PM: Britain will stand up to Russia in the Baltic
BORIS JOHNSON has again pledged Britain’s support for Baltic states in the face of Russian aggression, promising that the country will maintain an “unconditional commitment” to the security of the region.
On a trip to a military base in Estonia, the Prime Minister told British troops that their role allowed “everybody in our country” to enjoy Christmas “in peace and security ... because of what you’re doing here”.
Meeting Jüri Ratas, Estonia’s prime minister, Mr Johnson “reaffirmed the UK’s unconditional commitment to Estonia’s regional security through Nato,” a No10 spokesman said.
Mr Johnson has taken a strong stand against Russian aggression, criticising Moscow’s “blatant disregard for international rules and agreements”, and helping to coordinate the international response to last year’s Salisbury nerve agent while he was foreign secretary.
His visit to Estonia came after RAF Typhoons were scrambled 21 times to intercept 56 Russian aircraft in the skies above the country, during a recent four-month deployment.
Mr Johnson was met by Mr Ratas and soldiers from the Queen’s Royal Hussars as he arrived at the Tapa military base near the capital of Tallinn.
The base is home to 850 British troops from the regiment who lead the Nato battlegroup along with personnel from Estonia, France and Denmark.
The Prime Minister wished troops a merry Christmas in Estonian as he served them turkey and Yorkshire puddings. Addressing troops in a vehicle hangar on the base, Mr Johnson thanked them for their work and wished them the best of the season.
He said: “In the next few days, everybody in our country is going to be celebrating Christmas with their families and you’re going to be here – a long way away, a pretty cold place. What
you’re doing is incredibly important because the reason everybody in our country can have Christmas in peace and security is because of what you’re doing here. What you’re doing is showing that Nato works and that Nato is an alliance to which we in this country are absolutely committed to.”
Mr Johnson said the troops were the “most vivid and powerful possible symbol and expression that Britain is committed to the security and stability of the whole of Europe”.
Mr Johnson held a bilateral meeting with Mr Ratas in which the leaders “discussed the close partnership between the UK and Estonia, in particular our joint security and defence cooperation,” Downing Street said.
He told troops that it was an “incredible thing for me to come to Estonia ... when I was your age Estonia was part of the Soviet Union and we’re now here helping to protect Estonia’s security.”
It is astonishing what a visionary prime minister with a proper majority can do. For three long years we were told that Brexit was undesirable and impossible; the only way to do it, said the establishment, was to water it down. And yet last week, a pro-Brexit PM at the head of a pro-Brexit Tory Party not only passed the withdrawal agreement with a whopping majority but vastly improved it in the process.
Extending the transition after 2020 is banned, and Boris Johnson promised a future relationship with Europe based upon “an ambitious free-trade agreement, with no alignment… on EU rules”. With a new immigration system to boot, Britain could truly take back control.
Remain won’t give up that easily: one can imagine it morphing into a fake soft-Brexit movement arguing for close alignment. And if the PM does beat them, winning brings its own challenges. The Tories know that their majority is built on two issues: support for Brexit and dislike of Jeremy Corbyn. What happens when Britain is out of the EU and Mr Corbyn has retired to his allotment?
Labour is unlikely to move back to the centre just yet. There is no transformative figure in the leadership contest; its politics range from far-Left to off-the-scale. But if the Tories are going to hold on to the coalition they have won in the Midlands and North, they’ll have to go beyond being anti-Labour and fully convert working-class voters to Conservatism. That’s why the Queen’s Speech focused on everyday priorities and putting cash where most taxpayers probably want it to go.
In these very early stages, Johnsonism seems to be less about shrinking the state than reordering its priorities. The next step must be to join the dots between Brexit and economic policy – to deregulate, create free ports in “left behind” towns, cut taxes and really liberate the housing market by slashing stamp duty. We all know it’s Mr Johnson’s instinct to unleash the free market and let it do its work. Decades of relying on welfare to uplift parts of the country has failed; Brexit contained a vote of anger at it consequences.
The Tories also have to ensure the young win a bigger stake in the system, because the generational divide in voting was stark. Many people under a certain age simply haven’t heard the argument for freedom. Next year offers a rare opportunity – with Labour in the doldrums and the Tories headed by a charismatic communicator – to make and win the case for democratic capitalism.