General Election 2019: Why Portsmouth should vote for the Conservative Party, writes Boris Johnson

This week, voters in Portsmouth will head to the polls for what will be a crucial election in deciding on the direction of this country. Every vote will count at this election, so I urge you to use yours to put an end to this uncertainty and get Brexit done.

Portsmouth voted to leave the EU by a resounding 58 per cent in the referendum back in 2016. But Labour and the Liberal Democrats have spent years gridlocking parliament and blocking our great Brexit deal going through.

The Conservative Party needs just nine more seats to command that majority, and a vote for Penny Mordaunt in Portsmouth North and Donna Jones in Portsmouth South will be crucial in getting us over the line. A vote for any other party increases the chance of a Jeremy Corbyn led government that prolongs the paralysis in parliament with another Brexit referendum.

In the first 100 days of a majority Conservative government, we will put new long-term NHS funding into law, cut taxes for workers, ensure tougher sentences for violent offenders and deliver an Australian-style points-based immigration system to control our borders.

We will cut national insurance, saving the average taxpayer £100 a year, and raise the national living wage further to £10.50 an hour.

We will inject an extra £33.9bn into our health service, build five new hospitals across the south east and upgrade the services across the Solent to provide the healthcare families need.

We will recruit up to 973 new police officers across the south east next year, with more to come as part of our plans to put 20,000 more officers on our streets.

Portsmouth, of course, has a wonderful naval tradition. This great city was England's first line of defence during the French invasion of 1545, and in 1944 was the pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings. And it was from Portsmouth that our brave troops set off to defend the Falkland Islands back in 1982.

As your Prime Minister, I will always back our armed forces and security services. In stark contrast to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the Conservatives know that the defence of the nation is our first priority.

Jeremy Corbyn has even said that he doesn’t believe that Britain should have an army. He wants to scrap Trident and slash defence spending. He has a long history of siding with our nation’s enemies, including with the Russians after people were poisoned on the streets of Salisbury, and he cannot be trusted with defending Britain.

But we can only stop Corbyn and implement our exciting agenda for the country if you elect a Conservative majority government to break the deadlock in Parliament.

With your support this week, we can stop that from happening. The Conservatives will get Britain out of neutral, unleash the huge potential of this region and get Brexit done.