Opening Conference today, the President of the National Convention and Conference Chairman Stewart Harper said:
Ladies and Gentlemen
Welcome to Manchester.
Welcome to the Conservative Party Conference.
We meet just a few days on from an horrific terrorist attack on the Jewish community in this city, on the most solemn day in the Hebrew calendar.
We stand united with the congregation of the Heaton Park Synagogue, as we condemn this vile and heinous crime.
We stand in solidarity with those who suffer and mourn.
And we commend those who put themselves in harm’s way to prevent an even greater tragedy.
Terrorism can never be allowed to win.
50 years ago: our country was in turmoil. Having lost a General Election the year before, the Conservatives had been replaced by a socialist agenda of managed decline.
By a government that didn’t believe in Britain or the British people
That put this country at the mercy of their union paymasters, at the expense of the economy and of prosperity.
By a government who came to power offering steady leadership and competence, soon exposed for being out of steam and out of control.
I wonder does that sound familiar?
50 years before that, exactly 100 years ago next week, the birth was recorded in Grantham, Lincolnshire of a Margaret Roberts.
And in 1975 that woman became our Party Leader.
She transformed our Party.
She went onto transform our country.
She took Britain from being a country of decline, to one of prosperity
So Conference, this week, we celebrate the life of Margaret Thatcher.
We remember all that she achieved.
And we refocus ourselves in doing what the Iron Lady did so well - rebuilding our Party and our movement, to rescue Britain again from a shambolic Labour government.
Now, we are Conservatives for a reason. We know what we stand for. And as a united Party, we can make our case to the British people once again. Just like Mrs Thatcher did.
A coherent case based on sound conservative values.
Built around a leader with vision and determination.
But I’ve been told in the run up to chairing this year’s conference, how hard it is going to be.
How demotivated people are.
And yes, it’s tough to be in opposition – to see the mess that Labour are making of our country. And to see all the things we said would happen come to pass.
But in the bar last night, before Conference had even started, there remained that sense of motivation to make things better.
So, Conference - it is up to each and everyone of us in Manchester this week to prove the doubters wrong.
This is our chance.
This week, we have to recommit to our Party.
We have to recommit to driving change.
We have to recommit to positive conservative values. And delivering them through solid conservative policies.
So, as Conference begins I want to pay tribute to Leisa Griffin, Ellie Taylor, Jason Beresford, Craig Conley, Gabrielle Shackleton, and Richard N Jackson for the hard work they have put in to delivering this event. And to the teams from across CCHQ and from Paragon and Blueway who deliver much of the logistics. I also want to thank the Greater Manchester police, ambulance and fire services, G4S who are working hard to keep us safe, and so many teams from across Manchester and beyond who have been working for nearly a year on all that this week entails. To all of you – thank you.
And I also want to pay tribute my predecessor, Michael Winstanley, for his resilience and tenacity in creating a Conference together that I know will offer the most engagement for members in many years.
Conference, the opportunities are there for you.
This is our party, this is our conference.
So from now until Wednesday lunchtime, please don’t waste a single moment. Get engaged in as much as you can. Take the opportunities. And shape our collective future.
Take part in the member debates on this stage on free speech, on housing, and on regulation.
Come and vote on members’ prospective backbench bills.
Visit the exhibition.
Put your questions to shadow ministers.
Join the fringe.
Add your selfie to the Maggie Mosaic.
Try your hand at Labour’s Circus of Despair
Build your networks.
Last year our Conference in Birmingham was fantastic, and this year’s will be too – although, perhaps, with a little less merchandise from leadership contenders!
Put it simply– it’s time to MAKE CONFERENCE GREAT AGAIN.
Over the last year, as the members’ representatives on the Party Board, myself and my National Convention colleagues have played our part in reforming some of the structures and processes of the Party.
Improving our technology.
Looking at ways to enhance our membership offer.
Encouraging real conservative policies.
And driving forward campaigning activities, and the training available to you.
We certainly don’t accept defeat. And nor should you.
Because the country cannot afford for us to give up.
Just look at the alternatives and you see why it is so important.
A Labour government that sells off British territory, sells out British farmers, bails out its Union paymasters, and checks out of credibility.
Led by a Prime Minister so weak he had to hope his errant Deputy resigned, because he lacked the bottle to sack her. Who lost his Transport Secretary after she admitted fraudulent behaviour. Whose Chancellor overstated her experience in her CV. And whose homelessness minister resigned for the way she evicted her tenants.
His father may have been a toolmaker, but Keir Starmer can’t even fix his own cabinet.
The Liberal Democrats are no better.
A party of gimmicks and stunts. Of marching bands, half-truths and of no convictions.
Who take the credit for the work of others locally, and when things get difficult are nowhere to be seen.
And then we have Reform.
Now if anyone in this room is left with any illusions let us be clear.
Reform are NOT a conservative party. They are a big-state, big-spend party.
And they’ll put up your taxes to pay for it.
They offer simple answers to complex problems, and none of them work.
A party that is all about the ego of one man. A man with more front than Clacton-on-Sea. Who doesn’t even remember who bought the house in his constituency he claims to live in.
It’s our job to show them up for the sham that they really are.
So we know we have a job to do.
But, Conference, Kemi Badenoch and her Shadow Cabinet cannot do that alone.
It needs each and every one of us in this room to play our part.
We have to be out on the doorsteps, as often as we can. Not waiting until the elections come around again.
Because the evidence is clear – those that knock on doors win elections.
And we are already winning back seats from Reform, seats that they have only held since May this year. With Jeremy Pert in Staffordshire, and Keith Girling in Nottinghamshire, we are showing that as soon as Reform are tested, they are found wanting.
They don’t know how to govern.
And Britain cannot afford to give them the chance to work it out as they go along.
What we need to do is not rocket science, but it is hard work. And this week’s conference is about recommitting to that hard work and renewal.
We know the heart of our party is its members. And it always will be.
We believe in our Party, so we must fight for it.
We believe in this country, so we have to fight for it.
We believe in the British people, so we will fight for them.
Conference, THIS is our chance.
When we make sure we are part of that renewal, together.
Conference, make the most of the opportunities this week has to offer. Every moment between now and Wednesday lunchtime should be full of spirit.
Then when it is over, we get out, we deliver, and we win again.
We've done it before, we'll do it again. Because we believe in Britain.
Thank You.
Watch Stewart's opening remarks at Conservative Party Conference below. 👇
After Stewart, the Chairman of the Conservative Party Kevin Hollinrake gave his welcome speech to delegates.
Welcome to Manchester. A storied Northern City, a city so full of history, industry, sport, and sadly the scene of two tragic bombings.
Now, we are also horrified by the vile terrorist attack on Thursday morning – on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Our thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives and with the entire community.
Antisemitism is a stain on our nation’s soul.
We stand in grief and solidarity with the Jewish community.
Can I ask everyone to join me in a minute’s silence in their memory?
There is plenty of banter between Yorkshire and Lancashire, but you cannot walk through this great old beautiful City – even as a Yorkshireman – without admiring it.
Take the time during conference to look up, above the shops and bars and see the beauty of this wonderful City.
Our Northern towns and cities gave our country so much – our cotton, wool and steel industries powered the country and it’s great to see the Conservative Party gathering here.
Can I thank you, Stewart, for that brilliant introduction and for all you and the National Convention do on our behalf.
And thank you to all of you, the councillors, the members, the volunteers, the supporters. You are the backbone of the most successful and long-standing democratic party in the world.
It is an honour to serve as your Party Chairman. You do the hard yards, you knock on doors, you deliver leaflets, you persuade neighbours, friends and strangers alike.
You make the difference.
Without you, there is no Conservative Party. No Conservative Victory.
Now, I’m not a career politician,
I used to be an estate agent.
I’m the only person who has entered parliament and improved his social standing.
Can I just take you back to those days – 1992. Black Wednesday had shaken the economy. Two months after I had started by business.
At that point we hadn’t even sold a single house. Not even listed a single house.
Then our big chance came, the phone rang, and Mrs Clark asked me to go round and value her home.
I arrived the next morning. Unfortunately, twenty minutes late. She wasn’t very happy.
I’m sorry I’m cancelling the appointment. We shouldn’t be late for appointments.
A little bit of fast talking on the doorstop. She agreed to give me another chance.
I was looking for an icebreaker.
A set of golf clubs, or a book on a bookshelf.
And my eyes settled on a painting over the mantlepiece. It was a painting of a gentleman, in a big black cloak with a big black hat. An old oil painting, guilt frame.
I said to Mrs Clark, that’s a beautiful oil painting.
She said thank you very much, she said that’s a family heirloom.
I got a bit closer. I said the gentleman in that painting looks just like Anthony Hopkins.
She said that is my great grandmother.
Okay, no we didn’t get the house on the market.
But from that rocky beginning with 2 people, we built a national network. Hunters into a national network, of over 200 branches, 1,000 employees. Things were going pretty well.
But calm seas never made for great sailors. 2008 happened. Everything fell apart. The financial crash almost destroyed us.
Our finance director even booked a meeting with the administrators. But we refused to take that route.
Much as I am proud of the business we built, floated on AIM and eventually sold in 2021, what I’m proudest of is surviving the massive market shock we lived through.
In the darkest of business times, we fought, we rebuilt, and we thrived.
We could have cut and run, chosen an easier path, left it all behind, or joined a rival business.
Some people do that when times are tough.
Everyone would have said quitting would have been the right thing to do, the easy thing to do, yet we held our nerve, rebuilt our business and rebuilt our brand.
What really saved us? Resilience.
And resilience is exactly what our country, and our Party needs now.
My resilience, of course, came from my parents.
Dad, a hard-working Yorkshire farmer and milkman.
Mum, from Salford, a social worker who helped offenders leaving prison.
Despite the obvious challenges, she was successful.
She had a simple, unique and controversial formula – no drink, no drugs, no nonsense.
It was tough love.
When we were kids, we also felt the tough love.
If we ever felt sorry for ourselves, we were told, quite simply,
“Plenty worse off than you”.
Tough Love – that’s what builds resilience.
This party and this country, both need some tough love right now.
Memories are very short in our world, you know, we actually achieved some great things in government.
We balanced the books for day-to-day spending after 2010, we delivered Brexit, we protected jobs and businesses through Covid; and we kept Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street.
He would have been a disaster for this country.
But let’s be honest, despite the good we did, at times we made mistakes.
At times, we were too soft.
We forgot about tough love.
We were too eager to please, too eager to please everyone.
In politics, you can’t please all the people all of the time, and I’is a mistake to even try.
Look at the country today. We are led by a weak Prime Minister who blames everyone but himself for his failures.
The economic doldrums we are experiencing, the limbo we are in today, they are purely down to him.
He and his team have crashed business confidence.
According to the Institute of Directors, this was plus 5 in July 2024 – today it is minus 74 – its the biggest drop ever recorded, and the lowest level ever recorded. Even worse than Covid.
Business people, the risk takers are the engines of growth and the creators of jobs and opportunities in this country.
“The strong horse the pulls the whole cart” as Churchill called them.
They understand that taxing your way to prosperity simply does not work.
On tax and spending – particularly welfare spending – we are the only party; still right of centre, still right on the economy, and still right for Britain, you can’t build a strong country on borrowed money.
In Yorkshire, we know you must live within your means, you must not waste what you’ve earned, and you always look after public money as if it were your own.
On her hundredth-year anniversary, Mrs Thatcher would be proud, that her party is the only one who understands that we are spending other people’s money.
So, the choice is clear: weakness and moonshine with them, or truth, responsibility and resilience with us.
Only a Conservative Party and a Conservative Leader will deliver.
Stronger borders – immigration under control, illegal migrants and foreign offenders deported.
A Stronger Economy – living within our means.
A Stronger Britain – tackling crime, anti-social behaviour, rough sleeping, communities living separate lives.
A welfare system that protects the vulnerable, but insists that those who can work, do work.
Kemi Badenoch – a leader who embodies Conservative values – is the only leader that will do all this.
Kemi has heard “no you can’t” all her life – and turned it into “watch me.” That is resilience in action.
Kemi is a fighter.
When I was Post Office Minister, she fought for me and the Postmasters in Cabinet to secure the billions now paid out to victims of the Horizon Scandal and the historic quashing of 700 convictions.
Only Kemi will offer this country the courage, conviction, and tough love it needs.
But she can only do this as a team.
It starts with us.
Everything, every one of us does.
Every conversation, we have with our customers, the voters.
Every post. Every leaflet. Every vote. Every single one matters. Together, we can and will rebuild.
Resilience and a determined team saved my business.
Resilience and a determined team will rebuild our country.
What Britain needs now is a strong, tough, authentic, Conservative government.
What Britain needs now is Kemi.
Thank you.”
Watch Kevin Hollinrake's opening remarks to Conference below 👇
