THE NEW PM Boris Johnson, making his first speech outside the doors of 10 Downing Street yesterday at 4pm, denounced the ‘pessimists at home and abroad’.
Before Johnson went to see the Queen, leading Remainer members of May’s cabinet, Chancellor Hammond, EU Minister Lidington, Rory Stewart and Secretary of State for Justice David Gauke had put in their resignations.
Johnson blasted the ‘doubters, the gloomsters’ saying that they were wrong.
He predicted that, ‘The people who bet against Britain will lose their shirts.’
He continued: ‘I will take personal responsibility. The buck stops here.’
He added: ‘It’s time to unleash the productive power of the whole of the UK – the “awesome foursome” that is the whole of the UK.
‘To all those who continue to prophesy disaster, I say, “Yes there will be difficulties,” though I believe with energy and application they will be far less serious than some have claimed.
‘But if there is one thing that has really sapped the confidence of business over the past three years it’s not the decisions we have taken, it’s our refusal to take decisions.
‘To those who say we cannot be ready, I say do not underestimate this country.
‘Though I am today building a great team of men and women, I will take personal responsibility for the change I want to see.
‘Never mind the backstop, the buck stops here.’
Johnson added the union flag ‘stands for values, including equality and democracy.
‘That is why the government will deliver Brexit – people voted for it, and the decision must be respected.’
He continued he wants a ‘new partnership with the EU’.
He thanked EU nationals working in the UK.
‘Under this government, they will have the absolute right to remain.’
He said his message to the Irish is that he is ‘confident we can get a deal, without the undemocratic backstop’.
But we must prepare for the ‘remote possibility’ of there being no deal, he says.
He says, if there is no deal, ‘the UK will have its £39bn.’
Johnson says we should ‘look at the opportunities.’