Let’s join together for a decade of prosperity – Boris
‘Enormous potential’
BORIS Johnson today urges Britain to ‘turn the page’ on its Brexit divisions and make the 2020s a decade of ‘prosperity and opportunity’.
In his New Year message, the PM urges politicians and public alike to move on from the ‘division, rancour and uncertainty which has dominated public life and held us back for far too long’.
Mr Johnson also declares that he will make the NHS his ‘ top priority’ after Britain has left the EU at the end of this month.
MPs will return to parliament next week to press ahead with the legislation needed to take Britain out of the EU.
Mr Johnson today will say his ‘oven-ready’ Brexit deal ‘ has already had its plastic covering pierced and been placed in the microwave’ – a reference to the 124- strong majority at its first Commons hurdle last month.
‘Once MPs return to Westminster, we’ll waste no time in finishing the job,’ he says. ‘At long last we will take back control of our laws, money, borders and trade.’
The PM says leaving will ‘start a new chapter in the history of our country, in which we come together and move forward united, unleashing the enormous potential of the British people’.
Mr Johnson says ministers will then ‘get on with delivering on the people’s priorities’, such as increasing funding for the NHS and schools, upgrading Britain’s creaking infrastructure, cracking down on crime and cleaning up the environment. Ministers have been warned that the PM expects to see a relentless focus on improving the NHS – partly in the hope of neutralising it as an issue at the next election.
The process will begin with legislation to lock in a promised £34billion increase in funding over the next four years.
But Mr Johnson suggests he plans to go much further, saying: ‘The loudest message I heard during the election campaign is that people expect us – expect me – to protect and improve the NHS. The NHS is a wonderful British invention, there for us and our families when we are ill, whatever our background and regardless of ability to pay.
‘So the NHS will always be my top priority.’
Mr Johnson today pays tribute to traditional Tory voters and first-time supporters for their ‘decisiveness at the ballot box’ which delivered him an 80-seat majority last month. But he acknowledges many Britons remain to be convinced he is the right choice. ‘I want to reassure you I will be a Prime Minister for everyone, not just those who voted for me,’ he says.
The tensions as he tries to hold together his coalition of old and new Tory voters were illustrated yesterday when a survey of members urged him to prioritise tax cuts for the better off.
During last year’s leadership campaign, Mr Johnson pledged to raise the threshold for paying 40p tax from £50,000 to £80,000. But the Tory manifesto made clear that Mr Johnson’s tax priority would be helping the lowpaid by raising the threshold for paying national insurance.
Yesterday’s survey by the Conservative Home website found 65 per cent of Tory activists want him to stick to his pledge to also cut taxes for wealthier Britons.