London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Conservative conference: Boris Johnson vows to get on with job of rebuilding UK

Conservative conference: Boris Johnson vows to get on with job of rebuilding UK

Boris Johnson has promised to "get on with the job" of uniting and levelling up the UK, in a speech to the Conservative Party conference.

In an upbeat address peppered with jokes, but light on new policy, the prime minister claimed a high-wage, high-skilled economy was being created in the wake of Brexit and the pandemic.

He also defended tax rises to pay for the NHS and vowed to fix social care.

The 45-minute speech was his first to a conference since the pandemic began.

In it, the prime minister said the overwhelming Conservative general election victory in 2019 placed an onus on his government to deliver change demanded by voters.

The main theme of his speech was "levelling up", with the PM saying that reducing gaps between regions would ease pressure on south-eastern England, while boosting places that felt left behind.

He also repeated pledges set out at during his party's conference this week in Manchester to crack down on crime, improve transport links and broadband, and reform the housing market.

And he sought to reassure Tories anxious about plans to increase National Insurance to pay for the NHS and social care by claiming it was what predecessor Margaret Thatcher would have done, if the economy had been hit by a "meteorite" like the pandemic.

"She would have wagged her finger and said that more borrowing now is just higher interest rates and even higher taxes later," he said.

An unflinchingly upbeat vision

Boris Johnson is an optimist.

The prime minister wants a new economic model with better pay and conditions. He wants to persuade voters his is the party to distribute wealth and opportunity more evenly across the UK. He wants people to feel good about the future.

Levelling up has been the slogan repeated by ministers at this conference. We only got a sliver of meat on the bones today. This was a speech thin on policy, big on jokes and rhetorical flourishes.

Conservatives love Mr Johnson because he makes them feel good - it's a strategy that is key to understanding his success as a politician.

But will it be enough? There are some difficult months ahead for many people.

Rising prices, supply chain issues, the end of the universal credit top-up and furlough.

Many Conservatives acknowledge the cost of living squeeze - and are worried about the impact.

Critics will accuse the prime minister of ignoring those big issues in favour of what they see as vague promises for the future.

But the hope in Manchester was that Boris Johnson's unflinchingly upbeat vision of a post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain is as popular with voters as it is with Tory activists.

The Conservative conference has taken place amid concerns over rising inflation, supply chain problems, and petrol and worker shortages.

But Mr Johnson insisted that the present problems were the result of an economic rebound in the wake of Covid shutdowns.

He added that controls on immigration represented the "change that people voted for" in the 2016 Brexit referendum, while also promising to end declining home ownership among young people by building more housing.

He announced a £3,000-a-year bonus for teachers, as an incentive for struggling areas of England to recruit maths and science specialists. The policy replaces a similar nationwide scheme that has recently been phased out.

Downing Street said the new "levelling up premium" would cost £60m, but no details have yet been given over which areas will qualify.

"There is no reason why the inhabitants of one part of the country should be geographically fated to be poorer than others," Mr Johnson said.

"You will find talent, genius, flair, imagination, enthusiasm - all of them evenly distributed around this country. But opportunity is not."

Mr Johnson referred to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, who was recently photographed dancing in an Aberdeen nightclub, as "Jon Bon Govi" - an allusion to the rock star Jon Bon Jovi.

He also mocked Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, whom he has frequently dubbed "Captain Hindsight".

"If Columbus had listened to Captain Hindsight, he'd be famous for discovering Tenerife," he joked.

But Sir Keir accused Mr Johnson of "playing this game where he's pretending that he's just sort of just landed from the Moon and he's looking around and saying, 'Things look pretty awful around here, we need a bit of levelling up, things are so awful'".

He told ITV's Peston programme: "He and the Tories have been in government for 11 years, so we're in this state because of the way that they have governed the country."

The CBI business lobby group said Mr Johnson said set out a "compelling vision" but had so far "only stated his ambition" on raising wages.

Shevaun Haviland, who heads the British Chambers of Commerce, said firms supported the aim of a higher-wage, higher-skill economy but warned: "This will not happen overnight."


Boris Johnson says he wants a "high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity, and low tax economy"

Dehenna Davison has been MP for Bishop Auckland since 2019


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×