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  • Rishi Sunak – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Rishi Sunak – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, in Manchester on 4 October 2023.

    Thank you, Akshata for that introduction…

    …and thank you for always being there for me.

    My wife: truly the best long-term decision for a brighter future, I ever made.

    I have been blessed in my life.

    I have a wonderful wife and two daughters who make me proud every single day.

    And I was also lucky enough to grow up in the most loving of homes.

    My Dad was a GP and my Mum a pharmacist…

    …you did need a smaller mention than last summer I know.

    In so many ways, I wouldn’t be standing here before you today without them.

    They were—and are—my inspiration.

    Thank you, Mum, thank you Dad.

    Like so many of us in this hall, they understood the importance of community…

    …and made sure that I did too.

    They didn’t believe community was some extension of government.

    Rather, they understood community is sustained by individuals…

    …by those who look out for their neighbour, treat others as they would like to be treated.

    They understood the fundamental importance of service.

    It was seeing the difference they made to people’s lives that made me want to go into politics.

    My mother set up her own pharmacy.

    It was a proper family business.

    We all chipped in; as a teenager I helped deliver prescriptions and do the books.

    I learnt there the importance of being able to meet your commitments and make good on your promises.

    My parents are long retired now.

    But the Sunak pharmacy left me with a lasting respect for every small, family business.

    This Conservative party, the party of the grocer’s daughter and the pharmacist’s son, will always be the party of enterprise, the party of small business.

    I have been Prime Minister for almost a year now.

    We have done good things in that time.

    We have made progress on our five priorities…

    …to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists, and stop the boats.

    But today I want to share with you my reflections on what I have seen and what I have learnt doing this job.

    I have seen up close the quality of our armed forces and intelligence services.

    Truly, the finest in the world.

    The debt of gratitude we owe them is why we are making this the best place to be a veteran.

    I know we will deliver because we have a Minister for Veterans Affairs sitting in Cabinet.

    Johnny served in Afghanistan; this is personal for him.

    He stood with his fellow soldiers in battle…

    …and now he is ensuring that it is this Conservative government making our country fit for our heroes.

    We have backed our military with record investment.

    Working with Ben—a great defence secretary–we put the defence budget on a sustainable footing.

    Now, Grant will ensure that our advanced Aukus submarine alliance…

    …with Australia and the United States…

    …keeps the world safe for decades to come and create jobs here at home.

    And, through our leading role in NATO, we remain the bulwark of European security.

    All testament to this country’s global reach and influence…

    …and our determination to take long-term decisions in the national interest.

    By contrast, just remember that not once, but twice…

    …Labour tried to make a man Prime Minister who didn’t believe in NATO…

    …who would have surrendered our nuclear deterrent and who blames Britain for every problem.

    Sir Keir Starmer might want us to forget about his repeated support for Jeremy Corbyn, but we never will.

    You can never trust Labour with our country’s security.

    I am proud to say we have led the world in providing support to Ukraine.

    We were the first country to send Western battle tanks to Kyiv, now more than ten others have followed.

    We were the first country to send long range weapons to Kyiv, now France and the United States have followed.

    We were the first country to agree to train Ukrainian pilots, now more than a dozen others have followed.

    I say this to our allies, if we give President Zelensky the tools, the Ukrainians will finish the job.

    Slava Ukraini.

    Doing this job, I meet and talk to inspirational men and women across our country.

    You see that our most potent strength, our most powerful resource, our greatest hope is our people.

    But what I have learnt is that there is an undeniable sense that politics just doesn’t work the way it should.

    The feeling that Westminster is a broken system—and the same goes for Holyrood, Cardiff Bay, and Stormont.

    It isn’t anger, it is an exhaustion with politics.

    In particular, politicians saying things, and then nothing ever changing.

    And you know what: people are right.

    Politics doesn’t work the way it should.

    We’ve had thirty years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one.

    Thirty years of vested interests standing in the way of change.

    Thirty years of rhetorical ambition which achieves little more than a short-term headline.

    And why?

    Because our political system is too focused on short term advantage, not long-term success.

    Politicians spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it.

    It doesn’t have to be this way.

    I won’t be this way.

    Conference, our mission is to fundamentally change our country.

    The Labour Party have set out their stall: to do and say as little as possible and hope no one notices.

    They want to take people’s votes for granted and keep doing politics the same old way.

    It is a bet on people’s apathy.

    It does not speak to any higher purpose, or brighter future.

    It is about power for the sake of power.

    It is in short, everything that is wrong with our politics.

    So, if this country is to change, then it can only be us who will deliver it.

    Because if we do not our growth will be stunted.

    More places will be left behind.

    And ever more of our time will be spent debating the side issues and symptoms…

    …rather than the deeper, more structural challenges we face.

    We won’t allow this to happen.

    So, where a consensus is false, we will challenge it.

    Where a vested interest is placing itself above the needs of the people, we will stop it.

    And where common sense is under attack from an organised assault, we will defend it.

    Today, I will set out how we will achieve this.

    Beginning with a set of long-term decisions…

    …to build a brighter future for our children…

    …and fundamentally change our country.

    And conference, you can already see my approach in the course I charted on net zero.

    We Conservatives love our natural world.

    We are determined to be good stewards of it.

    In my own constituency, it is the beauty of the North York Moors…

    …and Swaledale and Wensleydale that makes the place home.

    We Conservatives also value frankness and consent.

    We believe that politicians have a duty to treat household budgets with respect…

    …and that change only endures if we bring people with us.

    As you could tell by the reaction to my decision to chart a new course to Net Zero…

    …it was not the easiest argument to have.

    But when I looked at the reality of what people were being asked to do…

    …the thousands of pounds people would need to pay…

    …all of that disproportionately falling on the poorest in society by the way…

    …and all of it not actually necessary in those time frames to meet our net zero targets…

    …and in spite of us doing more than any other country—I concluded it simply was not right.

    So, I decided to take a pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to reaching Net Zero.

    And I won’t take any lectures from other countries that have done far less than us…

    …or from those for whom spending thousands of pounds of means nothing.

    Change is difficult, particularly for those who disagree.

    But remember this: we will still meet our international obligations…

    …we will still meet our domestic targets and we will still get to Net Zero by 2050.

    We have solved a problem and offered an unapologetic defence of good Conservative common sense.

    So as much to the country, I make this promise to all of you in this hall.

    As I did last summer: I will tell it as it is.

    I will lead in a different way.

    Because that is the only way to create the sort of change in our politics and in our country that we all desperately want to see.

    Now I came into office in difficult circumstances…

    …and I don’t want to waste time debating the past because what matters is the future.

    The facts are the facts.

    You can’t borrow your way out of inflation.

    And if we want fundamental change in our country, we need a strong economy as a foundation.

    That is why halving inflation was the first and most important of the five priorities I set out at the start of the year.

    Everything that we want to achieve requires getting inflation under control.

    ‘Inflation is the biggest destroyer of all—of industry, of jobs, of savings, and of society.’

    ‘No policy which puts at the risk the defeat of inflation—no matter its short-term attraction—can be right.’

    Not my words, but those of Margaret Thatcher: as true now as they were then.

    I know you want tax cuts, I want them too—and we will deliver them.

    But the best tax cut we can give people right now is to halve inflation and ease the cost of living.

    And with inflation under control, our debt reduction will become easier…

    …and as debt falls, confidence grows, and as confidence grows so too will our economy.

    We need our economy to grow faster, and for people across the country to feel the benefits of that.

    Like other Western economies, we haven’t grown quickly enough in recent years.

    But don’t let Labour and the others talk down our country.

    We now know that we have had one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic of any major economy in Europe.

    Since leaving the single market, we’ve grown faster than France and Germany.

    Not despite Brexit, because of Brexit.

    We have the largest life sciences, financial services, creative and tech sectors in all of Europe.

    And we have near record numbers of people with the security that a job provides.

    And if we want to keep growing…

    …we have to create the conditions in which businesses can drive growth…

    …and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

    We still have the lowest corporation tax rate in the G7.

    And thanks to the Chancellor’s business tax cuts…

    …we are the best place to invest in the machinery and equipment that your business needs to grow.

    Innovation drives growth in a modern economy…

    …so, we also have the most generous tax regime for research and development in the G7.

    And our Brexit freedoms make us ever more competitive.

    From financial services to clinical trials to agriculture, we are creating a more agile regulatory system…

    …freeing up businesses to drive the growth our country needs.

    The fact we control our own trade policy now is why we can be the first European country to join the £11 trillion Pacific trade pact…

    …linking us to the fastest growing region in the world and opening up new markets for our farmers and great British products.

    We have new free ports from the Firth of Forth to the

    Solent…

    …ensuring the benefits of trade and investment are spread across our country.

    And thank you Kemi for cutting away Brussels red tape and saving small businesses a billion pounds a year.

    Brexit was more than a vote to leave the EU: it was a vote to change, to become something more.

    It was a statement of our belief that Britain could begin a new story…

    …one which reached all parts of our country and everyone in it.

    We must keep making the case for taking back control because if we don’t…

    …our opponents will try and neuter this change.

    To align us with the European Union so that we never seize the full opportunities of Brexit.

    We know where Keir Starmer’s heart lies on this issue—and we know he can’t be trusted on it either.

    First, he said he’d respect the referendum result.

    Then he wanted a second referendum.

    Then he wanted free movement.

    Then he didn’t.

    He said he wouldn’t try and renegotiate our deal.

    Then he said he would.

    And then just two weeks ago he was caught on camera telling a meeting of international politicians…

    …that he now just wants to follow all the EU rules.

    The irony isn’t lost on me.

    While we’re busy thinking about the future of the United Kingdom…

    Keir Starmer’s just banging on about Europe.

    You just cannot know what you are going to get with him.

    The only thing that is certain is that it won’t be what he is promising you.

    But the worst thing about Sir Keir is that he just says whatever he thinks will benefit him the most.

    It doesn’t matter whether he can deliver it…

    …doesn’t matter if it’s true…

    …it doesn’t matter if he said the opposite just a few weeks or months ago.

    He is the walking definition of the thirty-year political status quo I am here to end.

    That is why we have to beat him—and Conference that is why we will!

    If we are to create change and drive growth across our country, then we must get our infrastructure right.

    A false consensus has taken root that all that matters are links between our big conurbations.

    This consensus said that our national economic regeneration should be driven by cities…

    …at the exclusion of everywhere else.

    It said that the most important connection those cities could have was to London, and not anywhere else.

    And it said that the only links that mattered were north to south: not east to west.

    What we really need, though, is better transport connections in the North.

    A new Network North that will join up our great towns and cities in the North and the Midlands.

    I wanted to come here to Manchester today, to say that this will be our priority, our focus, our project.

    HS2 is the ultimate example of the old consensus.

    The result is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been repeatedly delayed and it is not scheduled to reach here in Manchester for almost two decades…

    …and for which the economic case has massively weakened with the changes to business travel post Covid.

    I say, to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed.

    And the right thing to do when the facts change, is to have the courage to change direction.

    And so, I am ending this long running saga.

    I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project.

    And in its place, we will reinvest every single penny…£36 billion pounds…

    …in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, and across the country.

    This means £36 billion of investment in the projects that will make a real difference across our nation.

    As a result of the decision we are taking today…

    …every region outside of London will receive the same or more government investment than they would have done under HS2…

    …with quicker results.

    No government has ever developed a more ambitious scheme for Northern transport than our new Network North.

    This is the right way to drive growth and spread opportunity across our country. To level up.

    With our new Network North, you will be able to get from Manchester to the new station in Bradford in 30 minutes…

    …Sheffield in 42 minutes…

    …and to Hull in 84 minutes on a fully, electrified line.

    Don’t worry. There’s more.

    We’ll protect the £12 billion pounds to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned…

    …and we will engage with local leaders on how best to deliver that scheme.

    We’ll build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations.

    We’ll help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro…

    We’ll build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line…

    Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6…

    There is more. There’s lots more.

    …and we’ll connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

    We’ll fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes.

    We’ll resurface roads across the country.

    We’ll bring back the Don Valley line.

    We’ll upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington, and Barrow.

    Build hundreds of other schemes.

    And keep the £2 bus fare across the whole country.

    I challenge anyone to tell me with a straight face that all of that isn’t what the North really needs.

    Our plan will drive far more growth and opportunity here in the North than a faster train to London ever would.

    As John Stevenson and Ben Houchen have long argued, east-west links are more important than north-south ones.

    Given how far along construction is, we will complete the line from Birmingham to Euston.

    And yes, HS2 trains will still run here to Manchester. And journey times will be cut between Manchester, Birmingham, and London by 30 minutes.

    And I say this to Andy Street, a man I have huge admiration and respect for, I know we have different views on HS2. But I also know we can work together to ensure a faster, stronger spine: quicker trains and more capacity between Birmingham and Manchester.

    The management of HS2 will no longer be responsible for the Euston site.

    There must be some accountability for the mistakes made, for the mismanagement of this project.

    We will instead create a new Euston development zone…

    …building thousands of new homes for the next generation of homeowners, new business opportunities and a station that delivers the capacity we need…

    And in doing so, for the first time in the life cycle of this project – we will have cut costs.

    The £6.5 billion of savings that Mark and I are making will be taken from the Euston site…

    …and given to the rest of country.

    The decision I have made and the stance I am taking will be attacked.

    They will say that halting it signals a lack of ambition.

    There will be people I respect, people in our own party, who will oppose it.

    But there is nothing ambitious about simply pouring more and more money into the wrong project.

    There is nothing long-term about ignoring your real infrastructure needs…

    …so, you can spend an ever-larger amount on one grand project.

    They will say that we have already spent so much on it that it would be embarrassing to stop.

    That, though, would be an absurd reason to continue: an abdication of leadership.

    They will say that there is somehow a cross party consensus on the project…

    As I have already said… that consensus is wrong.

    For too long, people in Westminster have invested in the transport they want…

    …not the transport the rest of the country, particularly the North and Midlands, wants and needs.

    And to those who disagree, who will focus on what I have stopped, I ask you to consider what we have just created with Network North.

    An alternative, which in place of one delayed and over running project…

    …will now begin hundreds upon hundreds of new projects…

    …large and small, road and rail, bus and train, covering the whole country.

    That will be delivered faster.

    That will see every region receiving more investment than they would have done.

    You can’t have both.

    So those who wish to disagree with me, I respect that.

    But they should have the honesty to admit that they would now be cancelling the hundreds of alternative projects…

    …right across the country, that people will benefit from instead.

    Conference, I think our new plan is simply a better long-term investment of £36 billion of taxpayers’ money.

    We need to bring this willingness to make the right decision, not the easy one…

    …to every aspect of our national life.

    The NHS is important to us all.

    It is the birthright of every person in this country.

    It was the NHS and social care staff who worked night and day to get us through the pandemic.

    Our commitment to the principle of an NHS free at the point of use is immovable.

    And this Conservative government is putting record resources into our NHS, and social care too.

    But we Conservatives know that you don’t measure your affection for the NHS…

    …just by how much money you put in, but by how you reform it for the challenges ahead.

    I know that right now waiting lists are patients’ most pressing concern.

    Just as in Scotland and Wales, they have risen because of the pandemic.

    And now strikes have led to more than a million cancelled appointments.

    Now, this is a reasonable government.

    We have negotiated and reached pay deals with over a million NHS workers, including nurses and hospital porters.

    We have met the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies for junior doctors and consultants in full.

    We have cut their taxes on their pensions as they requested.

    But they continue to demand, massive unaffordable pay rises.

    And that they have chosen to walk out this week says it all.

    This strike is all about politics, not patients.

    These strikes are not in the spirit of the NHS.

    This year we celebrate its 75 years of service…

    …and one of my abiding aims as your Prime Minister is to set the NHS up for the next 75.

    True believers in the promise of the NHS want it to reflect the world we live in today.

    That means a higher quality service that offers you—the patient—more choice…

    …allowing you to use any provider, independent or NHS, free of charge, if that will get you treated quicker.

    A common-sense reform that this Conservative government has made.

    Next, Steve and I want to give the NHS the staff it needs.

    For decades, we have not trained enough doctors and nurses.

    The result: the NHS either hiring staff from abroad or paying temporary agency workers huge fees.

    And we are ending that with the first ever long-term workforce plan for our health service.

    Let me repeat that, the first ever long-term workforce plan.

    It says everything about the short-termism of our politics that for the last 75 years…

    …not a single government has planned for how many doctors and nurses the NHS will need in the decades ahead.

    Our plan doubles the number of students training to be doctors and nurses.

    But it is also a reform plan for the NHS with new ways of training…

    …new roles and new ways of working, all driving up productivity.

    I know vested interests will oppose some of these measures.

    But we Conservatives must do the right thing and make the changes that will enable the NHS…

    …to work as productively as the best healthcare systems anywhere in the world.

    And this is what a long-term decision really is.

    Given it takes up to 15 years to train a consultant, there’s no politics in this investment, it’s not about credit.

    It’s about our kids and their kids, they’ll get a much better and stronger NHS.

    And that’s why we’re here.

    That’s why we Conservatives do what we do, up and down the country from Whitehall to Town Hall.

    We’re building a better future for the next generation.

    But to ease the more fundamental burden of demand on the NHS…

    …we need more preventative care to stop people having to go to hospital in the first place.

    We must tackle the single biggest entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability, and death and that is smoking.

    In our country smoking causes one in four cancer deaths.

    It kills 64,000 people a year and leads to almost one hospital admission every minute.

    It significantly increases the risk of strokes, heart disease, dementia, and stillbirth.

    Now we’ve made great progress in tackling smoking.

    The number of people smoking is down by two thirds since the 1970s.

    But if we are to do the right thing for our kids we must try and stop teenagers taking up cigarettes in the first place.

    Because without a significant change…

    …thousands of children will start smoking in the coming years and have their lives cut short as a result.

    People take up cigarettes when they are young.

    Four in five smokers have started by the time they are 20. Later, the vast majority try to quit.

    But many fail because they are addicted and they wish had never taken up the habit in the first place.

    If we could break that cycle…

    …if we could stop the start…

    …then we would be on our way to ending the biggest cause of preventable death and disease in our country.

    So, I propose that in future we raise the smoking age by one year, every year.

    That means a 14 year old today will never legally be sold a cigarette…

    …and that they—and their generation—can grow up smoke free.

    We know this works.

    When we raised the smoking age to 18, smoking prevalence dropped by 30 percent in that age group.

    When the US raised the age to 21, the smoking rate dropped by 39 per cent in that age group.

    Smoking places huge pressures on the NHS and costs our country £17 billion a year.

    We have a chance to cut cancer deaths by a quarter, significantly ease those pressures and protect our children, and we should take it.

    This is not a values judgement on people who smoke.

    I don’t believe it would be fair to take away the rights of anyone to smoke who currently does so…

    …and the vote on this in parliament will be a free vote…

    …as the bar on smoking in public places was and raising the smoking age to 18 was.

    There will be no government whip, it is a matter of conscience…

    And I want you all, and the country, to know where mine is.

    For a Conservative, measures that restrict choice are never easy.

    I know not everyone in this hall will agree with me on this.

    But I have spent a long time weighing up this decision.

    Simply put: unlike all other legal products, there is no safe level of smoking.

    And what has ultimately swayed me is that none of us, not even those who smoke, want our children to grow up to be smokers.

    This change can make that a reality.

    It will save more lives than any other decision we could take.

    And as any parent or teacher knows, one of the most worrying trends at the moment is the rise in vaping among children: one in five children have used vapes.

    We we must act before it becomes endemic.

    So, we will also bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to our children. Looking at flavours, packaging, displays and disposable vapes.

    As Prime Minister I have an obligation to do what I think is the right thing for our country in the long-term.

    And as Conservatives we have never shirked that responsibility.

    We have always been at the front of society, leading it.

    And when we have the tools at our disposal…

    …to deal with the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in our country…

    To cut cancer deaths by a quarter…

    …to significantly reduce long-term pressure on our NHS…

    …and to do for our children what we all, in our heart of hearts, know is right…

    …we must act, we must lead.

    Conference, we must put the next generation first.

    And that is what I will do.

    But all the boldness in the world will only mean so much…

    …if we can’t similarly deal with matters of fundamental sovereignty, safety, and control.

    I’m talking of course about illegal immigration.

    It is non-negotiable that you, the British people decide who comes here… and not criminal gangs.

    Those gangs ply a trade that leads to innocent people dying, we have a moral duty to defeat this evil — and we will.

    I never pretended that stopping the boats will be easy.

    At the time I committed the government to delivering that goal the consensus was simple…

    …there was nothing we could do about it.

    They pointed to four years of growing crossings and said ‘impossible.’

    Well conference: they were wrong.

    It is not impossible and we are proving it.

    Small boat crossings are, for the first time since the phenomenon began, down 20 per cent this year.

    All while entry into Europe is up.

    We are by no means where we want to be.

    But don’t let anyone tell you we aren’t making progress.

    We are.

    And we will get there.

    Our new law will ensure that if you come here illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed.

    I am confident that once flights start going regularly to Rwanda, the boats will stop coming.

    Just look at how our returns agreement with Albania has seen the numbers coming from there fall by ninety per cent.

    I am confident that our approach complies with our international obligations.

    But know this, I will do whatever is necessary to stop the boats.

    By contrast, Labour’s plan is to cook up some deal with the EU…

    …which could see us accepting around 100,000 of Europe’s asylum seekers.

    If your answer to illegal migration is to increase it…

    You clearly just don’t get it.

    And that’s why we have got to stop them.

    And that’s because on this and so many other issues Labour simply don’t share our and the country’s values.

    My values are simple: service, family, work.

    I was brought up to understand the value of work.

    Work gives you security, work gives you purpose.

    When the pandemic hit, we were faced with the prospect of 12 million people losing that security, that purpose overnight.

    And once you’re out of work, it can be hard to get back in.

    I wasn’t prepared to cast 12 million people into that darkness.

    I am proud that furlough not only prevented this…

    …but helped ensure our economy recovered more strongly from the pandemic…

    …than France, Germany, and Japan.

    Never forget the scale of what we did for so many.

    In six weeks, we did something that had never been done before: from scratch.

    I was told it wasn’t possible, that it wouldn’t work, but I got it done.

    Furlough was compassionate Conservatism in action.

    If furlough was one thing that helped us get through Covid, then Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms were another.

    The old system could not have coped with the pressure in the way that universal credit did.

    But we have more to do.

    We must end the national scandal…

    …where our benefits system declares that more than two million people of working age are incapable of actually doing any.

    That’s not Conservative, that’s not compassionate—that must change.

    In 2011, one in five of those doing a work capability assessment were deemed unfit to work.

    But the latest figure now stands at 65 per cent.

    Are people three times sicker today than they were a decade ago?

    No, of course not.

    It’s not good for our economy…

    …it is not fair on taxpayers who have to pick up the bill…

    …and it’s a tragedy for those two million people being written off.

    I refuse to accept this and that is why we are going to change the rules so that those who can work, do work.

    Your values and your priorities should be expressed in everything the public sector does.

    Too often it is not.

    In too many parts of our permanent state, virtue-signalling has replaced common sense.

    As Suella has said, there is no such thing as a minor crime.

    If the police tolerate crime and anti-social behaviour in any form, we will have more crime of all sorts.

    So, that’s why we now have record numbers of police officers and every crime should be investigated. Our streets will be safer, our communities more secure, no one should be afraid to walk home alone at night.

    Our London mayoral candidate Susan Hall is doing a great job of holding Sadiq Khan to account for his failings on policing.

    Londoners, you will be safer with Susan.

    And I am clear: there are some crimes so heinous…

    …that those who perpetrate them should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

    So, I can confirm that we will legislate for sexual and sadistic murders to carry a full life term…

    …with no prospect of release.

    We are going to change this country and that means life means life.

    Now that shouldn’t be a controversial position.

    The vast majority of hardworking people agree with it.

    And it also shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships.

    Patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women.

    And we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be.

    They can’t; a man is a man and a woman is a woman.

    That’s just common sense.

    We also should never be afraid to talk about the thing that matters most to most of us, family.

    Whenever you want to talk about family, someone whispers ‘is that wise Prime Minister?’

    You’ll be accused of promoting a one size fits all view.

    But in this Conservative Party…

    …the party that legislated for same sex marriage and is investing record amounts in childcare…

    …we know that what matters is that love cascades down the generations.

    It is family that cares for us at the beginning of our life…

    …it is family that helps us learn…

    …it is family that sustains us…

    …and in old age it is family that lightens the autumn of our days.

    Family matters, and as proud Conservatives we should never be afraid to say that.

    And there’s another family that matters to us all, our family of nations: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

    Today, our Union is the strongest it has been in a quarter of a century.

    The forces of separatism are in retreat across our country.

    Nicola Sturgeon wanted to go down in the history books as the woman who broke up our country…

    …but now it looks like she may go down for very different reasons.

    We are a remarkable combination of four nations with a proud history…

    …and that history should give us enormous confidence in our future.

    My grandparents did not emigrate to just Leicester or Southampton, but to the United Kingdom.

    They came here because our country stands for a set of values.

    We are the home of fair play, the best of British.

    We are the place for those who want to add to our national story.

    The United Kingdom has done a huge amount for my family.

    I often think about how different our lives would be…

    …if my grandparents had not left India and East Africa all those years ago.

    I owe our country everything.

    And it is my duty to do what I can to help this country take the right long-term decisions for the years ahead.

    This United Kingdom is also the most successful multi-ethnic democracy on earth.

    And our party has led the way on that.

    We had the first ethnic minority Prime Minister when Queen Victoria was still on the throne…

    …we have had three female Prime Ministers…

    …and I stand before you today as the first non-white leader in our country’s history.

    Meanwhile, Labour’s last three leaders all live within the same square mile of North London.

    When the Richmond Conservative Association selected me in North Yorkshire, people in other countries couldn’t understand it.

    One American magazine even sent a reporter to Yorkshire to write about how…

    … ‘a candidate of the wrong race [could] cost the Tories one of the safest seats in England?’

    But they should not have projected their own prejudices onto our country.

    The people of North Yorkshire were not interested in my colour, but my character.

    Never let anyone tell you that this is a racist country.

    It is not.

    My story is a British story.

    A story about how a family can go from arriving here with little to Downing Street in three generations.

    What does the Conservative Party offer a family of immigrants?

    The chance to become Energy Secretary, Business Secretary, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary…

    Even the chance to become Prime Minister.

    When I first became an MP, my grandfather came to parliament to see me.

    As we stood in Westminster Hall, on that floor which Disraeli and Churchill had walked across so many times…

    …my grandfather got out his mobile phone and made a quick phone call.

    I was a new MP and I wasn’t quite sure whether phones were allowed there or not.

    I was like, Nanaji, can this not wait a moment.

    He replied that he was calling the landlady he had when he had first arrived in this country:

    He said to me, ‘I just wanted to tell her where I was standing.’

    I am proud to be the first British Asian Prime Minister, but you know what…

    …I’m even prouder that it’s just not a big deal.

    And just remember: it was the Conservative Party who made that happen, not the Labour Party.

    If we want to change the direction of our country and build a better future…

    …nothing is more important than making our education system the best it can be.

    When our party came to power in 2010, our schools were slipping down international league tables.

    Now, they are rapidly rising.

    Of what we have done in government since 2010, what I am proudest of is our record on education.

    With Michael and Nick Gibb, we took on a failed ideology.

    We brought back proper knowledge.

    We empowered reformers.

    We gave parents more choice and helped them to hold schools to account.

    But, perhaps, the most profound thing we have done…

    …is to disprove the idea there is something pre-destined about who will succeed and who won’t.

    We have state schools in some of the most deprived parts of the country, producing some of the best results.

    These state schools, empowered by reform, don’t think there are limits to these children because of the postcode they were born in.

    Rather, they demand, inspire, and deliver excellence.

    A Labour government would never have done this.

    Rather, Labour pursued the false dream of 50 per cent of children going to university and abandoned apprenticeships.

    This assumption that the only route to success was the university route…

    …was one of the great mistakes of the last 30 years.

    It led to thousands of young people being ripped off by degrees…

    …that did nothing to increase their employability or earnings potential.

    So, we are stopping universities from enrolling students on courses that do nothing for their life chances.

    Under us, no more rip off degrees.

    And if you want to know how much I value apprenticeships, look at the fact that in Gillian we have our first ever apprentice to be Education Secretary.

    Today, I want to build on these Conservative achievements and take a long-term decision to address the problems with our 16 to 19 education system.

    Technical education is not given the respect it deserves.

    Students don’t spend enough time in the classroom.

    A quarter of our children leave education without the basic literacy and numeracy they need to fulfil their potential.

    And our students study too narrow a range of subjects.

    Today, I am changing all of that, pulling one of the biggest levers we have to change the direction of our country.

    We will introduce the new rigorous, knowledge rich Advanced British Standard…

    …which will bring together A-Levels and T-Levels into a new, single qualification for our school leavers.

    First, this will finally deliver on the promise of parity of esteem between academic and technical education.

    Because all students will sit the Advanced British Standard.

    Second, we will raise the floor, ensuring that our children leave school literate and numerate.

    Because with the Advanced British Standard all students will study some form of English and maths to 18, with extra help for those who struggle most.

    In our country no child should be left behind.

    Third, our 16- to 19-year-olds spend around a third less time in the classroom than some of our competitors.

    We must change this.

    So, with our Advanced British Standard, students will spend at least 195 hours more with a teacher.

    And fourth, A-Level students, generally, only do three subjects compared to the seven studied by our economic competitors.

    The Advanced British Standard will change that too, with students now, typically, studying five subjects…

    …and thanks to the extra teaching time that we are introducing…

    …this greater breadth won’t come at the expense of depth which is such a strength of our system.

    Our new plan will require more teachers in the coming years.

    So, I can announce today that in order to attract and retain more teachers…

    …those who teach key subjects in schools and, for the first time, in our further education colleges too…

    …will receive special bonuses of up to £30,000 tax free over the first five years of their career.

    Our teachers do one of the most valuable jobs in our society, and we should reward them for that.

    And Conference, I can tell you: my main funding priority in every spending review from now on will be education.

    Why?

    Because it is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet.

    It is the best economic policy, the best social policy, the best moral policy.

    It the best way to spread opportunity and to create a more prosperous society. It is not just my way. Conference, it is the Conservative way.

    I know times have been tough.

    We have all had to deal with unprecedented challenges.

    And I will be straight with you: we have mountains to overcome still.

    But today we have made three huge decisions to change the direction of our country.

    We will give Britain the infrastructure it needs…

    …protect the long-term future of our NHS and cut cancer deaths by a quarter…

    …and create the best education system in the Western world…

    …to set our children up for the opportunities of the future.

    If we commit, if we come together, then we can achieve truly great things.

    We can build a country where work is truly valued…

    Where welfare is a safety net and not a way of life…

    Where small businesses drive our economy…

    Where innovation makes life better…

    Where our NHS is properly funded and properly reformed…

    Where our children are the best educated in the western world…

    Whether that’s at university or yes: through an apprenticeship.

    Where the scourge of anti-social behaviour is treated as the crime it is and not some social condition…

    Where for the most violent offenders life means life…

    Where the people and their government decides who can come here and who can‘t…

    Where the next generation can achieve the dream of owning their own home…

    Where the elderly grow old with dignity and where the young grow up with opportunity…

    Where decency and mutual respect bind communities together.

    Where the very idea of Britain is a symbol of hope and stability across the world…

    And where our United Kingdom remains united.

    All this and more is ours if we want it…

    …but we have to fight for it.

    At the next election, the choice the people face is bigger than party politics:

    Do we want a government committed to making long-term decisions…

    …prepared to be radical in the face of challenges, and to take on vested interests…

    …or do we want to stand still—and quietly accept more of the same?

    You either think this country needs to change or you don’t.

    And if you do, then you should stand with me—and every person in this hall.

    You should stand with the Conservatives.

    Today this party put the needs of the British people first.

    We’ve taken the decision many should have done: but didn’t.

    We’ve ended the HS2 drama…

    …and in its place will embark upon a full-scale national reinvestment…

    …in the infrastructure people actually use and want…

    …and the skilled workforce who’ll build it.

    And no more hiding: no more pretending in the face of overwhelming evidence.

    Too many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers are lost to lung cancer, heart disease, dementia, still birth and we can change that.

    Today we went beyond ideology and put the people first again…

    …and committed ourselves to ensure our children and grandchildren…

    …can be the first generation that doesn’t have to suffer the false choice to quit smoking or not…

    …because they will have never started.

    Today we set a course for our education system that will set our children up for the opportunities of the future.

    No more rip off degrees; no more low aspiration; no more denigration of technical education.

    Just the best education system in the Western world.

    We will be bold.

    We will be radical.

    We will face resistance and we will meet it.

    We will give the country what it so sorely needs, and yet too often has been denied:

    A government prepared to make long-term decisions so that we can build a brighter future—for everyone.

    Be in no doubt: it is time for a change.

    And we are it.

    Thank you.

  • Johnny Mercer – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Johnny Mercer – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Johnny Mercer, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, in Manchester on 4 October 2023.

    If it’s any consolation, I’m surprised they gave me this slot as well!

    Conference, thank you very much and good morning and thank you to Penny.

    It’s good to be here today. Because these are important days.

    It’s good to be able to say thank you to all of you who have taken the time to attend this week.

    It’s not been easy. I know that – you know that. I just wanted to say thank you to you, very publicly, for all that you have done over the last year.

    You are the heart of the party. The volunteers, who are simply there because you believe in our mission; in what the Conservative Party is trying to do. It’s been hard. I acknowledge that.

    But I have one purpose standing here before you today.

    Because yes, I’m a campaigner,

    An irritating, ruthless campaigner for veterans’ rights.

    I love Plymouth.

    But above that I’m a patriot.

    And the truth is, the truth is, we stand at a cross-roads,

    And I want us to focus on what lies ahead.

    Because out there is a Country that is yearning to be won over.

    That really does not want to vote and have a Labour Government.

    But they want a change that works better for them.

    Everyone wants change after 13 years – just ask my wife.

    Because life is really difficult out there at the moment, really tough in cities like mine.

    We’ve done a lot to support people – you cannot argue with that.

    Paying half of the average household energy bill,

    Freezing fuel duty,

    And benefit’s rising in-line with inflation to look after our poorest through these storms.

    But for too many people, it doesn’t feel like that.

    And we haven’t got it always right. And we all know that.

    But change is afoot and I would not be here today if it that did not mean something.

    You can feel the change. You can feel it this week.

    Long term decisions for a brighter future – it actually means something.

    Take my personal crusade on Veterans.

    I joined this Party because like many ordinary Britons today, I saw it as the Party of the Nation.

    Moderate, patriotic, committed and values-driven.

    And I believed that if I could show the values that were missing in the care of my generation of Veterans of Afghanistan, this Party would close that gap.

    Because it was a values thing, a values thing – how we look after those who have served.

    Those who instead of shouting loudest about their country outside another yet Party conference, actually crossed the threshold and were prepared to sacrifice body and mind for our way of life.

    For our Country, for our values.

    And in the last thirty years, we have seen politicians repeatedly failing to take the long-term choices for our veterans.

    But this PM has been different from the start. I would not be here if he wasn’t.

    He made a conscious decision straight away,

    that we were going to follow in the footsteps of our American, Australian, Canadian and other peer nation allies, and change our structure of Government to better look after our Veterans.

    He decided that he would have a veterans minister in his Cabinet for the first time,

    That he would constitute the Office for Veterans Affairs properly,

    And that we would finally close the gap between what we say about our veterans – including from this very conference stage,

    and how it actually feels to be a veteran in the United Kingdom today.

    Because the truth is, that Veterans’ care in the United Kingdom has been transformed.

    Single dedicated pathways for physical and mental healthcare in our NHS – backed up by millions of pounds of long-term funding.

    From specific programmes reaching vulnerable veterans in the criminal justice system, to a compassionate but aggressive pathway to end the stain of veterans’ homelessness in the United Kingdom this year.

    Many governments around the world have tried that,

    But we are actually going to end rough sleeping because of a lack of provision in our Veterans, by this Christmas, under a Conservative government.

    And finally, that totemic scourge on the lives of our extraordinary people who served in Northern Ireland has been removed.

    The hounding of these special people who stood against terror and violence in Northern Ireland on our behalf was appalling and a stain on our Nation.

    Not just the veterans’ community, but the Nation as a whole.

    The sight of these men being arrested in their eighties, dragged back to Belfast, hounded literally to death; was the totemic symptom of a nation’s moral ambivalence to those who served.

    To end that was about hard choices. It was about principles; it was about honesty about what could be achieved in that space. It talked about who we are as a party, who the Prime Minister is as a man – his character, what he believes in.

    It was about values.

    With the Northern Ireland Legacy Act we have now achieved that change.

    I pay tribute to Chris and the team at the NIO.

    But mostly I pay tribute to the unstinting bravery, patriotism and courage of that generation of Veterans who served in Northern Ireland.

    I know how you have not always felt it, but your sacrifices brought the peace we have today in the United Kingdom, and we are unequivocal in our admiration and total respect for your service, and I hope that you can now begin to feel that for yourselves as well.

    I stand before you as perhaps the one-time fiercest critic in this space,

    But acknowledging we have further to go, but honestly tell you Veterans’ care has never been better because of a Conservative Government.

    These are things a Conservative Government can do. Long-term decisions for a brighter future.

    Labour? They don’t even have a veterans’ minister in their shadow cabinet.

    They’ve already said they will repeal the Northern Ireland Bill I’ve been talking about. They have no plans for an Office for Veterans’ Affairs.

    Because to do this stuff you have to actually believe in something.

    And if we know anything, it’s that Sir Keir Starmer believes in nothing at all.

    He’ll bend to the highest bidder; the first bit of rough water he’ll bail out.

    And contrast this with Rishi.

    Voting for Brexit despite being told it would end his career;

    Creating a world-leading furlough scheme throughout the pandemic,

    Taking a leadership role in our approach to Net Zero with working families at the heart of it,

    Because he’s in it to serve.

    I know him. I know that central in his mind are the working families of this Nation.

    Who drive this nation, who serve in the Armed Forces,

    Who drive the economy, and frankly deserve better than they’ve had from Westminster.

    And the British people deserve that. They deserve that leadership. We must not consign them to years of a feeble Labour Government they don’t want and doesn’t believe in anything at all.

    We must hang together in the months ahead – this is the vital piece.

    We must hang together.

    Now is the time for focus, a focus on our nation, on the mission above ourselves.

    If we do that, I’m convinced we can get there.

    Let’s get to it.

  • Penny Mordaunt – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Penny Mordaunt – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, in Manchester on 4 October 2023.

    Conference, I want you to know the feeling is entirely mutual.

    What a great conference.

    I love conference.

    It is a chance to see you all. To be able to thank you for all that you do. For all that you believe in. And for being here today. And it’s important that you are. Because this is the turning point.

    It is the point from which we are going to be measured.

    Now, physically getting here has not been straightforward.

    Mick Whelan will be very disappointed to see so many of you here.

    But we’re quite used to people trying to disrupt our conference.

    Whether you’re a new member and this is your first conference, or you have been a stalwart of the party for decades. You have all had to stand up to bullies.

    You’ve had your offices graffitied, you’ve been trolled online, you’ve been called scum, you’ve had physical threats. Some of you have had death threats. I know that some of you in this hall today have faced sanctions and threats from hostile states. No matter what the attack, we don’t back down.

    39 years ago, this conference met, in the aftermath of the Brighton bomb. Standing up to bullies is what we do.

    So I know that you are a tough bunch.

    Our strength comes from a deep motivation to serve, and respect for the rights of the individual. And I am glad of that courage. Because what I have to say to you today is not for the faint hearted.

    Conference, we face the fight of our lives.

    And our country needs us again, to stand up and fight.

    Stand up and fight.

    Against the odds, against the polling, against the sneering commentary, against the “inevitability-of-decliner”s and the “despite-Brexit”ers. Stand up and fight against the sanctimonious clap trap of a Labour Party who have forgotten their MRSA infected hospitals, their soaring council tax and fuel duty, mass youth unemployment and the economic mess they left us to sort out.

    Stand up and fight.

    Stand up and fight, because when we do, all is possible.

    Now, later on, you will hear from our brilliant Prime Minister.

    He is going to be talking about the future. About the long-term. And how politics needs to change for a brighter future.

    But for the time I have with you I want you to cast your minds back.

    Now, as you know, I’m a Portsmouth girl.

    Over the years, we have been in one scrap after another, and my city still bears the scars to this day.

    Many of you in this hall will remember the 1980s.

    I know what you’re thinking: Mordaunt couldn’t remember the 1980s! She’s far too young.

    Conference, I have to tell you, I was there!

    One of my first memories was standing on the Hot Walls in Portsmouth, and I was watching HMS Hermes take the Falklands taskforce out of the harbour. And I stood proud that day.

    I knew watching those men and those ships that my country stood up to bullies.

    Those men and those families knew that some would not be coming back.

    It was deeply moving. And it moves me still to think of it.

    You see, it was the moment I realised that courage is infectious.

    You see, that is what the Conservative Party is for.

    That is what our nation is for.

    We stand up and fight.

    We are the party and the country that stood up and fought against Nazis and fascists.

    We are the party and the country whose resolve enabled superpowers to end a cold war.

    We are the party and country that sent my classmates’ father and ships from my dockyard to stand up and fight for the rights of the Falkland Islanders to self-determination. All against the prevailing wisdom that it could not and should not be done.

    We are the party and country that has stood from the start with Ukraine. We are the country and party that stood up for democracy. Who gave our countrymen the choice to join a European trading bloc and 40 years later the choice to leave what it had become.

    We are the party and country that transformed the sick man of Europe into a titan on the global stage; who stood up and fought against militant trade unions and broke their chokehold on Britain. A few brave people with courage and conviction and love of country who thought about the long term, not short-term popularity.

    Who knew what needed to be done and took on the bullies to achieve it.

    Margaret Thatcher.

    And every single person who stood with her and fought for a better future.

    I happen to know that Lord Tebbit is tuning in from home. We remember you today. Thank you.

    All of you still inspire.

    Never forget those who went before us. And remember that without a Churchill, you can’t have a Zelenskyy.

    Conference, I’m telling you all of this because I want you to remember that our greatest moments as a party and as a country come from when we feel at our lowest ebb.

    And we face such a moment now.

    Unprecedented threats yield unprecedented opportunity.

    Unprecedented fears provide unprecedented challenge.

    So, why have I taken you all back to the 1980s?

    Very simply conference, because that is where the Labour Party now wishes us to return. Make no mistake, they want to fight the battles of the past.

    All that we have worked so hard to achieve is in peril.

    The freedom to use our roads without protesters or politicians stopping you.

    The freedom to access public services and public transport.

    The freedom to build a business and create wealth.

    The freedom to invest in your children.

    The freedom to make of ourselves everything our talents and determination allow.

    The freedom to speak one’s mind.

    The freedom of political association.

    The freedom to take personal responsibility.

    All at risk.

    Make no mistake what will happen if we fail to win at the general election.

    And the biggest threat of all is that the sons and daughters of Scargill are ready for a rematch of battles of the 1980s.

    No less than the repeal of all of the reforms and freedoms we have brought in.

    Aided and abetted by Labour.

    Fuelled by the politics of envy, identity and class hatred.

    Outdated, dogmatic, irrelevant to the needs of the people.

    We have seen this before. We have seen this before.

    The Labour controlled city of Birmingham Council following the Labour controlled Liverpool City council into scuttling around, handing out redundancy notices to its own workers in the wake of bankruptcy.

    We have seen this movie before.

    They want to return us to the 1980s.

    Conference, we are not for returning.

    We must never again let this country be subject to the bully boy barons of militant trade unions – the Matt Wracks, the Mick Lynch’s.

    People who say they are going to defend your community while destroying it.

    People who say to hard-working families the best way they to make ends meet is to drive those ends further apart by going on strike.

    People who tell you your cancelled operation on your national health service, that you fund, is a price worth paying to meet their agenda.

    People who want to turn the BMA into the NUM.

    Conference, we’ve seen all this before.

    We must never again let this country be tortured by the Wrack and the Lynch mob.

    They are the iron fist, the iron fist.

    So now let me tell you about the velvet glove. The smooth, silky red velvet glove that would give them cover.

    You see conference, I don’t know about you, but I do not trust the leadership of Keir Starmer to be able to stand up to the iron fist.

    Why?

    Because he is not even capable to standing up to Mark Drakeford and his plans for an independent Wales. A 20mph independent Wales.

    Or Sadiq Khan and his taxes on the working poor.

    Or Angela Rayner and her Trade Union Charter.

    He is incapable of standing up and fighting.

    He doesn’t believe in anything.

    He doesn’t stand for anything.

    Who is he?

    A few years ago, he wanted you all to think he was Jeremy Corbyn.

    He sat in his shadow cabinet, knowing full well what that would mean if that man ever got into Downing Street, what it would mean for our defences.

    He watched while colleagues of Jewish heritage were driven from his party.

    And at the turn of this year, he wanted you all to think he was Neil Kinnock.

    He used the exact language that Kinnock used in that fantastic conference speech he made when he took on the hard left of Hatton and Heffer. And at that moment, we conservatives, we cheered. We cheered Kinnock. Because we recognised his courage. We recognised his motivation because it was ours too. It didn’t matter that he was our opponent. He was fighting for our country.

    When has Sir Keir ever done that?

    No, Starmer has emboldened militant trade unionism and voted against protecting the public access to the services that they pay for.

    And now, in Act III, he wants you all to believe he’s Tony Blair.

    Starmer will do anything and say anything to win an election. And that is where his ambition ends.

    Along with the power he will cede to his union paymasters and an NEC which needs a focus group to tell them to sing the national anthem.

    He will not stand up for anything or anyone.

    He will not stand up for you.

    More likely, he’s gonna lie down.

    Lie down in the street with Just Stop Oil.

    Lie down with the Lib Dems and the SNP.

    Lie down with Ed Davey – the man that makes Tim Farron look like a giant.

    Lie down with Humza Yousaf – the man that made Nicola Sturgeon look competent.

    But, just think for a moment what they would mean for our relationship with the EU, and for the union of our precious United Kingdom.

    Right at the point when our brilliant nation should be focussed on the new opportunities ahead.

    When it should be thinking about the future.

    Taking the long-term decisions to guarantee its success.

    Be in no doubt what is at stake. These people will erase everything we have achieved. They will deny Britain all it can be.

    So, if you remember nothing else from what I have said today remember this – stand up and fight.

    Stand up and fight for our families.

    For workers, for the protectors, for the wealth creators.

    Stand up and fight for those that take responsibility.

    Stand up and fight for those that voted to leave the EU and those who voted remain and accepted the result and wish our country well.

    Stand up and fight for your communities, for Scotland, for Wales, for Northern Ireland, for England.

    Stand up and fight for the freedoms we have won against socialism, whether it is made of velvet or iron.

    Have courage and conviction, because when you do you move our countrymen, our communities and capital of all kinds to our cause.

    Stand up and fight.

    Because when you stand up and fight, the person beside you stands up and fights.

    And when our party stands up and fights, the nation stands up and fights.

    And when our nation stands up and fights, other nations stand up and fight.

    They stand up and fight for the things upon which the progress of humanity depends. Freedom.

    That is what Conservatives do. That is what this nation does.

    Have Courage.

    Bring Hope.

    Stand up and fight.

    Stand up and fight.

    Thank you, conference.

  • Suella Braverman – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Suella Braverman – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, in Manchester on 3 October 2023.

    Let me start ladies and gentlemen by thanking a few people. First of all my brilliant ministerial team. They’re here. Chris Philp, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Sarah Dines, Simon Murray, Andrew Sharpe, and also my Parliamentary team, James Sunderland, Shaun Bailey, Kieran Mullan, Scott Mann and Byron Davies. Thank you for your fantastic work.

    I’d also like to thank all the Home Office civil servants who work flat out to keep this country safe.

    And of course, the Greater Manchester Police and all the officers from around the country who are doing their duty here.

    I don’t know if you’ve noticed but as Home Secretary, I do occasionally receive a modicum of criticism.

    Sometimes I’m asked if I ever read what my critics say about me.

    Well, the answer is: yes, I do.

    I’m made of strong stuff, so I’m prepared to wade through the personal abuse, the wild invective, and the wilful misrepresentation.

    Because I believe that all of us should strive for improvement.

    And if we close our ears to anyone who disagrees with us…we are less likely to identify our mistakes.

    One of the reasons why the Conservative Party has survived and thrived for so long…it is because we are not afraid to admit when we get it wrong…and adapt accordingly.

    We listen, we learn, and we renew ourselves.

    And that’s what we are doing this week in Manchester.

    We are raising our game.

    Because next year, this country will face a clear choice at the general election.

    Who do people trust to deliver the change that Britain needs?

    There are huge challenges ahead.

    The world is being transformed by powerful forces.

    I think the British people see that.

    Perhaps more clearly than some of those in Westminster who live in a bubble of complacency.

    I also think most British people have a pretty good sense of how they expect their government to respond to those challenges.

    And I’m confident that when push comes to shove the voters will realise that they are much more likely to get the change they really want from Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives…..Than from any of the left-wing parties.

    And the reason is simple…And I’ll explain it with an example from my responsibilities as Home Secretary.

    Now one of the most powerful forces reshaping our world is unprecedented mass migration.

    The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.

    Because today, the option of moving from a poorer country to a richer one is not just a dream for billions of people.

    It’s an entirely realistic prospect.

    Every human, every single person, has the right to aspire to a better life.

    As Conservatives, that is one of the cornerstones of our philosophy.

    And, indeed, without that dream, I wouldn’t be standing before you today.

    But Conservatives are also practical and realistic.

    Nobody can deny that there are far, far more people in poorer countries who would love to move to Britain than could ever be accommodated…

    Even if we concreted over the countryside….

    Turned our cities into one vast building site…

    And erected skyscrapers from Eastbourne to Elgin and from Hull to Holyhead…

    …It still wouldn’t be enough.

    Demand will always outstrip supply.

    I know it.

    You know it.

    And the voters know it.

    This country has been generous in taking in refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, and Hong Kong.

    The decency of the British people cannot be questioned.

    But they also care deeply about overall numbers.

    In poll after poll, the British public have been clear: immigration is already too high.

    And they know another thing. That the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores…

    …uncontrolled and unmanageable, unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.

    We are the only Party that will take effective action.

    I can’t pretend that politicians have done a great job of managing immigration for the last thirty years.

    We were too slow to recognise the scale of the problem.

    Too unwilling to accept that our legal framework needed to be updated.

    And, let’s be honest, far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos.

    But under Rishi Sunak’s leadership things are changing.

    We are raising our game.

    For years, too many overseas students were bringing their dependents here to the UK.

    So we’ve changed the rules to ensure that a student visa is not a route for whole families to come and live and work in the UK.

    When I stood before you at Conference last year, we were dealing with a surge of Albanian illegal migrants coming on small boats. Over 12,000 in 2022 alone.

    Fast forward a year, and thanks to the returns deal with Albania that we put in place, and changes that we made to our rules, those numbers are now down by 90%.

    Indeed, against a backdrop of increasing illegal migration into Europe, small boat crossings to the UK are down by 20% compared to last year.

    And Conference we will soon begin closing down asylum hotels.

    That is not nearly enough. I accept that. But it is a start.

    And it’s a hell of a lot more than Labour would do.

    I said at Conference last year that we had to change our laws. And we did.

    Our Illegal Migration Act which will come into force in the coming months, now means that the only route to asylum in the UK is a legal route.

    The Act means that those arriving illegally, will be detained and removed, back to their home country if possible, or to a safe third country like Rwanda.

    All of this is ultimately a question of political will.

    And be under no illusion, we will do whatever it takes to stop the boats and deter bogus asylum seekers.

    We will also ensure that legal migration comes down to reasonable levels… and that it occurs only when there is a clear benefit to the British people.

    That’s our pledge. That’s our plan.

    And I believe the public will back it.

    Because everybody knows what Labour will do on migration.

    Labour will do what Labour always does: Open our borders.

    At heart, Labour doesn’t believe that we have the right to keep people out.

    Sure, they may mouth a bit of occasional rhetoric about controlling our borders… but that’s not what the Labour Party has ever done in government.

    And it’s not just negligence or incompetence… although you can be guaranteed of plenty of that if Labour wins.

    It’s actually deliberate.

    The biggest reason why Conservative governments have struggled to get illegal migration under control is because Labour governments passed laws that inhibit effective action.

    Because the truth is we struggle to remove foreign criminals;

    We struggle to get accurate data on the ages of the asylum seekers;

    We struggle even to confiscate their phones when they arrive on our beaches.

    Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era.

    And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.

    I am surprised they didn’t call it the Criminal Rights Act.

    Each time I have gone to Parliament to improve the law on immigration, Labour has tried to block us.

    Always aided by their allies in the third sector.

    Some of whom openly declare that they oppose national borders merely on principle.

    And all of them bleating the same incessant accusation:

    Racist. Racist. Racist.

    They’ve always used that smear.

    They tried it against Margaret Thatcher… It didn’t work.

    They tried it against David Cameron… It didn’t work.

    A couple of years ago they even tried it against Winston Churchill… Our greatest ever leader… And it didn’t even work then.

    And I can promise you this… it won’t work against Rishi Sunak… and it won’t work against me.

    The truth is every one of us in this room should be proud of their roots, and proud of our Conservative values.

    We believe that Britain has the right to secure borders…

    To decide who gets in to our country… and who does not.

    We are the Party to confront the challenge of global migration in the years ahead.

    Not a Labour Party that will open the borders and then cry racism to anyone who objects.

    Let’s be clear… The choice between Conservatives and Labour is the choice between strong borders and no borders.

    The next election will also be fought on law and order.

    Between a Conservative government that wants the police to focus on criminal justice…

    … And a Labour Party that thinks the police should focus on social justice.

    Between a Conservative government that stands up for the police…

    … And a Labour Party that wants to see them take the knee.

    Between a Conservative government that wants to help ordinary people go about their lives unimpeded…

    …And a Labour Party that sympathises with the eco idiots that block roads and stop mums from taking their kids to school…

    …Stop workers from getting to their jobs…

    …And stops ambulances from getting to hospitals.

    Because when it comes to Just Stop Oil, Labour’s lawyers advise them – and Labour’s donors fund them.

    That’s exactly why Labour resisted the legislation that we passed to crack down on this madness.

    Thanks to our new laws, the police can now get these clowns off our streets and get traffic moving in a matter of minutes.

    The Prime Minister and I are firmly on the side of the law-abiding majority.

    That’s why we have backed our police officers with one of the largest ever rises in police pay…

    It’s why we ensured we hit our target of 20,000 additional police officers – so that we now have more officers in England and Wales than ever before.

    It’s why we’ve backed the police’s use of stop and search as an effective way to get knives off our streets.

    It’s why we’ve secured agreement from the police to investigate all burglaries and follow all reasonable lines of inquiry when someone reports a crime.

    It’s why we’ve reformed hate crime guidance so that officers aren’t wasting hours of valuable police time investigating squabbles on Twitter.

    It’s why we’re making sure that police are not inadvertently helping mobs to enforce non-existent blasphemy laws.

    It’s why we’ve prioritised tracking down grooming gang perpetrators and getting justice for their victims after authorities turned a blind eye.

    And it’s why we’ve made sure that Prevent – the government programme that stops people from sliding towards terrorism – is focused on the main security threat to the British public, Islamist extremism.

    In all of this we have been assisted by some truly excellent Police and Crime Commissioners who share our commitment to common sense and law and order.

    There is so much more to do…and the public knows that but Labour certainly won’t do it.

    There’s more to do to reform our vagrancy laws, because we cannot let British cities go the way of San Francisco or Seattle.

    There’s more to do to ensure that Foreign National Offenders aren’t clogging up our prisons for less serious crimes. But are booted out of Britain as soon as soon as possible.

    There’s much more to do to end the scandal of rapists and paedophiles changing their names to evade sanctions and criminal record checks.

    And so, we will bring forward legislation to prevent registered sex offenders from changing their identities, and we will work to strengthen background checks so that they can catch undisclosed changes of identity.

    Let me tell you something. I don’t care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights. It’s time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.

    I want to thank the Safeguarding Alliance for their tireless campaigning on this issue.

    And let me go on and say this. I have a particular message to those brave police officers who risk their lives to protect the rest of us by carrying firearms into situations where they could be harmed or even killed.

    You are the thin blue line. You have our support. We are grateful for the vital work that you do, day in, day out.

    That is why I announced a review, to report to me by the end of the year, to ensure that the legal and operational framework in which they operate is robust and commands the confidence of both officers and the public.

    And to those who ask whether Labour can be trusted to fight crime. I have a two-word answer: Sadiq Khan.

    If there’s any justice in this world, Susan Hall is going to wipe the floor with him in May.

    They’ve already started the character assassination against Sue.

    The distortions. The insults. The lies.

    That’s what the Labour Party always does:

    It prefers smears to debate.

    Personally, I take their abuse as a compliment.

    I know they have tried to make me into a hate figure because I tell the truth.

    The blunt, unvarnished truth about what is happening in our country.

    And I know there are some who think that emphasising the importance of law and order or secure borders, is unedifying.

    They look down on those of us who care about such things.

    Of course, they are entitled to their beliefs.

    But let’s be honest.

    These are luxury beliefs.

    What do I mean by that?

    Our politically correct critics have money. They have status. They have loud voices.

    They have the luxury of promoting seductive but irresponsible ideas safe in the knowledge that their privilege will insulate them from any collateral damage.

    The luxury beliefs brigade sit in their ivory towers telling ordinary people that they are morally deficient because they dare to get upset about the impact of illegal migration, net zero, or habitual criminals.

    And you can be sure of one thing.

    People with luxury beliefs will flock to Labour at the next election because that’s the way to get the kind of society they want.

    They like open borders. The migrants coming in won’t be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes.

    They love soft sentences. The criminals who benefit from such ostentatious compassion won’t be terrorising their streets or grooming their children.

    They are desperate to reverse Brexit. They think patriotism is embarrassing and have no use for a British passport unless it is taking them to their second homes in Tuscany or the Dordogne.

    For these people, I have a simple message: You are entitled to your luxury beliefs, but the British people will no longer pay for them.

    There’s another reason I think that we will win the next election.

    We have a secret weapon.

    Well, not that secret.

    Everyone in this hall knows it.

    I think everyone who will be at Labour conference knows it too.

    And our friends in the media definitely know it.

    Our secret weapon is…Sir Keir Starmer.

    The British people have no enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer.

    They know that he believes in nothing…

    They know that he will say anything to anyone… And then change his mind at the first sign of trouble.

    Keir Starmer lacks the personality to lead this country effectively.

    Imagine what would happen if he became Prime Minister.

    Luxury beliefs would reign supreme.

    Britain would go properly woke.

    Things are bad enough already.

    We see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums and galleries, in the police, and even in leading companies in the City.

    Under the banner of diversity, equity, and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.

    Highly controversial ideas are presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie.

    Gender ideology.

    White privilege.

    Anti-British history.

    The evidence demonstrates that if you don’t challenge this poison, things just get worse.

    Whole institutions become captured.

    And of course, as always happens when the left gets the upper hand, those who fail to conform are persecuted.

    Chased out of their jobs for saying that a man can’t be a woman.

    Scolded for rejecting that they are beneficiaries of institutional racism.

    Disciplined for using the wrong words.

    This Conservative government has begun the task of clearing out this pernicious nonsense.

    The British people will get to decide if they want to curb woke with Rishi Sunak…

    …Or let it run riot with Keir ‘take the knee’ Starmer.

    Labour is the party of pressure groups, rich zealots, and trade union activists.

    But, you know, the Conservative Party is also a kind of trade union.

    Because we are the trade union of the British people.

    And I think we should adopt as our motto these lines from the poet Shelley…

    …Which I’m shamelessly taking back from Labour:

    Rise like lions after slumber
    in unvanquishable number.
    Shake your chains to earth like dew:
    Which in sleep had fallen on you.
    You are many, they are few!

    We stand with the many…

    The law-abiding…

    Hard working…

    Common sense majority.

    Against the few…

    the privileged woke minority…

    … with their luxury beliefs…

    … who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers.

    Our message to the people is clear.

    We are raising our game.

    We are fighting for a Britain that puts you first.

    We are on your side.

  • Alex Chalk – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Alex Chalk – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Alex Chalk, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, in Manchester on 3 October 2023.

    Goodness, conference.

    Thank you and thank you Victoria for that kind introduction. I’m pleased that she gave my name, Alex Chalk.

    I’m a little sensitive about it because it wasn’t so long ago that I knocked on a door in Cheltenham, the door opened, this lady said “Oh yeah, I know who you are. You might be better than your brother, but we don’t want David Miliband either,” she said.

    Total disaster; I told CCHQ, they said “Don’t worry, we’ll ask the Mayor of London to come down”.

    Now ladies and gentlemen, initially, everything went so well. He got out of the car and was 100% on-message. “Chalk for Cheltenham!” “Chalk for Cheltenham!” he was saying.

    But as he paused to meet everyone, there was an enterprising journalist from the local BBC who spotted his opportunity. Recognising, conference, that I might not have been the only person he had come to support that day, he sidled up and put the microphone in Boris’ face.

    “So, Mayor, just for the listeners of BBC Radio Gloucestershire; can you remind us please, what is the name of the person you have come to support?”

    Well conference, I have to tell you now, the name that came back was not mine. The name that came back was a very prominent estate agent who had been advertising heavily on the London Road coming into Cheltenham.

    These are the pitfalls of being a politician.

    It is a privilege to be addressing you today as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

    First, because I am, as Victoria just indicated, above all a barrister (albeit one on a career break) but most of all because when it comes to justice, we the British, have a history of which we can be immensely proud.

    From Magna Carta in 1215 to the Bill of Rights in 1688, this country has made a special contribution to the rule of law.

    Businesses across the globe choose our law to govern their contracts. They choose our courts to settle their disputes. Why? Because of the skill of our lawyers and the excellence of our judges.

    It means we have the largest legal sector in Europe, and the second largest in the world. More than 200 overseas law firms have set up offices here, from over 40 jurisdictions. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the energetic minister Mike Freer has visited every one of them.

    This success matters, conference, for all sorts of reasons, but chief among them is that it drives opportunity.

    Many of us in this room came into politics and chose the Conservative Party because we believe to our core in creating life chances for young people who may not have had the easiest start in life but are prepared to work hard and do the right thing.

    Unlocking potential and enabling people to go as far as their talents will take them is the British dream – and legal careers make them a reality.

    Now, I’m proud too, because our strong justice sector says something about our instincts as a nation for fairness.

    This is the country that in the face of Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion did not hesitate. We appreciated instinctively that borders matter, that the international rules-based order counts for something, and that might is not always right.

    And it’s why, on top of being such a major donor of military equipment, this Government is supporting the International Criminal Court with funding, with legal expertise to bring war criminals to justice – something spearheaded by my predecessor, Dominic Raab.

    And our instinct for fairness means we’ve opened our hearts and our homes to Ukrainians, to Honk Kongers, Afghan interpreters who served alongside our armed forces, people who’ve arrived legally. But, conference, when it comes to illegal migration, although we in Britain have warm hearts, we seek a secure front door.

    It is not fair on the British people, and nor, by the way, is it fair on those very migrants who have played by the rules, that illegal entrants should seek to jump the queue.

    Because just as the rule of law means that no one is above the law, so it also requires that there are consequences for those who break it. And so, whilst Labour flail around with absolutely no solution, we have a clear, long-term plan that is robust, yes – but fair too.

    And we can deliver it within our overarching legal obligations.

    Now conference, I want to talk about our courts – civil, family and criminal.

    Covid might be receding into history, but as I know from speaking to my counterparts from France to the United States to Japan, justice systems across the world are still dealing with the consequences.

    Now, our magistrates’ courts, which remember, deals with around 90% of all crime, have rebounded strongly.

    As for the Crown Court, the jury system is particularly vulnerable to a pandemic. A gang trial with five defendants in the dock could easily mean 35 people in a single courtroom. So, the flow of those trials inevitably slowed.

    Now, in the white heat of the pandemic, there were those who said “scrap jury trials altogether.” They said replace them with a single judge deciding guilt or innocence in those most serious of cases.

    They said hundreds of years of history, and the bedrock of our fundamental freedoms should be swept away.

    Conference, what a travesty that would have been. As someone who has prosecuted murders, rapes, terrorist bomb plots and gun crime, I knew that would mean destroying something of inestimable value to our country.

    So, we made the tough call. We stuck with jury trials, a decision in the national interest, and in the interests of justice.

    But it does mean that caseloads in the Crown Court are higher than they were. And as a result, there are now 6,000 more people on remand in custody than there were pre-Covid. That presents a real challenge.

    So, to drive forward the recovery we have kept open Nightingale Courts, we have recruited over 1,000 judges and tribunal members, and we’re recruiting 1,000 more. We have massively expanded the budget to upgrade and modernise our courts and tribunals.

    And we are investing up to an additional £141 million a year for the barristers and solicitors whose important work ensures the guilty are convicted, the innocent walk free and the public are protected.

    And conference, we are committed as a party, and as a government, to making the long-term decisions that put the national interest first.

    That’s why we are rolling out the largest prison expansion programme since the Victorian era.

    Thanks to this Prime Minister, when he was Chancellor, and led by the exceptional Prisons Minister Damian Hinds, we have brought online over 5,000 more places – in brand new prisons like HMP Fosse Way, with more on the way. Modern, secure, decent prisons with rehabilitation at their core.

    And we’re expanding and refurbishing existing prisons and hiring thousands more prison officers. And I can tell you today conference that we also intend to look at the Norwegian example and explore renting overseas capacity.

    But we must be candid too – prison costs money. A lot of money. Not only does society suffer the crime in the first place, but it also suffers the punishment to the tune of around £46,000 a year per adult male prisoner.

    Now we make no apologies for locking up the most dangerous offenders for longer where that is necessary to protect the public. And that is why we have extended the use of whole life orders, so that in more cases life really does mean life.

    But it’s also why our plan to break the cycle of reoffending is absolutely critical, because all but the most dangerous offenders will be released one day. Frankly, there are people wasting their lives going in and out of prison, at enormous cost to the taxpayer.

    So, we are rolling out accommodation provision for prison leavers, to keep them off the streets and out of trouble in those critical early weeks. We have brought business expertise into over 90 prisons across the country to provide job opportunities and help prisoners gain the skills they need to hold down a job, pay taxes, and become a contributing member of society.

    And just look, conference, at the progress we’ve made: Since 2010, reoffending has dropped from 32% to 24%; In the last two years the percentage of offenders in employment six months post-release has more than doubled; Since 2010, violent crime and burglary is down by over 40%.

    That is how we secure justice.

    And conference, we are absolutely committed to protecting women and girls. We are the Party that: Outlawed stalking – a crime disproportionately suffered by women; That created the offence of ‘coercive or controlling behaviour’ – it wasn’t even a crime before; We passed the first ever Domestic Abuse Act; We outlawed revenge porn and cyberflashing; We created a new offence of non-fatal strangulation; We clamped down on the cowardly ‘rough sex gone wrong’ defence; We unlocked and funded hundreds of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors to support victims and we set up a 24/7 Rape Support Helpline; as well as doubling grants for Rape Support Centres.

    All this we do and more.

    In fact, we have quadrupled funding for victim support services since 2010. Four times more money for victims’ services under the Conservatives.

    And when it comes to rape prosecution, there is of course more to do, but there are important facts that shouldn’t be forgotten:

    First, more adult rape cases are being prosecuted now than when Labour were in power.

    Second, the conviction rate for all rape is higher.

    Third, the average sentence is longer – 43% longer.

    Fourth, the amount of the sentence that must be served behind bars is greater.

    Because Labour say they want to protect the public – but literally do the opposite, even launching campaigns to block the deportation of dangerous foreign criminals.

    Take one offender: he thrust a broken bottle into a man’s face leaving him scarred for life – a ‘horrifying attack’ in the words of the police. His Labour MP, a serving member of the Shadow Cabinet no less, tried to stop the flight.

    He was in good company. Because Keir Starmer demanded that ‘…all future charter flights must be suspended’. No principles, no judgement, no clue.

    I have to say conference, when you look at the leader of the opposition, he just reminds me of a kind of living cushion, he just bears the impression of the last person who sat on him. But anyway, that’s another issue.

    We will go further to support victims, conference.

    Our Victims and Prisoners Bill, being piloted through the Commons by the skilful Victims Minister Ed Argar and through the Lords by the highly respected Lord Bellamy, and, indeed, aided and abetted by our brilliant PPSs, Laura Farris and Aaron Bell, remember those names conference, they will bolster victims’ rights further, giving new roles to our Police and Crime Commissioners to oversee how agencies deliver for victims.

    And we are giving judges the power to compel offenders to attend their sentencing hearing. Those who’ve robbed innocence, betrayed trust and shattered lives should be in court to face up to the damage they have done. They should be there to hear society’s condemnation ringing in their ears.

    And today I want to right another injustice.

    I am clear that if a father murders the mother of his children, he should expect to lose his parental rights. That’s why today I can announce that we will legislate to suspend those rights from those who murder their partners.

    So, we will enact Jade’s Law, named after Jade Ward who was tragically murdered by her husband and whose children and their grandparents are now subject to attempts to exert control by the perpetrator from behind bars.

    No family should have to go through this, and thanks to their efforts we will protect children and families by making their law a reality.

    So, conference, I started speaking to you this afternoon about pride.

    Let us take pride in what our country has contributed – probably more than any other to the international rules-based order.

    Let us take pride in what we have delivered in government to stand up for victims.

    And let us rededicate ourselves today to serve justice, to uphold our values and keep the British people safe. Thank you.

  • Michael Gove – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Michael Gove – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Michael Gove, the Secretary for State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in Manchester on 3 October 2023.

    I want to begin with a word of thanks. I want to thank you every single one of you in the hall, your friends, your family, the army of Conservative activists, members, and supporters. Because it’s thanks to you your unstinting effort, your energy, and your enthusiasm, that we have Conservatives in government.

    And we Conservatives have a record we can be proud of.

    Consider the facts.

    We have delivered.

    We have delivered better state schools than ever before.

    With our children the most literate in the Western world and there are more students from state schools at our best universities.

    More students securing top grades in maths, physics and chemistry.

    Our universities the best in Europe and they are growing.

    We have record numbers in employment.

    We have created one million more new jobs while in government.

    Welfare is simpler, fairer and better targeted.

    We have taken hundreds of thousands completely out of income tax.

    Families have many more hours of free childcare,

    Since Covid, our economy has grown faster than France’s or Germany’s.

    We have also delivered:

    The first national living wage…

    … same-sex marriage and the most diverse Government ever.

    Stronger defence with two new aircraft carriers…

    … new nuclear submarines and a strengthened NATO.

    We have delivered the fastest decarbonisation of any major economy.

    And we are world leaders in offshore wind.

    World leaders in reforming farming.

    And we have shown world leadership in protecting our oceans,

    Brexit has been delivered…

    … and membership of the world’s fastest growing trade bloc secured.

    There’s more than £350 million extra a week now for our NHS. Promise made. Promise delivered.

    We’re showing world leadership in life sciences, in AI and in gene technology.

    We have delivered a points-based migration system.

    Crime is down.

    The Union has been strengthened.

    … devolution delivered in England…

    … nationalism is in retreat in Scotland.

    We delivered the fastest vaccine rollout in the world.

    We have been Ukraine’s strongest supporter against the evil of Putin’s regime.

    And we are every nation’s indispensable partner…

    … in fighting for freedom, democracy and a better world.

    We have a record to be proud of…

    … a Conservative record…

    …a record of delivery against the odds…

    … a record every one of us should be proclaiming every single day from now until the next general election!

    This is a record which will give us victory.

    And we will take the fight to the Labour Party.

    The party of Jeremy Corbyn and his self-proclaimed friend Sir Keir Starmer.

    Sir Keir…

    …who was against Brexit…then wanted to accept Brexit… then wanted a second referendum on Brexit… then said he wanted to make Brexit work…

    …then said he wanted a Brexit which was identical to EU membership…

    …saying…as he always does…whatever he thought people in the audience wanted to hear.

    He is the jellyfish of British politics…

    …he’s transparent, spineless and swept along by the tide.

    Under Sir Keir, Labour is the party of equivocation, procrastination, prevarication…

    …but never prepared to stand up for our nation.

    It is the party of high unemployment…higher taxes… …and always…

    … the highest debt and deficits.

    The party of low ambition…

    … lower standards in our schools…

    … and – always – the line of least resistance…

    … in the face of left-wing pressure groups at home and threats abroad.

    Well we have a message from this hall for Labour and Sir Keir.

    We will fight, fight and fight again…

    … for the country we love.

    And there is so much to love about our country.

    Though you might not always think that…

    … if you relied on Twitter for your news and the Guardian for your views.

    There is a fashionable tendency to denigrate our country…

    … to denounce our past…

    … and to see only decline in the future.

    But the country that the left depict is not the United Kingdom we know.

    This is a country which welcomes refugees from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

    A country which invests billions fighting climate change in the poorest countries in Asia…

    … we fight poverty in Africa… and tyranny everywhere.

    We are a country with the most diverse and inclusive – Conservative – government in the west.

    A Foreign Secretary whose mum came from Sierra Leone.

    A Home Secretary whose family are from Kenya and Mauritius.

    A Business Secretary brought up in Nigeria.

    And a friend of mine…

    … whose grandparents came here from Kenya’s Indian diaspora …

    …our Prime Minister.

    Rishi Sunak.

    Rishi is an inspiration to so many and an example of what our open, generous, great nation stands for…

    … opportunity for all…hard work rewarded… prejudice vanquished…service to others…and courage in the fight.

    We are so lucky to have Rishi as our Prime Minister…

    … and he will lead us to victory at the next election.

    For while we have achieved so much together…

    … there is still much more to do.

    And I am blessed that in that endeavour I have a superb team of ministers and officials alongside me.

    Rachel Maclean – reforming the planning system, fighting for more homes, standing up for small businesses,

    Lee Rowley – delivering more funding for local government and stopping the Lib Dem nonsense of a four day week delivering poorer public services.

    Jacob Young – the engineer of levelling up supporting our towns to flourish.

    Felicity Buchan – tackling anti-semitism with our Bill to end the stigmatisation of the world’s only Jewish state by the far left.

    And our heroine in the Lords – the wonderful Jane Scott – a champion for the council tenants who have been let down by Labour local authorities.

    Can we thank them all?

    And can I also thank everyone in this hall who serves in local Government – our councillors and former councillors are the stars who guide our path forward, the local heroes who are responsible for thousands of acts of kindness and leadership every day.

    Can we all salute our councillors and everyone in local Government who do such a great job?

    Our councillors remind us – we win as a team – and as a team we have so much more to do.

    We need to ensure that every family has a safe, decent warm home…

    We need to ensure that many more young people can have a home of their own.

    We’re on track to deliver a million new homes in this parliament…

    … but we need many more.

    And our long-term plan for housing will deliver the attractive, affordable new homes that we need.

    We will build in the hearts of towns and cities and on brownfield land…

    … because that cuts commuting times… ..revitalises high streets.. and protects the green belt.

    We will ensure that our new homes are energy efficient… zero carbon ready…and built to the highest aesthetic standards.

    Because we are not just the party of opportunity and ownership…

    … we are the party of beauty and nature.

    And that is why we will resist the proposals of the Labour Party… and now the Lib Dems too…

    … to build all over the green belt and destroy precious natural habitats.

    Labour must not be allowed to take our fields, meadows, and forests away from our children…

    … and we will stop them.

    Under the Conservatives…we will …have a beautiful built environment and an enhanced natural environment.

    And by investing and building in our cities and towns…

    … we will power the regeneration of communities let down by Labour in the past.

    Across the North of England, across the Midlands, across the whole of our United Kingdom…

    … it is Conservatives who are levelling up…bringing high quality jobs and high tech companies… to communities which were neglected by the Left.

    In Redcar it is a Conservative mayor.. Ben Houchen… bringing 4,000 new jobs to Teesworks.

    In Walsall it is a Conservative mayor… Andy Street… bringing new homes and new green jobs.

    In Blackpool, it is Conservatives…who have secured millions of pounds for a new town centre, new college places and new hope.

    And we are also working in Mansfield. In Worksop. In Wednesbury.. in Leigh. in Grimsby. In Accrington…in Dudley. In Ashfield…

    … in towns across our country which are the backbone of Britain…

    … to bring new jobs. New opportunities. A new hope.

    In our towns…

    … the values of hard work and solidarity… common sense and common purpose… endeavour and quiet patriotism… have endured across generations.

    But our towns have been overlooked and undervalued by Labour…denied the support they need… denied the action against anti-social behaviour they have demanded…denied the investment they deserve.

    That is why we are investing in our long-term plan for 55 towns across the United Kingdom…

    … to ensure that in the country we all love no community is left behind..

    We can make that investment because we have made tough choices.

    That is what Government requires.

    That is what Conservatives deliver.

    And Conservatives in Government have never been more necessary than now.

    Because only we can deliver the changes this country needs.

    Only the Conservatives have the determination to stay the course and bring inflation down..

    Only the Conservatives have the resolution to resist easy answers…

    … avoid empty pledges…

    … and make the right decisions for the long term.

    Whether its resisting inflation-busting pay demands in the public sector…

    … tackling the eco loonies who stop hard working families getting to work… or facing down the faint hearts who say we shouldn’t try to control our borders… or taking on the enemies of promise in education…

    Only the Conservatives are up for the fight.

    We are the party that fought in the past to bring positive change.

    That fought to clear slums over a century ago.

    That fought to lay the foundations of the welfare state ninety years ago.

    That fought fascism, communism and tyranny throughout the Twentieth Century.

    That fought the culture of managed decline…low expectations… and bureaucratic sloth… that held us back in the Seventies.

    The party that fought for home ownership…lower tax and personal freedom in the Eighties.

    That fought to alert the world to the dangers of climate change.

    And fought to uphold democracy in Ukraine.

    That fought to make opportunity more equal in the last decade…

    … for gay people… for poorer children… for those living with disability,

    … and for those from every background… who believe in hard work and home truths.

    And we will fight… at the next election. For a Kingdom more united…

    … more confident… and more ambitious.

    We will fight together…

    …for the country we love.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Michelle Donelan – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, in Manchester on 3 October 2023.

    Thank you, Conference.

    It is an honour to be here, speaking as the UK’s first ever Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

    The department that is working with industry and research to create the opportunities of tomorrow.

    I want to start by thanking my amazing ministerial team.

    Our ever-zestful science superpower, George Freeman.

    The tireless tech titan, Paul Scully.

    The Baron of Broadband, John Whittingdale.

    And our in-house entrepreneur, Viscount Camrose.

    And of course, my brilliant PPS Paul Bristow.

    When the Prime Minister created DSIT, some questioned why this department was a priority.

    But they weren’t saying that when our tech sector worth over one trillion dollars was under threat in February,

    When the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank stood on the brink of collapse, putting thousands of British tech businesses and jobs in danger.

    But in the space of just three days, my department helped secure the sale of the bank, saving those businesses, protecting those jobs.

    And Conference, we have continued to prove them wrong.

    We’re utilising science, technology and innovation to help us all live longer, healthier, easier, happier lives with the people we love.

    In the last eight months, over two million homes have been connected to gigabit broadband. By the time I have finished this speech, 71 more will have.

    Around 53,000 people have got new jobs in 31,000 new British tech businesses.

    And we’ve agreed a bespoke new deal to join Horizon.

    And, we will protect 14 million British children thanks to the Online Safety Bill.

    But these aren’t the only changes that have happened – We’ve crowned our new King, Labour have appointed another Shadow Cabinet and I welcomed my baby boy in May.

    And yes, there have been plenty of late night tantrums, incoherent screaming and dummies being thrown out of the pram.

    But, I am told this is perfectly normal behaviour from a Labour shadow cabinet.

    Now, they’ve flip-flopped on everything from the EU, to schools, to housing, to ULEZ.

    In contrast, with your Conservative government making long term decisions for a brighter future.

    And we have an opportunity to make this Britain’s great tech century.

    As Conservatives, our job is to make sure that this transformation remains a positive one for the British people, improving all our lives.

    Let’s not forget it was British inventors who gave us the telephone, the television, the jet engine, antibiotics, the world wide web, and the first vaccine, the list goes on.

    But for too long, Britain has been a challenger nation to the US and China…

    We’ve seen too many great British ideas sold off to help foreign companies, rather than creating jobs here in the UK.

    But Conference, we have a plan.

    By the end of this decade, Britain will become a science and technology superpower.

    I want this to be a country that becomes energy independent, that flies the first electric commercial plane and even discovers cures for cancer.

    Because, when we double down on the things that put the Great into Britain in the first place,

    Our talented people, our entrepreneurial spirit, our ability to problem solve,

    We will lead the world with new inventions and keep the jobs they create on our shores.

    Because to me, that is what being a Conservative is all about – aspirations and ambition for our nation and putting the British people and British values first.

    Conference, just look how our game changing Online Safety Bill. How it put you back in the driving seat for what you see and do online – allowing adults to take control over their own social media accounts.

    When I took over this Bill a year ago, many of us were concerned about the implications for free speech.

    It was stuck in deadlock over the issue of ‘legal but harmful’,

    And I didn’t think it went far enough to protect our children.

    So, I injected some common sense.

    I said, that we should not create a quasi-legal categories, where something is legal offline to say to someone’s face, but where the state clamps down on it online.

    Because if we think something should be illegal, we should have the courage of our convictions to make it illegal.

    So that’s what we did, with cyber-flashing, with intimate image abuse, with the promotion of self-harm.

    Whilst standing up for free speech and choice and removing legal but harmful

    Illegal content should go yes, companies should stick to their own terms and conditions yes, and not treat different parts of society differently.

    But fundamentally, I believe adults should have more choice over what they see – not the state and not tech executives million miles away.

    Because we are the party of free speech and we should stay that way.

    When I took over this bill, people also said it was impossible to strengthen it to protect children.

    Do you know that the average 9-year-old has a social media account, and the average 13-year-old has seen porn online ?

    I said, enough is enough.

    Now the bill will protect children from online porn.

    It ensures that children under 13 cannot access social media platforms.

    And tech executives will face jail time if they turn a blind eye.

    But as we protect our children from harms online today, we are, of course, also preparing for a future enhanced by Artificial Intelligence.

    Britain is leading the way on AI safety.

    AI does have enormous opportunities to cut down our NHS waiting lists, to support teachers so they’ve got more time to teach and less time to do admin, and to revolutionise our public transport and much more.

    But to seize these opportunities we have got to grip the risks.

    Next month, Britain is organising the world’s first Global AI Safety Summit – bringing together world leaders so we can better understand the risks of AI and put in place the guardrails to protect the public – whilst also reaping the benefits and fostering innovation.

    With the Prime Minister, I set up the world-renowned Frontier AI Taskforce – modelled on the fantastic Vaccine Taskforce – with some of the leading minds on AI to ensure Britain leads the world on AI safety.

    Because the stakes are simply too high, and the technology is developing too fast not to act on a global scale.

    Conference, I believe we should be proactive not reactive.

    I believe, we are at a crossroads in human history, and to turn the other way would be a monumental, missed opportunity for mankind.

    Already, AI is being used to detect breast cancer earlier, the capability exists to prevent over 90% of road collisions and it’s being used to detect heart disease 39 times faster – and that’s just name a few examples.

    The opportunities in the future really are limitless.

    But we won’t make them a reality unless we have the skills and then we can truly seize these opportunities.

    To ensure that the next generation of the world’s AI entrepreneurs are Britain’s best and brightest,

    I am today announcing an £8million increase to the number of AI scholarships we are funding.

    Giving 800 more people the opportunity to excel in AI and cementing our place as leading the global conversation on AI safety.

    But as Conservatives we also must ensure the opportunities of technology are spread right across the country – from Folkestone and Falmouth to Hartlepool to Holyhead.

    Why shouldn’t an entrepreneur in a rural village be able to start a new business from home?

    Why shouldn’t British farmers be able to use state of the art agri-tech and have fast, stable internet connections to sell their produce to more customers online?

    Well, we believe they should have those opportunities, and what’s more, I am today taking action to ensure they do.

    I am announcing that in the coming months, we will be giving access to very hard-to-reach rural homes and businesses to get state-of-the-art satellite broadband to unlock the potential in these rural areas.

    I am also announcing a new £60million pound Regional Innovation Fund, a cash injection that will be felt almost immediately.

    We will back our world class universities to support local businesses, to grow local economies and support opportunities across our country.

    Right here in the North West, almost £9million will deliver new jobs, faster growth and real benefits for local communities.

    And we will be increasing our overall investment in great British research and development to £20 billion by next year.

    This is record breaking funding.

    We are backing British scientists, backing British businesses and driving investment into all corners of our United Kingdom.

    This investment will open the door to the opportunities of tomorrow.

    And British scientists are consistently advancing the frontiers of knowledge, with groundbreaking discoveries that are reshaping our world.

    Did you know, we are first in the world for producing the top medical science publications?

    We’re second in the world for R&D into healthcare,

    And unlike countries like the USA, China and Germany, we are a net exporter of pharmaceuticals .

    British scientists are the bedrock of our great economic power.

    When I was first appointed to this role, I was reminded of Margaret Thatcher’s scientific legacy.

    Now, I am not talking just about her legendary role in the invention of soft scoop ice cream…

    I am talking about her wise words as Prime Minister – when she described science as humanity’s attempt to “cast a light ahead… so that we may move forward, step by step, in the right direction”.

    She was right.

    Conference, we are the party of facts, we are the party of evidence, we are the party of scientific rigour – and I will stand up for these core values.

    But increasingly, thanks to the slow creep of wokeism, this guiding light that Thatcher referred to is under attack.

    Now, Keir Starmer has said these issues don’t matter to the public.

    He thinks that the legitimate concerns of the scientific community and of millions of Britons don’t matter.

    Well Conference, I think it does matter.

    I think it matters when scientists are told by university bureaucrats that they cannot ask legitimate research questions about biological sex.

    And I think it matters when Scotland’s chief of stats issues guidance stating that data on sex can only be collected in exceptional circumstances.

    And I think it matters when the ONS has to be taken to the High Court because its census guidance said it was possible to change your biological sex.

    I think it matters that in 2021 Police Scotland announced that a male rapist who self-identifies as a women will then be recorded statistically as a female rapist by the police.

    Now, any credible scientist will tell you that gender and sex are two different things…

    To suggest otherwise is not only scientifically illiterate, it actually damages scientific research and statistics in everything from population studies to medicine to sport.

    And unlike Comrade Keir, we will not sit idly by and watch an intolerant few stifle the light of science that leads us in the right direction.

    So today, Conference, I am launching a review into the use of sex and gender questions in scientific research and statistics – including in public bodies – which will produce robust guidance within six months.

    Conducted by Professor Alice Sullivan of UCL, who will produce a report for my department and also to Cabinet Office.

    The review will leave no stone unturned in the effort to protect scientific integrity and let our world class scientific community accurately get on with their jobs.

    So, to those who think they have the right to impose this utter nonsense on science,

    Let this message go out from this conference hall.

    We are safeguarding scientific research from the denial of biology and the steady creep of political correctness.

    We are making a stand before it suffocates British very identity and our values entirely.

    That is why we are depoliticising science, because science is the most extraordinary force for good – from curing disease to growing our food – we’ve got to keep it that way.

    Science must be based on facts.

    Now, finally Conference, delivery and outcomes are my focus.

    Last month I announced a bold new deal to join Horizon – the world’s biggest scientific collaboration.

    During the negotiations, Labour called on us to take the first deal we were offered.

    They told us ‘Bite the EU’s hand off because 0 Little Britain couldn’t get a better deal’.

    They talked our country down, trying to score a quick political win.

    And what did we do? We got an even better deal.

    And that says it all really.

    While Labour act in self-interest, when they sneer from the sidelines and say it can’t be done,

    We are busy taking the long term decisions and delivering.

    They said we couldn’t leave the EU and secure a better deal on Horizon – we did it.

    They said we couldn’t create a bespoke, common sense, British version of GDPR that cracked down on endless cookie pop-ups – we did it.

    They said the Online Safety Bill couldn’t protect free speech for adults and do more to protect children online – we did it.

    And we achieved these because we never lost sight of what it means to solve difficult problems in an unapologetically, common-sense Conservative way.

    I believe in the individual, in opportunities and hard work, in the family.

    While others want to smash the foundations of Britain down, I believe that we as Conservatives have a duty to build Britain up.

    Now, that’s what my department is all about, and that is what this government is all about.

    Consistency in our values.

    Long term commitment to opportunity.

    Driving us forward, to deliver a better today, and for our children’s future tomorrow.

    Thank you.

  • Steve Barclay – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Steve Barclay – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in Manchester on 3 October 2023.

    Thank you, Luke.

    As Health and Social Care Secretary, what drives me is getting people the care they need, more quickly.

    Boosting capacity, expanding our workforce and embracing technology that will help tackle waiting lists.

    But today, I also want to tell you about the long-term decisions that we are taking to support the NHS; to give patients more control and choice and to take on those – like militant union leaders and Labour MPs supporting them on the picket line – who want to block these changes.

    We’re taking immediate action to tackle challenges in the NHS and in Social Care.

    Putting 800 new ambulances on the road.

    Delivering 5,000 permanent hospital beds.

    And creating 10,000 hospital-at-home places for patients to receive care in their own home.

    And we’re making the biggest ever increase in social care funding with a record uplift in the autumn statement last year.

    But Conference, as a Conservative what matters to me most is not inputs – it is the outcomes for patients.

    We are making significant progress with the help of new technology.

    Take strokes.

    We are using AI to speed up brain scans – meaning thousands of patients have fully recovered who may not have.

    And by the end of the year, this technology will be available in all stroke units in England.

    We are also upgrading the NHS to offer patients a choice of up to five different healthcare providers – including independent providers – following a GP referral which the Patients Association say can reduce waits by up to three months.

    Bu I also know that it can sometimes take too long to roll out new innovations nationally, even when they have been proven to work in local pilots.

    So today, conference, I am announcing the creation of a new £30-million fund to speed up the adoption of tech in the NHS.

    This will enable clinicians to adopt proven technology that can improve patient care.

    These could include new tools to detect cancer sooner, to help people receive treatment in their own home or increase productivity to tackle waiting lists.

    Projects will be delivered in this financial year – getting benefits to patients as quickly as possible.

    We’re focused on getting the very latest technology into the hands of doctors and nurses so they can benefit you when you need it.

    And that’s the mission I share with my fantastic Ministerial team – with Will Quince, Helen Whately, Maria Caulfield, Neil O’Brien and Lord Markham.

    All supported by our brilliant PPSs Gareth Bacon and Duncan Baker, and our fabulous whips Faye Jones and Lord Evans.

    But, Conference, I want to be clear: We want to give patients more choice and control over their care and we can only do that with long-term thinking.

    Take our Long-Term Workforce Plan. The largest expansion in training in the history of the NHS.

    The first time in the history of the NHS that a government has been willing to set out a plan for the next 15 years for recruiting and training doctors, nurses, paramedics and other vital staff.

    And to show we are already delivering on that plan, I’m delighted to announce today that we are making additional medical school places available at universities for next September.

    Most of these places will be targeted towards three new medical schools at the Universities of Worcester, Chester and Brunel.

    With further places for two universities here in the Northwest – the University of Central Lancashire and Edge Hill.

    This is alongside our new pilot for medical degree apprenticeships.

    A new route into medicine for young people yearning to train to become a doctor but who want to take a vocational route, because our party is the party of real opportunity for anyone, no matter where you come from.

    And conference – our plan is not just about more staff.

    It is about using this powerful moment for reform using our Brexit freedoms.

    Shorter degrees.

    New roles.

    And more ways onto the NHS career ladder.

    Better for patients and the taxpayer.

    Now conference, my own background in the private sector taught me that organisations run more efficiently when you look to outcomes, not the inputs.

    Being focused on the end point means you cut down on waste.

    That’s why I brought in Steve Rowe, the former Chief Executive of Marks and Spencer – to scrutinise our Departmental spending.

    With a budget of £190 billion, there are always opportunities to get more resources from the backroom to the front line.

    When I was appointed, I put in an immediate recruitment freeze in place, which has reduced the department’s headcount by a sixth and we are closing half of the department’s offices.

    That’s less money on the back-office and more money on frontline.

    To deliver the long-term change the NHS needs, we need a relentless focus on patient outcomes and that means prioritising frontline resources.

    It does not mean spending huge sums of taxpayer’s money on diversity consultants or hiring bloated internal diversity and inclusion teams.

    And it does not mean ignoring patient’s voices – especially women’s voices when it comes to the importance of biological sex in healthcare.

    If we do not get this right now, the long-term consequences could be very serious for the protection of women and future generations.

    And Conference, I know as Conservatives, we know what a woman is and I know the vast majority of hardworking NHS staff and patients do too.

    That is why I ordered a reversal of unacceptable changes to the NHS website that erased references to women for conditions such as cervical cancer and stopped the NHS from ordering staff to declare pronouns to each new patient.

    And that is why today, I am going further; by announcing that we will change the NHS constitution following a consultation later this year to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women.

    Now, Conference, if all of that seems like simple common sense, that’s because it is.

    And yet every step of the way we have faced opposition from the usual suspects when we are trying to do the best for patients.

    You probably saw some of them on your way in this morning.

    The militant BMA leadership – whose strikes have resulted in countless cancelled appointments and pose a serious threat to the NHS’s recovery from the pandemic.

    Their Consultants and Junior Doctors Committee are relentlessly demanding massive pay rises.

    Even if that means diverting resources from patients. And despite junior doctors having already received a pay rise of up to 10.3%.

    But it doesn’t end there.

    They are even threatening to take the Government to court over our plans to let patients see their own test results on their own phones, rather than taking up a GP appointment.

    This clearly shows that the BMA leadership is not on the side of change, and they are not on the side of patients.

    And then there’s Labour.

    Keir Starmer’s MPs continue to join the BMA on the picket line.

    You only have to look at Starmer’s own plans for the NHS to see that Labour will always bottle it and take the easy way out.

    When his own proposals on workforce were published, there was nothing on reform whatsoever. No shorter courses. No new roles. Just more of the same.

    His Shadow Health team won’t back our rollout of new obesity drugs on the NHS via primary care.

    Game changing new treatments that can give people struggling to lose weight a real helping hand.

    Labour don’t want to embrace innovation.

    Instead, the left like to lecture people on what they eat and drink.

    Look at Labour run London.

    Sadiq Khan has banned Wimbledon adverts on the underground.

    Why?

    Because photos of strawberries and cream breach health advertising rules set by City Hall.

    And in Wales, Labour has banned meal deals that include a sandwich with a bag of crisps at a time when families are concerned about the cost of living.

    Now, Keir Starmer says that Wales is the ‘blueprint for what Labour can do in England’.

    But their record on health makes for grim reading.

    As a result of Labour’s short-term thinking, patients in Wales are twice as likely to be waiting for treatment than in England.

    No wonder that the number of patients in Wales escaping to seek treatment in England has increased by 40% in two years.

    So, the next time you hear Labour telling people that they have easy answers to the challenges our health system faces remind them that Labour is letting people down in Wales.

    Now Conference, it is only by taking on those who resist change that we can make sure the NHS is there for us and our loves ones in the future.

    So, let’s stand up to a militant BMA leadership that does not accept the need for reform.

    Let’s challenges the ideologues who silence the voice of women.

    And let’s be very clear that we won’t take lectures from a Labour Party that has utterly failed patients in Wales.

    Conference, we will achieve it by coming together as Conservatives.

    Showing our values, our vision, our drive will deliver an NHS that gives people more choice, more control and, above all, puts patients first.

  • Gillian Keegan – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Gillian Keegan – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in Manchester on 2 October 2023.

    Conference – it’s a real honour to address you today.

    40 years ago, less than 40 miles away from here, sat in a failing comprehensive school in Knowsley,

    I could never have imagined myself standing here today.

    Growing up in Huyton, the constituency of Harold Wilson – the influence of the Labour Party was everywhere around me, including my own family.

    My great grandma, a proud lifelong member of the Labour Party. My grandad a miner and member of the NUM.

    In my office on my desk sits my grandad’s miners’ lamp – a daily reminder of where I’m from, and why I became an MP.

    So being a working class girl from Liverpool, I often get asked:

    “Why on earth are you a Conservative?”

    Well, here’s why.

    The Conservative Party is the party that helped my grandparents buy their council houses.

    It is the party that stood up to the destructive force of the Unions in the 70s and the 80s.

    This party aspired, for me and my family to have a better future,

    and was willing to take the hard decisions to get us there.

    That’s because we are a party that believes in giving people a hand-up, not a hand-out.

    And as the Prime Minister says – education is our silver bullet.

    Now, it is often said that talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t.

    I know that’s true because I have lived it.

    92% of my classmates left my Knowsley Comprehensive school with less than the five O-Levels – many without a single qualification.

    Those kids that I sat next to every day for five years were as bright as anyone I’ve met ever since.

    It’s not that they couldn’t do it – they were let down.

    Education is the way we make sure that doesn’t happen.

    And every day my brilliant Ministerial team – Nick Gibb, Rob Halfon, David Johnston and Diana Barran – who are fantastic – are focused on making the choices that will lead to a brighter future for our children.

    There are so many places where this Conservative government is making the difference, so let’s start with childcare.

    In my business life, I’ve seen woman after woman have to choose between their career and having a family – and usually their career lost.

    These were women who were top of their class, got the highest grades, the best starting jobs – and then had to watch the opportunities that used to be there disappear, watch their careers end prematurely.

    And the impact on our economy, it’s massive.

    And Labour admired this problem for years. 13 years of Labour delivered only 12 and a half hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds.

    Less than one hour per year of office.

    This Government has already massively expanded the offer but will go further by introducing 30 hours free of childcare for working parents from the end of maternity leave until their child goes to school.

    It is giving mums, and dads, back their choice.

    And to be clear this is the most comprehensive and generous childcare package in our country’s history.

    It’s the Conservative Party taking long-term decisions to support families.

    We have completely transformed our school standards, making sure all kids go to a good school.

    We’re determined to crush the soft bigotry that says people like me shouldn’t succeed.

    A single teacher can change your life. For me that teacher was Mr. Ashcroft who stayed behind after school to teach me engineering, when girls couldn’t study it.

    Every day, every teacher, every one of them is changing a life.

    And to them I say thank-you from the bottom of my heart.

    And I am particularly grateful to those who have worked night and day with us, to ensure that children are able to learn face-to-face, despite the challenges of RAAC.

    Even though the pandemic set us back, our education standards are recovering and they are rising.

    Our plan is working.

    We’ve reformed the school system, we’ve reformed teacher training, we’re reformed the curriculum.

    Our phonics checks are ensuring children leave school able to read properly.

    Our free schools are driving up choice and standards.

    Our academies are unleashing heads to run education in a way that works for children, not for bureaucrats.

    And the results speak for themselves – our children are now the best in the West for reading. It’s a phenomenal achievement and I’m determined that it’s Maths next.

    I’m so proud of our children for what they’ve achieved.

    And our reforms are working despite the opposition.

    Labour and the Lib Dems called our plans “dangerous and ideological.”

    They said our literacy drive was “dull.”

    Time and time again they chose short-term policies over long-term decision-making.

    And the results? Whilst we’re rising in the international league tables, Labour-run Wales and SNP-run Scotland are slipping behind.

    They play the same old politics.

    We make the decisions that improve things for our children.

    Today, one of the biggest issues facing children and teacher is grappling with is the impact of smartphones in our schools.

    The distraction, the disruption, the bullying.

    We know that teachers are struggling with their impact and need support.

    So today we’re recognising the amazing work that many schools have already done in banning mobile phones, and we’re announcing that we will change guidance so that all schools follow their lead.

    Because the focus should be on children learning. In. The. Classroom.

    Children need to be in school. Now, that shouldn’t be controversial, but during the strikes Labour could never bring themselves to say so.

    In fact, many of their MPs joined the picket lines.

    Perhaps because the unions fund their campaigns, fund their party.

    But it’s outrageous and I’ve seen first hand what happens when Labour puts politics ahead of people.

    Growing up in Liverpool under Derek Hatton, it has certainly left a scar.

    When Kinnock said that “you can’t play politics with people’s lives” he was talking about my family’s jobs, my friends’ houses, and everybody’s services around me.

    Not that Hatton cared.

    I actually met him once. It was at the opening of a wine bar when I was a teenager.

    There he was, larger than life, his Jag and driver outside, handing out glasses of champagne as we walked in.

    Yep, you heard it right Conference – I was given my first glass of champagne by a socialist.

    I was taking recently to a Labour MP about Delco, the car factory I had started worked in aged 16.

    She told me with pride she had visited it – as part of a flying picket.

    I looked at her and told her “you and your mates’ cost everybody their jobs.”

    Because that’s the problem– they thought you could strike your way to a better job, and I thought it’s common sense that we’d have better jobs if the factory remained open.

    And when the factory closed, they were off to their next demo whilst ordinary people were left to pick up the pieces.

    Now, common sense is what guides me.

    It’s common sense to say that parents should be able to see what their children are being taught in schools.

    It’s common sense that girls should have separate toilets from boys.

    And it’s common sense that earning and learning is a brilliant route into a career.

    It makes no sense to set an arbitrary target of 50% of kids going to university, when we need 100% of kids getting great opportunities.

    And University is not the only option.

    My apprenticeship changed my life and thanks to this Government, have changed five and a half million lives since 2010.

    Some people view them as second rate.

    But my mission is to change that – to make apprenticeships the way you become a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, even a space engineer.

    Many will still want go to university, and that will be the right choice for them.

    And if they do, they should get the education that they have paid for. That’s common sense, right?

    Apparently not – because over recent years we’ve seen constant strikes, we’ve seen students not getting the education they’ve paid for and some not even having their degrees marked.

    This is outrageous behaviour.

    So today, I am announcing that we will consult to introduce minimum service levels in universities, so that they have the tools to make sure that students get the teaching they deserve.

    So when I go home to Liverpool and they ask “why are you a Conservative” – well, here’s the answer.

    With the Conservatives, you get the childcare that allows you to have a family and a career.

    With the Conservatives, you get the schools where standards are relentlessly rising rather than going backwards under Labour.

    With the Conservatives, you get an apprenticeship that is a route to a great career, not a dead end with an enormous student debt.

    With the Conservatives you get the opportunity to go as far as you can.

    And we are the only party that will make the long-term decisions to give our children the bright future that they deserve.

    Conference, thank you very much.

  • Therese Coffey – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Therese Coffey – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in Manchester on 2 October 2023.

    Conference, thank you.

    It’s great to be here in Manchester, as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

    Defra covers so much on land and sea. Conference, we could do A to Z multiple times over.

    Agriculture, animals, bins, chemicals, right through to zoos and pretty much everything in between.

    In that, I am fortunate to be helped by my great ministerial team, Mark Spencer, Rebecca Pow, Trudy Harrison and Richard Benyon. Ably supported by our whips Jo Churchill and Jassett Harlech and our great PPSs Jerome Mayhew and Chris Loder.

    As Defra ministers, we live and breathe the countryside.

    Three of my ministers farm and the other two, we represent very rural constituencies.

    I can assure you here are no greater champions in government of farming and the countryside, apart from our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who has put British food and farming firmly at the heart of government whether hosting the UK’s first Farm to Fork Summit at Downing Street, and flying the flag for farmers in our trade deals.

    While we may disagree on who has the best county show (it’s definitely Suffolk), we are united in our mission to back British farmers in supporting nature and supporting rural communities.

    And to achieve that we are making necessary long-term decisions for a brighter future and delivering on our plans so that the environment will be in a better state than we inherited it.

    Our updated twenty-five year Environment Plan,

    Our Plan for Water,

    Our Plan on Unleashing Rural Opportunity,

    Our Agricultural Transition Plan,

    To name just a few.

    But conference, of course it is not enough to have plans, it is about delivery.

    And delivery at DEFRA needs dogged determination helped by being rooted in reality and by being respectful to the people who will help us achieve the outcomes we all want.

    And also by being agile, turning ambition into action.

    Conference, we are Conservatives by name,

    Conservatives by nature,

    And Conservatives for nature.

    Throughout the last century, it is Conservative governments who have shown leadership.

    It was Margaret Thatcher who was the first leader to speak about climate change on the world stage.

    She spoke about Britain’s world leading scientists.

    About healthy soils for our farmers, and the importance of international cooperation.

    Meanwhile we can see both Labour and Liberal Democrats lassoing themselves to the latest bandwagon,

    Trying to be the new best friends of the environment and of our rural communities.

    Well, Conference, I know people are savvy,

    They will be wary of the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

    They have heard Labour’s plans to have a right to roam.

    When we already have well over a hundred thousand miles of public footpaths.

    That is really worrying for farmers, who are our key custodians of the countryside.

    Frankly, the only right to roam on those fields should be their cattle, sheep and pigs.

    Labour is also not supportive of the sensible changes that the Prime Minister has made on rural homes and heating.

    We recognise that rural communities may need more time and more financial support to make an appropriate transition for net zero.

    That is the sort of sensible policy that rural communities expect and shows that we are on their side.

    They know they can trust us. They can trust Conservatives to deliver for them, for the countryside and for the planet.

    The primary purpose of our farmers and food growers is to make sure we have food on our plates.

    Food security is a key element of our own national security.

    So I reaffirm the Prime Minister’s commitment to ensure that we produce at least sixty per cent of the food that we consume right here in the UK.

    But the aftershocks of Covid and the inflation stemming from the illegal invasion of Ukraine have hit our farmers and of course, consumers too,

    We want farmers to have a fair deal – which is why we are regulating so that they get fair contracts.

    Our farmers produce the best food to the world, to the highest animal welfare standards.

    But there are some green zealots who think our farmers should stop rearing livestock and instead we should eat fake meat.

    Conference, regardless of what the zealots say – and I am being taken to court in relation to this right now – I am absolutely not going to tell anyone that they should not eat meat.

    Fake meat may be ok for astronauts but when people think of a meat feast,

    I want them to be thinking about our great Welsh lamb, our Aberdeen Angus beef, our Saddleback pork.

    Not some pizza topping.

    But there is one other group of farmers whose efforts I want to recognise,

    And that’s of Ukraine…

    Who, despite the illegal invasion by Russia are still managing to bring the harvest in.

    We have continued to support them this year through President Zelenskyy’s Grain for Ukraine initiative and have also sent pumps and flood barriers to protect their homes and fields.

    The United Kingdom will remain Ukraine’s steadfast ally for as long as it takes.

    Conference, the countryside is at the heart of what makes our country such a great special place to live.

    But as well as the joys of rural life, we know there are challenges, particularly when it comes to digital connectivity.

    I share in the frustrations of a crackling call or a faltering video Teams meeting.

    Earlier this year Simon Fell, MP for Barrow in Furness, was appointed to be our rural connectivity champion and I know Simon has got to work straight away.

    Today, I am delighted to announce that the Technology Secretary is reviewing the Universal Service Obligation which I expect will help rural households and businesses, and looking to get faster broadband to some of the most remote places in the country.

    Connectivity isn’t just digital – in the countryside, it is mainly cars, buses and of course tractors!

    I was delighted when we extended the two-pound bus fare.

    We are going further today, the Transport Secretary is publishing a new rural transport strategy,

    Setting out how we are going to support rural communities, revitalise rural roads, and planning for the future of transport technology too.

    It’s another example of how we understand the needs of rural areas, and when we say that we are on the side of motorists we mean it.

    And of course, everywhere Labour is in power, we see they are not.

    Whether it’s London and ULEZ,

    The twenty miles per hour blanket thrown across Wales while the Labour Government has cancelled major roads…

    And even here in Manchester,

    Where Andy Burnham, frankly, is the only Labour politician to beat Keir Starmer for flip flops,

    He wanted a region-wide ULEZ as well.

    Conference, we also need more homes in the countryside so that rural communities can continue to flourish,

    That is why we have consulted to make it easier to turn disused farm buildings into homes,

    And we are funding a new team of rural housing enablers right across England,

    To support new small schemes,

    And boost the supply of new affordable housing to rent.

    Today, as a next step, with the Levelling Up Secretary, I can announce that Homes England is publishing a Rural Housing Statement,

    Setting out how it will play its part in delivering the Government’s housing and levelling up priorities in rural areas.

    So when it comes to the countryside, Conference,

    Yes we have lots more to do,

    But we have made so much progress and will continue to do so to have a thriving, vibrant countryside.

    As the Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, I am the countryside champion across government,

    But it’s clear from what work we are doing and new strategies that we are delivering that the countryside matters in all corners of this government.

    And Conference, we are going further to help farmers and rural businesses by making the most of our Brexit freedoms.

    Freedom from European rules,

    Freedom to choose what works best for Britain.

    We have already legislated to allow gene editing,

    So that we can design crops that are fit for the future.

    My officials are cutting red tape and introducing smarter regulation.

    Frankly, bent or straight, it is not for government to decide the shape of bananas you want to eat – I just want to assure you they are safe to eat.

    So we will be dropping absurd regulations, including the one on bendy bananas.

    Contrast all this to Labour,

    They are sneakily signing up to keeping in step with whatever Europe decides.

    And while we are on the topic of Labour not being honest with people, Conference,

    Frankly when they were in Government, there was minimal monitoring of sewage overflows, practically hardly any at all.

    They looked the other way – and they were even taken to court by Europe.

    And now what they propose in their incredible plan would see your households’ bills rise by one thousand pounds per year.

    And as for the Liberals, their plan is nothing but a gimmick,

    Switching off storm overflows, great, that would lead sewage to back up into your homes.

    With our Plan for Water, we are fixing Labour’s mess – yet again – and taking long-term decisions.

    For the security of supply for homes, for businesses and our farmers too.

    So Conference,

    Be proud of what we Conservatives have achieved,

    Be proud of what we have delivered for the countryside, even in just the last year.

    Much progress made,

    Still much more to be done

    Now and for the long term.

    We’re going to get down to business and we’re going to deliver it.

    Thank you.