Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech on returning to Downing St
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Good afternoon I have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen
who has invited me to form a government and I have accepted
I pay tribute to the fortitude and patience of my predecessor
and her deep sense of public service but in
spite of all her efforts it has become clear that there are
pessimists at home and abroad who think that after three
years of indecision that this country has...Request free trial
Good afternoon
I have just been to see Her Majesty the
Queen who has invited me to form a government and I have
accepted
I pay tribute to the fortitude and patience
of my predecessor
and her deep sense of public
service
but in spite of all her efforts it has
become clear that there are pessimists at home and
abroad
who think that after three years of
indecision
that this country has become a prisoner to
the old arguments of 2016
and that in this home of democracy we are
incapable of honouring a basic democratic mandate
And so I am standing before you today to
tell you
the British people
that those critics are wrong
The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters
– they are going to get it wrong again
The people who bet against Britain are going
to lose their shirts
because we are going to restore trust in our
democracy
and we are going to fulfil the repeated
promises of parliament to the people and come out of the EU on
October 31
no ifs or buts
and we will do a new deal, a better deal
that will maximise the opportunities of Brexit while allowing us
to develop a new and exciting partnership with the rest of
Europe
based on free trade and mutual
support
I have every confidence that in 99 days’
time we will have cracked it
but you know what – we aren’t going to wait
99 days
because the British people have had enough
of waiting
The time has come to act,
to take decisions
to give strong leadership and to change this
country for the better
and though the Queen has just honoured me
with this extraordinary office of state
my job is to serve you, the
people
because if there is one point we politicians
need to remember it is that the people are our
bosses
My job is to make your streets safer – and
we are going to begin with another 20,000 police on the
streets
and we start recruiting
forthwith
My job is to make sure you don’t have to
wait 3 weeks to see your GP
and we start work this week with 20 new
hospital upgrades, and ensuring that money for the NHS really
does get to the front line
My job is to protect you or your parents or
grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for
the costs of care
and so I am announcing now – on the steps of
Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once
and for all with a clear plan we have prepared
to give every older person the dignity and
security they deserve
My job is to make sure your kids get a
superb education
wherever they are in the
country
and that’s why we have already announced
that we are going to level up per pupil funding in primary and
secondary schools
and that is the work that begins immediately
behind that black door
and though I am today building a great team
of men and women I will take personal
responsibility
for the change I want to see
Never mind the backstop – the buck stops
here
And I will tell you something else about my
job.
It is to be Prime Minister of the whole
United Kingdom
and that means uniting our
country
answering at last the plea of the forgotten
people
and the left behind towns
by physically and literally renewing the
ties that bind us together
so that with safer streets and better
education and fantastic new road and rail infrastructure and full
fibre broadband
we level up across Britain
with higher wages, and a higher living wage,
and higher productivity
we close the opportunity gap
giving millions of young people the chance
to own their own homes
and giving business the confidence to invest
across the UK
because it is time we unleashed the
productive power not just of London and the South
East
but of every corner of England, Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland
the awesome foursome that are incarnated in
that red white and blue flag
who together are so much more than the sum
of their parts
and whose brand and political personality is
admired and even loved around the world
for our inventiveness, for our humour, for
our universities, our scientists, our armed forces, our
diplomacy
for the equalities on which we insist –
whether race or gender or LGBT or the right of every girl in the
world to 12 years of quality education
and for the values we stand for around the
world
Everyone knows the values that flag
represents
It stands for freedom and free speech and
habeas corpus and the rule of law
and above all it stands for
democracy
and that is why we will come out of the EU
on October 31
because in the end Brexit was a fundamental
decision by the British people that they wanted their laws made
by people that they can elect
and they can remove from
office
and we must now respect that
decision
and create a new partnership with our
European friends – as warm and as close and as affectionate
as possible
and the first step is to repeat
unequivocally our guarantee to the 3.2 m EU nationals now living
and working among us
and I say directly to you – thank you for
your contribution to our society
thank you for your patience and I can assure
you that under this government you will get the absolute
certainty of the rights
to live and remain
And next I say to our friends in Ireland,
and in Brussels and around the EU
I am convinced that we can do a
deal
without checks at the Irish border, because
we refuse under any circumstances to have such
checks
and yet without that anti-democratic
backstop
and it is of course vital at the same time
that we prepare for the remote possibility
that Brussels refuses any further to
negotiate
and we are forced to come out with no
deal
not because we want that outcome – of course
not
but because it is only common sense to
prepare
and let me stress that there is a vital
sense in which those preparations cannot be wasted
and that is because under any circumstances
we will need to get ready
at some point in the near
future
to come out of the EU customs union and out
of regulatory control
fully determined at last to take advantage
of brexit
because that is the course on which this
country is now set
with high hearts and growing confidence we
will now accelerate the work of getting ready
and the ports will be ready and the banks
will be ready
and the factories will be
ready
and business will be ready
and the hospitals will be
ready
and our amazing food and farming sector will
be ready and waiting to continue selling
ever more not just here but around the
world
and don’t forget that in the event of a no
deal outcome we will have the extra lubrication of the £39
bn
and whatever deal we do we will prepare this
autumn for an economic package
to boost British business and to lengthen
this country’s lead as the number one destination in this
continent for overseas investment
and to all those who continue to prophesy
disaster
I say yes – there will be
difficulties
though I believe that with energy and
application they will be far less serious than some have
claimed
but if there is one thing that has really
sapped the confidence of business over the last three
years
it is not the decisions we have
taken
it is our refusal to take
decisions
and to all those who say we cannot be
ready
I say do not underestimate this
country
Do not underestimate our powers of
organisation and our determination
because we know the enormous strengths of
this economy
in life sciences, in tech, in academia, in
music, the arts, culture, financial services,
It is here in Britain that we are using gene
therapy, for the first time, to treat the most common form of
blindness
here in Britain that we are leading the
world in the battery technology that will help cut CO2 and tackle
climate change
and produce green jobs for the next
generation
and as we prepare for a post-Brexit future
it is time we looked not at the risks but at the opportunities
that are upon us
so let us begin work now to create freeports
that will drive growth and thousands of high-skilled jobs in left
behind areas
let’s start now to liberate the UK’s
extraordinary bioscience sector from anti genetic modification
rules
and let’s develop the blight-resistant crops
that will feed the world
let’s get going now on our own position
navigation and timing satellite and earth observation systems –
UK assets orbiting in space with all the long term strategic and
commercial benefits for this country
Let’s change the tax rules to provide extra
incentives to invest in capital and research
and let’s promote the welfare of animals
that has always been so close to the hearts of the British
people
and yes, let’s start now on those free trade
deals
because it is free trade that has done more
than anything else to lift billions out of poverty
all this and more we can do now and only
now, at this extraordinary moment in our history
and after three years of unfounded
self-doubt it is time to
change the record
to recover our natural and historic role as
an enterprising, outward-looking and truly global Britain,
generous in temper and engaged with the world
No one in the last few centuries has
succeeded in betting against the pluck and nerve and ambition of
this country
They will not succeed today
We in this government will work flat out to
give this country the leadership it deserves
and that work begins now
Thank you very much
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