Boris Johnson tells ministers they look 'full of beans' in final rallying cry ahead of election campaign

The Prime Minister said his colleagues should be “very proud” of their government’s first 100 days and insisted that none of them “particularly wanted to hold” to the snap vote on 12 December.

In a rare televised address of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Mr Johnson said: “We’re about to go forward to a general election which I think it is fair to say that none of us particularly wanted to hold because I think we were all very much wanting to get on with delivering for our country and getting on with the fantastic things we’ve been doing in the last 100 days and slightly more.”

He added: "Thank you all very much for everything you’ve done over the last 100 days. Do you feel up for the campaign?

"I think you do, you look as if you are full of beans, thanks you all very much for what you've done so far."

Mr Johnson also condemned Parliament for “blocking” his Brexit plans and hit out at Jeremy Corbyn’s “disastrous and calamitous” plans for a second EU referendum.

It comes after MPs backed the Prime Minister's deak when it was put to the Commons last month, before rejecting his attempt to rail the legislation through in just three days in a bid to meet the 31 October Brexit deadline.

Mr Johnson added: "We have achieved something people really thought we couldn’t do and that was get a new deal and a great new deal on our Brexit from the EU and they said it could be done.

"Unfortunatel,y Parliament at the last minute decided to block it and we have it ready to go, oven-ready, and the choice before the country is really very clear."

"Do you want to go forward with our agenda which is to get Brexit done and then get on with delivering all the wonderful things we want to do for this country in 2020, not just improving the NHS and education but improving the infrastructure of our country as well, in the one nation away that we all believe in?

"Or do you want to waste 2020, which could be an absolutely fantastic year for the nation with two more referendums, one on the European Union, on a decision that has yet to be properly outlined for the country under Jeremy Corbyn and that risks the break-up of the United Kingdom... what a disastrous and calamitous way to spend 2020, so that is the choice before us folks."

Meanwhile Mr Corbyn has warned that a new government led by Mr Johnson would “unleash Thatcherism on steroids”.

In a pitch to Labour activists in Harlow, the opposition leader said the Prime Minister "is trying to hijack Brexit to sell out our NHS and working people by stripping away their rights".

And Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson took direct aim at Mr Johnson in her own pitch to the country.

She said at the party's campaign launch: "With his big lies, his brash promises and his attitude to women, it’s clear that Boris Johnson is modelling himself on Donald Trump. But Britain deserves better than the British Donald Trump."

Related

Kemi Badenoch Wins Conservative Party Leader Election

By Zoe Crowther

02 Nov

PoliticsHome Newsletters

PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe