This afternoon, our new Prime Minister Boris Johnson entered Number 10. His first speech on steps of Downing Street was positive, optimistic and aspirational for all of the UK. Boris has my full support and I look forward to working with him.
You can read a full transcript of Boris' speech below, or watch the video.
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 million 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 billion, 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 free
ports 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.
