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Boris Johnson has promised to defeat Covid and build a better country over the next decade in his leader’s speech at the virtual conservative conference.
Evocating the UK’s recovery from World War II, he said he wanted to build a “new Jerusalem”, with opportunities for all, improved housing and health care.
He warned that the UK would not be able to return to normal after the pandemic, which would be a “catalyst” for a major change.
And he dismissed suggestions that he had “lost his mojo” as “nonsense.”
In his speech, delivered without the regular conference audience, he said he wanted to see the back of the coronavirus and the “erosion of freedoms” it had caused and see the country flourish again.
He said: “Even in the darkest moments we can see the bright future ahead. And we can see how to build it and we will build it together.”
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The prime minister praised the UK’s fight against the virus, saying he had had “more than enough” of the disease, which he insisted it would be overcome through a “collective effort”.
He insisted that the pandemic could not be allowed “to slow us down” and that the country that emerged from the crisis would be very different from the one that preceded it.
Insisting that “we will not settle for repair work” after the pandemic, he said the government:
- Make the UK a ‘world leader’ in green energy by announcing £ 160m investment in ports and factories to increase electricity generation from offshore wind.
- “Fix the injustice” of financing nursing homes, adding that the crisis had “highlighted” the difficult situation in the sector.
- Boost home construction through changes to England’s “sclerotic” planning system and improve access to low-deposit mortgages for first-time buyers
- Explore a greater offer of individualized instruction for students who had fallen behind during the pandemic or those with “exceptional abilities.”
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The prime minister said that wind power could generate enough electricity to power all UK homes by 2030.
Johnson said the pandemic had “forced” the government to massively expand the role of the state, but warned against drawing “the wrong economic conclusions from this crisis.”
He said that for conservatives, increased bailouts and subsidies to prop up the economy “go against our instincts” but “there simply was no reasonable alternative.”
“There are many who consider this state expansion to be progress, who want to maintain the support of the state forever, to keep the people in suspense,” he said.
“We conservatives believe that that road is in disaster and that we must rebuild better by becoming more competitive, both in tax and regulation.”
‘To do better’
Promising to rebuild the dream of homeownership for young people, he promised to help more people in their 20s to 30s get on the housing ladder by offering fixed-rate mortgages available to those with only 5% deposits.
He added: “In the depths of World War II, in 1942, when almost everything had gone wrong, the government outlined a vision of the new post-war Jerusalem that they wanted to build.
“And that’s what we are doing now – in the middle of this pandemic.
“We are resolving not to go back to 2019, but to do better: reform our system of government, renew our infrastructure, spread opportunities more broadly and fairly, and create the conditions for a dynamic recovery that is not led by the state but by free company “.
This was a virtual conference speech in which the prime minister’s gaze swept over the horizon, to the point where our national conversation is no longer dominated by the coronavirus.
Clearly, it was an attempt to reassure conservative MPs and activists that the Boris Johnson they chose as their leader, and who the country eagerly embraced as prime minister in the last election, had not disappeared.
So there were the colorful phrase twists, the phrases that would have generated laughter in the hallway, the reassurance that he had fully recovered from his attack of the virus.
And then it was the big picture: the agenda, along with the delivery of Brexit, which achieved that overwhelming majority in December of last year.
So: talk about business, talk about home ownership, a green-tinged economic recovery.
Was there less to this than a conventional conference address?
Yes: it was shorter, there was no audience, there was no razzmatazz.
It also delivered amid a pandemic, with a gloomy fall and winter, where the government, like the rest of us, remains hostage to fortune – or lack thereof – of what the pandemic could bring.
Johnson also addressed those who criticized his leadership during the pandemic, saying it was wrong to suggest that he had not fully recovered from his battle with the disease, which had him hospitalized for a week.
“I’ve read a lot of nonsense recently, about how my own fight with Covid has somehow stolen my mojo.
“And of course, this is blatant nonsense, the kind of seditious propaganda that you would expect from people who don’t want this government to succeed, who want to stop us from delivering Brexit and all of our other manifesto promises.”
He attacked the Labor response during the crisis, labeling its leader Sir Keir Starmer “Captain Hindsight”, and suggesting that the opposition saw the crisis as an opportunity to make the vast extent of the reach of the state a permanent feature of British life.
