Boris Johnson RECAP: Prime Minister pledges ‘high-wage, low-tax economy’ in Conservative conference speech | Science and maths teachers to benefit from 'levelling-up premium' | Johnson says reducing GP and NHS waiting times is now the ‘priority of British people’
and live on Freeview channel 276
Scroll down for all the updates as they happened...
Boris Johnson LIVE: Latest updates as Prime Minister addresses Conservative Party Conference
Key Events
- PM said he wants to “unleash” the “spirit” of the nation.
- Johnson critical of Labour’s performance during the pandemic
- Tory leader urges people to go back to their workplaces
- PM says it is only responsible to raise taxes to fund healthcare
- Johnson pledges more trees, increasing rape prosecutions, tackling people traffickers
The PM says Sir Keir Starmer is "Captain Hindsight... attacking one week then rowing in behind when it seemed to be working the human weather vane, the Starmer chameleon".
Boris Johnson joked about being unable to paint the door of No 10 Downing Street and shared an ambition of trying to “rewild” parts of the country as he welcomed otters and beavers returning to rivers.
“If that isn’t conservative, my friends, I don’t know what is – build back beaver, I say,” he said.
“Though the beavers may sometimes build without local authority permission, you can also see how much room there is to build the homes that young families need in this country.
“There is no happiness like taking a set of keys and knowing the place is yours, and you can paint the front door any colour you like.
“As it happens I can’t paint my own front door any colour I like – it has to be black – but I certainly don’t have to go far to work.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers his keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
Mr Johnson tells the conference the country is going “towards a high-wage, high-skill, high productivity and, yes, low tax economy”.
(Left-right) Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, Carrie Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel watch as Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers his keynote speech.
Boris Johnson announced a “levelling-up premium” worth up to £3,000 to encourage science and maths teachers to head to different areas of the country.
He said: “To level up, on top of the extra £14 billion we’re putting into education, on top of the increase that means every teacher starts with a salary of £30,000, we’re announcing today a levelling-up premium of up to £3,000 to send the best maths and science teachers to the places that need them most.”
Boris Johnson urged people to go back to their workplaces after working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He told the Tory conference: “As we come out of Covid, our towns and cities are going to be buzzing with life because we know that a productive workforce needs the spur that only comes with face-to-face meetings and water cooler gossip.
“If young people are to learn on the job in the way they always have and must, we will and must see people back in the office.”
Boris Johnson pledged to fight people-trafficking gangs at “home and abroad” as he took aim at the EU’s former Brexit negotiator and translated the Leave campaign’s “take back control” slogan into French.
Mr Johnson said: “Is it not a sublime irony that even in French politics there is now a leading centre-right politician calling for a referendum on the EU.
“Who is now calling for France to reprendre le controle? It’s good old Michel Barnier.
“That’s what happens if you spend a year trying to argue with Lord Frost, the greatest frost since the Great Frost of 1709.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers his keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
Boris Johnson backed Home Secretary Priti Patel’s targeting of environmental protesters in Insulate Britain.
The Prime Minister told the Tory conference: “You know those people gluing themselves to roads – I don’t call them legitimate protesters like some Labour councillors.
“I say they are a confounded nuisance who are blocking ambulances, stopping people going about their daily lives.
“I’m glad Priti is taking new powers to insulate them snuggly in prison where they belong.”