let’s make 2020 the year of investment and growth, not the year of two referendums.

I want to thank everyone in the building behind me and across government for all the work, the wonderful work they have done over the last three months.

I am going out now to campaign across the whole country for those values and for that programme.

I hope very much that you will support us.

Let’s get Brexit done and unleash the potential of the whole United Kingdom.

Thank you very much.

Below is the text of the speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 19 October 2019.

Mr Speaker, I want to begin by echoing what you’ve just said, my gratitude to all members of the House for assembling on a Saturday for the first time in 37 years and indeed to all members of the House of Commons staff who have worked to make this possible.

I know this has meant people giving up their Saturdays, breaking into their weekends at a time when families want to be together, and of course it means missing at least the end of England’s World Cup quarter final.

I apologies to the House for that and I wish I could watch it myself.

I know the Honourable Member for Cardiff West has postponed his 60th birthday party – if not his 60th birthday – to be here.

So Mr Speaker the House has gone to a great deal of trouble to assemble here on a Saturday for the first time in a generation.

And I do hope for the purposes of a meaningful vote that we will indeed be allowed to have a meaningful vote this evening.

And with permission, Mr Speaker, I shall make a statement on the new agreement with our European friends.

The House will need no reminding that this is the second deal and the fourth vote, three and half years after the nation voted for Brexit.

And during those years, friendships have been strained, families divided and the attention of this House consumed by a single issue that has at times felt incapable of resolution.

But I hope Mr Speaker, that this is the moment when we can finally achieve that resolution and reconcile the instincts that compete within us.

Many times in the last 30 years I have heard our European friends remark that this country is half-hearted in its EU membership and it is true that we in the UK have often been a backmarker opting out of the single currency, not taking part in Schengen, very often trying to block some collective ambition.

And in the last three years and a half years it has been striking that members on all sides of this House have debated Brexit in almost entirely practical terms in an argument that has focused on the balance of economic risk and advantage.

And I don’t think I can recall a time when I have heard a single member stand up and call for Britain to play her full part in the political construction of a federal Europe.

I don’t think I’ve heard a single member call for an ever closer union or ever deeper integration or a federal destiny – mon pays Europe – perhaps I’ve missed it but I don’t think I’ve heard much of it Mr Speaker.

And there is a whole side of that debate that you hear regularly in other European capitals that is simply absent from our national conversation and I don’t think that has changed much in the last 30 years.

But if we have been sceptical, and if we have been anxious about the remoteness of the bureaucracy, if we have been dubious about the rhetoric of union and integration, if we have been half-hearted Europeans,

Then it follows logically that with part of our hearts, with half our hearts, we feel something else, a sense of love and respect for European culture and civilisation of which we are a part; a desire to cooperate with our friends and partners in everything, creatively, artistically, intellectually.

A sense of our shared destiny and a deep understanding of the eternal need – especially after the horrors of the last century – for Britain to stand as one of the guarantors of peace and democracy in our continent.

And it is our continent. And it is precisely because we are capable of feeling both things at once – sceptical about the modes of EU integration as we are but passionate and enthusiastic about Europe – that the whole experience of the last few years has been so difficult for this country and so divisive.

And that is why it is now so urgent for us to move on and build a new relationship with our friends in the EU on the basis of a new deal – a deal that can heal the rift in British politics, unite the warring instincts in us all.

And now is the time for this great House of Commons to come together and bring the country together today as I believe people at home are hoping and expecting, with a new way forward and a new and better deal both for Britain and our friends in the EU, and that is the advantage of the agreement that we have struck with our friends in the last two days.

Because this new deal allows the UK – whole and entire – to leave the EU on October 31st in accordance with the referendum while simultaneously looking forward to a new partnership based on the closest ties of friendship and co-operation.

And I pay tribute to our European friends for escaping the prison of existing positions and showing the vision to be flexible by re-opening the Withdrawal Agreement and thereby addressing the deeply felt concerns of many in this House.

And one of my most important jobs is to express those concerns to our European friends.

I shall continue to listen to all Honourable Members throughout the debate today, to meet with anyone on any side and to welcome the scrutiny the House will bring to bear if – as I hope – we proceed to consider the Withdrawal Agreement Bill next week.

Today this House has an historic opportunity to show the same breadth of vision as our European neighbours.

The same ability and resolve to reach beyond past disagreements by getting Brexit done and moving this country forwards, as we all yearn to do.

This agreement provides for a real Brexit, taking back control of our borders, laws, money, farming, fisheries and trade, amounting to the greatest single restoration of national sovereignty in Parliamentary history.

It removes the backstop which would have held us against our will in the Customs Union and much of the Single Market.

For the first time in almost five decades the UK will be able to strike free trade deals with our friends across the world to benefit the whole country – including Northern Ireland.

Article 4 of the Protocol states: “Northern Ireland is part of the customs territory of the United Kingdom”.

It adds “nothing in this Protocol shall prevent” Northern Ireland from realising the preferential market access in any free trade deals “on the same terms as goods produced in other parts of the United Kingdom.”

Our negotiations have focused on the uniquely sensitive nature of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

And we have respected those sensitivities.

Above all, we and our European friends have preserved the letter and the spirit of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and upheld the long-standing areas of co-operation between the UK and Ireland, including the Common Travel Area.

And as I told the House on 3rd October, in order to prevent a regulatory border on the island of Ireland we proposed a regulatory zone covering all goods, including agrifood, eliminating any need for associated checks along the border.

And Mr Speaker, in this agreement we have gone further by also finding a solution to the vexed question of customs, which many in this House have raised.

Our agreement ensures – and I quote – “unfettered market access for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom’s internal market.”

It ensures that there should be no tariffs on goods circulating within the UK customs territory, that is between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, unless they are at risk of entering the EU.

It ensures an open border on the island of Ireland, a common objective of everyone in this House.

And it ensures that for those living and working alongside the border there will be no visible or practical changes to their lives – they can carry on as before.

I believe this is a good arrangement, reconciling the special circumstances in Northern Ireland with the minimum possible bureaucratic consequences at a few points of arrival into Northern Ireland.

And it is precisely to ensure that those arrangements are acceptable to the people of Northern Ireland that we have made consent a fundamental element of this new deal.

So no arrangements can be imposed on Northern Ireland if they do not work for Northern Ireland.

The people of Northern Ireland will have the right under this agreement to express or withhold their consent to these provisions, by means of a majority vote in their Assembly four years after the end of the transition.

And if the Assembly chooses to withhold consent, these provisions “shall cease to apply” after two years, during which the Joint Committee of the UK and EU would propose a new way forward, in concert with Northern Ireland’s institutions.

And as soon as this House allows the process of extracting ourselves from the EU to be completed, the exciting enterprise of building our new relationship with our friends can begin which has been too long delayed.

And Mr Speaker, I do not wish this to be the project of any one Government or any one party but rather the endeavour of the United Kingdom as a whole.

Only this Parliament can make this new relationship the work of the nation.

And so Parliament should be at the heart of decision-making as we develop our approach.

And I acknowledge that in the past we have not always acted in that spirit.

So as we take forward our friendship with our closest neighbours and construct that new relationship

I will ensure that a broad and open process draws upon the wealth of expertise in every part of this House including select committees and their chairs.

Every party and every Member who wishes to contribute will be invited to do so.

And we shall start by debating the mandate for our negotiators in the next phase.

Mr Speaker, the ambition for our future friendship is contained in the revised Political Declaration which also provides for this House to be free to decide our own laws and regulations.

I have complete faith in this House to choose regulations that are in our best tradition of the highest standards of environmental protections and workers’ rights.

No one anywhere in this chamber believes in lowering standards, instead we believe in improving them as indeed we will be able to do and seizing the opportunities of our new freedoms.

For example, free from the Common Agricultural Policy, we will have a far simpler system where we will reward farmers for improving our environment and animal welfare many of whose provisions are impossible under the current arrangements, instead of just paying them for their acreage.

And free from the Common Fisheries Policy, we can ensure sustainable yields based on the latest science not outdated methods of setting quotas.

And these restored powers will be available not simply to this Government but to every future British Government of any party to use as they see fit.

That is what restoring sovereignty means, that is what is meant in practice by taking back control of our destiny.

And our first decision, on which I believe there will be unanimity is that in any future trade negotiations with any country our National Health Service will not be on the table.

Mr Speaker, I am convinced that an overwhelming majority in this House, regardless of our personal views, wishes to see Brexit delivered in accordance with the referendum. A majority.

And in this crucial mission there can no longer be any argument for further delay.

As someone who passionately believed that we had to go back to our European friends to seek a better agreement,

I must tell the House that with this new deal the scope for fruitful negotiation has run its course.

They said that we couldn’t re-open the Withdrawal Agreement, Mr Speaker, they said we couldn’t change a comma of the Withdrawal Agreement, they said we couldn’t abolish the backstop, Mr Speaker, we’ve done both.

But it is now my judgement that we have reached the best possible solution.

So those who agree, like me that Brexit must be delivered and who – like me – prefer to avoid a no deal outcome, must abandon the delusion that this House can delay again.

And I must tell the House in all candour that there is very little appetite among our friends in the EU for this business to be protracted by one extra day.

They have had three and a half years of this debate.

It has distracted them from their own projects and their own ambitions and if there is one feeling that unites the British public with a growing number of the officials of the EU it is a burning desire to get Brexit done.

and I must tell the House again in all candour that whatever letters they may seek to force the government to write, it cannot change my judgment that further delay is pointless, expensive and deeply corrosive of public trust.

And people simply will not understand how politicians can say with one breath that they want delay to avoid no deal and then with the next breath that they still want delay when a great deal is there to be done.

Now is the time Mr Speaker to get this thing done, and I say to all members let us come together as democrats to end this debilitating feud.

Let us come together as democrats behind this deal, the one proposition that fulfils the verdict of the majority but which also allows us to bring together the two halves of our hearts, to bring together the two halves of our nation.

Let’s speak now both for the 52 and the 48.

Let us go for a deal that can heal this country, let’s go for a deal that can heal this country and allow us all to express our legitimate desires for the deepest possible friendship and partnership with our neighbours

A deal that allows us to create a new shared destiny with them.

And a deal that also allows us to express our confidence in our own democratic institutions, to make our own laws, to determine our own future, to believe in ourselves once again as an open, generous global, outward-looking and free-trading United Kingdom.

That is the prospect that this deal offers our country.

It is a great prospect and a great deal, and I commend it to the House.