Boris Johnson promises to restore trust in democracy and deliver Brexit by October ‘no ifs or buts’

Boris Johnson - Image credit: PA

In his first speech as prime minister, Boris Johnson has promised to “restore trust in democracy” and fulfil the promises to leave the EU on 31 October “no ifs or buts”.

Standing outside 10 Downing Street immediately after going to see the Queen to inform her of his intention to form a government, Johnson said the time had come “to act, to take decisions, to give strong leadership and to change this country for the better”.

Brexit was a “fundamental decision by the British people that they wanted their laws made by people that they can elect and they can remove from office”, Johnson said, adding that they must now respect that decision and “create a new partnership with our European friends as warm, as close, as affectionate as possible”.

While Johnson said he was “convinced” he could make a deal without checks at the Irish border and  without “that anti-democratic backstop”, at the same time we must prepare for the “remote possibility that Brussels refuses any further to negotiate and we are forced to come out with no deal”.

This was not because he wanted that outcome but it was “only common sense to prepare”, he said.

Johnson promised to be the prime minster of the “whole United Kingdom”, which means “uniting our country” and “physically and literally renewing the ties that bind us together”.

The “awesome foursome” of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland “are so much more than the sum of their parts” whose “brand and political personality is admired and even loved around the world,” he said.

He also pledged that EU nationals would have the “absolute certainty” of the right to remain in the UK after Brexit.

Johnson said: “There are pessimists at home and abroad that think that after three years that this country has become a prisoner to the old arguments of 2016 and in this home of democracy we are incapable of honouring a democratic mandate and so I am standing before you today to tell you, the British people, that those critics are wrong.

“The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong again.

“The people who bet against Britain are going to lose their shirts, because we’re going to restore trust in our democracy.

“And we’re going to fulfil the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the EU on October the 31^st, no ifs or buts.

“And we will do a new deal, a better deal that will maximise the opportunities of Brexit whole allowing us to develop a new and exciting partnership with the rest of Europe base don free trade and mutual support.

“I have every confidence that in 99 days’ time we will have cracked it, but you know what, we aren’t going to wait 99 days because the British people have had enough of waiting.

“The time has come to act, to take decisions, to give strong leadership and to change this country for the better.”