Rishi Sunak's full speech: “It's time for change. And this is us'

The Prime Minister also announced plans to combine A-levels and T-levels into a new single qualification. Photo: Holly Adams/Bloomberg

Rishi Sunak abandoned the northern section of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester in his first Conservative conference speech as leader.

The Prime Minister has also pledged to use the £36 billion in savings to fund hundreds of other transport projects.

“I say to those who supported the project in the first place: the facts have changed. And the right decision when facts change is to have the courage to change direction,” he said.

“I am ending this long-running saga. I'm canceling the rest of the HS2 project and instead we will reinvest every penny, £36 billion, into hundreds of new transport projects in the North and Midlands across the country.

Mr Sunak also set out a plan to effectively smoking ban. He proposed raising the smoking age by one year every year, meaning that today a 14-year-old would never be able to legally sell cigarettes.

He also announced that he would combine A and T levels into one level. a new single qualification to be called Advanced British Standard.

Read the Prime Minister's full speech below:

Thank you, Akshata, for this introduction, and thank you for always being there for me.

My wife: Truly the best long term decision I have ever made for a brighter future.

I have been lucky in my life. I have a wonderful wife and two daughters who make me proud every single day.

I was also lucky enough to grow up in the most loving family.

My father was a physician and my mother a pharmacist — I know you need less mention than last summer.

In many ways, without them, I would not be standing here before you today. They were and remain my inspiration. Thank you mom, thank you dad.

Like many of us in this room, they understood the importance of community and made sure that I did too.

They did not believe that the community was an extension of the government. Rather, they understood that community is sustained by individuals, those who care about their neighbors and treat others as they would like to be treated.

They understood the fundamental importance of service.

Seeing how they changed people's lives made me want to get involved in politics.

My mother opened her own pharmacy. It was a real family business. We all contributed; As a teenager, I helped deliver recipes and design books.

There I realized how important it is to be able to fulfill my obligations and keep my promises.

My parents have been retired for a long time. But Sunak's Pharmacy left me with an indelible respect for every small family business.

This Conservative Party, the party of the grocer's daughter and the pharmacist's son, will always be the party of enterprise, the party of small business.

I have been Prime Minister for almost a year now. During this time we have achieved good results.

We've made progress on our five priorities: cut inflation in half, grow the economy, cut debt, cut queues and stop boats.

But today I want to share with you my reflections on what I've seen and learned while doing this job.

I have seen first-hand the quality of our Armed Forces and intelligence services. Truly the best in the world. We owe it to them to make this a better place for veterans.

I know we will succeed because we have a Secretary of Veterans Affairs in our Cabinet.

Johnny served in Afghanistan; It's personal for him. He stood alongside his fellow soldiers in battle and now he will ensure that it is this Conservative Government that will make our country fit for our heroes.

We supported our army with record investments. Working with Ben, an outstanding Secretary of Defense, we are ensuring a sustainable defense budget framework.

Grant will now ensure that our flagship Aukus submarine alliance with Australia and the United States will keep the world safe for decades to come. come and create jobs here at home.

And, thanks to our leading role in NATO, we remain a bastion of European security.

All this demonstrates the global reach and influence of this country, and also about our determination to make long-term decisions in the national interest.

On the contrary, just remember that not once, but twice, the Labor Party tried to make prime minister a man who did not believe in NATO, who would abandon our nuclear deterrent, and who blames Britain for all our problems.

Sir Keir Starmer might want us to forget his repeated support for Jeremy Corbyn, but we never will.

Labour can never be trusted to keep our country safe.

I am proud to say that we lead the world in providing support for Ukraine. We were the first country to send Western battle tanks to Kyiv, and now more than ten others have followed.

We were the first country to send long-range weapons to Kyiv, now followed by France and the United States.

We were the first country to agree to train Ukrainian pilots, now more than a dozen others have followed.

I say this to our allies, if we give President Zelensky the tools, the Ukrainians will get it done. end. Glory to Ukraine.

In doing this work, I meet and interact with inspiring men and women across our country. You see that our greatest strength, our most powerful resource, our greatest hope is our people.

But I realized that there is an undeniable feeling that politics simply does not work the way it should. . The feeling is that Westminster is a broken system, the same goes for Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont.

It's not anger, it's fatigue with politics. In particular, politicians say something, and then nothing changes.

And you know what: the people are right. Politics don't work the way they should.

We have had a political system for thirty years that rewards easy solutions rather than good ones. Thirty years of vested interests stood in the way of change. Thirty years of rhetorical ambition that only resulted in a short-term headline.

And why? Because our political system is too focused on short-term gain rather than long-term success.

Politicians have spent more time campaigning for change than implementing it.

It shouldn't be like this. I won't do that.

The conference, our mission is to fundamentally change our country.

The Labor Party has set itself the task of doing and saying as little as possible and hoping that no one notices. They want to take people's votes for granted and continue to do politics the same way. This is a bet on people's apathy. This does not speak of any higher purpose or bright future. It's about power for power's sake. In short, this is everything that is wrong with our politics.

So, if this country wants to change, then only we can make it happen.

Because if we don't, our growth will slow down. Even more places will be left behind. And we will spend more and more time discussing secondary problems and symptoms rather than focusing on the deeper, more structural problems we face. We will not allow this.

So, if the consensus is wrong, we will challenge it. If self-interest puts itself above the needs of the people, we will stop it. And where common sense is attacked by organized attack, we will defend it.

Today I will tell you how we will achieve this. Let's start with a set of long-term solutions to build a brighter future for our children and fundamentally change our country.

At the conference, you can already see my approach in the course I have outlined on net zero. We conservatives love our natural world. We are committed to being good stewards of this process.

In my own constituency, the beauty of the North York Moors, Swaledale and Wensleydale makes it home.

We Conservatives also value candor and agreement. We believe that politicians have a responsibility to respect family budgets, and that these changes will only last if we bring the people with us.

As you may have noticed from the reaction to my decision to chart a new course towards To be honest, this was not the simplest argument.

But when I looked at the reality of what people were being asked to do — people had to pay thousands of pounds, all of which, by the way, fell disproportionately on the poorest people in society, and none of this was necessary at the time. We have concluded that this is simply not right.

I have therefore decided to take a pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to achieving net zero. zero.

And I will not lecture other countries who have done much less than we have, or those for whom spending thousands of pounds means nothing.

Change is difficult, especially for those who disagree. But remember this: we will still meet our international obligations, we will still meet our domestic goals and we will still achieve net zero by 2050.

We have solved the problem and offered an unapologetic defense of good conservatives . common sense.

As for the country, I promise all of you in this room. Just like last summer: I’ll tell you how it is. I will lead differently. Because this is the only way to bring about the kind of change in our politics and in our country that we all desperately want to see.

Now I have come to power in difficult circumstances and I don’t want to waste time discussing the past because it is important the future.

Facts are facts. You can't borrow money to get out of inflation. And if we want fundamental change in our country, we need a strong economy as a foundation.

That's why cutting inflation in half was the first and most important of the five priorities I set at the beginning of the year. Everything we want to achieve requires bringing inflation under control.

“Inflation is the biggest destroyer of everything: industry, jobs, savings and society.

“There is no politician who puts jeopardizing defeating inflation — regardless of its short-term appeal — may be right.”

These are not my words, but the words of Margaret Thatcher: they are as true now as they were then.< /p>

I know you want tax cuts, I want it too — and we will make it happen. But the best tax cut we can offer people right now is to halve inflation and lower the cost of living.

And when inflation is under control, reducing our debt will become easier, and as debt falls, there will be confidence grow. and as trust grows, so will our economy.

We need our economy to grow faster and people across the country to feel the benefits. Like other Western economies, we haven't grown fast enough in recent years.

But don't let Labor and others criticize our country. We now know that we have had one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic of any major economy in Europe.

Since leaving the single market, we have grown faster than France and Germany. Not despite Brexit, but because of Brexit.

We have the largest industries in life sciences, financial services, creative arts and technology across Europe. And we have almost a record number of people who are confident in their work.

And if we want to continue to grow, we need to create an environment where businesses can drive growth, and that's what we're doing.

We continue to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G7. And thanks to the Chancellor's business tax cuts, we're the best place to invest in the machinery and equipment you need to grow your business.

Innovation drives growth in modern economies, which is why we also have the most generous tax regime for research and development in the G7.

And our post-Brexit freedoms make us even more competitive. From financial services to clinical trials to agriculture, we are creating a more responsive regulatory system, freeing up businesses to drive the growth our country needs.

The fact that we are now in control of our own trade policy is why we could be the first European country to join the £11 trillion Pacific Trade Agreement, which links us to the world's fastest growing region and opens up new markets for our farmers and great British produce.

We have new free ports from the Firth of Forth to the Solent, ensuring the benefits of trade and investment are spread across our country.

And thank you Kemi for cutting red tape in Brussels and saving small businesses a billion pounds a year.

Brexit wasn't just a vote to leave the EU: it was a vote for change, to become something more. It was a statement of our belief that Great Britain could begin a new history that would touch every part of our country and all its people.

We must continue to push to take back control, because if we don't, our opponents will try to undo this change. To unite us with the European Union so that we never use up all the possibilities of Brexit.

We know where Keir Starmer's heart lies on this issue — and we know he can't be trusted on this issue either. < /p>

First, he said that he would respect the results of the referendum. Then he wanted to hold a second referendum. Then he wanted free movement. He didn't do it then. He said he wouldn't try to renegotiate our deal. Then he said he would.

And then, just two weeks ago, he was filmed telling a meeting of international politicians that he now just wants to follow all EU rules. The irony is not lost on me.

While we're busy thinking about the future of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer is just chatting about Europe. You simply cannot know what you will get with him.

The only thing that is certain is that it will not be what he promises you.

But the worst thing about Sir Keir is that he simply says what he thinks will benefit him the most. It doesn't matter if he can get it across, it doesn't matter if it's true, it doesn't matter if he said otherwise just a few weeks or months ago. He is the walking definition of the thirty-year political status quo that I am here to end.

That is why we must defeat him — and the Conference is why we will do it!

If we If we want to create change and drive growth throughout our country, we need to get our infrastructure right.

The false belief has taken root that all that matters is the connections between our larger metropolitan areas. This consensus said that the revival of our national economy should be driven by cities, not anyone else.

It said that the most important connection these cities could have was with London, not elsewhere. And it said that the only connections that mattered were north-south, not east-west.

But what we really need is improved transport links in the North. A new Northern Network that will connect our great cities in the North and the Midlands.

I wanted to come here to Manchester today to say that this will be our priority, our goal, our project. .

HS2 is a prime example of the old consensus. The result is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been repeatedly delayed and is not scheduled to be achieved here in Manchester for almost two decades, and whose business case has been significantly weakened by changes in business travel post-Covid.

I say to those who supported the project in the first place: the facts have changed. And the right decision when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.

So I end this long saga. I am canceling the rest of the HS2 project. Instead, we are reinvesting every penny — £36 billion — into hundreds of new transport projects in the North and Midlands, and across the country.

This means £36 billion of investment in projects that will make a real difference in our country.

As a result of the decision we make today, every region outside London will receive the same or more public funds. investment than they would have made under HS2, with faster results.

No government has ever developed a more ambitious northern transport scheme than our new Network North.

This is the right way. to drive growth and spread opportunity across our country. To level up.

With our new North network, you can travel from Manchester to the new Bradford station in 30 minutes, Sheffield in 42 minutes and Hull in 84 minutes on a fully electrified line.

DON Don't worry. Eat more. We will protect the £12 billion dedicated to connecting Manchester and Liverpool as planned and will work with local leaders to discuss how best to deliver the scheme.

We will build a Midlands rail hub, connecting 50 stations. We will help Andy Street expand the West Midlands Metro. We will build a tram in Leeds, electrify the North Wales Main Line, modernize the A1, A2, A5, M6.

That's not all. There is a lot more. And we will connect our Union to the A75, strengthening links between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

We will fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and 70 other road projects. We will repair roads throughout the country. We will bring back the Don Valley Line. We will upgrade the energy line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow, build hundreds of other schemes and keep bus fares at £2 across the country.

I challenge anyone to tell me that with a straight face. that all this is not what the North really needs.

Our plan will create far more growth and opportunity here in the North than a faster train to London could ever provide.

As John Stevenson and Ben Houchen have long argued, east-west links more important than the north-south links.

Given how far along the construction is, we will complete the line from Birmingham to Euston. And yes, HS2 trains will still run from here to Manchester. And travel time between Manchester, Birmingham and London will be reduced by 30 minutes.

And I say this to Andy Street, a man I admire and respect. I know we have different views on HS2. . But I also know that we can work together to deliver a faster, stronger train service: faster trains and more capacity between Birmingham and Manchester.

HS2 management will no longer be responsible for the Euston site . There must be some responsibility for the mistakes made and for the poor management of this project.

Instead, we will create a new Euston development area, delivering thousands of new homes for the next generation of homeowners, new business opportunities and a station that provides the power we need.

And in doing so, for the first time in the life cycle of this project, we will reduce expenses. The £6.5 billion in savings that Mark and I make will be taken from the Euston site and passed on to the rest of the country.

The decision I made and the position I take will be criticized. They will say that stopping this process shows a lack of ambition. There will be people I respect, people in our party, who will oppose this.

But there is nothing ambitious about just pouring more and more money into the wrong project. There is nothing long-term about ignoring real infrastructure needs in order to spend even more money on one huge project.

They will say that we have already spent so much on this that it will be awkward to stop. However, this would be an absurd reason to continue: abandonment of leadership.

They will say that somehow there is cross-party consensus on the project. As I said, this consensus is wrong.

For too long, people in Westminster have invested in the transport they need, rather than in the transport the rest of the country wants and wants, especially the North and Midlands. needs.

And for those who disagree, who will focus on where I left off, I ask you to consider what we just created with Network North.

An alternative that, instead of one delayed and overloaded project, hundreds and hundreds of new projects will now begin — large and small, road and rail, bus and rail — covering the entire country, which will be implemented faster. As a result, each region will receive more investment than it otherwise would have. You can't have it both ways.

So I respect those who want to disagree with me. But they should be honest about the fact that they will now be canceling hundreds of alternative projects across the country that people will benefit from instead.

Conference, I think our new plan is simply better — 36 billion emergency investment pounds sterling from taxpayers' money. We need to bring this willingness to make the right decision, not the easy decision, into every aspect of our national life.

The National Health Service is important to us all. It is the birthright of every person in this country.

It's the NHS and Social Care staff who have worked day and night to help us get through the pandemic.

Our commitment to making the NHS free at the point of use is unwavering. And this Conservative government is pouring record resources into our NHS, as well as social care.

But we Conservatives know that you measure your attachment to the NHS not just by how much money you put in, but by how much money you put in. How will you reform it to meet the challenges ahead?

I know that waiting lists are the most pressing concern for patients right now. Just like in Scotland and Wales, they have increased due to the pandemic. And now strikes have led to the cancellation of more than a million appointments.

Now this is a smart government. We have negotiated and reached pay agreements with over a million NHS workers, including nurses and hospital porters. We have fully complied with the recommendations of independent bodies to review the pay of junior doctors and consultants. We have reduced taxes on their pensions, as they have asked.

Yet they continue to demand massive, unaffordable wage increases. And the fact that they decided to leave this week speaks for itself. This strike is about politics, not patients. These strikes are not in keeping with the spirit of the NHS.

This year we celebrate 75 years of service and one of my ongoing goals as your Prime Minister is to prepare the NHS for the next 75 years.< /p>

True believers in the promise of the NHS want it to reflect the world we live in today. This means better quality services that offer you — the patient — more choice, allowing you to use any provider, independent or NHS, for free if it helps you get treatment faster. The Conservative Government's common sense reform.

Next, Steve and I want to give the NHS the staff it needs. For decades, we haven't trained enough doctors and nurses. As a result, the National Health Service either hires staff from abroad or pays huge fees to temporary agency workers.

And we end with the first-ever long-term workforce plan for our health service. Let me repeat that, the first ever long-term workforce plan.

It says everything about the short-termism of our policies: no government in the last 75 years has planned how many doctors and nurses the NHS will need in the coming decades.

Our plan doubles the number of students studying to become doctors and nurses. But it is also a plan to reform the NHS, with new ways of learning, new roles and new ways of working that improve productivity.

I know vested interests will oppose some of these measures. But we Conservatives must do the right thing and make changes that will enable the NHS to be as productive as the best health systems anywhere in the world. And this is actually a long-term solution.

Considering that it takes up to 15 years to train a consultant, there is no politics in this investment, it is not about a loan. This is about our children and their children, they will get a much better and stronger NHS.

And that's why we are here. That's why we Conservatives do what we do, all over the country, from Whitehall to Town Hall. We are building a better future for the next generation.

But to ease the more fundamental burden of demand on the NHS, we need more preventative care to stop people having to go to hospital in the first place.

We must eliminate the largest, entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability and death – smoking.

In our country, smoking is responsible for one in four cancer deaths. It kills 64,000 people every year and accounts for almost one hospitalization every minute. It significantly increases the risk of strokes, heart disease, dementia and stillbirth.

We have now made great progress in the fight against smoking. The number of people smoking has dropped by two-thirds since the 1970s.

But if we want to do the right thing for our children, we must try to stop teen smoking in the first place.

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Because without significant changes, thousands of children will start smoking in the coming years, and as a result, their lives will be cut short.

People start smoking when they are young. Four out of five smokers started smoking by age 20. Later, the vast majority try to quit smoking. But many fail because they have an addiction and wish they had never gotten into the habit in the first place.

If we could break this vicious cycle, if we could stop it from starting, then we would would be on track to ending the largest cause of preventable death and disease in our country.

So, I propose that in the future we raise the smoking age by one year every year. This means that a 14-year-old today will never be legally sold a cigarette, and that he and his generation can grow up smoke-free.

We know it works. When we raised the smoking age to 18, smoking prevalence in that age group fell by 30 percent. When the age in the US was raised to 21, smoking rates in this age group fell by 39 per cent.

Smoking puts enormous pressure on the NHS and costs our country £17 billion a year.

We have a chance to cut cancer deaths by a quarter, significantly ease this pressure and protect our children, and we must take it.

This is not a value judgment about people who smoke. I don't think it would be fair to take away the right to smoke from anyone who currently does so, and the vote on this issue in parliament will be free, as there was a ban on smoking in public places and raising the smoking age. it was up to 18.

There will be no government whip, this is a matter of conscience. And I want you all and the whole country to know where I am.

For a conservative, measures that limit choice are never easy. I know that not everyone in this room will agree with me. But I thought about this decision for a long time. Simply put: unlike all other legal products, there is no safe smoking level.

And what ultimately convinced me was that none of us, even those who smoke, want our children to grow up as smokers. This change can make that a reality. This will save more lives than any other decision we could make.

And, as any parent or teacher knows, one of the most alarming trends right now is the rise of vaping among children: one in five children has used vapes. We must act before this becomes endemic.

That's why we will also propose measures to limit the availability of vapes to our children. We look at flavors, packaging, displays and disposable vapes.

As Prime Minister, I have a responsibility to do what I believe is right for our country in the long term. And as conservatives, we have never shied away from this responsibility.

We have always been at the forefront of society, leading it. And when we have the tools at our disposal to tackle the biggest cause of preventable disease and death in our country — cutting cancer deaths by a quarter, significantly reducing long-term pressure on our NHS and doing for our children what we At heart, we we know it's right: we must act, we must lead.

Conference, we must put the next generation first. And that's what I will do.

But all the courage in the world will only mean a lot if we fail to similarly address issues of fundamental sovereignty, security and control.

< p >I'm talking, of course, about illegal immigration. The non-negotiable fact is that you, the British people, decide who comes here, not the criminal gangs.

These gangs are running a trade that is killing innocent people, and we have a moral duty to stop it evil — and we will do it.

I never pretended that stopping the boats would be easy. At the time I instructed the government to achieve this goal, the consensus was simple — there was nothing we could do about it. They pointed to four years of growing crosses and said “impossible.”

Well, conference: they were wrong. It's not impossible, and we prove it. This year, the number of small boat crossings fell by 20 percent for the first time since the phenomenon began. All this time, entry into Europe is open.

We are by no means where we want to be. But don't let anyone tell you we're not making progress. We. And we will achieve this.

Our new law will ensure that if you come here illegally, you will be detained and expelled quickly.

I'm sure that as soon as regular flights start flying to Rwanda, the boats will stop coming. Just look at how our return agreement with Albania has reduced the number of arrivals from there by ninety percent. I am confident that our approach is consistent with our international obligations.

But know this: I will do whatever it takes to stop the boats.

Instead, Labour's plan is to reach some kind of deal with the EU under which we could take in around 100,000 European asylum seekers.

If your answer to illegal migration is more, you clearly you just don't understand it.

And that's why we have to stop them. And that's because on this and many other issues, Labor simply does not share our values ​​and the country's values.

My values ​​are simple: service, family, work. I was raised to understand the value of work. Work gives you security, work gives you purpose.

When the pandemic hit, we faced the prospect of 12 million people losing that security and that purpose overnight. And if you quit your job, it can be difficult to return to it.

I was not prepared to throw 12 million people into this darkness. I'm proud that the holidays not only prevented this from happening, but also helped our economy recover faster from the pandemic than France, Germany and Japan.

Never forget the magnitude of what we have done for so many people. In six weeks, we did something we'd never done before: from scratch. I was told it couldn't be done, that it wouldn't work, but I did it.

The holiday was compassionate conservatism in action.

If the holiday was one of the things that got us through Covid , then Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reforms were different. The old system would not have been able to cope with the pressure the way universal credit did.

But we still have a lot to do. We must end the national scandal in which our benefits system declares that more than two million people of working age are effectively unable to do anything. It's not conservative, it's not compassionate, it needs to change.

In 2011, one in five people assessed for work were found unfit for work. However, the latest figure is now 65 percent.

Are people today three times more ill than they were ten years ago? No, of course not.

It's bad for our economy, it's unfair to the taxpayers who have to foot the bill, and it's a tragedy for the two million people who are being written off.

I refuse to accept it, and that's why we're going change the rules so that those who can work, work.

Your values ​​and your priorities must be expressed throughout the public sector. does. Too often this is not the case.

In too many parts of our permanent state, virtue signaling has replaced common sense.

As Suella said, there is no such thing as a minor crime. If the police tolerate crime and anti-social behavior in any form, we will have more crimes of all types.

This is why we now have a record number of police officers and every crime must be investigated. Our streets will be safer, our communities will be safer, and no one should be afraid to walk home alone at night.

Our London mayoral candidate Susan Hall is doing an excellent job of holding Sadiq Khan to account for his policing failings. Londoners, you will be safer with Susan.

And it is clear to me: there are crimes so heinous that those who commit them should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

So , I can confirm that we will pass legislation making sexual and sadistic murders punishable by a full life sentence with no prospect of release.

We are going to change this country, and that means life is life. This should not be a controversial position. The vast majority of hardworking people agree with this.

It should also not be controversial that parents know what their children are taught in school about relationships.

Patients should know when hospitals say about men or women. And we shouldn't be bullied into believing that people can be whatever gender they want. They can not; a man is a man and a woman is a woman. It's just common sense.

We should also never be afraid to talk about what matters most to most of us: family.

Every time you want to talk about family, someone whispers: “Is this a wise prime minister?” You will be accused of promoting a one-size-fits-all view.

But in this Conservative Party that has passed gay marriage legislation and is investing record amounts in child care, we know that what matters is that love is passed on from generation to generation.

Family takes care of us early in life, family helps us learn, family supports us, and in old age it is family that lights up the autumn of our days.

Family matters, and as proud conservatives, we should never be afraid this is to say.

And there is another family that is important to all of us, our family of nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.< /p>

Today our Union is the strongest in a quarter of a century . The forces of separatism are retreating throughout our country.

Nicola Sturgeon wanted to go down in the history books as the woman who destroyed our country, but now it looks like she may go down in history for very different reasons.

We are a remarkable combination of four nations with a proud history, and this history should give us great confidence in our future.

My grandparents emigrated not only to Leicester or Southampton, but also to the United Kingdom. They came here because our country stands for a number of values.

We are the home of fair play, the best in the UK. We are a place for those who want to contribute to our national history.

The United Kingdom has done a huge amount for my family. I often think about how different our lives would have been if my grandparents had not left India and East Africa many years ago.

I owe everything to our country. And it is my duty to do everything I can to help this country make the right long-term decisions for the years ahead.

This United Kingdom is also the most successful multi-ethnic democracy on earth. And our party is leading the way.

We had our first ethnic minority prime minister when Queen Victoria was still on the throne, we had three female prime ministers, and I stand before you today as the first non-white leader in our country's history.

Meanwhile, the last three leaders of the Labor Party all live within one square mile of North London.

When the Richmond Conservative Association elected me in North Yorkshire, people in other countries couldn't understand it.

One American magazine even sent a reporter to Yorkshire to write about how «a candidate of the wrong race [can] cost the Tories one of the safest seats in England?

But they shouldn't have made their own plans. prejudices against our country. The people of North Yorkshire were not interested in my skin color, but in my character.

Never let anyone tell you this is a racist country. This is not true.

My story is British history. The story of how a family went from coming here with little money to Downing Street in three generations.

What does the Conservative Party offer to an immigrant family? A chance to become Minister of Energy, Minister of Business, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Even a chance to become prime minister.

When I first became an MP, my grandfather came to parliament to visit me. As we stood in Westminster Hall, on the floor where Disraeli and Churchill had walked so many times, my grandfather took out his mobile phone and made a quick call.

I was a new MP and wasn’t quite sure whether phones were allowed there or not. I thought, “Nanaji, can’t we just wait a minute?”

He replied that he was calling the hostess who was with him when he first came to this country. He told me, “I just wanted to tell her where I stand.”

I'm proud to be Britain's first Asian Prime Minister, but you know I'm even prouder that I'm not. big deal. And remember: the Conservative Party did this, not the Labor Party.

If we want to change the direction of our country and build a better future, nothing is more important than making our education system the best it can be.

When our party came to power in 2010, our schools were sliding down the international league table. Now they are growing rapidly.

Of what we have done in government since 2010, I am most proud of our achievements in education.

With Michael and Nick Gibb, we have embraced a failed ideology. We have returned the proper knowledge. We have empowered reformers. We gave parents more choice and helped them hold schools accountable.

But perhaps the most important thing we did was challenge the idea that there is anything predetermined about who will succeed and who will win. 't.

We have public schools in some of the poorest parts of the country that produce some of the best results.

These public schools, boosted by reform, don't think these kids are limited by postcode , in which they were born. Rather, they demand, inspire and deliver excellence.

A Labor government would never do this. did it. Rather, the Labor Party pursued the false dream of getting 50 per cent of children into university and out of apprenticeships.

The assumption that the only path to success is through university has been one of the greatest mistakes of the last 30 years. . This has led to thousands of young people being cheated out of degrees that have no impact on their employment or earning potential.

So we are stopping universities from enrolling students on courses that have no impact on their life chances. With us there is no more robbery of degrees.

And if you want to know how much I value apprenticeships, look at the fact that in Gillian we have our first apprentice for Education Secretary.

Today I want to build on the achievements of the Conservatives and take a long-term solution to the problems our education system for children from 16 to 19 years old.

Technical education is not given the respect it deserves. Students do not spend enough time in class. A quarter of our children leave school without the basic literacy and numeracy skills they need to realize their potential. And our students are studying too narrow a range of subjects.

Today I am changing all that by pulling one of the biggest levers we have to change the direction of our country. We will introduce a new rigorous, knowledge-rich Advanced British Standard, which will combine A-Levels and T-Levels into a new single qualification for our school leavers.

First, it will finally be implemented. the promise of equality between academic and technical education, with all students taking the Advanced British Standard exam.

Secondly, we will raise the bar by ensuring our children leave school literate and numeracy, because with All students Advanced British Standard will teach English and maths in some form until the age of 18, with extra help for those who have the most difficulty. In our country, no child should be left behind.

Third, our 16- to 19-year-olds spend about a third less time in the classroom than some of our competitors. We must change this. So with our Advanced British Standard, students will spend at least 195 more hours with a teacher.

And fourth, A-Level students typically study only three subjects, compared to the seven studied by our economic competitors. . The Extended British Standard will change this too, with students now typically studying five subjects.

And with the extra teaching time we are introducing, this greater breadth will not come at the expense of depth, which is such a strength our system.

Our new plan will require more teachers in the coming years. So today I can announce that, in order to attract and retain more teachers, those teaching key subjects in schools and, for the first time, in our further education colleges, will receive special bonuses of up to £30,000 tax-free, in during the first five years. years of their careers.

Our teachers perform some of the most valuable work in our society, and we must reward them for it.

Conference, I can tell you: my top funding priority is Every spending review from now on will be education. Why? Because it's the closest thing to a silver bullet that we have.

This is the best economic policy, the best social policy, the best moral policy. This is the best way to expand opportunity and create a more prosperous society. This is not just my path. Conference is the conservative way.

I know times have been hard. We have all had to face unprecedented challenges. And I'll be honest with you: we still have mountains to overcome.

But today we made three important decisions to change the direction of our country. We will give Britain the infrastructure it needs to protect the long-term future of our NHS and cut cancer deaths by a quarter, and create the best education system in the Western world to prepare our children for the opportunities of the future.

If we get down to business, if we unite, we can achieve truly great results.

We can build a country where work is truly valued; where wealth is a protection, not a way of life; where small businesses drive our economy; where innovation makes life better; where our NHS is properly funded and properly reformed; where our children receive the best education in the Western world — whether at university or through apprenticeships; where the scourge of antisocial behavior is seen as a crime rather than a social condition; where for the most violent criminals life means life; where the people and their government decide who can come here and who cannot; where the next generation can realize the dream of owning their own home; where older people age with dignity and young people grow up with opportunity; where integrity and mutual respect bind communities together; where the very idea of ​​Britain is a symbol of hope and stability throughout the world; and where our United Kingdom remains united.

All this and more is ours if we want it, but we will have to fight for it.

In the next elections, the choice will be up to the people. face more than party politics: do we want a government committed to making long-term solutions, willing to be radical in the face of challenges and take on self-interest, or do we want to stand still and quietly accept more of the same?

You either think this country needs change or you don't. And if so, then you should stand next to me—and to every person in this room. You should support the Conservatives.

Today this party puts the needs of the British people first. We made a decision that many should have made but didn't.

We're done with the HS2 drama and will instead move on to a full-blown national reinvestment in infrastructure that people actually use and want, and in the skilled workforce that will build it.

And there is no more hiding: no more pretending in the face of irrefutable evidence. Too many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers are lost to lung cancer, heart disease, dementia, stillbirth, and we can change that.

Today we have moved beyond ideology, put people first again and committed to ensuring that our children and grandchildren will be the first generation who will not have to suffer the false choice of whether to quit smoking or not because they never started.

Today we set the course for our education system , which will prepare our children for the possibilities of the future. No more degree robberies; no lower aspirations; no more slandering technical education. Simply the best education system in the Western world.

We will be brave. We will be radical. We will meet resistance and meet it. We will give this country what it so desperately needs but is too often denied: a government willing to make long-term decisions so we can build a brighter future — for everyone.

Make no mistake about it. : It's time for change. And this is us.

Thank you.