Boris Johnson today launched the Tory manifesto as he confirmed he will follow through on a threat to end the Brexit transition in 2020 – deal or no deal.
The Conservative Party leader made the solid threat as he vowed to deliver 50,000 more nurses for the NHS and bring back maintenance grants in a tub-thumping launch in Telford.
Mr Johnson said the document would “get Brexit done”.
But in a sign of bitter battles to come, the document pledges not to extend the implementation period for Brexit beyond December 2020.
Although Boris Johnson has said this before it is the first time it has appeared in black-and-white as a Tory manifesto pledge – binding a Conservative government.
And it realises Remainers’ worst fears that Britain could still crash out of the EU with no deal in a “trapdoor” on 31 December 2020 – even if Boris Johnson’s deal passes.
(Image: Dan Kitwood)
That is because the Tories’ plan gives the new Prime Minister just 11 months to secure a full-blown trade deal with the EU.
The manifesto claims: “We will start putting our deal through Parliament before Christmas and we will leave the European Union in January.”
And it claims the Tories will secure free trade agreements to cover 80% of UK trade within three years.
Those deals will start with the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan – plus the EU, despite the fact Brussels took seven years to negotiate a previous trade deal with Canada.
The manifesto also confirms the Tories are kicking any kind of long-term plan for social care into the long grass.
After the 2017 election was derailed by Theresa May’s ‘dementia tax’, the manifesto avoids committing to anything except promising “nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it.”
Instead it says the Tories will seek a cross-party consensus in Parliament.
There will however be an emergency sticking plaster of £1bn per year in extra funding for social care.
The manifesto does not mention fox hunting after Theresa May faced a huge backlash by pledging to hold a vote on bringing back the cruel bloodsport in 2017.
It promises a ban on trophy imports, an extension of the ivory ban to cover more species and a ban on keeping primates as pets. But it stops short of banning live animal exports altogether.
The manifesto also appears to stop short of any firm help for the 3.8million women who suffered a delay to their state pension age under changes in the last two decades.
Labour today pledged £57bn to offer repayments worth an average of £15,000 each to the ‘WASPI’ women – whose pension age was hiked to equalise it with men’s.
But Mr Johnson said on Friday that any changes would be “expensive” and he could not “magic” up the cash.
Mr Johnson said the manifesto would lead to a Britain where “the streets are safer” and “the air is cleaner”.
But several of his promises stopped short of what Labour would promise.
He pledged to scrap hospital parking charges for some vulnerable groups, including relatives of the terminally ill and staff on night shifts. Yet Labour would scrap them for all hospital patients and staff.
Boris Johnson opened his speech by saying other parties would keep the UK “stuck in the same rut”.
The Conservative Party has been in power for more than nine years.
This breaking news story is being updated.
