Full text: Boris unveils his ‘new deal’

It may seem a bit premature to make a speech now about Britain after Covid, when that deceptively nasty disease is still rampant in other countries, when global case numbers are growing fast and when many in this country are nervous – rightly – about more outbreaks, whether national or local like the flare-up in Leicester. Yet we cannot continue simply to be prisoners of this crisis.

We are preparing now slowly and cautiously to come out of hibernation and I believe it is absolutely vital for us now to set out the way ahead, so that everyone can think and plan for the future – short, medium and long term because if the covid crisis has taught us one thing it is that this country needs to be ready for what may be coming. And we need to be able to move with levels of energy and speed that we have not needed for generations.