Let’s get Brexit done and take this country forward

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, speaking today at Conservative Party Conference at The Manchester Convention Centre, said:

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It’s great to be here in Manchester at the best attended conference for years

and I know that some of you may have been mildly peppered with abuse on the way in

but are you abashed? are you downcast?

Of course not. We are conservatives and we get on with serving the people

and speaking of service I should begin by paying tribute to my predecessor

Theresa, I know the whole of conference remains full of gratitude to you, and to Philip May, for your patience and your forbearance, and yes, we will continue with the work of tackling domestic violence and modern slavery

and building on your legacy

I have been prime minister for only seventy days but

I have seen so many things that give cause for hope

hospitals that are finally getting the investment to match the devotion of the staff

schools where standards of reading are rising through the use of synthetic phonics

police colleges where idealistic young men and women are enrolling in large numbers to fight crime across the country

shipyards in Scotland that are building superb modern type 26 frigates for sale around the world –

and every one of those high wage high skill jobs in shipbuilding is a testament to the benefits of belonging to the United Kingdom

the most successful political partnership in history

which we will protect

and we will defend against those who would wantonly destroy it

and I say to Ruth Davidson as well

thank you for everything you did for the cause of Conservatism and unionism in Scotland

and Ruth, we will honour your legacy too

and I am proud of the role this government is playing in every one of those investments

and they are only possible because

It was this Conservative government that tackled the debt and the deficit left by the last Labour government

It was because we cleared up the wreckage they left behind that we now have

record employment

wages rising the fastest for 10 years

and we have record Foreign Direct Investment of £1.3 trillion

and so many reasons to be confident about our country and its direction

and yet we are like a world class athlete with a pebble in our shoe

there is one part of the British system that seems to be on the blink

If parliament were a laptop, then the screen would be showing the pizza wheel of doom

If parliament were a school, Ofsted would be shutting it down

if parliament were a reality TV show the whole lot of us would have been voted out of the jungle by now

But at least we could have watched the speaker being forced to eat a kangaroo testicle

And the sad truth is that voters have more say over I’m a celebrity than they do over this House of Commons

Which refuses to deliver Brexit, refuses to do anything constructive and refuses to have an election

just at the moment when voters are desperate for us to focus on their priorities

we are continuing to chew the supermasticated subject of Brexit

when what people want

what leavers want

what remainers want

what the whole world wants – is to be calmly and sensibly done with the subject, and to move on

and that is why we are coming out of the EU on October 31, come what may Conference

let’s get Brexit done

we can we must and we will

even though things have not been made easier by the surrender bill

we will work for a deal with our EU friends; but whatever happens we must come out by the end of October

let’s get this thing done – and then let’s get ready to make our case to the country

against the fratricidal anti-semitic Marxists who were in Brighton last week

last week Jeremy Corbyn had a number of damaging and retrograde ideas in his speech

he wants a 4 day week - which would slash the wages of people on low incomes

he wants to ban private schools and expropriate their property

Even though it would cost the taxpayer seven billion to educate the kids

he wants to stamp out excellence in schools by banning Ofsted

the inspectors who ensure that schools are safe for our children

but he had one good idea

- he had a whole paragraph repeating what he has said every week for the last three years

he wants an election now – or that is what he was going to say, poor fellow

the only trouble is that the paragraph was censored by Tohn McDonnell or possibly Keir Starmer

so we have the astonishing spectacle of the leader of the opposition being prevented by his colleagues from engaging in his constitutional function which is to try to remove me from office

and in this age of creative litigation I am surprised that no one has yet sued him for breach of contract

though it now appears that the SNP may yet try to bundle him towards the throne

like some Konstantin Chernenko figure

Reluctantly propelled to office in a Kremlin coup

so that they get on with their programme for total national discord

turning the whole of 2020 – which should be a great year for this country – into the chaos and cacophony of two more referendums

- a second referendum on Scottish independence, even though the people of Scotland were promised that the 2014 vote would be a once in a generation decision

and a second referendum on the EU? Can you imagine?

another 3 years of this?

but that is the Corbyn agenda – stay in the EU beyond October 31,

and paying a billion pounds a month for the privilege, followed by years of uncertainty for business and everyone else

As for the Lib Dems, their idea of serving the national interest was to write to Jean-Claude Juncker urging him NOT to give this country a better deal

While the leader has called for a second referendum

While pledging to campaign against the result

It’s time to respect the trades descriptions act

And take the word democrat out of the liberal democrats

My friends

I am afraid that after three and a half years people are beginning to feel that they are being taken for fools

They are beginning to suspect that there are forces in this country that simply don’t want brexit delivered at all

and if they turn out to be right in that suspicion then I believe there will be grave consequences for trust in democracy

Let’s get Brexit done on October 31

Let’s get it done because of the opportunities that Brexit will bring

not just to take back control of our money and our borders and our laws

To regulate differently and better, and to take our place as a proud and independent global campaigner for free trade

Let’s get it done because delay is so pointless and expensive

Let’s get it done because we need to build our positive new partnership with the EU

because it cannot be stressed too much that this is not an anti-European party and it is not an anti-European country

We love Europe

We are European

but after 45 years of really dramatic constitutional change we must have a new relationship with the EU

a positive and confident partnership- and we can do it

Today in Brussels we are tabling what I believe are constructive and reasonable proposals

Which provide a compromise for both sides

We will under no circumstances have checks at or near the border in Northern Ireland

We will respect the peace process and the Good Friday agreement

And by a process of renewable democratic consent by the executive and assembly of Northern ireland

we will go further and protect the existing regulatory arrangements for farmers and other businesses on both sides of the border

And at the same time we will allow the UK - whole and entire - to withdraw from the EU, with control of our own trade policy from the start.

And to protect the union

And yes this is a compromise by the UK

And I hope very much that our friends understand that and compromise in their turn

Because if we fail to get an agreement because of what is essentially a technical discussion of the exact nature of future customs checks

When that technology is improving the whole time

Then let us be in no doubt that the alternative is no deal

That is not an outcome we want

It is not an outcome we seek at all

But let me tell you this conference it is an outcome for which we are ready

Are we ready?

Are we determined to resolve this?

Let’s get Brexit done on October 31

because we must get on and deliver on all the priorities of the people

to answer the cry of those 17.4 m who voted for Brexit

because it is only by delivering Brexit that we can address that feeling in so many parts of the country

that they were being left behind, ignored

and that their towns were not only suffering from a lack of love and investment

but their views had somehow become unfashionable or unmentionable

And let’s get Brexit done for those millions who may have voted remain

But are first and foremost democrats

And accept the result of the referendum

and when I say that I want us to work together, now, to bring this country together

you are entitled to ask yourselves about my core principles

and the ideals that drive me and are going to drive me as your prime minister

I am going to follow the example of my friend Saj

I am going to quote that supreme authority in my family - my mother

(and by the way for keen students of the divisions in my family you might know that I have kept the ace up my sleeve - my mother voted leave)

and my mother taught me to believe strongly in the equal importance, the equal dignity, the equal worth of every human being on the planet

and that may sound banal but it is not

and there is one institution that sums up that idea

The NHS is holy to the people of this country because of the simple beauty of its principle

that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from

but when you are sick the whole country figuratively gathers at your bedside

and does everything it can to make you well again

and everybody pays to ensure that you have the best doctors and the best nurses and the most effective treatments known to medical science

and after 70 years the results are – on the whole –amazing

when I was a kid the word cancer was a death knell

and heart attack was a terrifying thought

well, we are slowly defeating the legions of disease

This country has seen the fastest falls in breast cancer in Europe

but we have so much more to do

on Monday I went to the north Manchester general hospital

and I saw the incredible work they are doing with reconstructive maxillo-facial surgery

on people who only a decade ago would have been permanently disfigured by their traumas

and for whom hope and confidence is so important

I talked to the patients and every one of them was bursting with praise for the staff and their energy and devotion

but conference that fantastic hospital was built in 1876

To serve the workhouse

and we were walking down long narrow nightingale wards that were designed by the pioneer of nursing

and as one of the managers told me

that asking those professionals to work in that environment

is like asking a premiership footballer to play on a ploughed field

and so I was proud to tell them under this government we will totally rebuild that hospital

So that we are not only recruiting more doctors and nurses, and training them

but in the next 10 years we will build 40 new hospitals

in the biggest investment in hospital infrastructure for a generation

because after 70 years of the existence of the NHS

- 44 of them under a Conservative government

it is time for us to say loud and clear

We are the party of the NHS

and I claim that title because it is our one nation conservatism

that has delivered and will deliver the economic growth

that makes those investments possible

and it is we Conservatives who will solve the problem of social care

and end the injustice that means people have to sell their home

to pay for their old age

and if you ask me how we are going to do it

how we are going to grow the UK economy

I will tell you that it is by raising the productivity of the whole of the UK

not with socialism

not with deranged and ruinous plans borrowed from the playbook of Bolivarian revolutionary Venezuela

but by creating the economic platform for dynamic free market

capitalism

yes, you heard it right

capitalism – and when did you last hear a Tory leader talk about capitalism

we are the party of the NHS precisely because we are the party of capitalism

not because we shun it, or despise it

and we understand the vital symmetry at the heart of the modern British economy

between a dynamic enterprise culture and great public services

and I have seen this formula in action

now who comes from London?

who lives there?

no disgrace in that – I used to be mayor there

and it is one of the many astonishing things about our nation’s capital that it is the most productive region in the whole of Europe

because in 1863 this country led the world in putting trains in tunnels, among other breakthroughs

and yet there are many other regions of the country that are far less productive

and that represents not just an injustice

but a massive opportunity

I believe that talent and genius and initiative and chutzpah are evenly distributed across the whole UK

but it is also clear that opportunity is not evenly distributed

and it is the job of this one nation conservative govt

- to unlock talent in every corner of the UK

because that is the right thing to do in itself

and because that is the way to release the economic potential of the whole country

and the first thing we must do in spreading opportunity is to insist on the equal safety of the public wherever you live

to make your streets safer

and that is why we are recruiting 20,000 new police officers

and that is why we are committing now to rolling up the evil county lines drugs gangs

that predate on young kids and send them to die in

the streets to feed the cocaine habits of the bourgeoisie

and we will succeed

and yes we will be tough on crime

we will make sure that the police have the legal powers and the political backing to use stop and search

because it may be controversial

but believe me that when a young man is going equipped with a bladed weapon

there is nothing kinder or more loving or more life-saving you can do than ask him to turn out his pockets

and yes, when people are found guilty of serious sexual or violent offences,

we will make sure that they serve the sentence they should – if only for the protection of the public

but we will also do everything we can to stop people becoming criminals

with rehabilitation

education in prisons

so that they are not just academies for crime

and we are investing in youth clubs and better FE training

to give young people the best possible antidote to the criminal instinct

the prospect of a good job

and indeed the best way to level up and to expand opportunity