Rt
Hon Dominic Raab MP, Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, speaking
today at Conservative Party Conference at Manchester Central Convention Complex,
said:
(Check
against delivery)
“Thank you, conference.
Taking on this job as
Foreign Secretary and our mission for a Global Britain is the fulfilment of a
long-standing dream.
Fifteen years ago, I was
young Foreign Office lawyer, posted to the Hague.
Diplomats from Asia to South America would say to me: ‘You guys in the EU. You
spend so much time talking to yourselves, you miss so much of what’s going on
in the rest of the world.’
It was true then and its
true today. Brussels isn’t the only game in town.
Everywhere I go, people are fired up by our vision for a Global Britain.
When I visited the US, President Trump invited me into the Oval Office to tell
me how much he loves our country.”
“When I visited Bangkok for the ASEAN meeting of Asia-Pacific nations, they
embraced our role in their region, because they prize our commitment to the
rules based international system.
In Mexico, we talked about tackling climate change.
In Canada, we worked on our joint campaign to protect journalists around the
world from torture and arbitrary detention.”
“The truth is we Brits
get a warm welcome almost everywhere in world.
Ok, maybe not in Luxembourg.
But you know what.
I think the British people have had more than enough of EU leaders disrespecting
British Prime Ministers.
So, we’ll strive in good faith for a deal.
But if the EU spurn the opportunity for a win-win deal,
We will leave at the end of October … no ifs, no buts.
We want to stay good
European neighbours.
But we’ll be free to chart our own course, as masters of our own destiny – at
home and abroad, with a more liberal and energetic approach to free trade.”
“But our vision of
Global Britain reaches well beyond just trade.
When I was posted to the
Hague in 2003, I headed up the FCO’s war crimes team.
Experiences like that
stay with you.
When I visited Sierra
Leone, I met the victims of that terrible conflict.
A boy told me how a
rebel soldier had asked him whether he wanted ‘long or short sleeve’,
Before deciding where to
wield his machete on his arm.
It was heart-breaking to
listen to.
But I’m proud Britain
helped Sierra Leone get back on its feet. I’m proud to have been part of the
UK’s international effort to bring the perpetrators of those crimes to justice.”
“And, as we look to our
future, our foreign policy should be guided by a clear moral compass.
We’ve got to offer the
poorest countries the chance to trade with us, freed from the shackles of
hypocritical EU protectionism.
We’ve got to lead in
tackling climate change. That’s why we’re hosting COP26, the global conference
on climate change, in Glasgow next year.
And we’ve got to offer
the down-trodden around the world the hope that comes with standing up for the
basic freedoms we cherish here in Manchester, this week, in this conference
centre.
Sometimes it feels a
hopeless task.
But history remembers the courage of those who stand up to be counted.”
“In the 1990s, I met a
Russian dissident Natan Sharansky. He’d been locked in a Soviet gulag for 9
years for campaigning for the right of oppressed Jews to leave Russia.
I still find that tough to imagine… 9 years in a Soviet jail, miserable
conditions, separated from your loved ones.”
“I asked Sharanksy what
kept his hopes alive.
He told me the political prisoners had a secret way of communicating in the
gulag.
They tapped on the walls, in code, to spread the word.”
“So, when, in 1983,
Ronald Reagan stood up and called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire,
Those Soviet prisons came alive with the hum of jailed dissidents tapping and whispering
from cell to cell. Reagan’s courage and moral clarity gave hope to those who
feared they’d been forgotten.
And Sharanksy was the first political prisoner Mikhail Gorbachev released.”
“The world is different
today.
But, we must never forget the lessons of history.
And we must keep the flame of freedom alive in the darkest corners of the
bleakest jails,
For those struggling for the basic liberties we take for granted…
The right you jealously guard – here, this week – to debate, to have your say, to
hold your politicians to account.
So, we won’t look the
other way, when the people of Hong Kong are beaten indiscriminately on commuter
trains for exercising the right to peaceful protest.
We won’t stand idly by
whilst journalists are jailed or beaten up for criticising the despotic regime
of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
And we will never rest
until all those bearing UK nationality, detained on a cruel whim in Iran, are
free to re-join their loved ones at home.”
“We will relish not shrink
from our duty to take a leading role in bringing the perpetrators of the worst
injustices to account.
Whether it’s ensuring
the release of the two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar for reporting on
the plight of the Rohingya refugees or bringing war criminals to trial from
Yugoslavia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
And when we leave the
EU, we’ll be able to do even more.
So, conference, I can
tell you today that we will bring into force a UK Magnitsky law,
To place visa bans and asset freezes on those individuals deemed responsible
for serious human rights abuses, including torture.”
“Because, the British
people don’t want those with blood on their hands doing their Christmas
shopping in Knightsbridge or laundering their dirty money through British
banks. And because, our vision of Global Britain means being a force for good
in the world, A Global Good Citizen.”
“And the fate of those
living under oppression reminds us how much we prize our hard-earned
prosperity, our hard-won freedoms.
We must never take them for granted.
That’s what’s at stake,
if Labour takes office under Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour, once a
mainstream party now hails the failed socialist experiment in Venezuela where
the population starves and dissidents are shot in the street.
A party that chooses to
believe the Kremlin over our own intelligence services, when Putin’s assassins
poison people on the streets of Salisbury.
And a party led by a man
in Jeremy Corbyn who attends a memorial at the graves of terrorists responsible
for butchering Israeli Olympic athletes out of anti-Semitic hate.”
“I say this as a
passionate Brexiteer, there are some things even bigger than Brexit,
And keeping that lot out of Downing Street is one of them.
So, to any of our
colleagues – or former colleagues – tempted to put Jeremy Corbyn and his
momentum mob into No 10, as part of some ‘temporary’ anti-Brexit coalition…
I just say this: history would never forgive you.”
“As for the Liberal
Democrats. They want to scrap the result of the 2016 vote.
You can’t call yourself a Democrat, put it in the name of your party, and then
try to cancel a referendum.
Well, no one ever accused the Lib Dems of consistency.
But when it comes to offences under the Trade Description Act, they’re guilty
as charged.
This Prime Minister is
offering a better way forward.
Let’s get Brexit done,
Let’s move on,
Let’s unite behind our One Nation vision for the country,
And let’s bring the Conservative family back together.”
“We in the Conservative
party keep our promises.
We’re going to make a success of Brexit,
And, we will free our country to reach its full potential.
With the Prime
Minister’s leadership and energy, we’re going to seize this historic
opportunity for Britain to reach out to the world on our own terms… with global
horizons, limitless ambition and a strong moral compass.”
“Friends, it’s time to
put the past behind us.
It’s time to let go of the wrangling and the doubts.
It’s time for us to be the country we want to be.
Great Britain:
ambitious, confident and free.”
ENDS
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