PM says Conservative Party's outline 'gets it done' and 'allows us to move on'

LONDON - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scheduled to unveil his Conservative Party's manifesto on Sunday, pledging to move on from Brexit and austerity in a bid to secure a general election victory next month.

Having taken over a minority administration in July, he was unable to push his European Union divorce deal through Parliament. Johnson is now hoping for a majority for his party in the Dec 12 general election.

He sees Britain's third general election in four-and-a-half years as the only way to break the logjam on Brexit, which 52 percent of voters supported in the seismic 2016 referendum.

Having got the Brexit date delayed three months from Oct 31 to Jan 31, opposition parties then backed Johnson's call for an early general election.

"I'm looking forward to sharing our manifesto," Johnson tweeted on Saturday.

"We have developed a clear plan that respects the referendum, gets it done, and allows us to move on and focus on delivering real benefits for you and your family," he said.

The Britain Elects poll aggregator projects the Conservatives as winning 42 percent of the vote, ahead of the Labour main opposition with 29 percent, the staunchly anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats with 15 percent, the Brexit Party with 6 percent and the Greens with 3 percent.

The Conservatives have seen their popularity surge since Johnson took over from Theresa May four months ago.

The party also may be benefiting from Nigel Farage's Brexit Party withdrawing candidates from more than 300 seats being defended by the Conservatives.

Parliament's lower House of Commons contains 650 MPs.

Farage had been accused of risking splitting the pro-Brexit vote and allowing anti-Brexit candidates to win seats under Britain's first-past-the-post constituencies system.

Despite the poll lead, the election outcome remains uncertain and commentators call for caution, mindful that May had a huge poll lead in the 2017 general election which rapidly melted.

The main plank of the Conservative manifesto is the Brexit deal Johnson negotiated with Brussels in October. He claims the treaty is "oven-ready" and good to go - as long as he can get a majority of MPs to support him.

He insists the deal will allow Britain to regain control over its laws, money and immigration policy.

Neutral stance

Johnson's chief rival, left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, wants to renegotiate a new, softer Brexit agreement within three months and then put that to a referendum. Corbyn has said he would remain neutral in such a vote. In the meantime, he wants to delay the scheduled EU exit date from Jan 31 until the end of June.

Corbyn said at a campaign event on Saturday in Sheffield that "my role as the Labour prime minister would be to ensure that is carried out in a fair way, ... and that I will carry out the result of that referendum".

Johnson has blasted Corbyn for his strategy in refusing to commit to either his own proposed Brexit deal or to remaining in the European bloc.

However, Johnson has his own weak spots, especially after the years of austerity imposed by Conservative governments since 2010.

He promises 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 budget of the National Health Service, or NHS, by $43.5 billion in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, 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 was criticized by members of the public during a televised questions session on Friday over the Conservatives' handling of the NHS - but he insisted progress could only be made once the Brexit impasse is resolved.

On immigration, he wants to end freedom of movement with Britain for EU citizens and introduce an Australian-style pointsbased system of immigration.

Agencies

(China Daily 11/25/2019 page11)