Did Boris Johnson deliver on his promises for Bradfordians?

Police officer uplift

Mr Johnson promised to recruit 20,000 new police officers across England and Wales in his 2019 manifesto.

The Home Office then launched the police officer uplift programme in April 2020, with the aim of achieving the 20,000 target by March 2023.

The latest Home Office figures show 13,790 extra officers had been recruited via the uplift programme as of June.

Of them, 627 have been recruited to West Yorkshire Police, which covers Bradford.

Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

There were 5,186 police officers in West Yorkshire in November 2019, just before Mr Johnson became Prime Minister – this rose to 5,813 in June this year.

Housing

Mr Johnson also pledged to create an additional 300,000 homes per year in England by 2025.

More than 1,000 less homes were built in the last year (Image: PA)

However, this target has not been met yet, with the latest figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showing 242,700 homes were built in 2019-20, while just 216,489 were built the following year – the lowest number in the last five years.

Of these, 522 additional dwellings were created in Bradford in 2020-21 – down from 1,010 the year before.

Brexit

Perhaps most famously, Mr Johnson promised to "get Brexit done" – and on January 31, 2020, the UK ceased to be a part of the European Union.

It was announced Britain would leave the EU during Boris Johnson's Premiership (Image: PA)

That will have pleased the majority of people in Bradford as 54 per cent of people in the area who voted in the 2016 referendum opted to leave the EU.

Nursing recruitment and GP appointments

Mr Johnson promised to recruit 50,000 more nurses across England by 2024 and provide 50 million more GP appointments annually by the same year in his 2019 manifesto.

The latest NHS Digital figures show the equivalent of 320,000 full-time NHS nurses and health visitors were employed in the NHS in May 2022 – up by 24,000 from 296,000 in December 2019.

Despite a rise in nursing staff, the Royal College of Nursing said workers are "burnt out and simply not valued by their employers and the Government".

Bradfordians are currently struggling to access GPs, dentists and mental health support (Image: PA)

Further NHS Digital figures show there were 290 million GP appointments in England in the year to July 2019.

This stood at 320 million in the year to July, the latest figures available – an increase of 30 million.