Don't let Putinists act like Corbynists: Boris Johnson's full speech

Boris Johnson threw his support behind Rishi Sunak during the election campaign in a last-ditch effort as pollsters predicted his party could win a smaller share of the vote than it has in any previous general election.

The former prime minister has been largely absent from the campaign, although he has offered his support in his newspaper column, and has written letters of endorsement and supported a number of conservatives in social media posts.

As he took to the stage at the National Army Museum on Tuesday, less than 48 hours before polls opened, Mr Johnson was greeted with applause and chants of “Boris, Boris, Boris”.

He made the speech after pollsters Survation found that Labour was on course to win more seats than in 1997.

Click here for our live coverage of the general election campaign.

Here is Mr Johnson's full 10-minute speech:

First of all, […] How wonderful it is to see you all again.

I feel the pride of your company and how grateful I am to you all for everything you have done over the last few weeks and for coming so late tonight, well after Keir Starmer's bedtime.

If you are a little surprised to see me, if you are a little surprised, I will be absolutely clear: I was happy when Rishi asked me to help him. Of course, I could not say no and I am here for one reason and one reason only, which is the same reason why we are all here, we are here because we love our country and whatever our differences are, they are quite insignificant compared to the disaster that we could face if these so-called opinion polls prove to be correct.

I think and hope that the British people will show more common sense on Thursday and avoid falling into this trap.

But if these polls are correct, then at the very moment when this country has beaten Covid and beaten post-Covid inflation, and at the very moment when we should be encouraging enterprise and growth and investing in home ownership and in people's pockets, Westminster is about to move in the diametrically opposite direction.

So none of us can stand by while a Labour government prepares to use a landslide majority to destroy much of what we have achieved and what you have achieved.

Five years ago you helped send Jeremy Corbyn and his then disciple Keir Starmer into orbit, where they belonged, and we delivered Brexit, we restored democracy.

That is because we got a proper Brexit, and you all remember how hard that struggle was when we left the European single market. We controlled our own regulation and, my friends, whatever people say, that national independence was vital.

When it came to approving the Covid vaccine faster than any other EU country and therefore achieving the fastest vaccine rollout of any major economy and the fastest economic rebound in the G7.

And let me just ask you, in case you forgot, because I didn't, a chance to remind you that of the 200 countries on Earth, which was the first government, after all the misery of Covid, to put an authorized, approved, effective vaccine into the arms of our citizens?

It was the British government. It was a Brexit government. It was a Conservative government. It was because of Brexit that you helped make this happen.

This country was able to take the initiative to defend Ukraine in the implementation of the agreement.

Many, many other things, taking back control of our money, our laws, thanks to Brexit we can now finally legally control our own borders.

And isn't it the height of madness if these polls are right that we are about to give Labour a supermajority, which they will use to make us nothing more than Brussels thugs, taking EU law at their beck and call with no say in how that law is made, paying into Brussels budgets again, you watch, you watch.

The price to pay for abandoning the Rwandan system is about to come into effect, as it is imitated by governments around the world to act as a deterrent. The return of uncontrolled free movement, uncontrollable free movement, like the price of stamps negotiated with the EU.

Do you think this country really wants to give Starmer that kind of mandate? I don't think so.

And yet Labour is so complacent, so self-righteous, that it has difficulty in concealing its agenda, and we can see what it is.

Raise taxes on pensions, on property, persecute private enterprise, attack private education and private health care, with all the unnecessary additional burden that this will place on taxpayers.

Poor old Starmer is so terrified of disobeying left-wing dogma that he hesitates to explain the difference between a man and a woman. And he sits there with his mouth open and closed like a stunned mule.

Do we want this kind of madness? Do we want higher taxes? Do we want more wokery imposed on our schools?

Unless we change it, this gigantic Labour majority, pregnant with horrors, because even though Labour's share of the vote is currently far lower than ours was in 2019, and even though Starmer has historically low approval ratings for a man in his position, supposedly about to take office, our system, I fear, will deliver this supermajority because too many good, kind, moderate Tories are about to vote for other parties apparently, and thus get exactly the opposite of what they really want.

Even if those other parties turn out to be full of Kremlin creeps who are actually making excuses for Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. They say Putin is a good operator, pumping up his troops and running a tight ship.

Well, if that's what they mean by a man who shoots journalists, poisons his opponents and murders thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians, I say that's a shame on them.

They can achieve nothing in this election except deliver the most left-wing Labour government since the war, with a huge majority, and we must not let that happen.

Don't let Putinists give birth to Corbynists. Don't let Putin's parrots give this whole country psittacosis, a disease you get from snuggling with pet parrots.

If you really want higher taxes next week, this year, if you think you have a few thousand dollars to spend, then vote Labour on Thursday. If you want uncontrolled immigration, a policy of compulsory rebellion and pointless kowtowing to Brussels, then go ahead, do me a favour, vote for Starmer.

But if you want to protect our democracy and our economy and keep this country strong abroad by spending 2.5% of our GDP on defence, which Labour still refuses to do, then you know what to do, don't you, everyone?

There is only one thing to do: vote Conservative on Thursday, my friends, and I know you will. I know you will.

In the short time we have left, I hope you will encourage all other citizens of this country to do the same.

Thank you very much. Thank you.