Boris Johnson today hammered home his message about ‘getting Brexit done’ – and gave a ‘cast iron’ guarantee the NHS will not be on the table in a trade deal with the US.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, the PM appealed for voters to give him a majority on December 12 so the country can ‘move on’.
Asked if he had an issue with people not trusting him, Mr Johnson said: ‘I think there is a big trust issue with the whole of politics at the moment because after three and a half years we haven’t got done what we said we would do.’
He dismissed Labour ‘scare stories’ that the NHS could form part of a trade agreement with the US after Brexit.
With just a week to go until the country goes to the polls, Mr Johnson has set out a whirlwind schedule for his first 100 days.
He has vowed to fast-track laws to toughen sentences for serious criminals, restrict strikes affecting vital services such as health and transport and ban ‘vexatious’ claims against military veterans.
The PM also said that cross-party talks to agree ‘an enduring solution to the challenge of social care’ would start within his first 100 days.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, the PM appealed for voters to give him a majority on December 12 so the country can ‘move on’
And he pledged a law requiring migrants to pay a £625 surcharge to cover the cost of NHS care.
Mr Johnson announced that his new government would hold its first Budget in February, to include a fuel duty freeze which will financially benefit 37million motorists.
Tory sources confirmed measures would also include an increase in the national insurance threshold from £8,632 to £9,500 – delivering a tax cut worth £104 to more than 30million workers.
There are also rumours that the Tories will extend free childcare provision, with 15 hours for two-year-olds. Currently up to 30 hours is available for three and four-year-olds. The proposal was considered for the manifesto, but eventually left out.
The PM also said that cross-party talks to agree ‘an enduring solution to the challenge of social care’ would start within his first 100 days. And he pledged a law requiring migrants to pay a £625 surcharge to cover the cost of NHS care (pictured at Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes on Wednesday)
The PM and the US president posed for the cameras as he arrived at the country house hotel in Hertfordshire where the gathering was held
The Prime Minister also confirmed that Britain would leave the EU on January 31 if he wins a majority next week.
With just a week to go before what Mr Johnson described as ‘the most important election in a generation’, the Prime Minister set out a detailed prospectus for changing Britain. He said his blueprint for power contrasted sharply with that of Jeremy Corbyn, who has pledged to spend his first three months in office negotiating a new Brexit deal before staging a second referendum in which he will sit on the fence.
The Labour leader has also opened the door to a second referendum on Scottish independence, which Nicola Sturgeon has named as her price for putting him into No 10.
Mr Johnson said: ‘In just seven days’ time the British people will have to choose between a working majority government or yet another gridlocked hung Parliament.
‘If there is a Conservative majority next week, we will get Brexit done by the end of January. 2020 will then be the year we finally put behind us the arguments and uncertainty over Brexit.
‘We will get Parliament working on the people’s priorities.
‘But if the Conservatives don’t get a majority, then on Friday 13th we will have the nightmare of a hung Parliament with Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister propped up by Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP.
‘Next year will be Groundhog Day in Parliament with MPs arguing every day about the referendum and businesses and families left in limbo, unable to plan their futures.’
Boris Johnson speaks while holding a Greggs sausage roll on the platform of Milton Keynes train station, after a visit at Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes on Wednesday
In an interview with ITV’s Peston show last night, the PM insisted that Brexit would be ‘over’ after January 31, despite the fact the UK will remain aligned with the EU during a transition period lasting until the end of the year.
‘What will happen is that the parliamentary agony will be over, and the political agony will be over, and the misery and tedium and procrastination will be over,’ he said.
Mr Johnson, who has ruled out extending the transition period, suggested it could even be cut, saying: ‘If we choose at any stage from January to come out of the transition period, that is up to us.’
Tory strategists are anxious to drag the political debate back on to the election, following days in which it has been dominated by the fallout from the London Bridge terror attack and Donald Trump at the Nato summit in the UK.
They are also concerned that voters are ‘losing focus’ on the contest following a string of polls giving the Conservatives a substantial lead. A new Ipsos-Mori poll yesterday revealed that, with just a week to go, the NHS has overtaken Brexit as the voters’ top priority – giving Labour hope it can confound the polls in the closing days of the campaign.
The NHS was named as a key issue by 59 per cent of voters, against 56 per cent who wanted action on Brexit.
Mr Johnson’s 100-day plan will see Parliament asked to approve a legislative blitz in the New Year, following a Queen’s Speech on December 19.
The EU Withdrawal Act, which enshrines Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal in law, would be brought back to Parliament before Christmas, with MPs asked to push it through in time for the January 31 deadline. Tory sources pointed out that, unlike the last Parliament, all 635 Conservative candidates have pledged to vote for the deal.
Tory sources said that by March 22 the Government would have introduced legislation to prepare the UK for Brexit, including the framework for an Australian style points-based immigration system.
Mr Johnson will also legislate to toughen sentences for terrorists and serious violent criminals, along with new laws to end the ‘witch hunt’ against military veterans.
And he will pass laws to lock in planned funding increases for health – to legally guarantee an extra £33.9bn a year for the NHS by by 2023 – and education, with extra funding to give schools at least £5,000 per secondary pupil and £4,000 per primary pupil.
The increase in the national insurance threshold is viewed as a ‘down payment’ on broader manifesto plans to raise it in line with the income tax threshold at £12,500. This would produce a tax cut totalling £464 per person, but no schedule has been set out for delivering it in full.
Other priorities include getting plans underway to roll out gigabit-capable broadband across the UK, and laying the foundations for a new national fishing strategy.
There will also be a law requiring unions to keep ‘minimum service levels’ during strikes on vital public services, such as the current dispute on South Western Railways.