Boris Johnson: How did the former Prime Minister's manifesto pledges affect Wigan?

Mr Johnson left office this week, less than three years after his landslide election victory in 2019.

The Conservative leader made a swathe of major pledges in his manifesto, including recruiting more police officers and providing extra funding for the NHS.

We have taken a look at whether Mr Johnson delivered on some of his promises and how they have impacted Wigan.

Police officer uplift

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

The Home Office 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 officers had been recruited via the uplift programme as of June.

Of them, 625 have been recruited to Greater Manchester Police, which covers Wigan.

There were 6,787 police officers in Greater Manchester in November 2019 – this rose to 7,412 in June this year.

Housing

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

However, this target has not been met yet, and Mr Johnson conceded earlier this year that he could not give a "cast-iron guarantee we are going to get to a number in a particular year".

The latest figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 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, as the coronavirus pandemic hampered building activity.

In contrast, 1,439 additional dwellings were created in Wigan in 2020-21 – up from 1,367 the year before.

Brexit

Perhaps most famously, Mr Johnson promised to "get Brexit done" – and on January 31, 2020 at 11 pm, the UK ceased to be a part of the European Union.

That will have pleased the majority of people in Wigan, as 64 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 50m more GP appointments annually by the same year.

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".

The NHS is currently grappling with high vacancy rates across the service – different NHS Digital figures show there were 47,000 nursing vacancies in England at the end of June, the highest number on record.

The Department for Health and Social Care said it is on track to recruit 50,000 more nurses by 2024.

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

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