boris johnson speech transcript

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Boris Johnson's final speech as Prime Minister: 6 September 2022

Boris Johnson gave his final speech as Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street.

Boris Johnson’s final speech as Prime Minister

Well this is it folks

thanks to all of you for coming out so early this morning

In only a couple of hours from now I will be in Balmoral to see Her Majesty The Queen

and the torch will finally be passed to a new Conservative leader

the baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race

they changed the rules half-way through but never mind that now

and through that lacquered black door a new Prime Minister will shortly go to meet a fantastic group of public servants

the people who got Brexit done

the people who delivered the fastest vaccine roll out in Europe

and never forget - 70 per cent of the entire population got a dose within 6 months, faster than any comparable country

that is government for you – that’s this conservative government

the people who organised those prompt early supplies of weapons to the heroic Ukrainian armed forces,

an action that may very well have helped change the course of the biggest European war for 80 years

And because of the speed and urgency of what you did – everybody involved in this government

to get this economy moving again from July last year in spite of all opposition, all the naysayers

we have and will continue to have that economic strength

to give people the cash they need to get through this energy crisis that has been caused by Putin’s vicious war

And  I know that Liz Truss and this compassionate Conservative government will do everything we can to get people through this crisis

And this country will endure it and we will win

and if Putin thinks that he can succeed by blackmailing or bullying the British people then he is utterly deluded

and the reason we will have those funds now and in the future is because we Conservatives understand the vital symmetry between government action

and free market capitalist private sector enterprise

we are delivering on those huge manifesto commitments

making streets safer – neighbourhood crime down 38 per cent in the last three years

13,790 more police on the streets

building more hospitals – and yes we will have 50,000 more nurses by the end of this parliament and 40 more hospitals by the end of the decade

putting record funding into our schools and into teachers’ pay

giving everyone over 18 a lifetime skills guarantee so they can keep upskilling throughout their lives

3 new high speed rail lines including northern powerhouse rail

colossal road programmes from the Pennines to Cornwall,

the roll-out of gigabit broadband up over the last three years, since you were kind enough to elect me, up from 7 per cent of our country’s premises having gigabit broadband to 70 per cent today.

And we are of course providing the short and the long term solutions for our energy needs

and not just using more of our own domestic hydrocarbons but going up by 2030 to 50 GW of wind power, that is half this country’s energy electricity needs from offshore wind

alone, a new nuclear reactor every year

and looking at what is happening in this country, the changes that are taking place,

that is why the private sector is investing more venture capital investment than China itself

more billion pound tech companies sprouting here than in France, Germany and Israel combined

and as a result unemployment as I leave office, down to lows not seen since I was about ten years old and bouncing around on a space hopper

and on the subject of bouncing around and future careers

let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function

and I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the pacific

And like Cincinnatus I am returning to my plough

and I will be offering this government nothing but the most fervent support

this is a tough time for the economy

this is a tough time for families up and down the country

we can and we will get through it and we will come out stronger the other side but I say to my fellow Conservatives it is time for the politics to be over folks

and it’s time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her programme

and deliver for the people of this country

because that is what the people of this country want, that’s what they need and that’s what they deserve

I am proud to have discharged the promises I made my party when you were kind enough to choose me,

winning the biggest majority since 1987 and the biggest share of the vote since 1979.

delivering Brexit

delivering our manifesto commitments – including social care

helping people up and down the country

ensuring that Britain is once again standing tall in the world

speaking with clarity and authority

from Ukraine to the AUKUS pact with America and Australia

because we are one whole and entire United Kingdom whose diplomats, security services and armed forces are so globally admired

and as I leave I believe our union is so strong that those who want to break it up, will keep trying but they will never ever succeed

thank you to everyone behind me in this building for looking after me and my family over the last three years so well including Dilyn, the dog

and if Dilyn and Larry can put behind them their occasional difficulties, then so can the Conservative party

and above all thanks to you, the British people, to the voters for giving me the chance to serve

all of you who worked so tirelessly together to beat covid to put us where we are today

Together we have laid foundations that will stand the test of time

whether by taking back control of our laws or putting in vital new infrastructure

great solid masonry on which we will continue to build together

paving the path of prosperity now & for future generations

and I will be supporting Liz Truss and our new government every step of the way.

Thank you all very much.

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Text of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation speech

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to media next to 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, July 7, 2022. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to resign, his office said Thursday, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralyzed Britain’s government. An official in Johnson’s Downing Street office confirmed the prime minister would announce his resignation later. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

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LONDON (AP) — Here is the full text of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation speech, delivered Thursday outside 10 Downing St:

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.

“And I’ve agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.

“And I’ve today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.

“So I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019, many of them voting Conservative for the first time: Thank you for that incredible mandate, the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979.

“And the reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.

“And of course, I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government, from getting Brexit done to settling our relations with the continent for over half a century, reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in Parliament, getting us all through the pandemic, delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the fastest exit from lockdown, and in the last few months, leading the West in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.

“And let me say now, to the people of Ukraine, that I know that we in the U.K. will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes.

“And at the same time in this country, we’ve been pushing forward a vast program of investment in infrastructure and skills and technology — the biggest in a century. Because if I have one insight into human beings, it is that genius and talent and enthusiasm and imagination are evenly distributed throughout the population.

“But opportunity is not, and that’s why we must keep levelling up, keep unleashing the potential ever every part of the United Kingdom. And if we can do that, in this country, we will be the most prosperous in Europe.

“And in the last few days, I tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in mid-term after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally.

“And I regret not to have been successful in those arguments and of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.

“But as we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves.

“And my friends in politics, no-one is remotely indispensable and our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times.

“Not just helping families to get through it, but changing and improving the way we do things, cutting burdens on businesses and families and yes, cutting taxes, because that is the way to generate the growth and the income we need to pay for great public services.

“And to that new leader, I say whoever he or she may be, I say I will give you as much support as I can. And to you, the British public.

“I know that there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world.

“But them’s the breaks.

“I want to thank Carrie and our children, and all the members of my family who have had to put up with so much for so long.

“I want to thank the peerless British civil service for all the help and support that you have given our police, our emergency services and, of course, our fantastic NHS, who at critical moment, helped to extend my own period in office, as well as our armed services and our agencies that are so admired around the world.

“And our indefatigable Conservative Party members and supporters whose selfless campaigning makes our democracy possible. I want to thank the wonderful staff here at Chequers – here at Number 10, and of course at Chequers. And our fantastic prot force (protection force) detectives, the one group by the way, who never leak.

“Above all, I want to thank you, the British public, for the immense privilege that you have given me and I want you to know that from now on until the new prime minister is in place, your interests will be served and the government of the country will be carried on.

“Being prime minister is an education in itself. I have traveled to every part of the United Kingdom and, in addition to the beauty of our natural world, I have found so many people possessed of such boundless British originality and so willing to tackle old problems in new ways that I know that even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden.

“Thank you all very much. Thank you.”

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Boris Johnson's speech in full: 'the fight against Covid is by no means over'

Read the full text of the UK prime minister’s address to the nation on Tuesday 22 September

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Good evening, the struggle against Covid is the single biggest crisis the world has faced in my lifetime.

In less than a year this disease has killed almost a million people, and caused havoc to economies everywhere.

Here in the UK we mourn every person we have lost, and we grieve with their families.

And yet I am more certain than ever that this is a struggle that humanity will win, and we in this country will win – and to achieve what we must I want to talk to you directly tonight about the choices that we face, none of them easy, and why we must take action now.

I know that we can succeed because we have succeeded before.

When the sickness took hold in this country in March, we pulled together in a spirit of national sacrifice and community. We followed the guidance to the letter. We stayed at home, protected the NHS, and saved thousands of lives.

And for months with those disciplines of social distancing we have kept that virus at bay.

But we have to acknowledge this this is a great and freedom-loving country; and while the vast majority have complied with the rules there have been too many breaches – too many opportunities for our invisible enemy to slip through undetected.

The virus has started to spread again in an exponential way . Infections are up, hospital admissions are climbing.

We can see what is happening in France and Spain, and we know, alas, that this virus is no less fatal than it was in the spring, and that the vast majority of our people are no less susceptible, and the iron laws of geometrical progression are shouting at us from the graphs that we risk many more deaths, many more families losing loved ones before their time.

And I know that faced with that risk the British people will want their government to continue to fight to protect them, you, and that is what we are doing, night and day. And yet the single greatest weapon we bring to this fight is the common sense of the people themselves – the joint resolve of this country to work together to suppress Covid now.

So today I set out a package of tougher measures in England – early closing for pubs, bars; table service only; closing businesses that are not Covid secure; expanding the use of face coverings, and new fines for those that fail to comply.

And once again asking office workers to work from home if they can while enforcing the “rule of six” indoors and outdoors – a tougher package of national measures combined with the potential for tougher local restrictions for areas already in lockdown. I know that this approach – robust but proportionate – already carries the support of all the main parties in parliament.

After discussion with colleagues in the devolved administrations, I believe this broad approach is shared across the whole UK. And to those who say we don’t need this stuff, and we should leave people to take their own risks, I say these risks are not our own.

The tragic reality of having Covid is that your mild cough can be someone else’s death knell.

And as for the suggestion that we should simply lock up the elderly and the vulnerable – with all the suffering that would entail – I must tell you that this is just not realistic, because if you let the virus rip through the rest of the population it would inevitably find its way through to the elderly as well, and in much greater numbers.

That’s why we need to suppress the virus now, and as for that minority who may continue to flout the rules, we will enforce those rules with tougher penalties and fines of up to £10,000 . We will put more police out on the streets and use the army to backfill if necessary.

And of course I am deeply, spiritually reluctant to make any of these impositions, or infringe anyone’s freedom, but unless we take action the risk is that we will have to go for tougher measures later, when the deaths have already mounted and we have a huge caseload of infection such as we had in the spring.

If we let this virus get out of control now, it would mean that our NHS had no space – once again – to deal with cancer patients and millions of other non-Covid medical needs.

And if we were forced into a new national lockdown, that would threaten not just jobs and livelihoods but the loving human contact on which we all depend.

It would mean renewed loneliness and confinement for the elderly and vulnerable, and ultimately it would threaten once again the education of our children. We must do all we can to avoid going down that road again.

But if people don’t follow the rules we have set out, then we must reserve the right to go further. We must take action now because a stitch in time saves nine; and this way we can keep people in work, we can keep our shops and our schools open, and we can keep our country moving forward while we work together to suppress the virus.

That is our strategy, and if we can follow this package together, then I know we can succeed because in so many ways we are better prepared than before.

We have the PPE, we have the beds, we have the Nightingales, we have new medicines – pioneered in this country – that can help save lives.

And though our doctors and our medical advisers are rightly worried about the data now, and the risks over winter, they are unanimous that things will be far better by the spring, when we have not only the hope of a vaccine, but one day soon – and I must stress that we are not there yet – of mass testing so efficient that people will be able to be tested in minutes so they can do more of the things they love. That’s the hope; that’s the dream. It’s hard, but it’s attainable, and we are working as hard as we can to get there.

But until we do, we must rely on our willingness to look out for each other, to protect each other. Never in our history has our collective destiny and our collective health depended so completely on our individual behaviour.

If we follow these simple rules together, we will get through this winter together. There are unquestionably difficult months to come.

And the fight against Covid is by no means over. I have no doubt, however, that there are great days ahead.

But now is the time for us all to summon the discipline, and the resolve, and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through.

• Boris Johnson
• Coronavirus

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Transcript: Boris Johnson’s election victory speech in full

Conservative prime minister thanks voters who switched from Labour as he promises to ‘get Brexit done’.

Here is Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s victory speech in full:

“Good morning, everybody – well, we did it – we pulled it off, didn’t we?

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“We broke the deadlock, we ended the gridlock, we smashed the roadblock and 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 election just gone by.

“And of course I want to congratulate absolutely everybody involved in securing the biggest Conservative majority since the 1980s.

“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?”

(crowd shouts “Get Brexit done!”)

“You’ve been paying attention. Because this election means that getting Brexit done is now the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people.

“And with this election, I think we’ve put an end to all those miserable threats of a second referendum.

“And I say respectfully, 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 those who voted for us Conservatives, one-nation Conservatives for the first time.

“You may only have lent us your vote and you may not think of yourself as a natural Tory.

“And 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.

“And if that is the case, I am humbled that you have put your trust in me, and that you have put your trust in us. And I, and we, will never take your support for granted.

“And I will make it my mission to work night and day, flat out, to prove you right in voting for me this time, and to earn your support in the future. And 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 years, three and a half years, in squabbles about Brexit – we’ve even been arguing about arguing, and about the tone of our arguments.

“And I will put an end to all that nonsense, and we will get Brexit done on time by the 31st of 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.

“And, 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 every day that service performs miracles.

“And that is why the NHS is this one-nation Conservative Government’s top priority.

“And so we will deliver 50,000 more nurses, and 50 million more GP surgery appointments and how many new hospitals?”

(Crowd shouts “40!”)

“And we will deliver a long-term NHS budget enshrined in law, 650 million pounds extra every week, health secretary.

“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?”

(Crowd shouts “20,000!”)

“Colossal new investments in infrastructure, in science, using our incredible 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 will 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’s our solemn duty to deliver on each and every one of those commitments and it is a great and a 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 votes and the trust of people who have never voted Conservative before and people have always voted for other parties. Those people want change. We cannot, must not, must not, let them down.

“And 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.

“And as the nation hands us this historic mandate we must rise to the challenge and to the level of expectations.

“And Parliament must change so that we in Parliament are working for you the British people.

“And that is what we will now do, isn’t it? That is what we will now do. Let’s go out, let’s go 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 too.

“Thank you all, thank you all very much for coming, thank you all very much, thank you all, thank you, thank you.” 

Transcript from Press Association.

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Full text: Boris Johnson’s resignation speech

• 7 July 2022, 12:00pm

Boris Johnson

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you. It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister. And I’ve agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week. I’ve today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place. 

So I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019, many of them voting conservative for the first time. Thank you for that incredible mandate. The biggest conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979. And the reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019. 

‘I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks’

Of course, I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government from getting Brexit done to settling our relations with the continent for over half a century, reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in Parliament. Getting us all through the pandemic. Delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the fastest exit from lockdown. And in the last few months, leading the West in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. 

And let me say now to the people of Ukraine that I know that we in the UK will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes. And at the same time in this country we’ve been pushing forward a vast programme of investment in infrastructure and skills and technology, the biggest in a century. Because if I had one insight into human beings, it is the genius and talent and enthusiasm and imagination are evenly distributed throughout the population, but opportunity is not. That’s why we must keep levelling up, keep unleashing the potential of every part of the United Kingdom. And if we can do that in this country, we will be the most prosperous in Europe. 

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In the last few days, I’ve tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in mid-term, after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging. And when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally, and I regret not to have been successful in those arguments. 

Of course, it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself. But as we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful. And when the herd moves, it moves. And my friends, in politics, no one is remotely indispensable, and our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times, not just helping families to get through it, but changing and improving the way we do things. Cutting burdens on businesses and families and yes, cutting taxes, because that is the way to generate the growth and the income we need to pay for great public services. 

To that new leader, I say, whoever he or she may be, I say, I will give you as much support as I can. And to you, the British public. I know that there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks. 

I want to thank Carrie and our children, and all the members of my family who have had to put up with so much for so long. I want to thank the peerless British civil service for all the help and support that you have given our police, our emergency services and of course our fantastic NHS who at critical moment helped to extend my own period in office as well as our armed services and our agencies that are so admired around the world and our indefatigable Conservative party members and supporters whose selfless campaigning makes our democracy possible. I want to thank the wonderful staff here at No. 10 and of course at Chequers and our fantastic protection force detectives. The one group, by the way, who never leak. 

Above all, I want to thank you, the British public, for the immense privilege that you have given me. I want you to know that from now on, until the new Prime Minister is in place, your interests will be served. And the government of the country will be carried on. Being Prime Minister is an education in itself. I’ve travelled to every part of the United Kingdom, and in addition to the beauty of our natural world, I find so many people possessed of such boundless British originality and so willing to tackle old problems in new ways that I know that even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden. Thank you all very much. 

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Former UK PM Boris Johnson praises UAE in summit speech

The world future energy summit is taking place in abu dhabi.

Nigel Farage hits out at 'cancel culture' after police move to shut down conference

The National Conservatism Conference in Brussels was shut down as Nigel Farage started speaking, with the local mayor saying the far-right "aren't welcome".

Political reporter @fayebrownSky

Tuesday 16 April 2024 18:51, UK

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Nigel Farage has hit out at "cancel culture" after officers moved to shut down the National Conservatism conference in Brussels.

Local officials arrived as the former Brexit Party leader was finishing a speech at the event, which is also due to hear from Hungary's pro-Putin leader Viktor Orban and two Conservative MPs.

Politics Live: Police turn up at conference while Nigel Farage on stage

Emir Kir, the mayor of Brussels district Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, said he had issued an order banning the conference from taking place on Tuesday "to guarantee public safety".

He added: "In Etterbeek, in Brussels City and in Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome."

Tory MP Suella Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary last year, was also due to speak on Tuesday, as well as Conservative MP Miriam Cates.

Conference organisers said they were launching a legal challenge to Mr Kir's order, adding: "There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens.

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"The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?"

Police officers arrived two hours into the event near the city's European Quarter to inform organisers it must close.

Officers did not appear to force the event to shut down and speeches continued.

Sky's political correspondent Darren McCaffery, who is at the scene, said police initially told the venue owner that if the building isn't evacuated they will start removing people.

However, they later said they "would not be dragging people out" and instead the tactic was to stop anyone new from entering the venue.

He said this is the third venue chosen by conference organisers, after two others cancelled at the last minute "due to political pressure".

Police 'shutting down ideology'

Mr Farage said the conference attendees were "respectable people" and "there's no protest of significance" happening against it.

"It's about closing down an ideology," he told Sky News.

Read More: The actions of Brussels' authorities only helped those arguing against cancel culture What are the Tory renegade gatherings and how much of a threat do they pose to Sunak

Speaking to broadcasters as he left the venue, he said it would be closing down shortly and "I decided to make a discreet exit".

"I'm not going to stay when the police storm the place and get everybody out. I'm not going to get involved in a fight."

He added that he had "personally" experienced cancel culture in Brussels, such as restaurants and pubs refusing to service him, but now "global media" can see it happening.

Ms Braverman accused police of trying to "undermine and denigrate" free speech, saying she was there to talk about "issues that matter", including border security.

Rishi Sunak had faced pressure to block her attendance at the conference, with Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth urging him to stop the former home secretary "giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals".

Downing Street later said it was "extremely disturbing" that the conference was shut down, citing freedom of speech.

National Conservatism is a global, right-wing movement which claims that traditional values are being "undermined and overthrown".

Under Boris Johnson's government in 2020, Conservative backbencher Daniel Kawczynski was reprimanded for attending a National Conservatism conference in Rome, with a Tory spokesman condemning the views of some other speakers, including Mr Orban.

Both Ms Braverman and Ms Cates addressed the National Conservatism conference in London last year, which was disrupted by protesters.

In her speech Ms Braverman claimed "it is not racist" to want control of our borders, while Ms Cates claimed that falling birth rates are "the one overarching threat.. to the whole of Western society" and that "cultural Marxism" was "destroying our children's souls".

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Mar 23, 2020

Boris Johnson Coronavirus Speech Transcript – Announces UK Lockdown: “You Must Stay at Home”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a very strict lockdown for the United Kingdom, saying British people should only leave home for basic necessities. The UK is closing all shops selling nonessential goods, and all gatherings of more than 2 people will be stopped. Read the full transcript here.

Boris Johnson: ( 00:16 ) Good evening. The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades, and this country is not alone. All over the world, we’re seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer. Tonight, I want to update you on the latest steps we’re taking to fight the disease and what you can do to help. I want to begin by reminding you why the UK has been taking the approach that we have.

Boris Johnson: ( 00:43 ) Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment where no health service in the world could possibly cope, because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses. As we’ve seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic healthcare systems, that is the moment of real danger. To put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to handle it, meaning more people are likely to die, not just from coronavirus but from other illnesses as well. So it’s vital to slow the spread of the disease because that is the way we reduce the number of people needing hospital treatment at any one time so we can protect the NHS’s ability to cope and save more lives. That’s why we’ve been asking people to stay at home during this pandemic. Though huge numbers are complying, and I thank you all, the time has now come for us all to do more.

Boris Johnson: ( 01:56 ) From this evening, I must give the British people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home, because the critical thing we must do to stop the disease spreading between households. That is why people will only be allowed to leave their home for the following very limited purposes: Shopping for basic necessities as infrequently as possible; one form of exercise a day, for example, a run, walk, or cycle alone or with members of your household; any medical need to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; and traveling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home. That’s all. These are the only reasons you should leave your home. You should not be meeting friends. If your friends ask you to meet, you should say no. You should not be meeting family members who do not live in your home. You should not be going shopping except for essentials like food and medicine, and you should do this as little as you can and use food delivery services where you can.

Boris Johnson: ( 03:12 ) If you don’t follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and disbursing gatherings. To ensure compliance with the government’s instruction to stay at home, we will immediately close all shops selling non-essential goods, including clothing and electronics stores and other premises, including libraries, playgrounds, and outdoor gyms and places of worship. We’ll stop all gatherings of more than two people in public, excluding people you live with. And we’ll stop all social events including weddings, baptisms, and other ceremonies, but excluding funerals. Parks will remain open for exercise, but gatherings will be dispersed.

Boris Johnson: ( 04:05 ) No prime minister wants to enact measures like this. I know the damage that this disruption is doing and will do to people’s lives, to their businesses, and to their jobs. That’s why we’ve produced a huge and unprecedented program of support, both for workers and for business. I can assure you that we will keep these restrictions under constant review. We will look again in three weeks and relax them if the evidence shows we are able to. But at present, there are just no easy options. The way ahead is hard, and it is still true that many lives will sadly be lost.

Boris Johnson: ( 04:52 ) And yet it is also true that there is a clear way through. Day-by-day we are strengthening our amazing NHS with 7,500 former clinicians now coming back to the service. With the time you buy, by simply staying at home, we are increasing our stocks of equipment, we are accelerating our search for treatments, we’re pioneering work on a vaccine, and we are buying millions of testing kits that will enable us to turn the tide on this invisible killer.

Boris Johnson: ( 05:25 ) I want to thank everyone who is working flat out to beat the virus, everyone from the supermarket staff to the transport workers, to the carers, to the nurses and doctors on the frontline. But in this fight, we can be in no doubt that each and every one of us is directly enlisted. Each and every one of us is now obliged to join together, to halt the spread of this disease, to protect our NHS, and to save many, many thousands of lives. I know that as they have in the past so many times, the people of this country will rise to that challenge, and we will come through it stronger than ever. We will beat the coronavirus, and we will beat it together. Therefore, I urge you at this moment of national emergency to stay at home, protect our NHS, and save lives. Thank you.

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Prosecutions of Fake Electors for Trump Gain Ground in Swing States

Georgia, Michigan and Nevada have already brought charges against people who posed as electors for Donald Trump, and Arizona and Wisconsin have active investigations.

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By Danny Hakim

The chairman of the Nevada Republican Party has been indicted . So has the former chairman of the Georgia G.O.P. In Michigan, a former co-chairwoman of the state party is facing charges.

As Donald J. Trump goes on trial in the New York criminal case, other investigations and prosecutions in five crucial swing states are continuing to scrutinize the steps that he and his allies took in trying to circumvent the will of voters after the 2020 election.

The investigations focus largely on the plan to deploy fake electors in states that Mr. Trump lost. Documents emerging from the state cases highlight divisions among Trump advisers after the 2020 election about whether to use hedging language in the phony certificates that they sent to Washington purporting to designate electoral votes for Mr. Trump. They also undercut claims by some Trump aides that they played little role in the fake-electors plan.

Georgia, Michigan and Nevada have already brought charges against a total of 25 fake electors, including current and former Republican Party leaders in those states. The Georgia case, led by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, has gone further, bringing charges against Mr. Trump himself and a number of his advisers.

Investigations are also playing out in Wisconsin as well as in Arizona, where the state attorney general, Kris Mayes, is expected to bring charges soon. Grand jury subpoenas were recently issued to the people who acted as fake electors in Arizona, including Kelli Ward, a former state Republican chairwoman. Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign official who is already facing charges in Georgia, is also among those subpoenaed in the Arizona case.

There are so many state investigations going on that “they all kind of run together,” said Manny Arora, a lawyer for Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of the fake-electors plan who has emerged as a key witness in the investigations.

“Most of the jurisdictions are keeping it local and leaving the big stuff to the feds,” Mr. Arora said, adding that he did not expect most of the state cases to “be quite as sweeping as Georgia.”

Evidence has also emerged from state civil suits brought on behalf of legitimate 2020 electors for Mr. Biden, and from the federal case brought by Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Mr. Trump.

The state-level inquiries are being led by Democrats, with one exception. Pete Skandalakis, a Republican who leads a nonpartisan state agency in Georgia, said last week that he would investigate Lt. Gov. Burt Jones over his role as a fake elector. Ms. Willis was disqualified from investigating Mr. Jones because she had hosted a fund-raiser for one of Mr. Jones’s political opponents.

Whether any of the cases will significantly affect Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign is unclear. The former president’s most immediate legal challenge is the criminal trial that began this week in Manhattan, focusing on hush-money payments made to a pornographic film star, Stormy Daniels.

In the election interference cases, lawyers for Mr. Trump and other defendants have generally not disputed the evidence, choosing instead to challenge the investigations on free speech, immunity or procedural grounds.

But Mr. Trump’s legal team continues to fall under scrutiny as well. One of his top lawyers, Boris Epshteyn, was closely involved in the fake-electors effort, his emails and texts show. (“Does VP have ultimate authority on which slate of electors should be chosen?” Mr. Epshteyn texted to Mr. Chesebro on Dec. 12, 2020, as the plan was germinating.)

Mr. Trump has depicted himself as the victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy, and has made his legal travails a focus of his campaign. During Easter, he circulated a story likening his legal challenges to the trials of Jesus.

Many of those who tried to keep Mr. Trump in power after the 2020 election remain defiant. Anthony Kern, a state lawmaker in Arizona who served as a fake elector there, said late last year that “there’s no such thing as fake electors.”

Others have expressed contrition. Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who worked for the Trump campaign, tearfully apologized last October when she pleaded guilty to a felony in Atlanta, telling a judge that she looked back “on this experience with deep remorse.”

A few weeks later, in Michigan, a fake Trump elector and former state trooper named James Renner told state investigators that he came to regret his actions in 2020 after learning more about what happened.

“I felt that I had been walked into a situation that I shouldn’t have ever been involved in,” he said in an interview with investigators from the Michigan attorney general’s office, according to a transcript obtained by The New York Times . Charges against Mr. Renner were dropped and he agreed to cooperate.

Mr. Chesebro, who pleaded guilty to a felony last year in Georgia, later told investigators in Michigan that he had been misled by the Trump campaign and had not known that it was “trying to create chaos in state legislatures.”

He said he had been financially devastated by legal fees.

“It’s been a real, a lesson in not working with people that you don’t know and you’re not sure you can trust,” Mr. Chesebro told the Michigan investigators, according to a recording of his interview with them that has been reported previously by CNN. “I ended up losing. I had a wonderful apartment in New York City I had to sell for a $2 million loss, and lost almost all my net worth because of the attorney bill.”

In December, Andrew Hitt, who was head of the Wisconsin Republican Party during the 2020 election, told a local ABC affiliate that he and other fake electors “were tricked” by the Trump campaign and thought they were only acting as a contingency, in case litigation succeeded.

Those Wisconsin fake electors agreed in a recent civil settlement that the document they signed was “used as part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results” and they said they would cooperate with the Justice Department.

Wisconsin officials have yet to confirm publicly that they are investigating fake electors. But Mr. Chesebro was interviewed on the subject last year by the office of Josh Kaul, the state attorney general, according to Mr. Arora.

None of the cases are likely to be resolved before the November election. A trial in Nevada, where charges were brought in December , has been delayed until next year. In Michigan, the case is still in the pretrial hearing phase.

Ms. Willis was the first to start an investigation, charging 19 people in August in a wide-ranging racketeering case. But she has been slowed by the scope of her case, and by a recent attempt by the defense to have her disqualified because of her romantic relationship with a lawyer she hired to oversee the case.

Mr. Chesebro’s communications continue to surface. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, he believed there was “voluminous evidence in multiple states of a rigged election,” as he said in one email, but he had trouble persuading some whose support he sought that any such evidence existed. He sent anonymous direct messages to James Widgerson, then editor of a conservative Wisconsin website, to tell him about an election fraud hearing led by Senator Ron Johnson, a staunch Trump ally. Mr. Widgerson replied: “I cannot roll my eyes that far.”

Mr. Chesebro did repeatedly seek to insert language into the phony Electoral College certificates that were drafted for the slates of fake electors to make clear they were only meant as a contingency, in case legal challenges to Mr. Biden’s 2020 victory succeeded. Mr. Chesebro texted Mr. Roman, the Trump campaign official, and said he thought that the language “should be changed in all the states.”

“I don’t,” Mr. Roman replied.

Mr. Chesebro added that he could help draft the language, but Mr. Roman replied with a dismissive expletive.

The contingency language was ultimately included only in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, and it appears to have headed off prosecution of the fake electors in those states. New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, cited the contingency language in January after declining to bring charges.

“By the time the Trump campaign contacted New Mexico’s fake electors, the campaign had added conditional language to the certificate,” Mr. Torrez wrote in a January letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Because of that, he added, “there is not enough evidence” in “support of a charge of forgery.”

Maggie Haberman and Richard Fausset contributed reporting.

Danny Hakim is an investigative reporter. He has been a European economics correspondent and bureau chief in Albany and Detroit. He was also a lead reporter on the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. More about Danny Hakim