Robert Jenrick is next up on stage. The (now) right-winger will be talking about immigration, a smaller state and a united country. He’s apparently going to speak without any notes…
After a video featuring Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in a nod to Brexit and finishing with a voter saying he would return to the party if Jenrick is the leader, Jenrick delivers his note-free speech. Here are the key takeaways:
- He pays tribute to his dad who worked at an iron foundary in the Midlands, and waves to his mother in the crowd.
- Praises his “heroine” Thatcher, and how important “change” is.
- Promises to turn the Tories into a “pressure group for hard-working majority”.
- Attacks Starmer’s cowardice by choosing to “rob poor pensioners just to placate your union paymasters”.
- “Starmer will take the knee but he will never take a stand. He doesn’t even take a stand at the football anymore, he’s up there in the director’s box.”
- Reeves is “as wooden as Pinocchio” and Miliband is a “Wallace missing his Gromit.”
- Labour is only offering “managed decline”.
- Says he would “always celebrate our achievements” including Ukraine, welfare reform and education.
- Though adds “we can’t bury our heads in the sand”, as “we failed to deliver the strong NHS, the strong economy and the strong border.”
- Wants nothing less than a “new Conservative party”.
- Calls for an effective freeze in net migration by capping it to the tens of thousands.
- Says we must leave ECHR to secure our borders. We cannot reform the court.
- Says he will stand for a new Great Reform Act, one that leaves the ECHR, repeals Tony Blair’s Human Rights Act and writes a British Bill of Rights. Sounds a little like Reform there…
- We must oppose “crazy” interim net zero targets that have caused factories to close and families to suffer.
- Says he will stand for cutting emissions, but not off the backs of hard working people.
- Proposes “most ambitious plan for urban densification” to “get Britain building again”.
- Says he’s told we only have enough munitions to last a few weeks in war.
- Says he will cut foreign aid to fund raising defence spending to 3% of GDP.
- Says he will take a stand for a small state that actually works, not a big state that fails. Wants public sector reform.
- Finishes off by asking people to be “part of the change” with him.
