You would have to have a heart of stone if you did not wish Mrs May well this week as she faced the toughest speech of her political career. Fresh in her mind must have been the nightmare of last year’s speech when she all but lost her voice and a so-called comedian broke through security to hand her a fake P45. This year’s speech was another illustration of her incredible fortitude and resilience. It was a first class, well-honed, comprehensive, confidently delivered speech that fully justified her standing ovation. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister left the Conference in a much stronger position than she had been on the day she arrived.
From the moment she danced on the stage to Abba’s Dancing Queen, the Prime Minister conveyed a message of confidence and hope. She told the Conference that “our best days lie ahead of us, don’t let anyone tell you we don’t have what it takes”. Mrs May promised the Conference that the days of austerity are over and that we can look forward, once again, to increased spending on public services. Her main message, though, was a plea for Party unity with a stark warning that, if we continue to go off in different directions in pursuit of the perfect Brexit, we run the risk of it never happening at all.
The tone was set by a brilliant barnstorming speech, one of the best I have ever heard at Conference, by the new Attorney General, the Rt Hon Geoffrey Cox QC MP. Mr Cox, in a sonorous style that was reminiscent of Churchill, was clear that “at 11pm on 29th March 2019 we will leave the European Union and soon, thereafter, in an extraordinary moment in our history the EU institutions will no longer have the right to make laws for our country and that power will belong exclusively to the sovereign parliament of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and that is a precious prize”. He said that he had accepted his job in Government because “it will take a dogged, singled-minded, clarity and firmness of purpose to translate that into reality and it is clear to me that the Prime Minister will not flinch from her duty and the central mission that this country has set us on”. He called on the Party to unite behind the Prime Minister because he said that “since the 17th century a special gift of the British people has been the ability to find compromise and constitutional arrangements that may not possess the ideal and theoretical purity - but will work’’. It is impossible to recreate on paper the rousing nature of this extraordinary speech delivered in his booming clear voice so I would urge you to watch it here in full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y__GkNPKqeQ
In Mrs May’s very excellent speech the Prime Minister made several policy announcements promising that the Chancellor will freeze fuel duty again in the Budget later this month; that there will be £394 million every week to fund a long-term plan for the NHS including a new cancer strategy, which will speed up diagnosis and save lives and a pledge to scrap the cap on how much local authorities can borrow against their assets to fund new developments and deliver the thousands of new houses that this country badly needs.
I have supported the Prime Minister throughout these challenging months when she has had to steer a path through the divisions in her own Party and the determination of EU negotiators to make it as difficult as possible for the UK to leave. Listening to her speech was a reminder, if ever one was needed, as to why I have given Mrs May my full support. Once again, she showed that she is a courageous and determined leader. She is absolutely right that, if we are to honour the wishes of the British people and deliver Brexit, look forward to the bright future which is just around the corner, be a party for the whole country motivated by our enduring Conservative principles of security, freedom and opportunity, then we must come together. As the PM succinctly said, the Conservatives are a party not for the few, not even for the many, but for everyone who is willing to work hard and do their best. If you haven’t seen it already I would recommend you watch her speech here in full https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFpYYZjj4I8
If we do not find a way to put aside our differences we could easily end up with another referendum or the so called “People’s Vote” which overturns the first result leaving us tied to the EU for ever. Or, even worse, we could end up with a general election which could usher in a Corbyn Government, where all we can look forward to is crippling taxes, a trillion-pound spending spree, a flight of private sector business and investment and a ruined economy that would catastrophically damage jobs, opportunities, businesses and public services for generations to come.