Boris Johnson

For the last three and a half years this country has been trapped by Brexit – like some super-green supercar blocked in the traffic. We are stuck in a rut. We have been paralysed by a broken parliament. Like Tantalus in Hades, we can see the opportunities in front of us – the luscious grapes, the refreshing stream – and yet every time we reach out to grasp them we find they are whisked away, with yet another delay, and yet another pointless parliamentary manoeuvre.

With every week that goes by, this delay is costing us all. If we can get Brexit done, there are hundreds of billions of pounds of investment that are just waiting to flood into this country. If we get Brexit done, businesses and families will have the certainty to take key decisions – taking a new job, buying a new house – that are currently on hold. If we get Brexit done we can inject a surge of confidence into the UK and the UK economy.

And as things stand, there is only one way to get Brexit done, and I am afraid the answer is to ask the people to change this blockading parliament. I don’t want an election. No prime minister wants an early election, especially not in December. But as things stand we simply have no choice – because it is only by getting Brexit done in the next few weeks that we can focus on all the priorities of the

British people. I am very proud of the achievements of this government in the last 100 days. We have begun to map out a fantastic programme for the years ahead: to unite and level up, spreading opportunity across the whole United Kingdom. The UK has extraordinary advantages – leading the world in 21st century technologies, from batteries to bioscience, and there are parts of this country that are more productive and more innovative than anywhere else in Europe.

And yet it was one of the lessons of the Brexit referendum that there are parts of the country that feel left behind. I believe that talent and genius are uniformly distributed throughout the country. Opportunity is not. Opportunity is unfairly distributed, and now is the time to close that opportunity gap – not just because it makes such obvious economic sense, but for the sake of simple social justice.

We believe that every child in the country should have the same opportunity to express their talents and make the most of their lives – and that is why we are investing £14billion now to increase funding for every primary and every secondary school in the country. I want everyone to have the fundamental security that comes from safe streets and safe neighbourhoods – and that is why we are backing our police, putting 20,000 more officers on the streets, and giving

‘I believe that talent and genius are uniformly distributed throughout the country. Opportunity is not’

them the powers to tackle street crime with stop and search.

Everyone in the UK should have the peace of mind and confidence that comes from world-class healthcare; and that is why we are putting a record £34billion now into the NHS. It is thanks to the decisions of the last 100 days that there will be 40 new hospitals built, as well as improvements in primary care, so that you can see your GP when you want. We believe in fantastic public services – and fantastic infrastructure – not just because they are a good thing in themselves, but because they are the bedrock of a dynamic free market economy.

If this One Nation Conservative government is lucky enough to be returned to office next month we will have an infrastructure revolution for this country. Now is the time to invest in Northern Powerhouse rail, and a metro rail system for the West Midlands, as well as a massive programme of improvements for the roads, and gigabit broadband for every home. And we are the only party that can conceivably deliver this programme, because we are the only party that understands the balance and symmetry at the heart of the UK economy.

There is only one way to pay for world class healthcare and outstanding infrastructure – and that is to foster and encourage the tens of thousands of British businesses, large and small, that create the wealth of the nation. When someone gets up at 5am to get their shop ready; when someone risks their savings on an idea or a new product; when someone has the guts to enter a new market – at home or abroad – we don’t sneer at them.

We cheer for them: because their success is our success; and the tragedy of the modern Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is that they detest the profit motive so viscerally – and would raise taxes so wantonly – that they would destroy the very basis of this country’s prosperity. They pretend that their hatred is directed only at certain billionaires – and they point their fingers at individuals with a relish and a vindictiveness not seen since Stalin persecuted the kulaks. In reality they would end up putting up taxes on everyone: on pensions, on businesses, on inheritance, on homes, on gardens.

If you want to understand the impact of a Corbyn government on ordinary people, remember that under this government he has voted AGAINST tax cuts worth £7,800 for people on modest incomes. They are already committed to putting up corporation tax to one of the highest levels in Europe. And what do they want to spend this tax grab on? A £196 billion programme of renationalisation, that would involve expropriating 10 per cent of the value of businesses across the country. This plan is insane.

Who on earth believes that John Mcdonnell (who was sacked by Ken Livingstone for lying about GLC finances) would be better placed to guide these businesses than business people themselves? They would hold back business, and they would hold back investment – and worst of all, they would hold back Brexit. This government has succeeded where no one thought we could. We not only got a new deal from our EU partners, but we got a great deal. We are able to deliver all the advantages of leaving the EU: making our own laws, controlling our own borders, taking back our money, and exercising all kinds of new freedoms. From free ports to free trade deals, from abolishing the cruel live shipment of animals to cutting VAT on tampons, we in the UK will be able to remain close to our European friends and partners; but where we choose, we will be able to do things differently and better.

Above all, we will be able to respect the democratic will of the people. After years of procrastination, we have a great new deal that is ready to go. Parliament has already given the deal its blessing – before, infuriatingly, voting for yet another delay. With a new parliament and a sensible majority government, we can get that deal through a new Parliament in days. It is oven ready. Let’s get Brexit done, and take this country forward.

And what does Corbyn offer? A nightmare programme in which he would seek to renegotiate the deal in some unspecified way, and would then put that deal to the people in ANOTHER toxic and tedious referendum, in which the options for the public – and indeed the position of the Labour Party – are still hopelessly unclear. And all the time – at least

‘A vote for any other minor party is effectively a vote for Corbyn, and his catastrophic programme’

another year – the uncertainty for business would continue, and investment would be held back – for no purpose whatever.

The choice is clear. We can either go with Corbyn and his two favourite advisers, Dither and Delay; we can turn 2020 into the year of two miserable referendums, one on the EU, and another on Scotland (since Corbyn has done a shady deal with the SNP, by which he would risk the break-up of the Union to keep himself in power). And remember that a vote for any other minor party is effectively a vote for Corbyn, and his catastrophic political and economic programme.

Or else we can vote for a sensible and moderate One Nation Conservative government, that has already achieved record employment, and which is bursting with confidence in this country and its potential. With our programme of investment in education, infrastructure and technology we know that we can make this the greatest place in the world to live, to go to school, to start a family, to own a home, to start a business – and with the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth.

We have the imminent prospect of creating a high-wage, high-skill, low-tax economy – and it is only Corbyn’s Brexit delay that is holding the UK back. It’s time to change the dismal pattern of the last three years and to get out of our rut. It’s time to end this debilitating delay. Let’s go with this government, get Brexit done, and unleash the potential of Britain in 2020, not consign it to a year of two referendums.