PM Boris Johnson
© AFP/Getty ImagesUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson's first speech as prime minister in the House of Commons touched on a number of policy platforms, many of which had the hallmarks of future election pledges. Here's what the new PM promised:

Brexit and the backstop
"A time limit is not enough. If an agreement is to be reached it must be clearly understood that the way to the deal goes by way of the abolition of the backstop.

"For our part we are ready to negotiate in good faith an alternative, with provisions to ensure that the Irish border issues are dealt with where they should always have been: in the negotiations on the future agreement between the UK and the EU."
This is a very tight corner for Johnson to have painted himself into. He is demanding the complete removal of the backstop and for all arrangements for the Irish border to be negotiated during the transition period as part of the future relationship.

Only on Wednesday, the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said: "I got the impression that he wasn't just talking about deleting the backstop, he was talking about a whole new deal... That is not going to happen. Any suggestion that there can be a whole new deal negotiated in weeks or months is totally not in the real world."

No deal
"We will begin right away on working to change the tax rules to provide extra incentives to invest in capital and research.

"We will prepare an economic package to boost British business and lengthen this country's lead as the number one destination in this continent for overseas investment."
Gove has been tasked in government with ramping up no-deal preparations but Johnson suggests this will go well beyond finding more warehouse capacity or queueing systems at Dover.

It has previously been reported a Johnson emergency budget could include an overhaul of stamp duty, abolishing the levy on homes worth less than £500,000, and raising the threshold for businesses' annual investment allowance. The allowance allows businesses to cut their tax bill by writing off the cost of investment, such as machinery.

NHS
"Mr Speaker, I am committed to making sure that the NHS receives the funds that were promised ... This will include urgent funding for 20 hospital upgrades and winter-readiness. I have asked officials to provide policy proposals for drastically reducing waiting times and for GP appointments."
Both Johnson and his new senior adviser Dominic Cummings have been keen to ensure that the Vote Leave promise of £350m a week for the NHS is delivered and Cummings has been reported to be keen to focus on health in his role.

It is an area where the Conservatives are likely to be hugely outflanked by Labour - but the pledge for 20 hospital upgrades sounds like a retail-friendly, election-ready promise that voters will find easy to grasp.

Crime
"To address the rise of violent crime in our country I have announced that there will be 20,000 extra police keeping us safe over the next three years.

"We will give greater powers for the police to use stop and search to help tackle violent crime. I have also tasked officials to draw up proposals to ensure that in future those found guilty of the most serious sexual and violent offences are required to serve a custodial sentence."
Another pledge which sounds distinctly like it could form part of an election campaign. Polling shows public concern about violent crime is rising and Johnson has been a campaigner for increased stop and search unlike his predecessor who examined the evidence as home secretary and introduced stricter rules to stop the blanket-targeting of minority communities.

As home secretary, Sajid Javid then overturned two reforms made by May, allowing officers in seven regions to step up stop-and-search.

Environment
"Our United Kingdom of 2050 will no longer make any contribution whatsoever to the destruction of our precious planet brought about by carbon emissions - because we will have led the world in delivering that net zero target.

"We will be the home of electric vehicles - cars, even planes, powered by British-made battery technology being developed right here, right now."
The Conservatives - and in particular Michael Gove in Defra - have tried to make the environment a key policy platform, primarily because it is a major international issue but also because it is largely uncontroversial and unlikely to be challenged by any opposition parties. It is also a major passion of his partner, Carrie Symonds, who championed animal welfare and anti-plastic campaigns in her role at CCHQ.

However, it is notable that although it is the issue that Johnson mentions first in detail - he goes no further than the Theresa May government had already promised.

GM foods
"A bioscience sector liberated from anti genetic modification rules... we will be the seedbed for the most exciting and most dynamic business investments on the planet."
Genetically modified foods are not grown commercially in the UK but a limited number can be imported. There are no fresh GM fruit or vegetables approved for consumption by humans in the EU - but Johnson hints that could change after Brexit.

It is a strange policy platform for Johnson to launch on his first few days in the job, polls show that 41% of UK adults feel negatively about GM foods, compared to 17% who feel positive - though few polls have been conducted in recent years to measure how attitudes might have changed.

Education
"I have listened to the concerns of many colleagues and we will increase the minimum level of per pupil funding in primary and secondary schools and return education funding to previous levels by the end of this parliament."
This is not only a matter of major public concern but school funding was hugely damaging for many Conservative MPs in the 2017 election and an under-reported reason for the Conservatives' heavy losses.

In his election campaign, he pledged £50m to raise per-pupil funding in all secondary schools to £5,000, which was ridiculed as equivalent to a 0.1% rise in the schools budget. This was later increased to a pledge of £4.6bn more by 2022. The IFS has estimated £4.9bn is needed to reverse cuts and protect current budgets.

Immigration
"I am clear that our immigration system must change. For years, politicians have promised the public an Australian-style points based system.

"And today I will actually deliver on those promises - I will ask the migration advisory committee to conduct a review of that system as the first step in a radical rewriting of our immigration system."
It is unclear what these reforms would actually mean, apart from a change for incoming EU citizens. The UK already has a points-based system for non-EEA migrants, introduced by the Labour government in 2008, where eligibility is determined by a set of mandatory criteria to which a fixed number of symbolic points are attached.

A Commons library paper on the system, published in 2018, said: "Calls for the UK to adopt a system closer to the 'Australian model' have persisted, although it has not always been obvious what advocates specifically have in mind."