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Tag: Boris Johnson

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Joe Biden Calling for Regime Change in Russia

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Joe Biden Calling for Regime Change in Russia

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, at the Liaison Select Committee held on 30 March 2022.

    I understand why Joe Biden said that, and I understand the frustrations that people feel about Putin. To desire a change of Government, in itself, is not an ignoble thing. There are probably plenty of people around this horseshoe—Pete, perhaps—who would like a change in this Government; that is the objective of a lot of democratic politics. But it is literally absolutely clear, it is not the objective of the UK Government. It is very, very important that everybody gets this.

    We are simply setting out to help to protect the people of Ukraine, and to protect them against absolutely barbaric and unreasonable violence. That is what we are doing. There were 141 votes, Tom [Tugendhat], in the UN General Assembly against what Russia had done. That was a fantastic thing. As you know, there was a more recent vote which almost kept the number. You have to keep this simple.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Cabinet Visit to Staffordshire

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Cabinet Visit to Staffordshire

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 12 May 2022.

    I’m delighted to bring Cabinet to Stoke-on-Trent today – a city which is the beating heart of the ceramics industry and an example of the high skilled jobs that investment can bring to communities.

    This government is getting on with delivering the people’s priorities and tackling the issues that matter most to the public.

    This week we’ve set out how we’ll use new landmark legislation to grow our economy to address the cost of living, and level up opportunities for communities across the country.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Supporting Sweden and Finland

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Supporting Sweden and Finland

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 11 May 2022.

    We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.

    These are not a short term stop gap, but a long term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Loyal Address Speech

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Loyal Address Speech

    The speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 10 May 2022.

    Mr Speaker, allow me to join you and Members across this House in thanking His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for delivering the Gracious Speech and in sending our warmest wishes to Her Majesty the Queen. The whole House knows the reluctance with which Her Majesty made today’s decision, and her extraordinary service to this nation continues to inspire us all.

    As we come to the halfway point of this Parliament, this country has seen off the biggest challenge that any post-war Government have faced, but the cost of the pandemic has been huge, with the biggest fall in output for 300 years, which necessitated Government expenditure of £400 billion. The aftershocks are still being felt across the world, with a global spike in energy prices and the impact that we are seeing on the cost of food. It is precisely because this Government got the big calls right and made the tough decisions during the pandemic that we had the fastest economic growth in the G7 last year—and will return to that status, by the way, by 2024—and therefore have the fiscal firepower to help families up and down the country with all the pressures that they face now.

    We will continue to use all our ingenuity and compassion for as long as it takes—my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and I will be saying more about this in the days to come —but at the same time as we help people, we need the legislative firepower to fix the underlying problems in energy supply, in housing, in infrastructure and in skills, which are driving up costs for families across the country. This Queen’s Speech takes those issues head on.

    Above all, we are tackling the economic challenges with the best solution of all, and that is an ever-growing number of high-wage, high-skill jobs, Mr Speaker. Jobs, jobs, jobs! We drive up employment by creating the right platform for business to invest; making our streets safer, with 20,000 more police; creating a healthier population, with 50,000 more nurses; funding the NHS to help it to clear the covid backlogs; giving the confidence that people know that they will be looked after in old age, by fixing social care; delivering gigabit broadband, giving the remotest parts of the country the access that they need; and using our Brexit freedoms to enable revolutionary technologies like gene editing to help our farmers to grow more nutritious and more productive crops.

    It is that combination of public and private sector together that is tackling unemployment, with half a million more people on the payroll now than before the pandemic began, and it is that strength at home that enables this country to show leadership abroad, as we have done and will continue to do in supporting the people of Ukraine. So this Queen’s Speech delivers on our promises: it will not only take us through the aftershocks of covid, but build the foundations for decades of prosperity, uniting and levelling up across the country.

    Mr Speaker, allow me to join the Leader of the Opposition in paying tribute to those colleagues we lost in the last parliamentary Session. Time will not dim our shock at the despicable murder of Sir David Amess, a friend to so many, who lost his life giving the service he loved most: a constituency surgery in a local church. Among the many legacies of Sir David, which include his amazing work on animal welfare and his campaign to support women with endometriosis, I am proud to say that today Southend-on-Sea stands as a city in tribute to him.

    Yesterday we gathered at St Margaret’s Church to remember James Brokenshire, a true gentleman who faced his battle with cancer with enormous courage, generosity and strength of character. It was typical of our dear friend that even in the midst of his own battle, he was supporting and encouraging others to seek help, campaigning for better lung cancer screening and becoming the first MP to secure a debate on the issue on the Floor of this House. We willed him to pull through because the world needs more people in public life like him. His loss is felt deeply in all parts of the House, and by all those whose lives he touched.

    Finally, we began the year joining the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) in paying tribute to her wonderful husband Jack Dromey, one of the great trade unionists of our time, who, having married someone who would go on to become, in his words, the “outstanding parliamentary feminist of her generation”, will also be forever remembered, in his words, as Mr Harriet Harman, né Dromey. We all knew him as a man of great warmth, energy and compassion, and he commanded the utmost respect across the House.

    The response to the Gracious Speech was magnificently proposed—self-deprecatingly, I thought—by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart), whose campaigning brilliance I saw at first hand, as he pointed out, when, as Back Benchers almost 20 years ago, he and I organised a demonstration against Labour’s plan to close community hospitals. The campaign group was called CHANT—Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together. His memory of it is much more glorious than mine; I remember only a tiny handful of desperadoes. We were stopped almost immediately by the police, who turned us back, but my hon. Friend none the less succeeded in forcing the Government—the then Labour Government, I should stress—to perform a U-turn on the funding for community hospitals. As a great pace bowler—or a medium-pace bowler, it is probably fair to say these days—he bowled them middle stump. It is fitting that today he has proposed the response to the Gracious Speech for a Government who are delivering the biggest NHS catch-up programme in history, and who, far from closing hospitals, are building new hospitals—48 of them, in fact—so that we have the best health service in the world.

    I know, by the way, that my hon. Friend has personal experience of healthcare in a less fortunate country. He was lying in bed with a fractured rib after a skiing accident in Chamonix when three men in white coats arrived claiming that they were there to perform the operation. On closer inspection, they turned out to be my right hon. Friends the Members for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) and for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) and my noble Friend Lord Lancaster. At that point, it is said, my hon. Friend levitated miraculously from his bed and made his escape. His speech today was in the finest traditions of this House.

    I was delighted that the motion was seconded by my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnorshire (Fay Jones). Some more seasoned Members will recall the 14 years of service rendered to the people of Cardiff, North by her father, Gwilym, who joins us in the Gallery today. I am delighted to see him there, and I am sure he will be filled with admiration at the speech just delivered by his daughter. I know that my hon. Friend sadly lost her mother earlier this year, and I have no doubt that she too will be simply bursting with pride as she looks down on us today, because while my hon. Friend may have been an MP for only a few short years, she has already established herself as a fantastic campaigner. As she said herself, that included changing the law to ban cyber-flashing, saving Brecon barracks, and—with 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards—securing the return of a permanent Welsh regiment in Wales. Nor was she prepared to remain silent while the Leader of the Opposition’s colleagues in Cardiff tried to keep Wales in perpetual lockdown. She is a tireless advocate for Welsh veterans and the armed services generally, an issue that is personal as well as political for her.

    As a fellow enthusiast for dogs at polling stations, I was delighted to see my hon. Friend take Nancy the Labrador to the polling station on Thursday. Nancy is, of course, named in honour of Nancy Astor, a great Conservative woman who certainly left a mark on this place and this country, and whose influence and achievements I am sure my hon. Friend will emulate in the long and successful career that so clearly awaits her. It was a pleasure to hear from her today, and I thank her for seconding the motion.

    On Sunday, I spoke to my G7 counterparts, together with President Zelensky, urging our international partners to join us in going further and faster in supporting Ukraine. I am sure the whole House will share my sorrow and revulsion at events in Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which has endured weeks of merciless Russian bombardment and some of the worst atrocities of the war. At the same time, I am pleased to report that our brave Ukrainian friends are succeeding in repelling the Russian assault on Kharkiv, defending their second city with the same fortitude that saw off Putin’s attack on their capital. We should be proud that, when the very survival of a great European democracy was in peril, our United Kingdom has led the way, providing Ukraine with the weapons to defend itself and helping the world to impose the toughest economic sanctions on Putin. As I walked through the streets of Kyiv last month, I saw at first hand what the wholehearted support of this House and this country has meant to the brave people of Ukraine, so let the message ring out from this Chamber today: we will persevere in our support for the Ukrainians until Putin has failed and Ukraine has won.

    During the pandemic, this Government worked night and day at extraordinary speed to protect lives and livelihoods across our whole United Kingdom, whether by injecting £400 billion of direct support to the economy and supporting jobs through our world-leading furlough scheme, by becoming the first country in the world to administer and approve covid vaccines, or by delivering the largest testing programme and the fastest vaccine booster campaign in Europe. All this allowed us to retain one of the most open economies and societies across the continent—which we would not have done, by the way, if we had listened to the advice of the Labour party—with the fastest growth in the G7 last year.

    Now we will bring that same urgency, impatience and determination to deliver on our mission of getting our country back on track and easing the burdens on families and businesses across the land. That is why we have already committed £9.1 billion to assist with energy costs alone. We are giving back £150 to people in their council tax, cutting fuel duty, increasing the warm home discount, creating a tax cut for 30 million workers by raising the national insurance threshold and delivering the biggest ever increase in the national living wage, worth an extra £1,000 a year to those working full time. But however great our compassion and ingenuity, we cannot simply spend our way out of this problem; we need to grow out of the problem by creating hundreds of thousands of new high-wage, high-skilled jobs across the country.

    Sarah Owen (Luton North) (Lab)

    Will the Prime Minister give way?

    The Prime Minister

    As I give way to the hon. Lady, I remind the House that there has never been a Labour Government who left office with unemployment lower than when they came in.

    Mr Speaker

    It is not normal to give way in these speeches, but obviously the Prime Minister has agreed to do so.

    Sarah Owen

    I thank the Prime Minister for giving way. We have heard a lot of words being very rapidly delivered, but what we have not heard yet is an apology to the pensioners who are choosing between heating and eating, an apology to the children who have gone hungry throughout the school holidays and an apology to the hundreds of thousands of family members of covid victims who were lost during the pandemic.

    The Prime Minister

    Of course this Government are doing all we can to help people during the pandemic and to help pensioners, and by the way it was this Government who introduced the triple lock for pensioners, to protect them. This Government help people with the cost of heating, with the £9.1 billion that we are putting in, with the holiday activities and food programme and with the extra billions that we are putting in to support local councils. But be in no doubt—this is what everybody in this country needs to understand: we are making sure that we have a strong economy with high-wage, high-skilled jobs that will enable us to take this country forward. That would simply not have been possible if the hon. Lady had listened to the advice of those on her Front Bench, who wanted to keep us in lockdown—[Interruption.] That is absolutely true. It was worth giving way just to make that point. That is why we are going to continue with our levelling-up and regeneration Bill, which will help—

    Mr Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab) rose—

    The Prime Minister

    No, no; sit down. The Bill will help to create jobs wherever people live, in communities across the whole United Kingdom. That is the objective of this Queen’s Speech. It is all focused on driving growth and jobs, and our schools and higher education Bills will ensure that people have the skills to do them, raising standards in our classrooms and implementing the lifetime skills guarantee so that people can retrain and acquire new qualifications at any stage of their lives.

    Our energy Bill will power our new green industrial revolution, creating hundreds of thousands—

    Mr Perkins

    Will the Prime Minister give way?

    The Prime Minister

    No. The energy Bill will create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs, taking forward this Government’s energy security strategy—it is about time this country had one—with £22 billion—[Interruption.] Labour did not want a single nuclear power station. Come on, be honest. Look at them, the great quivering jellies of indecision that they are. Our £22 billion UK Infrastructure Bank is supporting the transition to net zero and vast new green industries, in which our United Kingdom will again lead the world.

    Just as we got Brexit done, so with this Queen’s Speech we finish the job of unleashing the benefits of Brexit to grow our economy and cut the cost of living. By bringing urgency and ambition to how we exercise the freedoms we have regained, our Brexit freedoms Bill will enable us to amend or replace any inherited EU law with legislation in UK law that puts the interests of British business and British families first. That is what we are going to do.

    We will seize the chance to make our United Kingdom the best-regulated economy in the world. We are going to take forward the trade deals we have with 70 different countries worth over £800 billion a year, with specific legislation in this Queen’s Speech—I hope I am not speaking too fast for the hon. Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen)—for our new free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand.

    We are using our new freedoms to control our borders, with a new plan for immigration so that we can fix our broken asylum system, tackle the illegal immigration that undermines the legal immigration that we support and crack down on the vile people smugglers. I know that the Leader of the Opposition—perhaps I should, in deference to his phrase, refer to him as the Leader of the Opposition of the moment—likes to claim he opposes these plans, but it turns out that legislation to permit the offshoring of asylum seekers—

    Mr Perkins

    Will the Prime Minister give way?

    Mr Speaker

    Order. Only one person can be on their feet at the same time. The Prime Minister is not giving way.

    The Prime Minister

    The Leader of the Opposition of the moment purports or claims to oppose the plans, but it turns out that they were actually pioneered in 2004 by a Labour Government. The right hon. and learned Gentleman may have got Tony Blair to take part in his election campaign, but it is a shame he cannot get behind Tony Blair’s policies.

    During the pandemic, we marvelled at the courage and commitment of so many people: all the people working in our public services, from the extraordinary men and women in our NHS, risking their lives to save others, to those toiling to keep our country going, whether in schools or shops, or on public transport. It is therefore right that this Government are now investing more in our NHS than any other Government in history, giving our NHS the funding it needs to help to clear the covid backlogs. We will also make sure that every penny is well spent. Whether through pop-up clinics in our communities, more face-to-face GP appointments, or new cancer screening machines, we maximise the ability of our NHS to check and treat its patients.

    But when times are tough and families are facing such pressures, we must also cut the cost of government and cut the burdens that the Government place on taxpayers and citizens. We cannot have expensive delays in delivering passports and driving licences that see families stranded and unable to go on holiday and HGV drivers unable to transport goods around this country in the way that is so integral to the economy we need. We are going to fix that.

    Let me send a clear message from this House today: this Government will tackle the post-covid “mañana” culture. We will take whatever steps are necessary to deliver for the British people, because the British people are not prepared to wait, and we share their impatience.

    We will get through the aftershocks of covid, just as we got through covid, as I have told you, Mr Speaker, with every ounce of ingenuity, compassion and hard work. We will do so not by irresponsible spending that merely treats the symptoms of rising prices while creating an ever-bigger problem for tomorrow, but by urgently pressing on with our mission to create the high-wage, high-skilled jobs that will drive economic growth across the United Kingdom—the whole United Kingdom. That is the long-term, sustainable solution to ease the burden on families and businesses. That is the way to get our country back on track after the pandemic, to unite and to level up across our whole country, exactly as we promised. That is what this Queen’s Speech delivers. I commend it to the House.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Speech at the Ukrainian Embassy in London

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Speech at the Ukrainian Embassy in London

    The speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, at the Ukrainian Embassy in London on 5 May 2022.

    Thank you very much, what an honour to speak after my friend Volodymyr Zelenskyy, truly one of the most incredible leaders of modern times.

    What a blessing for Ukraine and for the world, and what a disaster for Putin that he should now be leading Ukraine in Kyiv.

    It is almost exactly 80 years ago, 1942, that the BBC first broadcast Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony to the world. This was played by a half-starving orchestra during the siege of Leningrad, while it was being pounded by the Nazis, and that symphony became a symbol of resistance to fascism, and the power of the human spirit.

    I do not know whether Vladimir Putin is a Shostakovich buff or not, but is it not a tragic irony that a Russian leader, himself from Leningrad, should now be laying waste to cities in Ukraine as Volodymyr has just described.

    Starving civilians, bombarding their homes, driving them underground, forcing families to huddle together in cellars, or as we have seen, in that giant steel plant in Mariupol.

    But no matter what Putin tries to do to Ukraine’s people, what the exhibition that we are opening tonight shows, is that he will never break their spirit. He will never overcome those indomitable armed forces, who have already repelled the Russian army from the gates of Kyiv, and therefore achieved the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century.

    That is why I’m more certain than ever that Ukraine will win. Ukraine will be free, and a sovereign Ukraine will rise again.

    And it’s because this struggle is so clear cut, and without any moral ambiguity that I can see, a struggle between freedom and oppression, between democracy and tyranny, independence and imperialism, light and darkness, good and evil, that is why I think it speaks so deeply to us.

    That is why here in the UK, you can see blue and yellow flags flying everywhere, from town halls and church spires and front gardens and children’s playgrounds, and we in the United Kingdom, of every political party, all backgrounds, we are proud to be friends of Ukraine.

    When Russian troops were massing on the frontiers of Ukraine in January, we were among the first European countries to send anti-tank missiles. I want you to know, and I told Volodymyr this earlier on today in our conversation, we will continue to intensify this effort for as long as Ukraine wants and needs our help.

    And it is precisely because the Ukrainian people refused to surrender and precisely because they resisted so heroically that their suffering today is so severe.

    Putin has driven at least one Ukrainian in every four from their homes, including two thirds of all Ukrainian children.

    And just as we must help Ukraine to defend herself against aggression, so we must also do everything we can ease the terrible burden of suffering imposed on an innocent people.

    Let me conclude by saying: take part in today’s charity auction. Whether you are bidding for Volodymyr’s fleece – a snip at £50,000, I want much higher bids than that, or you are bidding for a tour of Kyiv with Mayor Klitschko, I have had a tour of Kyiv with Mayor Klitschko, it’s a beautiful city. Well worth it, dig deep.

    Support Ukraine tonight my friends so that that great ancient European capital Kyiv can never be threatened again, and that Ukraine can be whole and free once more.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Links Between UK and Japan

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Comments on Links Between UK and Japan

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 5 May 2022.

    As two great island democracies, and the third and fifth largest economies in the world, the UK and Japan are focussed on driving growth, creating highly skilled jobs and ensuring we remain technology superpowers.

    The visit of Prime Minister Kishida will accelerate our close defence relationship and build on our trade partnership to boost major infrastructure projects across the country – supporting our levelling up agenda.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Speech to the Ukrainian Parliament

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Speech to the Ukrainian Parliament

    The speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, to the Ukrainian Parliament on 3 May 2022.

    President Zelenskyy, Mr Chairman, members of the Verkhovna Rada.

    It is a big honour for me to address you at this crucial moment in history and I salute the courage with which you are meeting, the way you have continued to meet, in spite of a barbaric onslaught on your freedoms.

    Day after day missiles and bombs continue to rain on the innocent people of Ukraine.

    In the south and the east of your wonderful country, Putin continues with his grotesque and illegal campaign to take and hold Ukrainian soil.

    And his soldiers no longer have the excuse of not knowing what they are doing.

    They are committing war crimes, and their atrocities emerge wherever they are forced to retreat – as we’ve seen at Bucha, at Irpin at Hostomel and many other places.

    We in the UK will do whatever we can to hold them to account for these war crimes and in this moment of uncertainty, of continuing fear and doubt I have one message for you today:

    Ukraine will win.

    Ukraine will be free.

    And I tell you why I believe you will succeed, members of the Rada.

    When they came to me last year, and they said that the evidence was now overwhelming that Putin was planning an invasion and we could see his Battalion Tactical Groups – well over 100 of them – gathering on the border I also, I remember a sense of horror but also of puzzlement.

    Because I had been to Kyiv on previous visits – and I actually met some of you and I had stood in the Maidan and seen the tributes to those who had given their lives to protect Ukraine against Russian aggression and I’ve wandered the lovely streets of your capital and I’ve seen enough about Ukrainian freedom to know that the Kremlin was making a fundamental miscalculation, a terrible mistake and I told anyone I knew, anyone who would listen that Ukraine would fight and Ukraine would be right and yet there were some who believed the Kremlin propaganda that Russian armour would be like an irresistible force going like a knife through butter, and that Kyiv would fall within days

    Do you remember they said that? And people rang Volodymyr and offered him safe passage out of the country, and he said – no thanks and that this Rada of yours would have to be reformed outside Ukraine maybe in Poland or even in London perhaps and I refused to believe it.

    And today you have proved them completely wrong, every one of those military experts who said Ukraine would fall.

    Your farmers kidnapped Russian tanks with their tractors.

    Your pensioners told Russian soldiers to hop as we say, although they may have used more colourful language.

    Even in the parts of Ukraine that were temporarily captured, your populations, your indomitable populations turned out to protest, day after day.

    And though your soldiers were always outnumbered – three to one it is now – they fought with the energy and courage of lions.

    You have beaten them back from Kyiv.

    You have exploded the myth of Putin’s invincibility and you have written one of the most glorious chapters in military history and in the life of your country.

    The so-called irresistible force of Putin’s war machine has broken on the immovable object of Ukrainian patriotism and love of country

    This is Ukraine’s finest hour, that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.

    Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free.

    They will say that Ukrainians proved by their tenacity and sacrifice that tanks and guns cannot suppress a nation fighting for its independence, and that is why I believe that Ukraine will win

    You have proved the old saying – it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog – which is an old English saying, I’m not sure how well that translates in Ukrainian but you get what I’m trying to say.

    And as you turned the Russian army back from the gates of Kyiv, you not only accomplished the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century, you achieved something deeper and perhaps equally significant.

    You exposed Putin’s historic folly, the gigantic error that only an autocrat can make.

    Because when a leader rules by fear, rigs elections, jails critics, gags the media, and listens just to sycophants, when there is no limit on his power = that is when he makes catastrophic mistakes.

    And it is precisely because we understand this danger in Britain and in Ukraine – precisely because we are democracies, and because we have a free media, the rule of law, free elections and robust parliaments, such as your own, we know that these are the best protections against the perils of arbitrary power.

    When an autocrat deliberately destroys these institutions,he might look as though he is strong and some people might even believe it, but he is sowing the seeds of catastrophe, for himself and for his country, because there will be nothing to prevent him committing another terrible mistake Putin’s mistake was to invade Ukraine, and the carcasses of Russian armour littering your fields and streets are monuments not only to his folly, but to the dangers of autocracy itself.

    What he has done is an advertisement for democracy.

    On a day when Putin thought he would be in charge of Kyiv, I had the honour of being able to visit your wonderful city, and I saw the defiance of the people of Ukraine,

    I know so much about the terrible price that Ukrainians have paid and are paying for your heroism.

    Today, at least one Ukrainian in every four has been driven from their homes, and it is a horrifying fact that two thirds of all Ukrainian children are now refugees, whether inside the country or elsewhere.

    So no outsider like me can speak lightly about how the conflict could be settled, if only Ukraine would relinquish this or that piece or territory or we find some compromise for Vladimir Putin.

    We know what happens to the people left in the in clutches of this invader.

    And we who are your friends must be humble about what happened in in 2014, because Ukraine was invaded before for the first time, when Crimea was taken from Ukraine and the war in the Donbas began.

    The truth is that we were too slow to grasp what was really happening and we collectively failed to impose the sanctions then that we should have put on Vladimir Putin.

    We cannot make the same mistake again.

    And it is precisely because of your valour your courage your sacrifice that Ukrainians now control your own destiny: you are the masters of your fate, and no-one can or should impose anything on Ukrainians.

    We in the UK will be guided by you and we are proud to be your friends,

    I am proud to say our Ambassador, Melinda Simmons, is back in Kyiv to reopen our embassy.

    In January of course– just before Putin launched his onslaught – we sent you planeloads of anti-tank missiles, the NLAWS which I think have become popular in Kyiv, and we have intensified that vital effort, working with dozens of countries, helping to coordinate this ever- bigger supply line, dispatching thousands of weapons of many kinds, including tanks now and armoured vehicles.

    In the coming weeks, we in the UK will send you Brimstone anti-ship missiles and Stormer anti-aircraft systems.

    We are providing armoured vehicles to evacuate civilians from areas under attack and protect officials – what Volodymyr mentioned to me in our most recent call – while they maintain critical infrastructure.

    And I can announce today from the UK government a new package of support totalling £300 million, including radars to pinpoint the artillery bombarding your cities, heavy lift drones to supply your forces, and thousands of night vision devices.

    We will carry on supplying Ukraine, alongside your other friends, with weapons, funding and humanitarian aid, until we have achieved our long-term goal, which must be so to fortify Ukraine that no-one will ever dare to attack you again.

    Here in the UK, in my country, you will see Ukrainian flags flying from church spires and in shop windows.

    You see Ukrainian ribbons on the lapels of people up and down the country.

    There are many reasons your country has evoked such astonishing sympathy in the British people.

    It is a conflict that has no moral ambiguities or no grey areas.

    This is about the right of Ukrainians to protect themselves against Putin’s violent and murderous aggression.

    It is about Ukraine’s right to independence and national self-determination, against Putin’s deranged imperialist revanchism.

    It is about Ukrainian democracy against Putin’s tyranny.

    It is about freedom versus oppression.

    It is about right versus wrong.

    It is about good versus evil and that is why Ukraine must win and when we look at the heroism of the Ukrainian people and the bravery of your leader Volodomyr Zelenskyy – we know that Ukraine will win and we in the UK will do everything we can to restore a free sovereign and independent Ukraine.

    Thank you all very much for listening to me today, and slava Ukraini!

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Statement Made in India

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Statement Made in India

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in India on 22 April 2022.

    Good afternoon, before turning to the topic of visit we have had, the fantastic visit we’ve had here in India, I just want to say something about the latest situation in Ukraine.

    Because I know everyone is deeply concerned about events, the barbarism we have seen, that barbarism by Vladimir Putin in the Donbas region, and in particular his brutal offensive against Mariupol, which is why yesterday I announced we would be sending more artillery and doing everything possible to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves those areas.

    And at the same time, the extraordinary fortitude and success of President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people in resisting Russian forces in Kyiv, means that I can today announce shortly, next week, we will re-open our embassy in Ukraine’s capital city.

    I want to pay tribute to those British diplomats who remained elsewhere in the region throughout this period.

    The United Kingdom and our allies will not watch passively as Putin caries on this onslaught.

    And what I think we’ve seen here in New Delhi is one of the world’s oldest democracies, and the largest democracy, sticking together. And confronting our shared anxieties about autocracies and autocratic coercion around the world and acting together to make our countries safer and more prosperous.

    Our new and expanded Defence and Security Partnership will enable India to strengthen its own domestic defence industry as well as protecting vital shared interests in the Indo-Pacific.

    Our collaboration on energy security – including our new offer on offshore wind, the new UK-India Hydrogen Science and Innovation Hub and our joint work on solar power – will help to reduce our collective dependence on imported hydrocarbons in favour of cheaper, more sustainable home-grown renewables.

    And our Global Innovation Partnership will help transfer climate and energy-smart innovations to developing countries across the wider Indo-Pacific.

    As we deepen the partnership between our countries, we won’t just make our people safer, we’ll make them more prosperous too, creating new jobs, driving up wages, and driving down prices for consumers, all of which will helps with the cost of living.

    And our partnership with India is particularly powerful in achieving these things because India is an incredible rising power in Asia, with one of the fastest growing economies in the world – already worth £2.25 trillion – and set to be the world’s third largest economy by 2050.

    India is also our biggest partner in the Indo-Pacific, which is increasingly the geopolitical centre of the world, with two-thirds of humanity, and a third of the global economy – and that share is rising every year.

    Indian investment already supports almost half a million British jobs, and with a population bigger than the US and the EU combined, there is so much potential for us to take our trade and investment to a whole new level.

    On this visit alone we’ve secured new deals worth £1 billion, creating more than 11,000 jobs.

    And perhaps most significantly of all, we’re using our Brexit freedoms to reach a bi-lateral Free Trade Agreement, and today Prime Minister Modi and I told our negotiators to get it done by Diwali in October.

    This could double our trade and investment by the end of the decade, driving down prices for consumers, and increasing wages across the UK by as much as £3 billion.

    So what we have been getting on with here is getting on with the job of delivering on the priorities of the British people, deepening a friendship with a nation with whom we have profound ties of culture, language and kinship, while making both our countries safer and our economies stronger.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Press Conference in India

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Press Conference in India

    The text of the press conference held by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in India on 22 April 2022.

    My friend, Prime Minister Modi, Narendra, my khaas dost – is the phrase I wanted in Hindi

    We’ve had a fantastic two days in India

    And yesterday I became the first Conservative British Prime Minister to visit Gujarat, your birthplace of course, Narendra,

    but, as you just said, the ancestral home of around half of all British Indians.

    And I had an amazing reception – absolutely amazing– I felt like Sachin Tendulkar – my face was about as ubiquitous everywhere as Amitabh Bachchan.

    I was everywhere to be seen and it was fantastic.

    And this morning we’ve had wonderful talks and I think that they have strengthened our relationship in every way.

    In challenging times it is very important that we – the khaas dost – get closer together and I believe the partnership between Britain and India – one the oldest democracies – Britain is one of the oldest and India certainly the largest democracy is one of the defining friendships of our times.

    What we’re doing is taking forward an ambitious ten-year roadmap for British-Indian relations, that we agreed last year.

    It was great to see you at the G7.

    But since then, the threats of autocratic coercion have grown even further and it’s therefore vital that we deepen our co-operation,

    including our shared interest in keeping the Indo-Pacific open and free.

    So today we’ve agreed a new and expanded Defence and Security Partnership, a decades-long commitment that will not only forge tighter bonds between us, but support your goal, Narendra of “Make in India”.

    The UK is creating an India-specific Open General Export License, reducing bureaucracy and slashing delivering times for defence procurement.

    We’ve agreed to work together to meet new threats across land, sea, air, space and cyber, including partnering on new fighter jet technology, maritime technologies to detect and respond to threats in the oceans.

    We’re extending our partnership as science superpowers,

    And building on the collaboration between Oxford/Astra-Zeneca and the Serum Institute, which vaccinated more than a billion people against Covid, – including me – I have the Indian jab in my arm and the power of good it did me so thanks to India

    And that has helped India to become what Narendra has called the pharmacy to the world.

    Today we are embarking on joint initiatives on malaria vaccines,

    On antimicrobial resistance, and a digital partnership between the Indian National Health Authority and our NHS.

    We’re also taking big steps together on energy security, helping each other to reduce our dependence on imported hydrocarbons – and adopt cheaper, more sustainable home-grown alternatives.

    We have a new offer, a new plan to develop offshore wind from the Celtic Sea to Dhanushkodi we’ve got a new UK-India Hydrogen Science and Innovation Hub, and we’re taking forward the green grids solar power initiative that you and I began, Narendra, at COP26 in Glasgow, together with 80 other countries.

    It’s an incredible fact that the sun provides enough energy every day to power the world ten thousand times over, you have a lot of solar power here in India – the sun putting in a fantastic performance today and we have quite a lot in Britain as well.

    These partnerships form the superstructure of the Living Bridge that Narendra describes between our countries, and today that bridge is humming with goods and services and people and capital, whizzing back and forth east to west and sometimes it can be hard to tell whether something is British, or Indian or frankly Brindian.

    On Wednesday I went to the airport in a Range Rover – Indian-owned, but made in Britain.

    And when I arrived here on Thursday, I visited JCB,

    British-owned, but made in India. Exporting 60,000 every year around the word, 110 countries.

    Or take the example of the Norton Motorbike now being revived in Britain by an Indian company.

    I’m very pleased that this visit has not only deepened our economic partnership.

    We’ve agreed new deals worth £1 billion,

    and created more than 11,000 new jobs across the UK, in everything from electric buses to the robotic surgery of Smith and Nephew which I saw yesterday as well as in artificial intelligence, where India’s strengths are remarkable.

    And perhaps most significantly for the long term, we are making full use of the freedom that we now have to reach a Free Trade Agreement, a deal where you can lift those tariffs – you can, India, Narendra, on our machinery and apples – actually you’ve already done it on apples so thank you for the apples and we in turn, we can lift the tariffs on your rice and textiles.

    We’ve already closed four chapters, and today we’re announcing new measures to make it easier to export UK-made medical devices to India and ensure mutual recognition of UK higher education qualifications.

    And as the next round of talks begins here next week, we are telling our negotiators: get it done by Diwali in October. Get it done by Diwali.

    This could double our trade and investment by the end of the decade widening that living bridge into a multi-lane motorway – pulivating with beautiful jointly made electric vehicles and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in both our countries.

    So as India celebrates its 75th year of independence,

    I am filled with optimism about the years ahead and the depth of the friendship between our countries, and the security and prosperity that our partnership can deliver for our people for generations to come.

  • Boris Johnson – Personal Statement in the House of Commons

    Boris Johnson – Personal Statement in the House of Commons

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 19 April 2022.

    With permission, Mr Speaker, I will update the House on the Government’s response to events at home and abroad during the Easter recess.

    I will come to Ukraine in a moment, since I have just left a virtual meeting with President Biden, President Macron, Chancellor Scholz and eight other world leaders, but let me begin in all humility by saying that on 12 April, I received a fixed penalty notice relating to an event in Downing Street on 19 June 2020. I paid the fine immediately and I offered the British people a full apology, and I take this opportunity, on the first available sitting day, to repeat my wholehearted apology to the House. As soon as I received the notice, I acknowledged the hurt and the anger, and I said that people had a right to expect better of their Prime Minister, and I repeat that again in the House now.

    Let me also say—not by way of mitigation or excuse, but purely because it explains my previous words in this House—that it did not occur to me, then or subsequently, that a gathering in the Cabinet Room just before a vital meeting on covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules. I repeat: that was my mistake and I apologise for it unreservedly. I respect the outcome of the police’s investigation, which is still under way. I can only say that I will respect their decision making and always take the appropriate steps. As the House will know, I have already taken significant steps to change the way things work in No. 10.

    It is precisely because I know that so many people are angry and disappointed that I feel an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people and to respond in the best traditions of our country to Putin’s barbaric onslaught against Ukraine. Our Ukrainian friends are fighting for the life of their nation, and they achieved the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century by repelling the Russian assault on Kyiv. The whole House will share my admiration for their heroism and courage.

    Putin arrogantly assumed that he would capture Kyiv in a matter of days, and now the blackened carcases of his tanks and heavy armour litter the approaches to the capital on both banks of the Dnieper and are smouldering monuments to his failure. Having pulverised the invader’s armoured spearheads, the Ukrainians then counter-attacked. By 6 April, Putin had been compelled to withdraw his forces from the entire Kyiv region. Britain and our allies supplied some of the weaponry, but it was Ukrainian valour and sacrifice that saved their capital.

    I travelled to Kyiv myself on 9 April—the first G7 leader to visit since the invasion—and I spent four hours with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the indomitable leader of a nation fighting for survival, who gives the roar of a lion-hearted people. I assured him of the implacable resolve of the United Kingdom, shared across this House, to join with our allies and give his brave people the weapons that they need to defend themselves. When the President and I went for an impromptu walk through central Kyiv, we happened upon a man who immediately expressed his love for Britain and the British people. He was generous enough to say—quite unprompted, I should reassure the House—“I will tell my children and grandchildren they must always remember that Britain helped us.”

    But the urgency is even greater now because Putin has regrouped his forces and launched a new offensive in the Donbas. We knew that this danger would come. When I welcomed President Duda of Poland to Downing Street on 7 April and Chancellor Scholz the following day, we discussed exactly how we could provide the arms that Ukraine would desperately need to counter Putin’s next onslaught. On 12 April, I spoke to President Biden to brief him on my visit to Kyiv and how we will intensify our support for President Zelensky. I proposed that our long-term goal must be to strengthen and fortify Ukraine to the point where Russia will never dare to invade again.

    Just as our foreign policy must look to the long term, the same is true of this Government’s domestic priorities. As we face the economic aftershocks of covid and the consequences of Russian aggression, that is above all about tackling the impact on British energy prices, on consumers and on family bills. That is why we are spending over £9 billion to help families struggling with their bills and we are helping families to insulate their homes and reduce costs. To end our dependence on Putin’s oil and gas and to ensure that energy is cheaper in the long term, we published on 7 April a new strategy to make British energy greener, more affordable and more secure. We will massively expand offshore wind and—in the country that split the atom—we will build a new reactor not every decade, but every year.

    This Government are joining with our allies to face down Putin’s aggression abroad while addressing the toughest problems at home, helping millions of families with the cost of living, making our streets safer and funding the NHS to clear the covid backlog. My job is to work every day to make the British people safer, more secure and more prosperous, and that is what I will continue to do. I commend this statement to the House.