‘Austerity was not the way forward’

Only once in the post-war era has a British political party won a fourth term in office, but that is what the Conservative party are attempting to do in this election. It’s a tall order, but Boris Johnson has a plan: to make it clear that his is a new government — offering change, not simply more of the same.

‘I have great respect for my predecessors, it goes without saying, great respect, but this is a new government and we have a new agenda and it will be a different agenda,’ he insists, when we meet in an aircraft hangar in the marginal seat of Norwich North. ‘This is not a continuity government. This is a new government, we have a very different approach. If we can get in with a working majority, we will have a transformative agenda for the country. That’s what I want to see and I genuinely, genuinely want to see the talents of all this country. I do think there is an injustice at the moment that can be tackled and we have the means of doing it.’

Throughout the election campaign, the Prime Minister has had some success in presenting himself as the new face of a transformed party. At times it has seemed that Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, has taken more flak for the coalition years than the Tory leader. When it comes to those coalition cuts and the last nine years of Tory austerity, Johnson goes further, and says it is not what he would have done. ‘I remember having conversations with colleagues in the government that came in in 2010 saying I thought austerity was just not the right way forward for the UK.’ Not something he has said in public before. ‘I’ve always thought: why use the language of Stafford Cripps?’ he asks, referring to the Labour chancellor who chose to continue wartime rationing.