Richard Holden discusses Conservative Transport priorities and answers questions from members on the main stage.
Before answering questions from members Richard Holden said:
Well, Conference, before I start, actually, I was seeing Craig backstage.
When I was Chairman, I went to see Craig in hospital, and we didn't know if he was going to pull through. So, he is back with us, full-throated. Today, I have just been helping him tuck his shirt into his trousers, and it is a testament to the human spirit and the tenacity of our party as we take the fight back to Labour to win the next general election as well.
Conference, it's great to be back with you in Manchester. The big city for me, growing up down the road. But, as some of you know, I've travelled around .A Lancashire lad, uni in London, won North West Durham, unexpectedly. Great to see some of you guys here. Basildon and Billericay, just by twenty votes, and it's great to be back in transport too.
Coming back to Manchester, I'm reminded of visiting as Roads and Buses Minister, where I came up to sign off a billion-pound, five-year plan, to create the Bee Network in this great city, although it was, surprise, surprise, Andy Burnham who grabbed the headlines that day.
But I'm not the only politician who has found themselves fighting Andy Burnham for column inches, as Labour's current leader knows all too well. Now, looking at Labour in government, it is easy to attack their competence, or lack thereof. Massive pay rises for their union paymasters, yet strikes across the board. From rail to tube, strikes here in Greater Manchester and on the buses, in towns and cities across the Midlands and the North.
And we've seen Labour's abandonment of our popular Get Around For Two Pound bus fare. Major road schemes like the A303, with hundreds of millions of pounds wasted in the process. We have seen the sidelining of new laws too that Labour said they'd back, to reduce the misery of roadworks, those schemes delayed by this government, and then delayed again. All because Labour can't be bothered.
It's not just that Labour don't care about our road networks, or the drivers who use them, it's that Labour are actively punishing motorists at every turn in our country. And, most damningly, the Transport Secretary, in her speech at Labour Conference, didn't even mention Britain's freight sector.
Didn't mention them. Not one mention of the lorries, shipping, rail freight, commercial vehicles, vans, or road haulage that are the backbone of Britain. Not once, despite giving her speech almost two hundred years to the day that the world's first public freight railway opened, the Stockton to Darlington railway.
How typically Labour, ignoring British business, ignorant of Britain's history. But it's not just about competence, it's about values too. For us, it's about freedom, and it's about our belief in our country.
We are unashamedly on the side of the passenger, the driver, the taxpayer, and the British worker. You cannot say the same about Labour.
Look at Ed Miliband. Driving up bills, pushing policies that hammer our ability to travel, killing our North Sea industry while Norway grants new licences, in hock to an extremist activist agenda. We used to call him Red Ed, he may have tried to refashion himself as Green Ed, but the truth is, like all the Green comrades, Ed is a watermelon. Green on the outside but red at his core. And no one in Labour is standing up for transport.
Ministers have come and gone. Most recently, we've had one sacked, then reappointed nine days later. Before that, we had a Transport Secretary sacked for being a convicted fraudster. Her replacement caused a by-election so she could, I kid you not, jump ship to work for Sadiq Khan. But despite the chaos in personnel, Labour have wasted no time maximising union power, hiking taxes on flying, and pursuing state control of rail. Make no mistake, Labour is waging an ideological war on motorists, motorcyclists, our freight, and haulage sector, and anyone who does not address you as comrade or bankroll Labour campaigns.
Our Conservative approach, rooted in our most cherished of values, freedom, is fundamentally different. And transport, getting around, is all about freedom. I wonder if you, like me, remember walking to a friend's house as a child, cycling around your local town or village, that bus journey to your first job, or a first date that you hoped would lead to a second date. Days and nights out in the big city, for me, it was here in Manchester, by train, with my mates, then passing my driving test, and then passing my driving test the first time, ladies and gentlemen.
And memories of my first car, my umpteenth-hand Citroën X, it was so unreliable, it could have been a Labour Party election pledge. She was followed rapidly by a Fiesta, then by a Clio, and then followed by Margaret, named not just because she was a Jag in 'Westminster Blue', but because she also had the turning circle of a cross-Channel ferry, so U-turns simply were not possible.
I don't know who writes these jokes.
When it comes to transport, Conservatives are on the side of freedom, freedom to go about your business in a pleasant and safe environment,
and travel how you want. That has to be what we're aiming for as Conservatives every single step of the way. Pragmatic, practical solutions to make everyday life easier, every day. Not more red tape, more taxes, more rules and regulations.
Our approach is centred around motorists, passengers, and taxpayers, and against those more interested in restricting freedom and stopping new infrastructure. We Conservatives must champion freedom at every turn, by keeping taxes down and removing the blocks to new infrastructure, and our battle has two fronts.
Firstly, we are staring down the barrel of a stealth tax bonanza on freedom at the budget. Rachel Reeves has her sights on your family holiday, with Air Passenger Duty, on your family car, with Fuel Duty and Insurance Premium Tax, VAT on taxis and private hire, inflation-busting train fare rises. Conference, we will fight back against Labour's tax grab at every single opportunity. And alongside fighting Labour's transport tax grabs, we are also putting in the long-term policy work with our team. We have got some fantastic people down here at the front, my Lords, and also Greg and Jerome. Thank you very much for all the work you do.
We are no longer going to pursue self-flagellating, self-destructive, industry-destroying net-zero by 2050 as a policy objective, and we are dead set against Labour's 2030 ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars. In their wisdom, Labour have reintroduced subsidies for electric cars. Let's be clear about what a subsidy is, it's taxpayers' money, it's your money. And the worst thing about it, they told us it would drive job creation in Britain. But the truth is, aside from a couple of small-run, van-based models that qualify for the lowest level of support, every car, every single car, the Government is giving a grant to buy is produced abroad, in Romania, in France, in Italy, in Japan.
We are sending taxpayers' money, your money, to other countries so that their workers can produce cars that are then sold in our country. Conference, Conservatives in Parliament voted against it, and when we get back into government, for the sake of the country, we must stop it.
Now, Claire and Kemi have already outlined how Conservatives will reverse the decline in Britain's oil and gas production by allowing new licences in the North Sea. Over the next few days, weeks, and months, you will hear more from us about motor manufacturing and other industrial sectors too. But let me leave you with this today. Our values, when it comes to our vision for transport, are very, very clear.
Freedom. Freedom to travel in a safe and pleasant way of your choosing. And as Conservatives, we will lead the fight against Labour's big tax, that is killing jobs and opportunity in our country. Thank you, Conference.
Watch the full speech and discussion here👇:
