The speech made by Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Conservative Party, in Birmingham on 4 October 2026.
Welcome to Conference, everybody.
This year, we are delighted to be back in Birmingham.
The city of a thousand trades, built by entrepreneurs, small businesses and family firms.
Birmingham, a city with so many canals that some people call Venice the Birmingham of the Mediterranean.
They do!
Birmingham’s wealth was built by the hard work of ordinary people, not by a growth strategy from Number 10 North.
And despite Labour’s best efforts, crushing businesses, imposing more and more taxes and failing to collect rubbish, Birmingham still holds its head high.
The Jewellery Quarter was given World Craft City status just last year.
Those businesses deserve a lot better than Labour are giving them.
Birmingham can and will be Conservative again.
It is the youngest city in Europe, full of people who want a government looking to the future instead of trying to take Britain back to the past.
When I was elected leader, at every husting I was asked, what is the Conservative Party going to do to get young people back?
And so, it is fantastic that this year there are 50% more young people attending our Conference.
And as you can see, this is proof that they are coming back.
Because while other parties hark back to the past, we are for the future.
Conference, when I said I was going to renew the Conservative Party, I meant it.
I did not just mean changing our policies, like on Net Zero and the ECHR, although we have done that.
And I did not just mean booting out the plotters and the badly behaved, although we have done that too.
I meant something much more fundamental.
A Conservative Party that knows what it stands for.
A Conservative Party that knows what it believes and knows who its people are.
That is the Conservative Party I am bringing back.
When we win the next election, and we will, we are going to need to hit the ground running.
We will need to be ready from day one, having already shown people what kind of government we are going to be.
And that is why today I have published The Right Way.
In 1976, the Conservative Party published The Right Approach, a book which described what was going wrong in our economy and the right approach to fix it.
We governed for 18 years after that because we started with the right foundations, and we are going to do the same again.
Things are tougher now than they were in 1976.
It is not just the economy that is going wrong.
It is our entire way of governing.
This Conference, we will be talking about how we are going to fix our country.
For too long, politicians have announced targets and devised complicated schemes without asking what was actually causing the problem.
Lots of people are trying to fix symptoms.
I want to fix the causes.
I have always said that the Labour Party goes wrong when it follows its principles.
We go wrong when we fail to follow ours.
The Right Way sets out those principles.
Wealth must be created before it can be distributed.
Freedom requires responsibility.
People will flout the rules unless there are consequences.
A government should be judged not by how nice its intentions are, but by what it actually achieves.
Government must be strong where only the state can be.
But it must be restrained where people are better placed to decide for themselves.
Conference, that is what this party believes, and that is what you are going to see this Conference.
These are our principles and they are also common sense.
So, I am very excited about being in Birmingham this week because we are going to be talking about ideas with no distractions.
We are going to be having debates.
We are going to have arguments.
They are going to be fun.
We are going to challenge each other and afterwards we will still be a united party.
No other party has published a diagnosis of this country’s problems.
They have not set anything out because they have not even thought about it.
Look at Keir Starmer.
In 2023, he announced his five national missions for government.
Then, before the election, he replaced them with six First Steps.
Six months after that, he abandoned all of them with a Plan for Change, which added three foundations and six further milestones.
He said growth was his number one priority, then it was women’s safety, then it was the cost of living.
Finally, he said defence was his top priority, which was so convincing that his Defence Secretary resigned.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is not what governing is.
All of that was nonsense.
Keir Starmer did not have a plan, and that is why he is gone.
Andy Burnham does not have one either.
And that is why I know the announcements he is making will all come to naught.
Conference, we have to be different.
Different from Labour and different from the party we were two years ago.
I have written The Right Way because I have learned the lessons.
This party has learned the lessons.
We know how difficult it is, once you are in government, to work out what you think.
You cannot fix the engine after the plane has taken off.
That is why we are using our time in opposition wisely.
In government, we will be buffeted by unexpected events.
Wars we were not predicting, like the war in Ukraine and now the war in Iran.
Governments were not expecting the global financial crisis.
In the 2019 General Election, no one would have believed that a global pandemic was coming.
We have to be ready for anything.
We will be pressured to bend with the wind.
That is why we need strong roots to make sure we do what is in Britain’s long-term interests, instead of politicians’ short-term interests.
I am not doing this on my own.
I have got a great team.
I have got you.
And this team will make the bold choices this country needs.
A team that will navigate the complexities of today’s world.
A team that will follow The Right Way and lead us into a stronger and more prosperous future.
We are in a different phase.
We have a different Prime Minister, so we are going to have a different Conference.
Each day, we will be showing you how we will deliver on our priorities.
Earlier today, you heard about how the Conservative Party is fighting to keep our country united.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are being run by people who want to rip the United Kingdom apart, and my team will not let them.
And tomorrow, you will hear from our new Economic Team about how we can get a growing economy, one where we become richer and have a better quality of life.
On Tuesday, we will be showing how you cannot have social security without national security.
I will be sending clips of that one to Andy Burnham.
And then on Wednesday, you will hear about our plan to enforce the standards and rules we expect in this country and bring back consequences.
And then, after that on Wednesday, you will hear from me.
Conference, this is how we are going to govern.
As a team, pulling in the same direction, following our values and principles.
This Conference is going to be a festival of ideas.
There will be all sorts of new and exciting events for you to enjoy.
And the next one is right now with me.