Good afternoonI have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen who has invited me to form a government and I have acceptedI pay tribute to the fortitude and patience of my predecessorand her deep sense of public servicebut in spite of all her efforts it has become clear that there are pessimists at home and abroadwho think that after three years of indecisionthat this country has become a prisoner to the old arguments of 2016and that in this home of democracy we are incapable of honouring a basic democratic mandateAnd so I am standing before you today to tell youthe British peoplethat those critics are wrongThe doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters – they are going to get it wrong againThe people who bet against Britain are going to lose their shirtsbecause we are going to restore trust in our democracyand we are going to fulfil the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the EU on October 31no ifs or butsand we will do a new deal, a better deal that will maximise the opportunities of Brexit while allowing us to develop a new and exciting partnership with the rest of Europebased on free trade and mutual supportI have every confidence that in 99 days’ time we will have cracked itbut you know what – we aren’t going to wait 99 daysbecause the British people have had enough of waitingThe time has come to act,to take decisionsto give strong leadership and to change this country for the betterand though the Queen has just honoured me with this extraordinary office of statemy job is to serve you, the peoplebecause if there is one point we politicians need to remember it is that the people are our bossesMy job is to make your streets safer – and we are going to begin with another 20,000 police on the streetsand we start recruiting forthwithMy job is to make sure you don’t have to wait 3 weeks to see your GPand we start work this week with 20 new hospital upgrades, and ensuring that money for the NHS really does get to the front lineMy job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of careand so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have preparedto give every older person the dignity and security they deserveMy job is to make sure your kids get a superb educationwherever they are in the countryand that’s why we have already announced that we are going to level up per pupil funding in primary and secondary schoolsand that is the work that begins immediately behind that black doorand though I am today building a great team of men and women I will take personal responsibilityfor the change I want to seeNever mind the backstop – the buck stops hereAnd I will tell you something else about my job.It is to be Prime Minister of the whole United Kingdomand that means uniting our countryanswering at last the plea of the forgotten peopleand the left behind townsby physically and literally renewing the ties that bind us togetherso that with safer streets and better education and fantastic new road and rail infrastructure and full fibre broadbandwe level up across Britainwith higher wages, and a higher living wage, and higher productivitywe close the opportunity gapgiving millions of young people the chance to own their own homesand giving business the confidence to invest across the UKbecause it is time we unleashed the productive power not just of London and the South Eastbut of every corner of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Irelandthe awesome foursome that are incarnated in that red white and blue flagwho together are so much more than the sum of their partsand whose brand and political personality is admired and even loved around the worldfor our inventiveness, for our humour, for our universities, our scientists, our armed forces, our diplomacyfor the equalities on which we insist – whether race or gender or LGBT or the right of every girl in the world to 12 years of quality educationand for the values we stand for around the worldEveryone knows the values that flag representsIt stands for freedom and free speech and habeas corpus and the rule of lawand above all it stands for democracyand that is why we will come out of the EU on October 31because in the end Brexit was a fundamental decision by the British people that they wanted their laws made by people that they can electand they can remove from officeand we must now respect that decisionand create a new partnership with our European friends – as warm and as close and as affectionate as possibleand the first step is to repeat unequivocally our guarantee to the 3.2 m EU nationals now living and working among usand I say directly to you – thank you for your contribution to our societythank you for your patience and I can assure you that under this government you will get the absolute certainty of the rightsto live and remainAnd next I say to our friends in Ireland, and in Brussels and around the EUI am convinced that we can do a dealwithout checks at the Irish border, because we refuse under any circumstances to have such checksand yet without that anti-democratic backstopand it is of course vital at the same time that we prepare for the remote possibilitythat Brussels refuses any further to negotiateand we are forced to come out with no dealnot because we want that outcome – of course notbut because it is only common sense to prepareand let me stress that there is a vital sense in which those preparations cannot be wastedand that is because under any circumstances we will need to get readyat some point in the near futureto come out of the EU customs union and out of regulatory controlfully determined at last to take advantage of brexitbecause that is the course on which this country is now setwith high hearts and growing confidence we will now accelerate the work of getting readyand the ports will be ready and the banks will be readyand the factories will be readyand business will be readyand the hospitals will be readyand our amazing food and farming sector will be ready and waiting to continue sellingever more not just here but around the worldand don’t forget that in the event of a no deal outcome we will have the extra lubrication of the £39 bnand whatever deal we do we will prepare this autumn for an economic packageto boost British business and to lengthen this country’s lead as the number one destination in this continent for overseas investmentand to all those who continue to prophesy disasterI say yes – there will be difficultiesthough I believe that with energy and application they will be far less serious than some have claimedbut if there is one thing that has really sapped the confidence of business over the last three yearsit is not the decisions we have takenit is our refusal to take decisionsand to all those who say we cannot be readyI say do not underestimate this countryDo not underestimate our powers of organisation and our determinationbecause we know the enormous strengths of this economyin life sciences, in tech, in academia, in music, the arts, culture, financial services,It is here in Britain that we are using gene therapy, for the first time, to treat the most common form of blindnesshere in Britain that we are leading the world in the battery technology that will help cut CO2 and tackle climate changeand produce green jobs for the next generationand as we prepare for a post-Brexit future it is time we looked not at the risks but at the opportunities that are upon usso let us begin work now to create freeports that will drive growth and thousands of high-skilled jobs in left behind areaslet’s start now to liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti genetic modification rulesand let’s develop the blight-resistant crops that will feed the worldlet’s get going now on our own position navigation and timing satellite and earth observation systems – UK assets orbiting in space with all the long term strategic and commercial benefits for this countryLet’s change the tax rules to provide extra incentives to invest in capital and researchand let’s promote the welfare of animals that has always been so close to the hearts of the British peopleand yes, let’s start now on those free trade dealsbecause it is free trade that has done more than anything else to lift billions out of povertyall this and more we can do now and only now, at this extraordinary moment in our historyand after three years of unfounded self-doubt it is time tochange the recordto recover our natural and historic role as an enterprising, outward-looking and truly global Britain, generous in temper and engaged with the worldNo one in the last few centuries has succeeded in betting against the pluck and nerve and ambition of this countryThey will not succeed todayWe in this government will work flat out to give this country the leadership it deservesand that work begins nowThank you very 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