Prime Minister Boris Johnson is determined to rebuild the UK after the current crisis into a better country than before Brexit. That is what he said on Saturday before the start of his Conservative Party’s Annual Congress in Manchester. The United Kingdom is currently facing a serious supply crisis, which is due, among other things, to the coronavirus crisis and the departure from the European Union.
“We have not survived COVID-19 to return to the situation before” said the head of government. He stressed that his government had kept its campaign promise by making Brexit a reality and by mass vaccination against Covid-19. In addition, Johnson assured that he would make “bold decisions” to meet British priorities such as jobs, security and climate change.
“All this shows that we keep our word, and now it’s time to move on, not just to recover but to rebuild [things] better,” he added.
The large annual congress of the Tories, which takes place from Sunday to Wednesday, is an opportunity for the party leader to address his troops. His speech is scheduled for Wednesday. Johnson, who led his party in July 2019 and won the parliamentary elections a few months later with the promise to” make Brexit a reality”, now needs to convince the British of the benefits of his glorified exit from the EU. However, the country is currently facing multiple crises, such as rising gas prices and shortages in supermarkets and service stations due to a lack of truck drivers.
The prime minister attributes this to the rapid recovery of the global economy after the pandemic, and to the exceptional demand resulting from panic purchases from petrol stations. But Brexit makes the consequences of the pandemic so pressing. In an effort to tackle the shortage of truck drivers and other staff and to avoid empty shelves at Christmas, the British government has temporarily relaxed immigration policy. For example, up to 10,500 temporary work visas are granted. In addition, from Monday about 200 officers will be deployed to supply petrol stations, where queues have been forming for two weeks.