This is the speech delivered by Tom Tugendhat today
Good morning.
Nice to see you too.
I am here actually to apply for a job.
But I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s not the job I want.
I don’t want to be Leader of the Opposition.
I want to be Prime Minister.
I don’t want to oppose, I want to govern.
But first, first we need to change.
Because while people may sometimes vote for a party they don’t always love. And sometimes they’ll vote for a programme that they don’t fully agree with. They will never vote for a party that they’ve stopped taking seriously.
Now that’s why I’m standing.
I will make the Conservative Party a serious force again. I will make us respected for our experience and our realism, admired for our integrity, acknowledged for our achievements and given credit for seeing the errors that we may make and correcting them.
Now by doing that, I believe that I will lead our party back to power.
Now my campaign will be sober, it will earn and deserve trust. And it will be about governing. And I will work in opposition as you would expect a future Prime Minister to act.
Because what I’ve learned about leadership, about fighting for liberty and protecting our security, I didn’t learn in Westminster but in the army and I won’t be playing politics. I know that integrity matters.
So I want to start with an apology. The Conservative Party owed you better. Politics is not a game.
And we all know the cost when government isn’t sober and serious.
We saw it in the lives lost in Afghanistan, and then in that wasted chaos of that withdrawal.
We saw it during Covid – not just in the lost years of education that cost so many, or the opportunities missed nor even in the grief for lost loved ones, or those left to cope alone – but through the disrespect and the double standards.
Like you, I witnessed the recent political trauma with a combination of depression and anger.
I witnessed the failed coups and the successful ones. And I saw duty give way to ego.
That’s why I am standing before you today. Because this country can change. We must change. And Britain deserves better.
We need a different government. One that will serve our country with conviction, and act for you.
One that remembers the core duty of the state.
And I believe that message is simple:
My mission is the happiness and prosperity of the British people.
Now let me say that again to be absolutely clear:
My mission is the happiness and prosperity of the British people.
Now it’s easy to say, but it’s tough to deliver.
Because at its heart, it’s about putting the government back at the service of the people. It’s about investment and innovation. But it’s also about freedom. Freedom to succeed and yes, freedom to fail.
It’s about a commitment to grow our economy and to see our people prosper.
And that’s why this election, it’s not just a coronation, it’s not just a referendum on immigration, or any other policy. It’s not just a chance to re-fight old battles. That’s all the politics of the past.
What we are doing is we are choosing new leader who sees clearly the challenges that we face, and we are giving them four years to do the hard work to prepare, so that the next Conservative government will not waste one moment.
We need to be ready from day one.
Now the last great economic transformation that our country saw was in the 1980s. Some of you will remember it well. It’s time for a new Conservative revolution.
Since those changes, Britain’s creeping bureaucracy has returned, and it’s stifling growth and its smothering opportunity. And we need to clear back those cobwebs so that once again our economy, and most importantly of course our people, can breathe free and make our country grow again.
Now we have some of the most creative and entrepreneurial people in the world, but without freedom, no one can prosper.
Now I’m standing because we need leadership and we need to deliver that vision.
And as leader, I will bring back the honest, the responsible state. One that serves you, one that leads the changes that we need, and that acts on its word.
And that’s what I’ll deliver. Not just as leader of the Conservative Party, but as Prime Minister of this amazing United Kingdom.
Now I will set out the agenda for us to win back trust.
And I am optimistic for the future, because I know this country’s history and culture have been built on the strongest possible foundations for success.
And that’s why I will lead in opposition as I will govern in office. I will listen to the serious ideas that come to us and support those who champion what is best for our country. I will win back younger voters. And I will deliver on these four objectives.
Growth
First, I will rebuild the connections between – and within – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to see our shared economy grow.
The Government can’t pull a lever, but it can release a brake.
We can invest in infrastructure and recognise that what Ben Houchen has delivered in Teesside proves that Conservatives can deliver – and can win – across the United Kingdom. We know that the state has a role – to create the environment for long term investment – and that’s what allows enterprise to take risks and to flourish.
Because Government doesn’t create jobs, we all know that, but it can enable others to.
And that’s not just about planning, it’s about everything from lower energy costs and better transportation to infrastructure, education and transport. It’s about recognising that talent is found across our country, but opportunity is not.
This is about making sure that every part of our great United Kingdom has the respect and the commitment from our government to allow our people to succeed.
It’s about ensuring that this country has the right skills, the right grid connections and the right infrastructure.
We are already a nation of entrepreneurs. We already have more start-ups each year than anywhere else in Europe, and we also have more unicorns than my daughter has drawn on the walls of her bedroom.
But our over regulation has made pensioners poorer by reducing savings returns – and it’s drained the pools of capital we need to grow global leaders.
Now, I am going to draw lessons from Australia and Canada, where private savings and public investment have seen resilience and investment in infrastructure grow. And I will sunset rules that are constraining smaller firms from innovating and competing.
After all, we did not successfully roll back the frontiers of the state a generation ago only to see them reimposed by stealth, through regulation.
We need to be bolder, much bolder, about setting the conditions for success, and be even more determined to deliver the new Conservative revolution we need.
Now that’s the only way that we will grow the economy that we need to keep us protected at home.
Because make no mistake, when we invest, we are investing in ourselves, but to keep us safe in a dangerous world.
And that brings me to my second point. Let’s be clear. The purpose of British foreign policy is to keep the British people safe and prosperous.
That’s it.
Nothing more. It’s not to play games. It’s not to study the Afghan tribes, no matter how interesting some of us may find them. And it’s not to virtue signal. We must be completely focussed on putting our own people first. Now of course this doesn’t mean “Britain alone”, we need partners and allies to keep us safe. From NATO, Lancaster House, the Five Eyes Alliance, to the CPTPP and AUKUS, our partnerships protect us, and they all matter. Alongside our allies in Europe, we’re supporting Ukraine. But that should never come second to our own interests.
Now no one else would do differently so lets focus on what we really need. We need to use our own Armed Forces and intelligence services to go further in fighting that modern scourge, that modern version of the slave trade – human trafficing. We need to go further in making sure our defence is strong and our people are safe. Because our strength matters.
And that’s why investing in defence is not a choice like with other budget lines, it’s not a decision we can make on our own. Our enemies and our allies set the conditions that we have to adapt to. They help determine what we must spend.
Now as we face a more dangerous world, let’s be clear we need to invest in our security.
We cannot bet our future on the choices of others and let’s be honest we can’t depend on the kindness of strangers.
And that’s why Labour’s plans are so wrong.
They’re planning to draw down our defences, to close off technology and to reduce our protection. We need to make it absolutely clear that we will defend our national security and be clear about planning for 3 percent of our GDP to be spent on our national security.
Now many years ago, many of you heard me warning about the dangers that we’re seeing change around the world.
And I was right to warn that the Golden Era with China was over. I was right to warn that Moscow’s gold was corrupting. And I’m sad to say that I was right to warn that the violence coming out of Tehran and threatening us all around the world is a danger to everyone in the civilised world.
This is no time for a faint heart, or for a novice. We need to understand clearly that the threats we face, the threats that are out there, they are real, and for me, this is personal.
Now a century ago, my family’s name was perhaps not common, but it was certainly spread across Europe.
In that generation of totalitarian hatred, it disappeared from many countries where we had called home.
We cannot appease tyrants. And that is a battle I have fought for years, and I have been sanctioned by Russia, Iran and China because of it.
So I guess there’s three leaders that won’t be pleased if I win.
But the world is becoming more dangerous and we do need to protect our interests. We need to reset Britain’s foreign policy and rethink many of our assumptions to rebuild our resilience.
And that starts at home.
And it brings me on to my third point – migration matters.
Our security challenges are all connected. From energy and food to the environment and migration, we must realise that we are actually making choices as we balance outcomes.
And we’ve got to be honest with the British people about the decisions we are taking and the choices we are making.
High levels of low skilled migrants are a choice.
We allowed businesses to underinvest in skills, and to make up for it by hiring from abroad. We allowed a culture to develop that saw people opt out of work.
And we started to change that in recent months but let’s be honest, over earlier years, we issued the visas needed to make sure our economy could have the illusion of growth, while avoiding the necessary work of fixing these core problems.
Now our country was left dependent on immigration to maintain our active workforce and, after Brexit, instead of fixing the cause, we swapped young Europeans for older families from around the world, again maintaining the illusion of growth, at the expense of real growth and real productivity gains here at home.
Now, that is the economy that we’ve run. That is the system that we have. And that’s why migrant numbers are higher than ever before.
Now we have left ourselves with an invidious trade-off between immigration and the economic growth necessary to fund our public services.
That’s why there isn’t a quick fix to this question.
Because we can only change the migration numbers and truly grow the economy – the economy that people feel, the money they earn, the cash in their pocket – if we are serious and honest about the choices we need to make.
And it’s just not true to say that one Bill or one treaty could do that.
We need to rethink our entire economy and invest – of course – in automation and training. But that alone isn’t enough. We need to go much further.
We need to make sure housing is affordable, and transport connects people to jobs. And, perhaps most of all, we need to change the culture amongst those who have been left idle and ignored. And amongst those who have been willing to leave them there.
Now, I will be serious about leadership. I will connect policies and recognise complexity. But to drive change, we do need clear targets, otherwise there is always going to be another excuse.
So, under my leadership, the maximum level of non-British net migration will be capped at 100,000 people a year.
That will allow businesses to start planning for a different kind of economy, and make sure that everyone understands long in advance, long in advance, too long in advance, that the public sector cannot depend on other people’s children to step in for our own.
Now we need to begin that change now.
We need to make these four years of opposition count, because we need to stand up for the rights of our citizens, and we need to make sure we are standing up against those who try to harm us. And this comes to a different point on migration.
We need to be clear that citizenship comes with duties and obligations. Canberra understands this. Australia recently expelled migrants who committed serious crimes and those who were naturalised citizens were stripped of that citizenship. Last week, Germany, a country that obeys many of the same rules as us, deported 28 serious criminals back to Afghanistan.
Now, where there are obstacles to us doing the same, we must remove them. The British people should never have their rights trumped by the rights of criminals who have come to do them harm.
Now that’s why, as I have been arguing since I left the Army in 2013, We need to opt out – to derogate as the expression goes – from some aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights and we need to reform others. And if we can’t achieve what we need to in a reasonable timeframe, we need to be prepared, I am prepared, to leave.
I am absolutely serious about my commitment to our security. I can’t deliver on my mission to achieve the happiness and prosperity of the British people, if we are not safe at home and secure in our own country.
And that’s also what brings me to my last point.
We need to invest in – and we need to reform – our public services.
Now, many of you will know that I care very deeply about our security and our defence. And I also care about migration and the growing economy. But as a father, my immediate priority is my children. Their education and their future.
Now, our kids are incredibly lucky to have the most amazing headteacher and a fantastic team of staff who teach them. And as an economy, that team has been freed to do what they think is best for their students, for my kids and we trust them to deliver. They’re the professionals, they know what they’re doing and that’s allowed them to innovate, they’ve adapted to the needs of our community to the needs of the families and children in our school.
And now Labour are saying they’re going to end that freedom.
They’re saying that instead of learning from the best, from the free schools, from the academies here in England, they’re going to be using, extraordinarily, the failed model of Welsh education under a Labour government, to make the changes.
Now that’s disastrous. It’s not just disastrous for our children, it’s disastrous for our future. And, by making envy the centrepoint of his education policy, Sir Keir Starmer is frankly promising that there is worse yet to come.
Now, by taxing education, Starmer is using that to pay off the left, but he is paying it off at the cost of our kids who are just trying to do their best.
And he is doing that because he’s got absolutely no plan. He’s got no plan for where he will get the money from that it is going to cost to make this change. He’s got no plan for where the kids are going to go when their parents can no longer afford the school. And he’s got no plan to address what is clearly going to be the challenges that come out of what is one of the most vindictive policies that we’ve seen from a British government in generations.
Now we know what he’s going to say. He’s going to say he’s taxing the rich, but he’s not. He’s attacking families. He’s attacking that connection between all of us, that desire that every parent has to do their best for their children to make sure they have a better start, a better future than they had themselves.
And as Conservatives, we don’t accept that. We are on the side of families. We’re on the side of those who work hard and do the right thing by their community and by our country.
And that’s something James, that Kemi, Mel, Priti, Rob and I all agree on.
That’s why I am not fighting them. They’re friends. They’re good Conservatives. And they have my respect.
I’m taking the fight to Keir Starmer.
Now, all I’ve heard from Sir Keir recently is negativity, despair and fear. And frankly that’s when he’s talking about Angela Rayner.
What I hear about the country is just him talking Britain down because he has no idea how to build this great country up.
and he’s right when he says there’s a tough road ahead. That’s because despite his massive majority, he’s got absolutely no idea what he’s doing. He doesn’t even know what his MPs are doing.
And after dropping Corbyn and reinventing himself as heir to Blair, or to Brown, or to anyone frankly, Keir Starmer is now only concerned with paying off the promises that he made to achieve power.
Not to the country – no, no, no, to his party.
He’s bribed his union paymasters and made pensioners pay for it and he’s made strikes the bargaining tool of choice.
You’re going to have to be really rich before you can afford to vote Labour again.
And it’s no wonder he’s preparing us for this bleak future. Because he’s already abandoned the country to the hard left.
When he took down that portrait of Margaret Thatcher in Number 10 wasn’t just a cheap political stunt that was beneath the dignity of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They didn’t stoop to it, in fact they invited Margaret Thatcher into Number 10. No it was a rejection of the reforms she brought in that empowered our citizens, that saw power going out, back to the people and saw opportunity and aspiration championed. He’s abandoned all of that. He doesn’t believe in the future. And he’s abandoning the growth that we all need.
That’s going to cost us all.
And it’s going to cost none more than my friend’s daughter who has worked incredibly hard and won a scholarship to dance at the Royal School of Ballet. But because they’re not a rich family, and because they depend on a scholarship and on reduced fees, it demands sacrifices.
This grasping of Keir Starmer’s political envy is going to make it unaffordable for them and no doubt for many other families. And while they are sacrificing as all families do, Keir Starmer is making it harder for them.
Now that’s not what I’m in politics for. Not for the games. Not the ideology, but for people.
I’m in politics to support families and to serve our friends and our neighbours. I’m in politics because making our country safe and our people happy is the prime mission of any government.
And we need our government to be there beside us, to be there when we need it, but we’re seeing the government control us. That doesn’t just take our liberty, it erodes our imagination and it steals our ideas.
And that is why I am standing to lead this party, and to become Prime Minister in 2029.
So let me be clear, I will not manage decline. I will not accept despair.
I will act to bring change and as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, I will bring back a serious vision of a liberated economy and a connected Britain. I will draw lessons from Conservative leaders across the country, and around the world, and I will deliver the Conservative revolution that we have for so long needed.
Now, I will be serious, I will be honest and determined to make us stronger at home and abroad.
And I will serve, I will lead and I will act to make us better.
I will work hard to regain your trust and to serve our great country as I always have.
And the best apology I can offer for the past is the promise of better leadership and a better future.
And that is what I will always do.
My promise to you is clear, my mission is simple and I will always act in the interests of my children and yours.
Together we can build a better Britain.
Thank you.
