September 29, 2019

The Prime Minister’s Welcome to Conference

At Conservative Party Conference on Sunday, Boris Johnson spoke to Party Conference about his vision for Britain. We will get Brexit done, so we can deliver on the people's priorities: our NHS, schools, and our police.

Here's what he had to say:

Manchester. Home of the Industrial Revolution and Coronation Street, the steam train and the Curry Mile. What better place to celebrate the ingenuity and diversity of Britain?

Welcome to Manchester – and to Conservative Party Conference 2019.

It’s an honour to hold Conference in this great city. I feel the same throb of possibility every time I visit, the knowledge that it’s within our power to create a brighter future.

Because every day, across the world, you can see Manchester’s influence. From computers to trains to atomic science, modern life began in this city.

And it’s that same sense of possibility and optimism that the Conservative Party is bringing to Conference 2019.

We’re delivering Brexit by the 31 October. We’re making it work for Britain by investing in hospitals, police and schools. And we’re doing it with your help.

Let no one ever forget that members like you are the fuel for our Conservative juggernaut.

We’re able to invest £33.9 billion in the NHS because you deliver leaflets in the rain. We’re able to hire 20,000 new police officers because you hit the phones after work. We’re able to increase the funding we give to schools because you knock on doors and change minds, very often in the right direction. And we’re able to deliver Brexit because you believe in the potential of our country.

And make no mistake: delivering Brexit, then making it work for Britain, is what we’re in government to do.

Our friends in the Labour Party struggle to keep up. They’re still arguing about what kind of Brexit they don’t want. Labour are united only in their belief that Britain can’t survive as an independent nation.

And we know where that belief comes from – the NATO-bashing tyrant-backing marrow-tending Leader of the Opposition. Jeremy Corbyn has such little faith in our democracy that he wants to undo the result of the referendum, taking us all back to square one – with more chaos, more delay and more inaction.

What’s left of the Liberal Democrats are also of one mind. But after storming to almost-victory in the European Parliament elections, they’re finding out what it’s like to be ignored in the committee rooms of Brussels. So we leave the door open to any of our Lib Dem colleagues who may yet be persuaded that the British people made the right decision in 2016.

Regardless of what other parties are doing, we’re getting on with the job. Creating the freeports that will open our country up to the world. Making the trade deals that will drive our economy. Leading the world in technology that will tackle climate change. And delivering on the largest democratic vote this country has ever seen.

So leave the gloom, the doom and the predictions of cataclysm to other parties. At this year’s Conference, let’s remember what we’re here to do – and prepare for the work ahead.

Together, we’re putting Britain back on the road to a brighter future.