At the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in central London, Boris Johnson delivered his first speech after his Conservative Tory party won by a landslide majority in the December 2019 general election. Read the full text of Boris Johnson’s full speech below.
Well my friends, good morning everybody.
My friends, well we did it. We did it. We pulled it off didn’t we – we pulled it off, we broke the deadlock, we ended the gridlock, we smashed the roadblock.
In this glorious, glorious pre-breakfast moment, before a new dawn rises on a new day and a new government, I want first of all to pay tribute to good colleagues who lost their seats through no fault of their own in the elections just gone by.
And I of course want to congratulate absolutely everybody involved in securing the biggest Conservative majority since the 1980s. This was literally, literally, as I look around, literally before many of you were born.
And with this mandate and this majority, we will at last be able to do – what? (Audience: “Get Brexit done”.) You were paying attention.
This election means that getting Brexit done is now the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people. With this election I think we’ve put an end to all those miserable threats of a second referendum.
And I say respectfully to our stentorian friend in the blue, 12-star hat – that’s it. Time to put a sock in the megaphone, and give everybody some peace.
I have a message to all those who voted for us yesterday, especially for those who voted for us Conservatives for the first time.
You may only have lent us your vote, you may not think of yourself as a natural Tory. As I think I said 11 years ago to the people of London, when I was elected in what was thought of as a Labour city – your hand may have quivered over the ballot paper before you put your cross in the Conservative box, and you may intend to return to Labour next time round.
If that is the case, I am humbled that you have put your trust in me and you have put your trust in us.
I, and we, will never take your support for granted. I will make it my mission to work night and day, to work flat-out to prove you right in voting for me this time, and to earn your support in the future.
I say to you that in this election your voice has been heard – and about time too.
Because we politicians have squandered the last three-and-a-half years in squabbles about Brexit, we have even been arguing about arguing, about the tone of our arguments. I will put an end to all that nonsense and we will get Brexit done on time by the 31 January.
No ifs, no buts, no maybes – leaving the European Union as one United Kingdom, taking back control of our laws, borders, money, our trade, immigration system, delivering on the democratic mandate of the people.
At the same time, this one nation Conservative government will massively increase our investment in the NHS. The health service that represents the very best of our country with a single beautiful idea, that whoever we are – rich, poor, young, old – the NHS is there for us when we are sick. And everyday that service performs miracles.
That is why the NHS is this one nation Conservative government’s top priority. So we will deliver 50,000 more nurses, and 50 million more GP surgery appointments. And how many new hospitals? (Audience: “40”.) We will deliver a long-term NHS budget enshrined in law, £650m extra every week.
And all the other priorities that you, the people of this country, voted for.
Record spending on schools. An Australian-style points-based immigration system. More police – how many? (Audience: “20,000”.)
Colossal new investments in infrastructure and science, using our technological advantages to make this country the cleanest, greenest on earth, with the most far-reaching environmental programme.
And you the people of this country voted to be carbon-neutral in this election – you voted to be carbon-neutral by 2050. And we’ll do it.
You also voted to be Corbyn-neutral by Christmas by the way, and we’ll do that too.
You voted for all these things, and it is now this government, this people’s government, it is now our solemn duty to deliver on each and every one of those commitments.
It is a great and heavy responsibility, a sacred trust, for me, for every newly-elected Conservative MP, for everyone in this room and everyone in this party.
And I repeat that in winning this election we have won the votes and trust of people who have never voted Conservative before, and people who have always voted for other parties.
Those people want change. We cannot, must not – must not – let them down. In delivering change we must change too.
We must recognise the incredible reality that we now speak as a One Nation Conservative party literally for everyone from Woking to Workington; from Kensington, I’m proud to say, to Clwyd South; from Surrey Heath to Sedgefield; from Wimbledon to Wolverhampton.
As the nation hands us this historic mandate, we must rise to the challenge and to the level of expectations. Parliament must change so that we in parliament are working for you, the British people.
That is what we will now do, isn’t it? That is what we will now do. Let’s get out and get on with it. Let’s unite this country. Let’s spread opportunity to every corner of the UK with superb education, superb infrastructure, and technology.
Let’s get Brexit done. But first, my friends, let’s get breakfast done.
Thank you all very much for coming. Thank you all very much.
