Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, speaking today at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester said:

(Check against delivery)

“It’s wonderful to be here in Manchester – speaking to you as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The fact that I’m on this stage this year is proof that this Government is committed to recycling.

And, let me tell you, no-one is a bigger supporter of re-using once discarded material than me.

So I’m naturally keen on politicians coming back to the frontline from a period of doing other things.

But I do have a problem when those politicians return to the fray with a message that – in their absence – the public have got it wrong.

When Tony Blair or Vince Cable tell us that the referendum decision to leave the EU must be overturned, that the votes of 17.4 million people should be disregarded, that we should exit from Brexit and stay in the European Union – then I feel it’s time to stand up for something precious, something special to us all, something that defines us a nation.

Democracy.

So let’s send a clear message from this hall today.

We’re leaving.

We’re taking back control.

We’re going to make a success of life outside the European Union.

And nowhere are the possibilities for progress greater than with the environment.

We now have a once in a lifetime opportunity.

For the first time in more than forty years we can – together – now determine our own environmental policies.

We can do what we think is best to make our country cleaner, greener and more beautiful.

For everyone who loves the natural world these are exciting times.

And that is why I feel privileged to be part of a great team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs determined to seize the moment.

My colleagues George Eustice, Thérèse Coffey, John Gardiner, Charlotte Vere, Nigel Adams, Kevin Hollinrake and Rebecca Pow are the Tory Green Team.

We are fortunate to follow superb ministers such as Andrea Leadsom, Liz Truss, Owen Paterson, Caroline Spelman, Jim Paice, Rupert de Mauley, Oliver Henley, John Taylor, Richard Benyon and Rory Stewart.

They achieved a huge amount in office.

But there is still so much to do.

Global warming threatens the balance of life on earth.

Plastics in our oceans, waste in our rivers and nitrogen oxide in our air endanger our fellow animals and harm our children’s health.

Precious habitats – from ancient woodlands in our own country to the great green lungs of our tropical rainforests – are being lost – and with them a home for threatened wildlife.

Even as I speak a Labour Council – a Labour Council – is chopping down precious historic trees in Sheffield – hiding behind a PFI contract as it engages in wanton ecological vandalism.

The fight against these threats is our fight. Our country’s. And our party’s.

Because Conservatism is rooted in nature. In respect for human nature. And in reverence for the natural world.

Each of us has an attachment to a special part of this beautiful country, somewhere we call home or know as a haven of peace, somewhere enchanted by childhood memories of play, adventure and exploration.

And as Conservatives, as those whose love of country is rooted in love of home, we are instinctive defenders of beauty in the landscape, protectors of wildlife, friends of the earth.

The first, and still the most ambitious, green party in this country is the Conservative Party.

And leaving the European Union gives us the chance to secure a special prize – a Green Brexit.

Now, of course, there have been environmental rules which we helped develop while in the EU which are important and which we must keep – indeed – where possible – strengthen.

And we will want to secure an ambitious free trade deal with the EU – alongside other new trade deals – so our great farmers can sell more of their wonderful produce.

But now we are leaving – and taking back control – there are so many ways in which we can enhance our environment.

Take the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy – it has been economically and environmentally disastrous.

Lack of control over our own waters has gone hand in hand with drastic overfishing and the depletion of a wonderful, renewable, natural resource.

Outside the EU we can do so much better.

And the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy has been a failure – environmentally damaging and socially unjust.

It’s damaged natural habitats, hit biodiversity and harmed wildlife.

The number of farmland birds has reduced by more than half, pollinators such as wild and honey bees have suffered a drastic decline in numbers, and our rivers and chalk streams have seen fish stocks decline and small mammals disappear.

On top of that, the CAP has channeled hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to the already wealthy, simply because of the amount of land they have.

That is plain wrong.

And what makes it worse is that the CAP hasn’t provided the right support to our farmers in their drive to improve animal welfare standards and enhance the environment.

We have the best farmers in the world, producing the best food in the world, but inside the EU they are held back by bureaucracy, hampered in their efforts to get into new markets, and hindered in their ambitions to further improve our environment.

Our rural communities need a new deal.

Outside the EU we can do so much better.

For a start, outside the Common Fisheries Policy there is a sea of opportunity for British fishermen.

We can take back control of our territorial waters.

We’ll let in others only on our terms.

We can then develop a world-leading policy on marine conservation.

And give British fishermen first call on this resource.

Isn’t that a great prize to aim for?

And, outside the Common Agricultural Policy, we can stop subsidising the rich on the basis of how much land they own and instead spend money on enhancing the environment, supporting innovation, improving productivity, training a new generation of entrepreneurial young farmers and reviving rural communities.

Isn’t that a great Conservative mission?

And outside the European Union’s single market, we can improve animal welfare, supporting more humane methods of farming and restricting the live export of animals.

Isn’t that a cause in which we can all believe?

The opportunities to show leadership in respect for animal life, in restoring health to our oceans and in farming sustainably, are now all the greater because we’ve decided to be outside the European Union.

Which is another reason why that vote to take back control was a liberating, progressive and democratic act.

One of the reasons I campaigned for us to leave the EU is because I believe so deeply in democracy.

Politicians should be held accountable for the promises they make and citizens should be able to decide their nation’s destiny.

That is the prize we chose to seize last year with the referendum vote.

But like all prizes worth winning, there will be challenges on the road to securing that freedom.

In my own department we need to get the systems in place to allow exports and imports to flow as they should.

But while we should never underestimate the work that needs to be done, neither should we understate the re-invigorating power of restoring democratic control to politics.

Inside the EU ministers have been, and still are, prevented from acting as they think right and as the people want.

Whether its fisheries or farming, bin collections or VAT rates, controlling our borders or improving animal welfare, EU law currently binds our hands.

But we will be free of those handcuffs by the time of the next election, outside the EU, and able to put in our manifesto the policies the country needs, which the European Court can no longer strike down.

Let us pledge to use that freedom wisely, to better support the vulnerable and the voiceless, to fight injustice and to build a country which everyone is proud to call home.

But let us also be determined never again to give that freedom away.

Of course while we plan for the opportunities to come, it’s vital that we start setting the direction of travel now.

Which is why, since the election, we’ve been acting decisively and rapidly to show how determined we are, to use every lever we can to improve our environment.

That is why we have shown immediate leadership by demanding that our roads become greener and ending the sale of new diesel and petrol cars from 2040.

That leadership has resulted in car companies offering their own scrappage schemes to get rid of dirty diesels. It has meant that taxi firms like Uber have pledged to get rid of polluting vehicles well before that 2040 deadline.

And now great British entrepreneurs like James Dyson are inventing new cleaner, greener vehicles to meet global demand.

We have also acted decisively in protecting our seas.

Plastic pollution has been slowly choking our oceans.

There is a need to act before fish and bird life are devastated.

And so we have acted.

The plastic bag charge has seen a massive reduction in demand, down 80%.

And already this Government has announced a ban on the plastic microbeads which pollute our seas.

And we are looking to go further to reduce plastic waste by working with industry to see how we could introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.

Our oceans are our planet’s greatest natural resource and this Government is determined to ensure we restore them to health for the next generation.

And on animal welfare we will take the tough action necessary to deal with those whose callousness or greed inflicts pain and suffering on innocent creatures.

At the moment the maximum sentence for animal cruelty is just six months.

I believe that when we face deliberate, calculating and sadistic behaviour, we need to deploy the full force of the law to show we will not tolerate evil.

Which is why we will bring forward legislation to increase punishments for the most horrific acts of animal cruelty to five year sentences.

Animals are sentient beings, they are in our care, they deserve our protection.

The policy choices we’ve made are demonstrations of the values in which we believe.

Values we need to articulate more clearly than ever.

At times of technological change and international uncertainty, it has always been conservatives – committed to the values of enterprise and compassion, national renewal and care for the environment – who have generated greater prosperity and secured a better world for the next generation.

In the late Victorian Age, it was Benjamin Disraeli who responded to the dramatic upheavals of his own age by restoring confidence in British global leadership, giving workers the chance to have a home of their own and introducing ground-breaking legislation to improve our environment.

At the turn of the Century in America, it was the Republican Teddy Roosevelt who was the world’s most progressive leader. He met the challenge of populism head on by showing how vigorous, self-confident, conservative leadership could make change work for everyone. He tackled the monopolies that were sapping faith in free markets and established the national parks that set a new standard in environmental protection.

And in the Eighties here in Britain, it was Margaret Thatcher who responded to the sense across the West that decline was inevitable by renewing Britain’s role as a leader on the world stage. She boldly took on those economic interests that stood in the way of growth and innovation and she alerted the world to the need for environmental action to deal with CFCs and combat climate change.

That is why we should learn from Benjamin Disraeli, Theodore Roosevelt and Margaret Thatcher, by demonstrating that it is through the democratic vitality of nation states that we can show the leadership necessary to build a better future for the next generation.

And by confronting vested interests, we can unleash the innovation which will provide prosperity for the next generation.

And by enhancing environmental protection, we can hand on our planet in cleaner, greener and healthier state to the next generation.

That is our responsibility, our duty, our mission.

In a time of global uncertainty, when our nation can lead again, it is our responsibility, our duty, our mission to show what Britain can do and lead the way to renewal.

That is Conservatism at it very best and that is the path we choose to take.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact the Press Office on 020 7984 8121.

Greg
Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, speaking
today at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester said:

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against delivery)

“The Conservative Party
owes its strength over the years to two things. To our principles as the party
of freedom in a property-owning democracy and to our ability to ensure
stability and prosperity for the whole country.

Today we face a
challenge to both. A challenge from the Left to our idea of what Britain is and
can be and a broader challenge to respond to the spreading worry among many
people, worries that came to the fore in the election, that the system can’t be
trusted to give them and their children a fair chance to make it, and who want
to know they have an active government who will fight on their side for a
stable and prosperous future for them.

 

First things first. The
British people made the decision to leave the European Union and this
Government is going to carry out this instruction – Confidently, Seriously and
responsibly. We are going to get the negotiations right.  Part of my job is to make sure the voice of
business is heard.  I am a Conservative
Business Secretary, and I will do my job.

Sometimes, when I travel
around the world meeting overseas investors, I encounter the assumption that
the vote for Brexit was part of a global trend to more closed economies.  For trading less.  For protection.  For pessimism.  For retreat. I always say that nothing could
be further from the truth.

Let me speak for people
who voted remain and people who voted for leave, and let me speak for the
Government too. We’re for a Britain open to the world.  Britain must, and will, always be: open to
trade, open to talent, open to business.

 

We can be pioneers of a
new industrial age.  To achieve that,
strategy begins with understanding the challenge in a serious way. Our economy
has been extraordinarily good at creating jobs.
We can be proud of the fact that the vast majority of people of working
age in this country are in work.  We are
the jobs capital of the world. But we’re nowhere near being the earnings
capital of the world.

We generate less value
for our efforts than, say, people in Germany or France or America.  We have to work longer hours to get the same
rewards.  

We have some people who
are among the most highly skilled on the planet.  But we have too many without an adequate
education or training.  They can hold
down a job.  But the job isn’t productive
enough to properly support themselves and their families.

We have some of the most
prosperous places in the world.  But we
have too many places where potential is unfulfilled.  So our job is to increase this country’s
earning power.  For unless we raise our
earning power, capitalism won’t work for everyone.  And if capitalism doesn’t work for everyone,
it doesn’t work.

Here is the mission of
our government: Prosperity for all – prosperity everywhere.

 

So our industrial
strategy is about people. You can’t be productive if you don’t have the skills.
We’ve raised standards in schools, and expanded apprenticeships.  Now Justine Greening and I are reforming
technical education.

Introducing more
rigorous technical qualifications in areas where we need them- Construction,
Design, Engineering, Digital technology, Healthcare, Science. More students are
took maths and science A levels this summer than in any year since records
began.  And in every major city of
England we will open an Institute of Technology to incubate the skills we need.
We will give every single person in this country the prospect not just of a job
– but of a trade. No-one left behind – Nowhere left behind.

And our industrial strategy
is also about ideas.  We want Britain to
be the world’s most innovative economy. Since our last conference we have made
the biggest investment in research and development for 40 years.  Just one example of what that means:  As battery-powered autonomous cars take over,
Britain will be the go-to place for new battery technology.

Our industrial strategy
commitment to research and development has, in the last 12 months alone helped
ensure Britain will be home to; two new models from Nissan, the electric MINI
from BMW, a quarter of a billion new investment from Toyota and Ford’s new
vehicle research centre.

Today we go further as
we announce, as part of our Industrial Strategy, the consortium of businesses
and universities across the country who will form the Faraday Battery Institute
– advancing Britain’s place in the vanguard of the next generation of this
technology.

 

All this is backed up by
the third pillar of our strategy – upgrades to our roads, railways, airports,
energy networks, housing and broadband. People and ideas, supported by
infrastructure. For the first time in a generation, the British government is
leading the way on energy – through taking decisions on new nuclear, rolling
out smart meters and leading the way in clean growth.

The world is moving from
being powered by polluting fossil fuels to clean energy. It’s as big a change
as the move from the age of steam to the age of oil and Britain is showing the
way. In the last year we have established ourselves as the world’s leader in offshore
wind power. The price has halved and all across the country factories and
service centres are opening up to build and export that technology. A dividend
of industrial strategy.

To drive earning power
we need to champion good work by responsible employers who – pay their
employees well, pay their taxes, train their workers, treat small business
suppliers fairly, and compete vigorously and not by wielding monopoly power.

The Taylor Review makes
us the first country to think seriously about how the gig economy can drive
economic success -while safeguarding the rights and conditions of people who
work in it. And by upgrading our standards of corporate governance so that they
will continue to be the best, and making sure that in takeover battles bidders
have to publish their plans and can’t renege on them, we are strengthening our
reputation as the place that combines unparalleled opportunities with high
standards.

We’ll agree sector deals
with business sectors from life sciences to oil and gas; from the creative
industries to ceramics.  If business
sectors can show how they will invest more and improve the earning power of the
people who work in their industries, we’ll shake hands on a deal.

 

The people who know best
what is needed to drive forward their local economies are the people who live,
work and do business in them.

We will build on the
success of our City Deals and Growth Deals – invented by this Government and
now being copied around the world – to give local leaders the power to make a
difference. As we saw earlier, when asked to choose – who is the best leader to
drive forward their local economy, two thirds of the cities from Bristol and
the West of England to Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley chose the
Conservatives.

 

Britain can win the
fight to be the first home of the new industrial revolution. Yet to do that we
must do something none of us in this hall ever thought we would have to do
again. We must mount a battle of ideas on a scale we have not done for many
years. Because underpinning everything we do is a belief that Britain is best
served by a thriving, market economy, that produces jobs and prosperity for our
people, and pays for the public services on which our nation relies.

Our opponents are
determined instead to create in Britain a socialist state.  This is not a caricature – it is a
description. The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer calls himself a Marxist and
he says his biggest influences are Trotsky and Lenin. The Labour Party has
given itself over to a programme, an ideology and a leadership that would bring
ruin.

Despite the history of
failures that litter the landscape they are marching off down the path of the
common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. It’s
our job – each one of us in this hall – to stop them. The cost of their plan
they haven’t even determined, but every person in this hall knows it can only
be paid for in one of three ways: you tax, you borrow or you expropriate. Each
one would be a disaster.

The Labour party is
committed to raising taxes, in the words of the Institute for Fiscal Studies,
to “the highest level in the peacetime history of the United Kingdom”. It’s an
illusion that these taxes would be paid by some distant multinational. I’ll
tell you who’s going to pay.  Working
people already struggling to get by – that’s who’d have to pay the price of
Labour.

As any economist will
tell you, taxes on companies have to be paid by workers, by consumers and by
pensioners – through lower wages, higher prices and less valuable investments
meaning lower pensions.

This is not a choice of
prosperity for the many or the few – it’s prosperity for no-one. And let me
address a word to those Labour MPs who are choosing to stay silent even though
they know their party is now led by people with an extreme and ruinous
ideology.  If, by your silence, you aid
and abet the electoral fortunes of that leadership you won’t be forgiven, and
you won’t deserve to be forgiven.

While they stay silent
it is this Party that will make the case for the values and policies that are
essential for our prosperity. We’re going to make the case for an enterprise
economy.  We’re going to make the case
for businesses that compete and succeed and provide a living for the people of
this country.  We’re going to make the
case for well-paid jobs. The case for decent public services. The case for a
welfare state paid for not by what we borrow but by what we earn. We’re going
to be the voice for freedom to trade, for enterprise and creativity, and, for
prosperity for all. We’re going to take the battle to the socialists – and
we’re going to win.

Here is the Conservative
way to govern: Living within our means; creating good jobs; paying people well;
investing for the future; Being a beacon of free trade and internationalism. That
is what our modern industrial strategy is about. Prosperity for all will be our
reply to the high tax, anti-enterprise, job-destroying, socialist ideology that
in the last two years has taken over the opposition. This need to take the
arguments to the socialists and win, this need to be a voice for enterprise and
liberty – is a duty that we happily take on our shoulders. For we know that our
country, and this party, have not faced a more overwhelming test of our
seriousness of purpose in over 70 years. We will rise to the challenge, we will
do our duty, we will secure for the next generation, a better Britain.”

ENDS

Chris
Grayling, Transport Secretary, speaking today at Conservative Party Conference
in Manchester said:

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against delivery)

“Ladies
and Gentlemen.

I
want to start with a very simple message. Thank you.

I
spent the election campaign travelling the country and meeting many of you on
the campaign trail. Sometimes it was to knock on doors. Sometimes to look at
railway stations and by passes. In Birmingham, Andy Street and I even learned
how to drive a tram.

I
know how hard you worked. I know how disappointing it was that your hard work
didn’t always deliver the results we hoped for. And I know that our Party would
be nothing without all of you, and your commitment to the values that we hold
so dear. So thank you.

But
we are in government and we have a big job to do together. Not
just in delivering Brexit. Not just in putting record investment into our
transport in every part of the country.  But because our opponents are the
most left-wing opposition this country has ever seen. 

The
militant tendency has really taken over Labour. The damage they could do to
this country if they were to form a government would be unthinkable.

We
have to make sure it can never happen.

And
this afternoon’s session is about a key part of how we can make sure it doesn’t
happen.

Theresa
May talked last year about building a country that works for everyone. She was
right, and we should be united behind her as she and our team seek to build
that country.

And
talking of teams. I have a pretty good one in transport

John
Hayes

Martin
Callanan

Jesse
Norman

Paul
Maynard

Our
two whips;

Andrew
Stephenson

Liz
Sugg

And
our two great PPS’s, James Heappey and Scott Mann.

Now
before I talk about the difference we are making, I just want to say a few
words about this morning’s sad news about Monarch Airlines.

When
a big change like this happens, it’s really tough for all those involved –
passengers and crew alike – and my heart goes out to all of them. 

As
soon as it became apparent that the airline was struggling we acted
quickly.  We are today mounting the biggest civilian repatriation exercise
this country has seen in peacetime and we will bringing back 100,000 people who
are stranded overseas.

And
we’ve spoken to all the other airlines and asked them to do what they can to
make sure people affected can rebook their trips elsewhere as quickly as
possible.

But
let nobody think this is a sign of general problems in our aviation sector.
Monarch has been a victim of the success of other airlines, like Easyjet and
Jet 2. This summer most of our airports carried more passengers than ever
before. 

And
they did so because of the success of our economy. We have a great record to
build on. You may remember that back in 2010 I was the Employment Minister.
With the legacy of Labour, every month I waited with trepidation to see the
unemployment figures arrive from the statisticians.

Seven
years later things are very different.

Thanks
to our work in government, we have the lowest level of unemployment since the
1970s, we have the highest ever number of people in work, and we have
opportunity spreading across our society. 

I
am proud of that record.

There
are many parts of our vision for Britain continuing that progress. The work
that Justine is doing to strengthen our schools and vocational education. The
work that Greg is doing to support the development of a more diverse, high tech
economy. 

But
I have the exciting job. My bit is about the things that join all of that
together.

The
roads.

The
railways.

The
ports

The
airports.

Even
planning for Space Ports so that in future we can launch satellites from right
here on British soil.

And
building on the work my colleagues have done since 2010 reversing a decade of
decline under Labour.

Now
I bumped into a relic of that Labour failure in the corridor the other day…
 … John Prescott.  Remember him….

And
do you know what he had the nerve to ask me. When are we getting our new trains
in Hull?

To
be fair to him, under 9 Labour ministers and 13 years, he never got a new
train.   

Well
John, I have good news for you, they are being built right now.  

In
fact between now and 2020 we will be replacing or refurbishing every single
train in the north of England.

The
biggest modernisation programme for rail in the north since the steam age.

More
trains. Longer trains. More seats. Free wi-fi. The things passengers say they
want.

It
didn’t happen under Labour.

It is happening
under Conservatives. 

And,
John just in case both your jags aren’t working, it is not just Hull that is
getting new trains. 

Wales
and the Southwest have brand new intercity trains starting later this month.
 

And
there are more to come – in East Anglia and the East Coast Mainline – and in
the West Midlands and the South.

It’s
a big contrast to when John Prescott and his colleagues were in power.

Passengers
had to put up with trains that dated back to the 1970s.

Labour
cancelled and delayed as many road projects as they opened in thirteen years in
Government.

They
ran away from big decisions on investment.

And
last week in Brighton they had the nerve to claim that we aren’t investing in
the future.

Well
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s taken Conservatives to start to build a modern
transport system.

That’s
why we are spending more on our infrastructure than any Government in decades.

Schemes
that are already transforming the prospects for businesses and travellers.

Many
of them within a few miles of where we are standing now.

The
new Heysham link road, opening up the economy of North Lancashire, thanks to
the hard work of David Morris and Eric Ollerenshaw.

The
long awaited link road between the M56 and the M6 and upgrades to motorways
across the north.

The
first ever rail link between Manchester’s two main rail stations, Piccadilly
and Victoria.

The
missing links that are finally linking Newcastle and London by motorway.

The
first electric railway between Liverpool and Manchester.

And
while we are on the subject of electrification, we have already electrified
nearly four times more miles of railway within the North West,
yes within the North West, than Labour did across the entire
country in thirteen years in Government.

That
programme will carry on. Using electrification where it makes a difference to
passengers. Using digital technology where it makes a difference to passengers.
Always focused first and foremost on what does actually make a difference for
passengers  

That’s
why when I was in Manchester and Leeds two weeks ago, I announced that I want
the Transpennine railway to be Britain’s first major inter-city main line
digital railway.

New
technology that will help create a more reliable railway, increase capacity and
create better journeys for passengers.

And
our investment programme in the North will continue. Today I can announce our
plan to deliver £100 million for local road schemes across the North of
England.

This
Investment will help to reduce traffic congestion in the North West the North
East, Yorkshire and the Humber.  The details of individual schemes will be
announced in due course.

But
it’s not just about investing in the North.

We’re
finally moving ahead with dualling the A303 to the South West.

We’re
upgrading the A14 to provide better links from East Anglia to the Midlands.

We’re
modernising commuter railways in Birmingham and Bristol and providing funding
for the Welsh to do the same in Cardiff.  

We’ve
started work on a new Thames Crossing between Essex and Kent.

And
today I want to set out for you another big part of our plans.

Our
railways haven’t made nearly enough progress in using new technology for rail
tickets. Last year I said to you that we needed to get rid of the paper ticket
on our trains.

Since
then we’ve been working on plans to achieve that.

So
today I am setting out details of our £80 million programme to bring smart
ticketing….. using mobile phones, barcodes and smartcards across almost all of
the rail network by the end of next year. 

It’s
what passengers want. And we will deliver it.

But
it’s not just about what Government does.

We
need the private sector to use its skills to unleash the potential of the north

And
to support the development of the Northern Powerhouse.

That’s
why Liverpool’s new deep water port is so important.

It’s
a gateway to the Northern Powerhouse.

So
are the ports on the East Coast.

In
a post-Brexit world we need those links around the world, to deliver the trade
opportunities that will help us secure the prosperous future this country
deserves.

Links
like Manchester Airport.

A
few weeks ago I had the privilege of being part of the launch of its new
terminal project.

A
billion pound private investment in the success of the Northern Powerhouse.

Manchester
Airport is a crucial hub for this country.

That’s
why we are spending 165 million pounds on the new relief road for the airport.
To help build on that private sector investment.

And
this is the bit that Jeremy Corbyn and his Momentum socialists will never
understand. We need a strong private sector, working in partnership with
national and local government in the Northern Powerhouse. 

If
you treat business as the enemy, and tax it until the pips squeak, it will
simply go elsewhere

And
so will the jobs.

And
the investment. And the opportunities for our next generation.

Just
look at how hostile they are to the private sector.

In
my area, they are always attacking the train companies.

After
all what has rail privatisation ever done for us? Not a lot really…..

Except
for all those new and replacement trains here in the North.

Except
for all the new trains in East Anglia, across the South, in the West Midlands.

Except
for reversing the years of decline under British Rail and doubling the number
of people using our railways.

Except
for opening new services and routes for passengers, like the new line from
London to Oxford.

Or
the Grand Central trains to Sunderland and Bradford.

Of
course in Jeremy Corbyn’s world we would be so much better going back to the
days of British Rail.

Those
“Glory days” when lines were closed and services axed.

When
passenger numbers slumped and investment in our railway equated to
bolting bus parts onto railway wheels.

Not
to mention the famously awful British Rail sandwiches.

And
how would they pay for renationalising the railways? By confiscating assets
from the private sector. How on earth do they think they will attract jobs to
Britain if they behave like the government of Venezuela?

For
all their talk, the Labour Party always leave the country
worse off than they found it – and it is ordinary people who
pay the price in fewer jobs, higher taxes, more debt and
ultimately worse public services.  

They
don’t understand that it is businesses and workers that create the wealth to
pay for public services. Their plans are unaffordable and driven by ideology,
not the balanced approach the country needs.  

Ladies
and Gentlemen. This country needs to move forwards, and not backwards.

And
that is what we are doing, under Theresa May’s leadership.

Taking
the big decisions that we need to secure all of our futures.

This
time last year I told you we had a big decision to take. That we needed to
finally move forward with the airport expansion that this country so
desperately needs.

I
was proud to be the Transport Secretary who announced that we intend to go
ahead and build a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Subject
to the necessary consultation work and securing the backing of Parliament, we
are aiming to give it the formal go ahead in the first half of next year

The
expansion of Heathrow will make a difference right across this country.

Here
in Manchester and North.

In
Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Across
the West and the South

Places
where new air links to Heathrow will open up new opportunities for enterprise
and jobs.

Of
course it’s not our only big infrastructure project. Nor will it be the last. 
There’s…

Northern
Powerhouse Rail.

Crossrail
2

And
HS2, which will link them together.

Now
I know many of you have doubts about HS2.

Why
are we building this big and expensive project?

Why
are we creating such fast links between our Cities?

But
if I asked you how many of you want to see more space for commuters and to get
more lorries off the roads, I bet most of you would say yes please.

But
that’s what HS2 does. By moving the express trains off our existing mainlines,
it means more commuter trains, and thousands of extra seats in the rush hour.

Here
in Manchester.

In
Leeds.

In
Birmingham.

In
London.

And
more space for freight trains the rest of the time.

And
since I stood here a year ago, the construction work on this project for all of
our futures has already started.

All
of this provides a fantastic opportunity for the next generation.

Young
engineers who can be part of projects that will last a lifetime, and which they
can look back on with pride in later years.

This
coming year is the Year of the Engineer in Britain.

We
want to encourage that new generation to be part of this exciting vision.

This
morning, I met with some of those young apprentices who are part of our vision
for our 21^stcentury. Young people who are already working to make
those new projects a reality. 

In
our ports, on our railways, on our roads, in our aerospace and automotive
factories……

Ladies
and gentlemen, they are sitting in this audience. They are an inspiration to
our nation.  I hope that what we are doing will help them build skills to
last a lifetime.

Let
me be clear, this Government will always put the interests of ordinary working
people first.

We
want to make our country a fairer place to live and work – where people get out
what they put in, and how far you go in life depends on your talent and hard
work, not where you came from. In particular that will mean a better future for
all those starting out in life, who fear it will be harder for them than
it was for their parents’ generation.

Ladies
and Gentlemen.

Jeremy
Corbyn and his union paymasters want none of this.

They
want to turn the clock back.

They
want to resist modernisation.

They
don’t care about passengers or consumers.

They
make promises they cannot hope to keep.

We
aren’t like that.

Ladies
and Gentlemen

Our
job is to make sure those young people have jobs.

To
make sure all of them have opportunities to make the most of their lives.

That
is what we are all about as a Government.

It
is what the Northern Powerhouse is all about.

And
our transport strategy will help make that a reality.

In
the coming years this country faces a stark choice.

A
political throwback to the days of penal taxes, nationalised industries,
socialist dogma, high unemployment and economic decline.

Or
an enterprise driven nation, building ties around the world, and seeking to
create opportunities for all.

That’s
what Conservatism is all about.

It
is a battle we have to win.”

 

ENDS

Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, speaking today at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester said:
(Check against delivery)
“Thank you, Conference.
It’s great to be with you here in Manchester – a home to digital innovation and vibrant arts.
It was also the home of my grandparents, and it’s not a million miles from my hometown, Leek, in Staffordshire Moorlands.
This is such a dynamic city.
You don’t have to walk far from this hall to see memorials to people who lived in Manchester and have shaped our world, from Alan Turing to Sir Matt Busby.  
And in Manchester there will soon be another statue to a great Mancunian: Emmeline Pankhurst.  
This dynamic city has such a fantastic past and future – but I must also mention the horrendous evening of May 22.  
The pleasure and excitement of going to a concert is something that everyone should be able to enjoy without fear.  
What happened at the Manchester Arena that night was a particularly sickening and cowardly attack.
I know our thoughts remain with everyone affected by that awful day, and by the other terrible events we have seen this year.
……
As Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, I have seen first-hand the innovation where our country leads the world.
From the success of another great Northern industrial city, Hull, this year’s UK City of Culture, to the amazing achievements of our women’s sports teams in the summer, and from Tech City to Media City – there is so much variety and so much opportunity for all across the country.  
But it has always been the case that great design, great art, great culture have relied on great science and great engineering.  We are brilliant in this country at bringing these together to make Britain world leading in both. We add creativity to engineering and provide new technology to deliver art and design.
So I want to talk to you today about two things:
Firstly, that by enabling our unique creativity and innovation, we will help to build that country that works for everyone.
And secondly, the principle this government has long been guided by:
That we are here to make life better for the British people and when we find an injustice or a problem that is holding them back we set our minds to fixing it.
Luckily, I work with brilliant ministers:
John Glen, Lord Henry Ashton, Tracey Crouch and Matt Hancock.
I also want to thank Rob Wilson who was a fantastic minister for civil society, making the role his own in both the Cabinet Office and DCMS.
We have superb whips in Craig Whittaker and Carline Chisholm.
And our great PPSs Matt Warman and Nigel Huddleston.
Together they make a great team.
Earlier this year, I changed the D in DCMS from “Department” to “Digital” to reflect that fact that in today’s world, digital is an ever-increasing part of everything we do.
This year the number of data subscriptions – to allow us to connect our phones, tablets, computers to the internet – will exceed the number of people on the planet – 7.5 billion!
This is changing the way that we do business, keep in touch with each other and manage our lives.
The digital world is making life better for every person, family and community across our country – as well as bringing new challenges which this government is determined to confront so everybody can enjoy the benefits.
When we came into government seven years ago we were a nation with pitifully low levels of broadband access, thanks to years of Labour mismanagement.
While other countries were forging ahead, Britain was stuck in the slow lane.
Too many families and businesses were forced to put up with frustratingly slow and unreliable internet connections, with no alternative available to them.
It was, quite simply, not good enough.
This government has got on with sorting it out.
That’s what Conservatives do.
We have increased broadband coverage to over 93 per cent of the U.K. – and it will be at 95 per cent by the end of the year.
That 95 per cent will then become 100 per cent when the universal right to a broadband connection – put into law by the Conservatives – is implemented by 2020.
That means that families, businesses and communities in every corner of our four nations can now access superfast internet speeds.
This is good news for jobs.
For our GDP
And for the economy.
Make no mistake this is massive – the digital sector contributes more than £118 billion a year, thanks in part to the policies that this government has prioritised.
But it’s not just about intangible numbers.
It’s about our day to day lives.  
It’s being able to use online banking or doing the food shop
Or more exciting things like buying concert tickets or video calling loved ones around the world.
It also means that you can peacefully watch films on your laptop while your family plays online games next door – something essential in my house!
Better digital connectivity is essential for cultural activities to thrive.
It is all very well having good access to the internet, but I want to ensure we have the most exciting content too.
And in the UK we already have the best cultural offering in the world.
But if you live outside London, you may feel that not enough of this culture is either available to you or represents your life.  
So we are working to make sure it is available across the country – for everyone.
That is why the Prime Minister and I are determined to ensure that this nation’s cultural highlights are not centralised in London, but instead spread across each of our nations and regions.
Whether you grow up in Newquay or Neath, Nottingham or North Berwick, I want to ensure you have access to everything this country has to offer.
You shouldn’t always have to get on a train to London – Conservatives know that opportunity should not be determined by where you are born.
Our regional museums, not least the Whitworth here in Manchester, have fantastic collections that we should all be proud of.
Thanks to the hard work of this government and our fantastic cultural sector we have seen visits to regional museums and galleries increase again this year so thousands more children are appreciating and learning about the best Britain has to offer.
We are making progress, but this drive to rebalance our country is not over.
We have to keep striving to get more investment, more jobs and more opportunities into all regions and to make sure our cultural offering reflects all of our great country.
Widening the presence of arts and media across the whole country will strengthen the unique combination that Britain offers: we have world-leading technological innovation and the most exciting cultural offering in the world.
It is only when our most creative minds come together with our most analytical ones that we truly realise our nation’s potential.
This combination of digital and culture is going to provide a great contribution to making a success of Brexit – which I know we will do.
Because what we offer as a nation will always be deeply compelling to the whole world.
After all, are we really saying that only people in the 27 EU states listen to Adele, watch Sherlock or support Man City?
People come in their millions to visit us and they download, watch and listen to what we produce wherever they are.
In Australia as much as Austria, in India as much as Italy, China as much as the Czech Republic, people across the whole world love our arts and our sport. Ballet or rugby – or a thousand other activities – are enriching pursuits in their own right, but they are also often the hook that brings people and business to Britain to invest here.
And in today’s world, they need innovative digital industry and thriving media to succeed.
So I hope you agree with me that there are exciting prospects for Britain ahead.
But we all know that the digital world can be a dangerous place too.
Each younger generation is more at ease with technology and quicker to understand the latest innovation – I know my children are.
But as a government we also have a duty to protect children and vulnerable people from the less-family friendly corners of the internet.
We have all heard about the dangers of cyber-bulling, Twitter abuse and trolling on the internet.
These are problems that Conservatives are tackling head on.
I’d like to pay particular tribute to Maria Miller and Seema Kennedy for speaking out about these difficult problems.
I believe Britain should be the safest place in the world to go online and this government is determined to make that a reality.
Put simply, behaviour that is unacceptable in normal life should be unacceptable on a computer screen.
That’s why next week I will publish the Internet Safety Strategy green paper.
This will be an important step forward on how we tackle this crucial issue.
As part of this strategy, we will work with key players to introduce a comprehensive response to the problem, including:
·         an Online Code of Practice that I want to see every social media company sign up to
·         A call for companies to think about safety during the design of their products, to ensure that basic safety features are included from the outset;
·         And a plan to ensure that every child is taught the skills they need to be safe online.
Because we all have a responsibility to make sure the internet is as safe as it possibly can be.
By doing this, and more, we will take a positive step forward in tackling a growing and critical challenge confronting our country.
So Conference.
With every week that passes we see new and exciting digital and cultural innovations.
They will bring future benefits to our country and world that we can’t yet imagine.
But they will also bring challenges – challenges this government will continue to face up to and to solve.
You can be assured that the Prime Minister, my department and this government are working flat out to build a Britain where everybody in every region, and from any background, can take advantage of the latest digital technology, culture and sport – while staying safe.
Thank you.”
ENDS

Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking today at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester said:
(Check against delivery)
“Thank you Ben.
What a privilege to be introduced by the Conservative Mayor of a north-east city region.
Ben Houchen, Ladies and Gentlemen, the living proof that our party is working for people in every part of Britain!
And what a privilege to be here: In Manchester City, but 100 percent United!
And we have all been with Manchester in spirit as it has stood united in the face of adversity this year.
Conference, 40 years ago this week here in the North West a 16 year old speaker from Yorkshire warned his fellow Conservative delegates about Labour’s plans for an irreversible shift of power allegedly to the people but in reality to the State.
He urged them to reject the socialist argument that the government knows what is good for us better than we do ourselves.
He spoke with the passion of youth about people’s inherent desire to be free and he underlined how free markets underpin free societies.
Well, the young William Hague was right then and his powerful arguments still resonate down the decades even if his hairstyle didn’t last quite that long.
I am not 16, sadly. And I am not from Yorkshire. But we do have to step forward and make those arguments again because a new generation is being tempted down a dangerous path.
We have to explain why and how the market economy works and the role of competition as the consumer’s friend.
And, colleagues, we have to make those arguments with confidence because they are true and they are timeless.
Now I can almost hear the warning bells going off in Conference Control Centre: “Don’t talk about the ‘70’s!”
Look, I have kids; I understand we will not engage them simply by droning on about some previously fought war, “I remember the Winter of Discontent!”
But I also know that the purpose of history is to learn lessons for the future.
So, although, to paraphrase William Hague, some of us might, just conceivably, not be here in 40 years. I think we owe it to the next generation to show how Corbyn’s Marxist policies will inevitably lead us back to where Britain was in the late 1970’s.
We know what state control does to industry: utilities, transport; energy; steel, coal, mail, shipbuilding, telecoms, ports, airports and much of heavy manufacturing were all nationalised.
Almost all of them were massively inefficient, running up huge losses – because the Unions knew that with the state as owner, they could not go bust. So the setting of wages and prices was determined by naked political power, not market forces.
The losses those industries piled up, and the capital they needed to keep going competed with our public services for scarce resources.
The Labour Government squared the circle by borrowing money and then when the lenders took fright at the mounting debt and the supply dried up they had to go cap in hand to the IMF.
Inflation reached 26.9% in 1975. Britain haemorrhaged talent as a “brain drain” of Doctors, scientists, teachers and managers gathered pace the skilled and the mobile abandoning Labour’s Utopia for a better life elsewhere.
And who could blame them?
Top rates of income tax were 83% on earnings and 98% on interest and dividends. Corporation Tax was 52%. I wouldn’t envy Liam Fox the job of promoting investment in Britain on those terms!
And unsurprisingly, there wasn’t very much of it, so we slipped further and further behind our competitors.
And as things got worse, the Labour Government doubled down, tightening the screws, inflicting more misery on a country that was already the sick man of Europe, beating the patient, not treating it.
Until in the winter of 1978 it finally fell apart and in the election the following year the British people voted to put Labour’s failed experiment behind them to abandon the stagnation, the hopelessness and the national humiliation that socialism had heaped upon our proud nation and embrace the radical vision of economic liberation presented by Margaret Thatcher.
End of History lesson!
That election was a turning point for our nation.
By abandoning the delusion that the state could run the economy that we could borrow our way out of every problem. By embracing the discipline of the market and taking the hard decisions to put Britain back on track to sustainable growth, we not only rescued our economy, tamed inflation and created the conditions that led to decades of rising living standards for the British people. But we blazed a trail of ideas that ultimately liberated the people of Eastern Europe, unleashed the boom in international trade and allowed what we used to call the “less developed economies” to become the emerging economic giants of today.

For those who don’t like history lessons, I could equally appeal to Geography because there are a few countries around the world that have held out against the global trend to market economies and rising living standards, but it is only a few.

Like Cuba, which I visited last year as Foreign Secretary, where curiously, I found cows in the fields but no milk in the shops. I am sure the Cuban people are eternally grateful that the state controls the price of milk on their behalf and presumably willing to overlook the fact that the price control is so effective that the farmers choose not to produce any. That’s what socialism does to a market.
Or Zimbabwe – once, one of the most productive and prosperous countries on the continent but after decades of socialism, not so much a breadbasket, as a basket case. And Venezuela, a country rich beyond imagination in natural resources but where the economic policies of Hugo Chavez, publicly supported by Jeremy Corbyn, have so tragically impoverished the country that it can longer feed its people and inflation is over 1,000% and growth this year will fall for the fourth year in a row.
But still Corbyn won’t say a word against it.
“Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!” – Lost your voice now have you?
This is my 34th consecutive Conservative Party Conference. And every year, it’s been preceded by a Labour Party Conference.
I’ve watched them all.  And, I can tell you, there have been some shockers.
Some of you are probably connoisseurs. You’ve probably got your own particular favourites (I think mine is probably Kinnock falling into the sea, not so much waving as drowning!) But last week, we saw Labour, in the raw – exposed for what it has sadly become.
A party taken hostage by a clique of hard-left extremist infiltrators people who despise our values and talk down our country.
Who openly proclaim their ambition to demolish our successful modern market economy and replace it with a back-to-the-future socialist fantasy. With hundreds of billions of extra debt for the next generation to pay off.
Wasting billions more in interest instead of funding public services.
Squeezing billions more in tax, out of ordinary people threatening investment, trade, jobs and ending the hope of building a better Britain.
It was a resolutely-negative agenda of failed ideas, dredged up from a bygone era.
Threatening not only our economic progress but our freedom as well because economic freedom and political freedom have been inextricably linked – throughout our own history and across the globe.
But they say Politics is about the clash of ideas. So we say to Corbyn: “bring it on”
Let them put their arguments, let them make their case.
We will take them on.
And we will defeat them.
And I promise you this: we will defeat them by the power of argument; by our logic; by the experience of history.
We will not resort to the politics of the mob, to the threats, the intimidation, the undertones of lawlessness that were so menacingly present last week.
Nor will we be cowed by intimidation whether it’s on the streets or online.
It’s all very sad because for 35 years we had a broad consensus in British politics about our economic model, with the Labour party acknowledging (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) the importance of business, investment, entrepreneurship, job creation so that we grow the size of our economy, improve the lives of our people and generate the taxes to support our public services.
35 years in which we have seen real living standards almost double in this country.
But that consensus is over.
We will always do what is right for Britain and colleagues, what is right for Britain now includes keeping Jeremy Corbyn, and his clique, far away from power, or even a sniff of it.  
He is a clear and present danger to our prosperity damaging our economy, even in opposition his loose talk already deterring the entrepreneurs and the investors we need for our future success.
By abandoning market economics Corbyn’s Labour has abandoned the aspirations of ordinary working people.
And we must be the party which picks them up and delivers on them.
Yes, it falls to us in this, great, Party not only to keep Britain safe from the resurgence of hard-left Socialism, as we have had to do before but to stand up for the hardworking, decent people of this country whose concerns are real and whose livelihoods and wellbeing are too important to be put at risk by an ideological experiment.
But we won’t do it simply by asserting that Corbyn’s way is the wrong way. We will do it by offering them a better way forward.
By showing that we can address Britain’s challenges – and their concerns – without going to the extremes that Corbyn proposes. And, as Labour abandons the centre ground of British politics we will do it by taking that ground by being the party of Progress.
The Party that looks outward, while they are turned inward; The Party which embraces the future, while they yearn for the past; The Party which welcomes and manages change – while they want to resist it, and tax it, and fight it.
The Party that makes a clear commitment to the next generation – that they will be better off than us; and that their children will be better off again than them.
That is the Conservative definition of progress.  And I pledge this to the next generation: we will not let you down.
But we also need to understand why we are having this argument again an argument that both we Conservatives, and politicians of the centre-left, thought we had won so decisively that the one or two remaining proponents of hard-left socialism in Parliament like Corbyn and McDonnell were for years treated almost as museum pieces dinosaurs, worth preserving for the sake of historical curiosity.
But last week at Brighton the dinosaurs had broken out of their glass cases, their political DNA apparently uncontaminated by any contact with the reality of thirty years of global economic development ready to wreak havoc fighting the battles of the past using the language of the past, all over again, a sort of political version of Jurassic Park.
The argument they present depends essentially on McDonnell’s claim that our economy is fundamentally broken.
John McDonnell: the man who gloated in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, that he’d been looking forward to it for a generation. He even urged his supporters “not to waste” the crisis. Now he wants to run our economy.
I wouldn’t trust him with a Monopoly set! Not even to give him the boot.
He does, however, have one remarkable achievement to his name: Ken Livingstone sacked him for being too left wing.
That takes some doing.
The hard left are preying on people’s worries, manipulating their fears, luring them with false promises.
It’s a wicked and cynical business offering superficially simple solutions to complex challenges: But colleagues, we need to listen to those fears and concerns, we need to acknowledge the weariness at the long slog back from Labour’s recession, the pressure on living standards caused by slow wage growth and a spike in inflation. The frustration among the young who fear that the combination of student debt and sky high rents and house prices will condemn them never to access the opportunities of property ownership their parents enjoyed.
Many of you will have heard these concerns first hand at the Election as you pounded the pavements of Britain and I want to thank you on behalf of all the candidates – successful and unsuccessful alike – for your help.
We hugely appreciate it – and we never forget the debt we owe to the volunteers who are the backbone of our party.
I want to thank our financial supporters as well: we need your support more than ever as the Union Barons mobilise their power behind Corbyn. Whether it was time or money, I know you all invested a great deal in the 2017 election and I am sorry we were not able to deliver the result we all hoped for.
But don’t let disappointment obscure the substantial achievements:
A Conservative prime minister returned to Number 10 in 2017 with our biggest share of the vote for 30 years. And at 43%, Theresa May won a clearer, stronger mandate in the popular vote in Britain than Angela Merkel in Germany
Now let’s unite behind her and make that mandate count at home and abroad.
Under Ruth Davidson’s dynamic leadership we saw Scotland sending 13 Conservatives to Westminster – re-establishing an assertive Scottish Conservative voice in our UK Parliament for the first time in two decades, (and, believe me, as Chancellor, I have already found out just how assertive!). Ruth, you’ve put Nicola Sturgeon on notice, and your campaign was an inspiration to all of us.
In the Midlands, we won seats such as Stoke-on-Trent South for the first time in over 80 years and in Copeland we saw Trudy Harrison cement her historic by-election victory. But still, overall it wasn’t the result we all worked for and we lost too many valued Parliamentary colleagues.
And while we will dismiss Labour’s solutions to them, we must never dismiss the underlying concerns that the election articulated. We must listen to them and we must respond. Not by embarking on reckless experiments that would put at risk all the progress of the last decades. Not by swimming against the tide of history but by working with the market economy to deliver pragmatic solutions that will make ordinary lives better.
Because, Conference, our economy is not broken: it is fundamentally strong.  And while no one suggests a market economy is perfect, it is the best system yet designed for making people steadily better off over time and underpinning strong and sustainable public services for everyone.
As this model comes under renewed assault, we must not be afraid to defend it.
The market economy frees people and businesses, encourages them to create, take risks, give ideas a go because they can see the results and benefit from their success.
It’s the profits from such businesses that underpin our savings and our pensions. And the tax revenue that a strong market economy creates which, in the end, pays for our public services.
Of course there are challenges to delivering sustainably higher living standards for our people.
And we need to be open and honest with the British people about those challenges, and how we are tackling them only that way will we overcome them, together.
We face an immediate challenge managing uncertainty about the outcome of our Brexit negotiations. We face a medium term challenge of restoring our public finances to balance and starting to pay down our debts – so we do not burden the next generation with the cost of our mistakes. And we face a longer term challenge of raising Britain’s productivity – increasing the amount we produce in each hour we work – so that we can get wages growing more quickly, without simply stoking inflation and so we can fund our public services to support our ageing population.

Ten years ago we gathered for our conference just days after we had witnessed the spectacle of people queuing round the block to draw their money out of Northern Rock, the first run on a bank in Britain for 140 years.
The financial crisis that unfolded over the following year has scarred our country deeply. The effects of a financial collapse are always the most difficult to shake off. Some chose to accelerate the process, accepting widespread business failures and soaring unemployment – still 17% in Spain today two years after their recovery began.
We chose a different route.
I’m proud to stand here today as a Conservative Chancellor to report on our successes. But as David Gauke did it so brilliantly just a few moments ago, (and as it’s nearly lunchtime) I won’t repeat them.
Thank you David, showing that you can take the man out of the Treasury, but you can’t take the Treasury out of the man!
And while I’m on the subject of Treasury talent, please acknowledge my fantastic team: Liz Truss, Mel Stride, Steve Barclay and Andrew Jones; our Lord’s spokesmen Michael Bates and George Young; our whip, Graham Stuart and our PPS team:- Kwasi Kwarteng, Chris Philp and Suella Fernandez. All of them do a great job.
While I won’t repeat our overall record, there is one fact – an inconvenient one for our opponents. Despite the debt and the deficit we inherited. Despite the challenges Britain has faced. Despite the difficulties of re-building an economy ravaged by recession, we can be proud that under this Conservative Government, income inequality in this country has fallen to its lowest level in over three decades.
And as a result of the hard work and resolution of the British people, our debt is set to begin falling next year.
Our economy today is fundamentally strong. We are well positioned for the future with our time zone, our legal system and our language.
Last week’s World Economic Forum league table, shows the UK a more competitive place to do business than it has ever been. The UK is the world’s No.1 digital economy. Britain led the world in the first industrial revolution, driven by steam and iron and our great engineering pioneers.
In the 20th Century we helped give the world radio, television, the jet engine, and the computer and today we are playing a leading role in what some have called a fourth industrial revolution, in which new technologies – robotics, artificial intelligence, Big Data, biosciences – are coming together to change the way our economy and our society works.
The future is coming and we must be the Party that embraces it, not fights it. Because it is change that will deliver the progress we are committed to. We have a phalanx of entrepreneurs and investors who have taken these breakthrough technologies from the labs of our world-leading Universities, to the factories and business parks of Britain creating the jobs and the wealth and the tax revenues that will sustain the Britain of the future.
Britain is also the world’s second largest exporter of services.
Our world-leading firms – in financial, legal, technical, digital and creative services – are poised to seize the opportunities in the great emerging economies like China. A fundamentally strong economy, with a great future. A fiscal strategy which will get our debt down and keep our global credibility up, while maintaining sufficient headroom to support our public services and invest in Britain’s future.
But now we need to tackle the stagnation in wages. Britain’s productivity growth, along with many other developed countries, slowed to a snail’s pace in the wake of the financial crisis – and has remained stuck there since. We need to get it moving, although we definitely don’t need Momentum
Because you can’t do it by the kind of short-cuts and smoke and mirrors we were offered at Brighton last week.
Anyone with a GCSE in economics can tell you that pouring borrowed money into a state controlled, Union-dominated economy will produce inflation, not growth. The truth is that while the best British businesses can beat the world, other parts of our economy need help to grow.
In many areas of our country, in many sectors of our economy, and in many individual firms, productivity is just too low and that means for many, wages are just too low.
It isn’t that people aren’t working hard; rather that they are not producing as much through their hard work as their competitors manage to do. For some, it will feel like driving with your foot to the floor but the handbrake half on.

Sometimes, it’s because of inadequate skills; So I announced at the Spring Budget that we will invest half a billion pounds a year extra to radically reform technical education and we are on course to deliver 3 million more apprenticeships by 2020 creating new opportunities for higher skills and higher earnings for millions of young people. But it is not only Britain’s young people who need support to develop new skills, which is why we committed in our manifesto to introduce a new National Retraining Scheme; to help people whose jobs are threatened by technological change, or who have to find new careers because of longer working lives to get the skills they need to maximise their earning potential.
Preparing Britain’s workforce as we embrace the future.
A Conservative Government determined to leave no one behind. Sometimes, low productivity is because firms haven’t invested enough private capital in the latest technology to make their workers more productive. So our patient capital review will report in the autumn on ways to increase private investment in growth businesses. And sometimes it’s because Government has failed to deliver the public infrastructure that businesses need to prosper.
This Government accepts the challenge of stepping up infrastructure investment; that’s why we created the National Productivity Investment Fund, demonstrating our commitment to fund Britain’s future at the same time as dealing with our debts.
An extra £23 billion is going into high-return schemes such as housing, transport, broadband and R&D that will drive Britain’s productivity performance, and the Industrial Strategy that Greg Clark is delivering will help us to harness the power of Government to spread economic growth across the length and breadth of the UK. Because ensuring our regional economies are firing on all cylinders will help to close the gap in living standards and raise our national performance.
That’s why we are committed to the Northern Powerhouse project to join the great cities of the North into a single connected market with a population to rival London’s. And to the Midlands Engine to do the same in the Midlands conurbation and what a great job Andy Street is doing as our, Conservative, Mayor of the West Midlands.
Here in Manchester, you don’t have to look far to find opportunities for infrastructure investment.
Take a walk and you’ll see some of it taking shape; new bridges, new rail links, new roads.
Opening up derelict land for development for housing and for jobs. Connecting our communities to make them more productive. And so today I am announcing a further £300 million to future-proof the railway network in the north, ensuring HS2 infrastructure can link up with future Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Rail projects while keeping open all options for services through Manchester Piccadilly. As well as infrastructure, sustainable economic growth needs housing that is both decent and affordable, in the places where people need to live.
Housing to buy. And housing to rent in the public and private sectors. We recognise that, right now, despite the growth in housing starts, getting into the housing market is challenging for anyone on average earnings.
To many young people, the housing market looks rigged in favour of those already way up the ladder and against those trying to get on the bottom rung.
As Conservatives, we have always supported young people and families to achieve their dreams of home ownership. Our “help to buy ISA”, launched in 2015, has helped more than a million people to save for their own home.
And “Help to Buy: Equity Loan” has achieved much higher take-up than we expected, helping 130,000 families so far with a deposit for their own home.
This morning, the Prime Minister and I have visited two of them in their new home in Salford, hearing first-hand how Help to Buy made their dream of home ownership come true. But that success means the original funding allocated to the scheme will run out before the scheme was expected to end.
So today, I can announce an extra £10bn in funding to provide loans under the scheme through to 2021. Helping an estimated 130,000 more homebuyers over the next few years. Renewing our Conservative commitment to Britain’s property owning democracy for the next generation.
An economy that is fundamentally strong; Our deficit being tackled in a responsible way; And investment in Britain’s productivity to drive up growth and wages. That’s a solid basis for Britain’s future.
But we face an immediate challenge as we move ahead. The process of negotiating our exit from the EU has created uncertainty so investment has slowed as businesses wait for clarity. So before we can reap the benefits of our strong economic fundamentals and the investment we are making in the future we must remove this uncertainty.
But of course, Brexit is not only, or even mainly, an economic decision.
In 1973, we joined something that was then called the European Economic Community. The “Common Market”. Maybe just one or two of you are old enough to remember it?
The key word is “Economic”. We did not join a grand political project. And we did not change. But over the years, the EU did.
Moving relentlessly towards closer economic, fiscal and political union. Until in June 2016, the British people voted to leave. They voted, to borrow a phrase, to take back control. And I respect their decision. Our job now is to implement it
But as I have said before, they didn’t vote to get poorer or to reduce trade with our closest neighbours and biggest trading partners. The British people have chosen independence, over integration.
And as we implement their decision, we must use that independence in our nation’s best interest to protect our jobs, to strengthen our economy and to safeguard our prosperity.
We are leaving the EU, not leaving Europe.
Our economic future will remain closely linked with the EU for many good reasons.
But our political future will be our own. Our EU partners can go their way, we wish them well. But we will not join them on a voyage to ever closer union. We must resolve the short term challenge of uncertainty around this process by accelerating the talks and delivering a time-limited interim period of around two years for our businesses to adjust.
Our objective is to make Britain safer, stronger, and richer.
And as the Prime Minister said in Florence, ten days ago, that objective is what will guide us in our negotiations. I don’t pretend it will be a simple process.
There are moments in history when the choice is binary, like the decision in the referendum last year. But there are other times when the challenge is more complex.
Now is such a time, as we pick our way carefully and cautiously across the difficult terrain of EU negotiation, to ensure we arrive in good order on the fertile plains at the other side.
And as we tread that terrain, we need the path well-lit; the hazards well signposted.
The future prize is great. If we get this right – Britain will have a bright future beyond Brexit. But to get to it, we must be clear-eyed about the challenges along our way.
We must not downplay the difficulties nor underestimate the complexities. This will be one of the most challenging tasks ever undertaken by a peacetime government but with focus and determination and unity, we will succeed.
So Conference, we will deliver a Brexit that works for Britain and in doing so, we will unleash our nation’s potential. We have a fundamentally strong economy. We’re rebalancing our public finances. We’re addressing the productivity gap. We’re investing in Britain’s future. But we hear the concerns of a generation that feels excluded from the opportunities their parents enjoyed. We hear the concerns of millions of households, impatient at the long slog back from Labour’s recession. We hear them and we will respond to them.
But we can only do so by harnessing the power of the market economy to deliver a brighter future. And that means re-fighting a battle we thought we had won against an opposition determined to put Britain’s prosperity at risk.
We will not let that happen. We will not allow Britain’s prosperity to be threatened, our security to be undermined. We will take on the false promises of Corbyn’s Labour and one by one we will expose them for the fallacies that they are. We will not allow the past to triumph over the future. We will not allow the politics of fear to trump the politics of progress.
Conference, the Conservative Party is the most successful political organisation in history, flexible and adaptable, responding to a changing world. But resolute and unmoving in its principles and values.
We will see off this threat to our fundamental freedoms. We will deliver on our promise to the next generation.
We will do it together.
And we will do it for Britain.”

ENDS