British PM Vows to Close ‘Opportunity Gap’ after Brexit

Delivering Brexit would help the UK close the “opportunity gap between rich and poor”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday.

In his first big speech of the election campaign, he promised to boost regional industry and drive a “clean energy revolution” after the UK leaves the EU.

He said a future Tory government would double investment in high-tech research and development to £18bn.

But earlier former Tory David Gauke said Johnson’s plan will lead to a “bad outcome for the country.”

And Labour said Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal was flawed and another referendum was needed. In other election developments: Speaking during a visit to an electric taxi manufacturer near Coventry, the PM set out his vision for post-Brexit Britain, saying his goal was to unite the country and “level up” economic performance by boosting the regions.

He said the UK must be at the heart of the world’s “green revolution”, harnessing the power of science, innovation and technology to tackle climate change and create high-skilled, high wage jobs.

A Tory victory on 12 December would see the UK leave the EU in January, he said, and that would be good for the country’s “politics, economy and psychological health” after months of paralysis.

“We must get Brexit done because we are democrats,” he said, saying while Leave voters wanted the result of the 2016 referendum result to be respected, Remain voters also accepted the “wrangling had to end”.

But he departed from excerpts of the speech briefed to the media on Tuesday, leaving out references to Brexit “groundhoggery” and claims that calls for another Brexit referendum and a further vote on Scottish independence were a form of “onanism”, or masturbation.

Asked about this at a press conference after the speech, he blamed it on a “stray draft” of the speech released to the media.

The Tory leader said the UK’s economic fundamentals were sound, but he compared the country to a “cup-winning horse trying to run on three legs” with huge untapped potential and often “vastly different” educational outcomes.

“If every child had the same start and the same encouragement, think of the all untapped talent in this country,” he said.

“Yet the solution to that inequality is within our grasp... not just to close the opportunity gap between rich and poor but also between the regions of this country.”

He promised to make the “small improvements in life that people are craving” by addressing transport bottlenecks, improving rural bus services and broadband connections. He also said British apprentices must be employed on all “big new public sector” contracts after Brexit.

To demonstrate his party’s support for enterprise, he said a future Tory government would double funding for research and development to £18bn in the next Parliament, which would amount to the “biggest ever increase in support for R&D”.

“We proudly back businesses across this country because they are creating the wealth that actually pays for the NHS and everything else.”