And then, when he put it to MPs, they insisted on yet more delay.
We must move on. No more renegotiations. No more referendums. Every week is costing us. Investment is waiting to come into the country. Families and businesses cannot make vital decisions. The public services cannot get the attention they deserve.
Our priority as Conservatives is to get Brexit done – so that we can unleash the potential of this great country. So that we can push past the obstacles that other parties have put in our country’s way. So that we can deliver on the people’s decision in 2016 and use our new post-Brexit freedoms to transform the UK for the better by focusing on your priorities.
Now that we have elected a majority of Conservative MPs to Parliament, we will start putting our deal through Parliament before Christmas and we will leave the European Union in January.
Boris Johnson’s new deal takes the whole country out of the EU as one United Kingdom. It takes us out of the customs union, allowing us to set our own tariffs and do our own trade deals. It allows us to pass our own laws and ensures that it is our courts that enforce them
Our deal is the only one on the table. It is signed, sealed and ready. It puts the whole country on a path to a new free trade agreement with the EU. This will be a new relationship based on free trade and friendly cooperation, not on the EU’s treaties or EU law. There will be no political alignment with the EU. We will keep the UK out of the single market, out of any form of customs union, and end the role of the European Court of Justice.
This future relationship will be one that allows us to:
We will negotiate a trade agreement next year – one that will strengthen our Union – and we will not extend the implementation period beyond December 2020. In parallel, we will legislate to ensure high standards of workers’ rights, environmental protection and consumer rights.
We’ve helped millions of people into work, halving the unemployment rate. We’ve doubled the personal allowance to £12,500, meaning that every worker gets to keep more of what they earn. We’ve introduced and consistently raised the National Living Wage – and will raise it still further.
The strength of the UK’s balance sheet – the hard work done by all of us in this country – means that we are now in a position to invest properly in our future.
Our new majority Conservative Government will give the public services the resources they need, supporting our hospitals, our schools and our police. We will help people and families throughout their lives by bringing down the cost of living and making sure that work always pays.
We will keep costs down for small businesses – rather than hiking their taxes and crushing Britain’s prosperity.
We will not borrow to fund day-to-day spending, but will invest thoughtfully and responsibly in infrastructure right across our country in order to increase productivity and wages. Our fiscal rules mean that public sector net investment will not average more than 3 per cent of GDP, and that if debt interest reaches 6 per cent of revenue, we will reassess our plans to keep debt under control.
This means that debt will be lower at the end of this Parliament – rather than spiralling out of control as it would have done under Labour. And we will use this investment prudently and strategically to level up every part of the United Kingdom, while strengthening the ties that bind us together.
We will also prioritise the environment in the next Budget, investing in the infrastructure, science and research that will deliver economic growth, not just through the 2020s, but for decades to come.
Above all, we will listen to the people who have felt left behind by the last few decades of economic growth and want to have more control of their future.
We will get Brexit done, so we can unleash Britain’s potential.
