Good evening, I am delighted, proud and humbled to have been appointed as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and I wanted to speak to you this evening to reassure you that I will be continuing the great work of my predecessor David Cameron on the creation of a strong economy, sharing our prosperity and reducing inequality across this great nation. We have an election manifesto to deliver and I can assure you that we will be getting on with doing just that in the coming days, weeks and months.
However it is not just about 'business as usual'. We have held an historic referendum and you the British people have spoken. You have instructed us to leave the EU and that is what we will now be doing.
I was on the Remain side during the referendum campaign but I recognise that the country has spoken, has made its choice and i am now the leader of a Brexit government. I think that is worth repeating: I stand here as the leader of a Brexit government, you should be in no doubt about this. And this is full Brexit, not Brexit lite. We will be leaving the EU, we will be taking back control of our borders, we will be unpicking 40 years of EU partnership and once again standing on our own two feet as a sovereign nation state.
We will be making our own trade deals with the whole wide world as well as with our friends in Europe and we will be making these decisions work for the benefit of every UK citizen.
We will conduct our negotiation with the EU on the basis of friendship and co-operation - we have decided to leave the EU, not Europe. We remain part of Europe, friendly with our European neighbours, keen to trade with them and keen to work across borders on issues like security as we already do.
We will welcome some EU citizens who want to live and work here and we will expect many UK citizens to be able to live and work in Europe - but these things will happen in a controlled way from now on and we will not have open borders or the free movement of people from Europe into the UK. We need to know the numbers so we can plan the infrastructure - healthcare, education, housing etc - that everyone in the UK needs and this issue will be a priority for my new government.
We want to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome both for the UK and the EU - but make no mistake, my priority at all times, will be doing what's best for the UK. I think we will be negotiating from a position of economic strength and you can rest assured that our negotiations with the EU will be conducted in the right spirit of cooperation and friendliness, but we will not be rolling over and taking the worst of any deal on offer.
Just as we will no longer have a seat at the EU table, they will no longer have a seat in our government. We understand that the best outcome of our negotiation will come about if we work together as friends and in a spirit of fairness. I'm sure that the EU will also recognise this. And if they need some help in order to reach this correct conclusion then we will be only too happy to provide it.
We will be invoking Article 50 on January 1st 2017 following a period of informal negotiations that will take place between now and the end of the year and I would expect all negotiations to have been completed within a 6-9 month time-frame. A two year period of to-ing and fro-ing is far too long and in no-ones interest.
As a symbol of our co-operation, but also of our seriousness about reclaiming our sovereignty in the post Brexit United Kingdom, we will be reclaiming the fishing rights in our territorial waters from January 1st 2017 and I can announce, today, a programme of government investment of £271 million (or one week's net contribution to the EU) in the rejuvenation of the UK fishing industry. That will be the start - but not the totality of our help for UK fishing as we move forward.
I and this government need you to get behind us now. I understand that this has been a bruising process for all concerned but I am determined that we will now move forward positively, that Brexit will work for the UK and that we will emerge from it as a stronger, more prosperous, fairer and more democratic society than was the case before.
Together we can build something special here, a globally orientated, positive, dynamic and successful economy. I hope and believe that the British people will bring their brilliance, their endeavour and their energy forward to ensure that this is the start of a great new period n our history.
Thank you etc.
And there you have it. What she should say. Compare and contrast with the reality! :)
Thanks for reading.
