Today Kemi gave a speech in honour of William Wilberforce, a master of speaking, a prolific campaigner and a man of moral clarity.
William Wilberforce proved that conviction, courage and perseverance can change history.
Read Kemi’s full speech below 👇:
Thank you, David [Burrowes], and thank you, Juliet [Donoghue], for that wonderful introduction.
But also, thank you to the Conservative Christian Fellowship for everything you do.
Not only for organising tonight’s event, but for the volunteering you do to support our party across the country.
I’m also fortunate to have a CCF luminary by my side to support me in the work I do.
John Glen is not just one of your Patrons, he is also acting as my Parliamentary Private Secretary.
And I am very grateful for all that he does, just as I am grateful for the invitation to speak in honour of William Wilberforce.
And I hope that I give a speech worthy of him, as David instructed.
I may have to tone it down a little bit to make sure it works.
But William Wilberforce proved that conviction, courage and perseverance can change history.
That is what we need now.
He was a master of oratory, a prolific campaigner and a man of moral clarity.
Wilberforce was not only a model parliamentarian, but one of our country’s greatest statesmen.
I have to say, I really am proud to follow in the footsteps of Conservative leaders who have given this address in his name: William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and David Cameron.
All people I’m proud to call friends.
So I want to reflect tonight on one question.
What is the influence of Christianity on Conservative thinking?
It has certainly influenced my thinking.
My intense dislike, for example, of virtue signalling is, no doubt, rooted in my reading of Matthew 6:1 when I was a child.
A verse that says, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.
Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
I remember reading that verse as a child and looking at all those people who I thought were being goody two-shoes just to get the teacher’s-pet reward.
And it has stayed with me for such a long time.
I have to say, the verse was turbocharged on becoming an MP in 2017 and having to listen to the false piety of so many, especially on the left, who want to claim virtue just for themselves and are unable to tolerate differences of opinion.
But my values are not an abstract subject, and the influence of Christianity in my life is not an abstract subject.
It is personal.
I was raised in Nigeria by Christian parents and their faith meant duty, responsibility and stewardship.
These are Christian values which have shaped my Conservatism.
Those values are deeply rooted in my family.
My paternal grandmother was a Muslim who chose to become a Christian.
She witnessed a miracle, or she certainly believed that it was, when my father was very ill and she thought he was going to die.
A priest came over and laid his hands on him and healed him.
My grandmother believed that this must be the one true God and she converted from Islam to Christianity.
My maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister.
Through the Conservative Party, I met and married a Catholic.
My children are raised in that faith.
I’ve given the Catholic Church three children… I’ve done my part.
And every day, I see this religious tradition expressed in how we live our lives.
In my family and also in the families and lives of Christians in Parliament.
I do believe that service, sacrifice and duty lie at the heart of our family life and that they form the foundation of Britain.
They are woven through our institutions, our language, our law, liberty under the law, personal responsibility, and the moral courage to do what is right, even when it is unfashionable.
Not only has Christianity inspired our island story, I believe it has also shaped the Conservative tradition, and we must not let it go.
Our party is the fortunate custodian of a practical philosophy, shaped by three Christian ideas that have stood the test of time.
The first is Stewardship, that what we inherit we hold in trust for those who come after us.
The second is the dignity of work and responsibility, that effort should lead to reward, and that rights come with duties.
And the third is Compassion through community, that care is best rooted in family, in faith and in the local ties that bind us, with the state as a safety net, not as a first resort.
But first, let’s look at stewardship.
In Scripture, we see the virtue of living within our means.
In the Second Book of Kings, Elisha tells a widow: “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest.”
The message is simple and profound: clear the liabilities, live on what remains.
That moral clarity matters in public life just as much as in private life.
Debt is not just an accounting entry; it is a burden placed on the shoulders of our children.
Conservatives believe government should model the same prudence we expect of households.
We cannot keep promising more than we can pay for.
It is not kindness to run up bills our grandchildren will struggle to meet.
Stewardship is about respect.
Respect for taxpayers who already give enough.
Respect for small businesses that cannot pass losses on to someone else.
Respect for the next generation, who deserve an inheritance of opportunity, not an invoice for our indulgence.
So yes, there is a very strong Christian case for fiscal responsibility.
It is not cruelty.
It is care in its truest form.
And when we save, when we cut waste, when we focus the state on essentials, we do it to strengthen the foundations: a sound economy, financial stability, and the capacity to invest where it truly matters.
As Margaret Thatcher put it: “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions, he had money as well.”
Prudence is what makes compassion possible.
But there is also a warning.
When the state grows faster than the economy, it smothers enterprise and squeezes out initiative.
Since the final quarter of 2019, real GDP has grown by 5.3%.
Meanwhile, day-to-day government spending has grown by 13.7%.
Economists call this “crowding out”, when excessive spending and borrowing push up interest rates and displace private-sector activity.
A bigger state means smaller opportunity.
Under my leadership, the vision of Conservatives in government is for a state that does less, but does it well.
And does it well by letting families, firms and communities do more.
The second value is responsibility and the dignity of work.
In the Parable of the Talents, a master rewards servants who wisely use and grow what they are given and condemns the one who does nothing with his gift.
For a very, very long time, I never understood why that last servant was condemned.
I just thought: Well, he didn’t do anything wrong.
Why not just leave him alone?
Now, having been in government for five years, I understand why it is important to make sure that people work, that people are productive.
That parable is a reminder that success is a product of work and risk-taking.
St Paul, in the First Epistle to Timothy, proclaims that: “Anyone who does not provide for his own household… is worse than an unbeliever.”
Those are strong words.
This is the Christian recognition that we all have duties to ourselves, to our families, and to the communities we are part of.
Conservatives believe in making work pay, in rewarding risk, in ensuring effort matches reward.
We also believe a welfare system should be a trampoline, not a trap, cushioning the fall, then propelling you back on your feet.
That is not only economically sensible; it is morally right.
Helping people into work, backing apprenticeships, cutting the taxes that punish jobs and enterprise, these are ways of affirming human dignity, not denying it.
When Jesus tells his followers: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few…” it is a call to mobilise, to step forward, to serve.
Britain has talent and potential in every town.
Our task is to remove the barriers that keep people idle when there is work to be done.
High energy costs that shut factories.
Skills mismatches that keep young people out of good jobs.
Perverse incentives that make welfare pay more than wages.
We will get Britain working again, because work is good for the soul as well as the economy.
Then the third value: compassion through community.
The Christian story teaches that love of neighbour is lived close to home, in families who care, in churches that organise, in volunteers who give up their time without asking for reward.
Yes, the state matters.
No decent society abandons those with severe needs.
But a healthy society equips people to care for themselves.
If one in four now self-report as disabled, we have to be honest: welfare must be reformed so help reaches those with serious conditions, while we support others to recover and return to work.
This is not about stigmatising anyone.
It is about fairness, because we need the vulnerable not to be failed by a system that has lost its way.
And it is about empowering the people and institutions that know individuals best, families, local charities, faith groups and employers willing to offer a hand up, not a government giving a handout.
This is where Wilberforce inspires us.
He did not wait for fashionable opinion to give him permission to fight against the slave trade.
He built alliances across civil society.
He deployed secular as well as religious arguments.
He understood that moral renewal and practical reform go together, faith rousing action, action vindicating faith.
His campaign against the slave trade combined compassion and courage.
He was patient, persistent, practical, rooted in truth.
Today, we need that same spirit, not grandstanding, not performative politics.
We need the work of rebuilding, serious, detailed work, with a plan to make our country stronger.
But we have to ask ourselves: what does this mean in practice?
Under our Golden Economic Rule, Conservatives will ensure at least half of the £47 billion of savings we have identified from government spending will go towards reducing the debt burden for our children and grandchildren.
The rest of those savings will fund priorities that help people stand on their own two feet, cheaper energy, lower taxes and the skills that turn potential into prosperity.
We will reform welfare so that those who can work, do work, and those who cannot are cared for.
We will double the apprenticeships budget.
We will back small businesses by abolishing business rates for pubs, cafés, shops.
Reward will match effort again.
We will make it easier to save for a rainy day, something many families are no longer able to do.
And we will make it easier for employers, including charities, social enterprises and local businesses, to serve the vulnerable without drowning in red tape, by overturning the Government’s Employment Rights Bill.
We will ensure the state prioritises severe need, with assessments rooted in proper evidence, because compassion is not measured by how much we spend.
It is measured by how well we help those who really need it.
I believe family is the first and best source of welfare.
Government should respect that, not replace it.
Some will say this sounds old-fashioned.
I say that these values have stood the test of time.
Stewardship, work, family, responsibility, these are not relics.
They are the rails on which a good society runs.
They free us from drift and decline.
They call us to excel in all we do.
They rescue politics from the pretence that every problem can be solved by writing another cheque.
The influence of Christianity on Conservative thinking is not about imposing belief.
It is about recognising that Britain flourished most when it took seriously the virtues Christianity helped embed.
It is our history, it is our tradition, it is our inheritance.
We must not disavow Christianity.
Duty before entitlement.
Truth over convenience.
Love of neighbour, expressed in the service of others.
Mercy with justice.
These ideas are never easy to live up to, and we have fallen short at times.
But if we are honest about what went wrong and brave about what must change, we can rebuild trust.
And it is time for Conservatives to rebuild trust with the public.
We must show that fiscal responsibility is respect.
No other party says this.
No other party will do it.
We must show that welfare reform is human dignity.
That strengthening families and communities is the surest path to compassion that lasts.
So this is the core of what I want you to leave here with tonight, the Conservative plan for renewal.
A stronger economy because we live within our means.
A fairer society because we make work pay and match support to genuine need.
And a more hopeful country because families, churches and volunteers are trusted to do what they do best.
Wilberforce did not chase applause.
He pursued truth.
That is our task too, to tell the truth, take the tough decisions, and put our country back on the right path.
The harvest is plentiful in Britain.
The labourers must no longer be few.
So let us be good stewards of what we have inherited.
And let us build a nation where our children inherit opportunities, not liabilities.
A Britain shaped not by what is fashionable, but by what is right.
And made stronger for it.
Thank you.
