It has only been 100 days since Boris Johnson was chosen as Leader of the Conservative Party and became Prime Minister of our beloved United Kingdom. That might sound like a short time, but those 100 days were a period that had enough political activity for a decade.
Boris has brought new energy to the Brexit debate and we are now, against all the odds, at the precipice of our longed-for great escape from the European Union.
100 days ago, things were looking very different. Everyone in the Westminster bubble was claiming that his proposals were ridiculous. They said he wasn’t interested in a deal, that if he was he would never get one, and that even if he did get one he would never be able to get rid of the backstop or re-open the Withdrawal Agreement.
And yet, in the end, Boris’s words from his first speech proved prophetic: "the doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters - they are going to get it wrong again”. If we were keeping score, I think we would now have to put Boris One-Nil up against the gloomsters. They have been left with egg on their face!
With the country growing sick of Brexit indecisions and delay, Boris’s first priority was getting Brexit done as soon as possible. The obstructionists in parliament, utterly uninterested in respecting the referendum result, set about trying to block Boris at every turn.
They passed a bill which would force the Prime Minister to ask for an extension, in an attempt to undermine his negotiating position. They took to the courts to overturn his prorogation of parliament. And even now he has got a deal, they have prevented it being debated and passed cleanly before the 31st of October.
Maybe the reason that Oliver Letwin and others conspired to obstruct the deal, is because they cannot accept that they completely underestimated our Prime Minister.
Boris has managed to overcome the many obstacles put in front of him in his first 100 days, by both Parliament and Brussels, and has emerged as an impressive statesman.
While Remainers moaned and groaned in Parliament, Boris got down to negotiating, meeting with Leo Varadkar and travelling to Brussels to put pressure on the European Union. He succeeded, with the withdrawal agreement re-opened and the backstop removed. Boris returned triumphant to Parliament with a deal, which became the first Brexit outcome in 3 years to achieve a Commons majority.
The reason he was able to achieve that majority and unify the Conservative party was because he had finally secured a deal that delivered on the referendum result.
His deal gets Britain out of all EU laws, ends the supremacy of the European Court of Justice, takes back control of our borders and taxes, and enables us to strike new trade deals which the whole of the UK can benefit from.
And in his first 100 days, Boris has not just succeeded on the international stage. He has also set out an ambitious domestic policy agenda. He has announced a massive spending boost for the NHS, of £13bn. He’s set out plans to recruit 20,000 extra police officers by March. And on education, he has announced another massive spending increase which will ensure real terms rises in education funding for every pupil.
In just the short time of 100 days, Boris has unified his party, set out an ambitious national agenda and achieved a deal that will deliver what 17.4 million people voted for. I now feel sure the British people will get behind him in this upcoming general election campaign and enable him to build on his impressive start.
