YouSaid · the spoken record
Boris Johnson
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On the record 2019–2024
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“It is a straightforward prediction based on what we are currently committed to spending under the AUKUS and future combat air system programmes. They are gigantic commitments, which I think are the right thing for the UK, and they will take us up to that threshold. Of course, much depends on the size of our GDP at the time and the growth in the economy. My right hon. Friend asks how we will pay for it: we will pay for it out of steady and sustained economic growth, as I said to the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey).”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I can absolutely tell the hon. and learned Lady that not a single person said that the UK was in breach of international law. On the contrary, they said that we were helping the world to stand up against breaches of international law.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend speaks wisely on this matter, which he knows very well. We keep the actual numbers under constant review. The most important thing is that our troops are the best in the world but they also have to have the best equipment in the world, and that is what we are paying for.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to draw attention to the use of special drawing rights. We are supportive of using those for the benefit of people around the world who are currently finding things very tough.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that my hon. Friend has military experience himself, but what we are learning from Ukraine is the vital importance of having troops with a military operation that has 360° protection and the best possible equipment. That is a lesson that the Russians are learning to their cost themselves.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Lady is right to raise that. No, we are not looking at doing that. There are alternative solutions that do not involve the presence of UK or other warships in the Black sea, although they might involve a tougher approach. We are also looking at the possibility of using the rivers, particularly the Danube, and the railways to get the grain out in smaller quantities than we would be able to do with a giant maritime convoy through the Black sea. We are looking at all the options, including smaller packets of grain coming out in that way.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think the answer to that is yes, because every time we go to one of these summits and we think that the alliance is friable and that the strength of the pro-Ukrainian coalition is weak, people gravitate towards the centre and towards what the UK is saying because there is no alternative: Putin is not offering any kind of deal, and President Zelenskyy cannot do any kind of land-for-peace deal. There is no other option for us but to continue to support the Ukrainians in the way that we are, and that is why the unity remains so compelling.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman is right that we have to keep tightening the noose the whole time. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will help. It will give us new powers to seize crypto assets and new powers over money laundering. One thing he will have spotted at the G7, which was very important, was the new sanctions on Russian gold worth £13.5 billion, which I mentioned in my statement. That will hit them.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The answer is that the UK is making massive investments in Commonwealth countries. In the G7, the partnership for global infrastructure and investment helps developing countries around the world to move forward and to make the leap ahead to green technology, and to take investment from the UK—and not perhaps from others who are busier in getting them to pay their debts.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that the First Minister has asked for another referendum, and I just point out that we had one in 2014. Right now the priorities of the country should be rebuilding after covid and taking us forward together as a united country, and that is what we want to do.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I agree 100% with what my right hon. Friend said, with just one clarification: it is 100% the objective of NATO, and all our friends and allies, to make sure that Putin fails in Ukraine—it is very important that we frame it in that way—and he can and he will, because the Ukrainians will not have it any other way.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If the hon. Gentleman looked at the G7 communiqué, he would see that there was an explicit reference to making sure that anything we did was within our COP26 commitments to keeping 1.5° alive and to the commitments made in Paris.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend. That certainly remains the Government’s objective. I stress that what we are doing to support the Ukrainians is not just right in itself, as everyone accepts, but right for the world. That is why it continues to be supported around the world.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Actually, at the Commonwealth summit, the most interesting thing was the widespread understanding of what the UK is doing in the Indo-Pacific tilt and the moves we are making to engage with that part of the world and strengthen our friends and allies in that region. Hon. Members saw what we did with the carrier strike group—an absolutely astonishing exercise—and know about the AUKUS commitment that we have made. We are in the embassies in that part of the world and are increasing our deployments there as well.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My right hon. Friend is correct about the role of Saudi. There may be some question about how much more the Saudis could pump out at this moment, but there is no doubt that we will need a lot more OPEC-plus oil. As hon. Members know, the UK has strong and productive relations with Saudi Arabia, which need to continue, and we need to make sure that the whole west does as well. We make that point to the Saudis. That is the way forward; they need to produce more oil—no question.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Member very much. I want to say that I perfectly understand why he speaks as he does, but the reality is that the UK Army—the Army alone—will have a whole force of over 100,000: 73,000 plus 30,000 reserves. The key test is: what are they doing and how are they equipped—how are they protected? They are the best in the world, but we also want to make sure that we give them the best possible equipment, and that is what we are doing. If you listen to the Ukrainians, they will tell you that our equipment is the best.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“First, may I thank my hon. Friend very much for everything he did as envoy for freedom of religion or belief? It is at least partly thanks to his energy and efforts that we have a global conference in this city this week on freedom of belief around the world. I can tell him that one of the many things that unite the Commonwealth is a passionate determination to protect that freedom.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to the hon. Member. We are doing everything we can to make sure that we restrict access to this country by Putin’s cronies or anybody who supports the invasion of Ukraine, and that is why we are reviewing the golden visa scheme.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my right hon. Friend very much for his role as the UK’s envoy for trade with Japan. I can tell him that the opportunities are absolutely immense, and the Government of Fumio Kishida are determined to progress the alliance with the UK to new heights. He is absolutely right to talk about science and technology. As he knows, we have just lifted barriers to trade with Japan, but what we are also looking at is a partnership with Japan in defence technology that I think could be the foundation of immense future progress, particularly on science and technology.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting point. As he knows, the UK began the Ramstein process, where countries commit substantial sums as well as matériel to Ukraine. I am not aware of any logistical problems that we are facing so far. We are still seeing great progress in getting arms into Ukraine, but there is a lot more to do.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for his kindness to the family from Ukraine. I know that that is being done by many other colleagues around the Chamber, and I thank everybody for what they are doing. It is a great, great scheme, and it is much appreciated by the Ukrainians. Thanks to the support we have been giving the Ukrainians, they are starting to see large numbers going back to Ukraine, and of the 7 million who left, at least 3-and-a-bit million have now gone back, which is good news. We want them all to be able to go back safely, and go back safely to their entire country. Then we want the UK to be in the lead, as we are already are in the Kyiv region, in rebuilding Ukraine.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman has served in the armed forces himself, and he understands how difficult it can be to continue to build public support for military expenditure. But it is vital that we do this. The cost of allowing Ukraine simply to fall to Putin, or to be crushed or engulfed, would be immense. And it would not be just a political catastrophe; it would be an economic catastrophe as well, because Putin would not stop there, and the instability and economic damage would continue for generations.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I hesitated to say that to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford)—and he is my friend, Mr Speaker—but that is the fact. The Scottish contribution to our armed services is immense. Everybody knows it. It is a fantastic thing. It helps to make the UK what it is, and it would be utterly tragic for the whole world if the UK armed services were to face a division of that kind, or a loss of that kind.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I did raise human rights concerns with President Kagame, and I raised issues of freedom of speech. I am sure that the hon. Member has been to Rwanda, so he will know that in 1994 the country underwent perhaps the most catastrophic, humiliating disaster that any country could undergo. Whatever the hon. Member may say about him, President Kagame has brought that country back from the brink and done an immense service to his country in restoring order, which his people value immensely.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“What the UK has been doing is leading by example. It was at Cardiff in 2014 that we set the target of 2% of GDP—a floor, not a ceiling. We were one of the first to exceed it, and eight other countries are now exceeding it. What we are seeing around the table is countries absolutely determined to follow suit and spend more. I will single out what Olaf Scholz has been doing in Germany, where there has been a quite remarkable change of events.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It was a great day for democracy, which is one thing among many that the Commonwealth stands for in the world. I think that Patricia Scotland will do an excellent job for the next two years, and she will get every possible support.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend makes an excellent point and alludes to exactly the solutions that we are trying to find in the event that we are forced into an operation that does not involve the consent of the Russians, as I think is all too likely.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The discussion at the G7 was probably liveliest on that subject. The G7 feels that China is a gigantic fact of our lives and that we have got to understand that. Everybody has got huge trading relations with China, but, on the other hand, there are lots of areas where we have got to compete, contest and, sometimes, challenge what China does. That was very much agreed around the table at the G7, and indeed at NATO.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On the table of expenditure, the US is way out in front. I really congratulate Joe Biden on his leadership. Joe Biden and the Americans have really stepped up to the plate—a fantastic effort. We are spending the second biggest amount, and I think that the Poles are in third place. There is then a long tail of others, but everybody is now spending more and more. We agreed that we are in it for the long haul; that is the most important thing.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is completely right; that is where the focus now is. The Ukrainians are heroic. They have shown they can push the Russians back. They pushed them from Kyiv. They pushed them back from Kharkiv. What they need is the right multiple launch rocket systems to do it, because the Russians are very good at standing off and using heavy artillery to shell and intimidate. The MLRS are absolutely critical to the Ukrainian fightback. That is what we are giving them now, together with several other allies. What they also need is the training to make sure that those very sophisticated weapons are used to the best possible effect, and we are giving them that training as well.”
House of Commons4 July 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I can tell my hon. Friend very briefly that it is 13,576 more police officers, with 200 more in Cheshire. They are also cutting neighbourhood crime—already by 31%—and our streets are getting safer as a result.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If the hon. Gentleman will just wait for the Justice Secretary’s statement, which follows shortly, I think he will find that he is in error in what he said.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is probably the best Member for Rother Valley we have ever had. I thank him very much and we are going to continue our agenda of levelling up across the whole country, through all the difficulties this country has faced, which will get young people across the country, including in Rother Valley, into good jobs for generations to come. That is our ambition.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If the hon. Lady wants to support the working people of this country, I suggest she gets off the picket line, has a word with her party leader and supports the travelling public of this country, who want to see a reduction in their transport costs, which this Government are delivering.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We can all be proud of the way we have reduced CO 2 emissions in this country, but plainly it makes no sense to be importing coal, particularly for metallurgical purposes, when we have our own domestic resources.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is probably the first sensible question from the Opposition Benches, and I can tell the hon. Lady that we do actively support gigafactories because I believe they can be a huge advantage for the UK economy. That is why I am proud to see one now in Blyth, and we are working with the authorities in the west midlands, in Coventry, to make sure we also get a successful result there.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know how much my hon. Friend cares for the students in his constituency and I can tell him that no exams have been cancelled as a result of the strikes so far. We expect schools and colleges to have contingency arrangements in place to manage disruption. If students arrive late, schools should allow them to take the paper, and exam boards will determine if that paper can be marked based on how late the student has arrived. I am also told that if a student misses an exam completely, the school can apply for their grades to be calculated from the other assessments they have completed in that subject. I hope that is helpful to my hon. Friend.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think the whole House will have seen how those initial accounts of what took place were completely debunked and proved to be incorrect in respect of the Liverpool fans, and I think it was right that the French authorities and, I think, UEFA issued a full apology for what had happened.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think my right hon. Friend should wait for my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister to say a little about that in just a moment, but I can tell him that when it comes to the Rwanda policy that we are pursuing, that policy has not been ruled unlawful by any UK court or, so far, by any international court, and we will continue with that policy.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Lady for raising that case. It does sound extremely meritorious. I will make sure that she has a meeting with the Ministry of Defence, which runs ARAP, and that we do our best to expedite that application as fast as we can.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As soon as parliamentary time allows, we will introduce legislation to change the inflationary index used in the calculation of the annual pitch fees to the consumer prices index. I am told that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has undertaken research on the impacts on residents and site owners of a change in the 10% commission that is currently paid on the sale of a park home.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Lady very much for raising a very important issue that is understood keenly in all parts of the House. I know that my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is accelerating the work of the HRT taskforce to give people up and down the country the reassurance and the treatment that they need.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I congratulate my hon. Friend on his own campaign on this issue. I think everyone understands that bullying is an appalling experience, and something that we should not tolerate in our society. I am delighted to see so many colleagues—so many hon. Members—wearing their blue ribbons today. We should all speak out against bullying, but we should also make sure that we give everyone the courage to speak out against it.”
House of Commons22 June 2022Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I therefore invite members of this great General Assembly to come in November and take part, by their actions, in what I hope will be a global coming of age and to blow out the candles of a world on fire. That is what I think we should do. I thank members for the pledges that they are making. I hope that they will increase them and do what is needed. Mr. President, I will see you in Glasgow.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.
“It is certainly true that Sophocles was right in sensing that our species is uniquely capable of its own destruction and the destruction of everything around us. But if we look at look at the Greek, what Sophocles actually said was that humankind is awesome. We are both terrifying and awesome. I think he was right on that point. We have an awesome power to change things — and for the better — and an awesome power to save ourselves. In the next 40 days, we have to choose — the world has to choose — what kind of awesome we are going to be. To get back to my metaphor of adolescence, I hope that COP 26 will be a sixteenth birthday party for humankind — not a miserable party, but a party in which we choose to grow up, recognize the scale of the challenge that we face and do what posterity demands that we must.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.
“It is these technological breakthroughs that will cut the cost for consumers so that we have nothing to fear and everything to gain from this green industrial revolution. When Kermit the frog sang “It’s not easy being green” — we all remember that one — he was wrong. I want Assembly members to know that it is easy. It is not only easy; it is lucrative. It is right to be green, even if Kermit was unnecessarily rude to Miss Piggy. It is easy to be green because we have the technology, as we used to say when I was a when I was a kid. We can do it. In 40 days’ time, we will have the choice before us. The poet Sophocles is often quoted — or often quoted by me anyway — as saying that there are many terrifying things in the world, but none is more terrifying than humankind.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.
“My point is that these investments will not only help the countries of the world to tackle climate change, but they will also produce millions — literally millions in the decades to come — millions and millions of high-wage, high-skilled jobs. Today’s workforce and the next generation of green-collar workers will have the extra satisfaction of knowing that beyond being well remunerated, they are doing something useful, providing green energy and helping to save the planet at the same time. Every day, green startups are producing new ideas from feeding seaweed to cows to restrain their traditional signs of digestive approval to using artificial intelligence and robotics to enhance food production, capture carbon dioxide and put it into brownies and so on.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.
“It is the trillions of dollars of private-sector cash that will enable developing nations and the whole world — all of us — to make the necessary changes. To give an example, it was the United Kingdom Government that set the strike price for the private sector to come in and transform our country into the Saudi Arabia of wind, in a manner of speaking. We do not resemble Saudi Arabia in many ways, but we in terms of offshore wind, we produce more offshore-wind power than any other country in the world. Only yesterday, the United Kingdom’s first sovereign green bond raised £10 billion on the markets, from hard-headed investors who want to make money.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.
“I want the Assembly to know that in spite of all the pressures on our finances in the United Kingdom caused by COVID-19, we have kept that promise to the letter. I am therefore very pleased and encouraged by some of the pledges we have heard in this Hall, including from Denmark and now a very substantial commitment from the United States that brings us within touching distance of that $100 billion pledge that we need every year. But we must go further. We must be clear that government — government cash alone — is not going to be enough. We must work together so that international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are working with Governments around the world to leverage in the private sector.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.
“Although we were in fact of course doing something rather wonderful in one sense — we were setting in train a new era of technology that was itself to lead to a massive global reduction in poverty, emancipating billions of people around the world — the industrial revolution was a good thing fundamentally — but we were also unwittingly beginning to quilt the great tea cozy of carbon dioxide around the world. We therefore understand that when the developing world looks to us to help, we must take our responsibilities. That is why two years ago, when I last came to the General Assembly, I committed the United Kingdom to providing £11.6 billion to help the rest of the world to tackle climate change.”
UN General Assembly2021English text as published by the United Nations. The speech may have been delivered in another official UN language.Source: United NationsSpeech held by session and year. Its individual meeting record is not yet linked.
English text from the UN verbatim record. Where the speaker did not speak English, this is the UN's interpretation, not their original words.