British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was yesterday to unveil his Conservative Party’s manifesto, pledging to move on from Brexit and austerity in a bid to secure a general election victory.
Having taken over a minority administration in July and unable to speed his EU divorce deal through British Parliament, Johnson is seeking a majority at the Dec. 12 snap general election.
He sees the UK’s third general election in four-and-a-half years as the only way to break the logjam on Brexit.
Having got the Brexit date delayed three months from Oct. 31 to Jan. 31, opposition parties backed his call for an early general election.
“I’m looking forward to sharing our manifesto,” Johnson said on Twitter on Saturday.
The Britain Elects poll aggregator put the Conservatives at 42 percent, ahead of the main opposition Labour at 29 percent, the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats at 15 percent, the Brexit Party at 6 percent and the Greens at 3 percent.
The main plank of the Conservative manifesto is the Brexit deal Johnson negotiated with Brussels last month.
He has claimed that the treaty is “oven-ready” and good to go — as long as he can get a majority.
He insisted the deal would allow the UK to regain control over its laws, money and immigration policy.
However, Johnson has his weak spots, especially after the years of austerity imposed by Conservative governments since 2010.
He promised to end the years of reining in the budget deficit by pumping billions of pounds into public services.
Johnson has pledged to make the streets safer by recruiting 20,000 police officers.
He is also committed to increasing the British National Health Service (NHS) budget by ￡33.9 billion (US$43.5 billion) by 2023-2024, and has pledged to upgrade 20 hospitals and rebuild 40 over the next decade.
The Conservatives have also said 50 million more appointments in family doctors’ surgeries would be created every year if they win a majority.
Johnson has announced a three-year plan to increase state-school spending in England by ￡7.1 billion by 2022-2023.
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