Boris Johnson has claimed his time in Downing Street will bring about the “beginning of a new golden age”.
In his first address to the Commons, the prime minister set out his vision of a post-Brexit UK in 2050 as “the greatest and most prosperous economy in Europe, at the centre of a new network of trade deals”.
To cheers from the Tory benches, he repeated promises given during the Conservative leadership campaign to ditch the controversial Irish backstop while scaling up preparations for a no-deal Brexit
Mr Johnson also reiterated promises on policing, NHS investment, social care support, education spending and transport and housing investment.
And the former foreign secretary pledged a review of the immigration system while giving an “unequivocal guarantee” to protect the rights of the 3.2 million EU nationals currently resident in the UK.
He said: “By 2050 it is more than possible that the United Kingdom will be the greatest and most prosperous economy in Europe – at the centre of a new network of trade deals that we have pioneered.
“By unleashing the productive power of the whole United Kingdom – not just of London and the South East but of every corner of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – we will have closed forever the productivity gap and seen to it that no town is left behind ever again; no community ever again forgotten.”
On no-deal preparations, he said: “I hope that the EU will be equally ready and that they will rethink their current refusal to make any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement.
“If they do not, we will of course have to leave the EU without an agreement under Article 50.
“The UK is better prepared for that situation than many believe. But we are not as ready yet as we should be. In the 98 days that remain to us we must turbo-charge our preparations to make sure that there is as little disruption as possible to our national life.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Mr Johnson of assembling a “hard-right Cabinet” and said that he “overestimates himself”.
He said that Britain had been “held back” by nine years of austerity and opportunities for freedom had been “taken away”.
Responding to Mr Corbyn, Mr Johnson said: “A terrible metamorphosis has taken place – like the final scene of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, at last this longstanding eurosceptic has been captured, has been jugulated, has been reprogrammed by his friends.
“He has been turned now into a Remainer — and of all the flip-flops of the tergiversating career, that is the one for which he will pay the highest price.”
Later in the question session Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid sought reassurances that, as the UK comes out of the common fisheries policy, it would become an independent coastal state negotiating over waters on an annual basis.
Mr Johnson said he was “completely right”, adding: “We should be taking forward the plans that he suggests”.
