Proud you make our girls in me every single day. Every single day. Conference. Thank you for letting me gatecrash to tell you, to tell you a little bit more about the rishi that i know and the rishi that i hope most people will come to understand. People will come to understand. Now. It gives me the greatest pleasure to introduce you to a wonderful, wonderful father , my wonderful, wonderful father, my best friend and your Prime Minister, rishi sunak. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Conference. Thank thank you. Conference. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you for that introduction. And thank you for always being there for me. My wife, truly the best long term decision for a Brighter Future i ever made. Ive been future i ever made. Ive been blessed in my life. I have a wonderful wife and two daughters who make me proud every single day. And i was also lucky enough to grow up in the most loving of homes. My dad was a gp and my homes. My dad was a gp and my mum, a pharmacist. Homes. My dad was a gp and my mum, a pharmacist. You did need mum, a pharmacist. You did need a small mention of last summer. I know now in so many ways i wouldnt be standing here before you today without them. My mum and dad were and are my inspiration. Thank you, mum. Inspiration. Thank you, mum. Thank you, dad. Thank you, dad. Like so many of us in this hall, they understood the importance of community and made sure that i did too. They didnt believe community was some extension of government. Rather, they government. Rather, they understood community is sustained by individuals , by sustained by individuals, by those who look out for their neighbour, treat others as they would like to be treated. They would like to be treated. They understood the fundamental importance of service. It was importance of service. It was seeing the difference that they made to peoples lives that made me want to go into politics. Its now my mother set up her own pharmacy. It was a proper own pharmacy. It was a proper family business. We all chipped in as a teenager. I helped deliver prescriptions and do the booksi deliver prescriptions and do the books i learnt there. The importance of being able to meet your commitments and make good on your promises. Your commitments and make good on your promises. And my parents on your promises. And my parents are long retired now, but the sunak pharmacy left me with a lasting respect for every small family business. This conservative party, the party of the grocers daughter and the pharmacist son will always be the party of enterprise, the party of small. Party of small. Business ive been Prime Minister for almost a year now and we have done good things in that time. Weve made progress on our five priorities to halve inflation and grow the economy, reduce acas debt, cut waiting lists and to stop the boats. But today to stop the boats. But today i want to share with you my reflections on what i have seen and what i have learnt. Doing this job i have seen up close the quality of our armed forces and our intelligence services. Truly, the finest in the. Truly, the finest in the. World the debt of gratitude we owe them is why we are making this them is why we are making this the best place to be. A veteran. And i know we will deliver because we have a minister for veteran affairs is sitting in cabinet. Johnny served in afghanistan. This is personal afghanistan. This is personal for him. He stood with his for him. He stood with his fellow soldiers in battle and now he is ensuring that it is this conservative government making our country fit for our heroes. Heroes. Weve backed our military with record investment , working with record investment, working with ben, a great defence secretary , ben, a great defence secretary, we put the defence budget on a sustainable footing and now grant will ensure that our advanced aukus submarine alliance with australia and the United States keeps the world safe for decades to come and creates jobs here at home. And through our leading role in nato , we remain the bulwark of European Security , all testament European Security, all testament to this countrys global reach and influence and our determination to take long term decisions in the national interest. By contrast , just interest. By contrast, just remember that not once but twice , labour tried to make a man , labour tried to make a man, Prime Minister, who didnt believe in nato, who would have surrendered our Nuclear Deterrent , and who blamed deterrent, and who blamed britain for every problem. Sir keir starmer might want us to forget about his repeated support for jeremy corbyn, but we never will. You can never trust labour with our country security. Im proud to say weve security. Im proud to say weve also led the world in providing support to ukraine. We were the first country to send western battle tanks to kyiv. Now more than ten others have followed. Than ten others have followed. We were the first country to send long range weapons to kyiv. Now france and the United States have followed. We were the first country to agree to train ukrainian pilots. Now more than a dozen others have followed. A dozen others have followed. And i say this to our allies, if we give president zelenskyy the tools, the ukraine nations will finish the job. Slava ukraini. Finish the job. Slava ukraini. Doing this job i meet and talk to inspirational men and women across our country. You see that our most potent strength, our most powerful resource, our greatest hope is our people. But greatest hope is our people. But what ive learnt is that there is an undeniable sense that politics just doesnt work the way it should. The feeling that way it should. The feeling that westminster is a broken system and the same goes for holyrood cardiff bay and stormont. It is an anger , its an exhaustion an anger, its an exhaustion with politics in particular our politicians saying things and then nothing ever changing. And then nothing ever changing. And you know what . People are right. Politics doesnt work the way it should. Weve had 30 years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one third 30 years of vested interests standing in the way of change. 30 years of rhetorical ambition which achieves little more than a short term headline. And why . Short term headline. And why . Because our political system is too focussed on short term advantage, not long term success. Politicians spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it. It actually delivering it. It doesnt have to be this way. I wont be this way. Conference is. Our mission is to fund mentally change our country. We mentally change our country. We. Now. The labour party, have. Now. The labour party, have set out their stall to do and say as little as possible and hopes no one notices as they want to take peoples votes for granted. And keep doing politics the same old way. Its a bet on the same old way. Its a bet on peoples apathy. It doesnt speak to any higher purpose or Brighter Future. It is about power for the sake of power. It power for the sake of power. It is, in short, everything that is wrong with our politics. So if this country is to change, then it can only be us who will deliver it. Because if we do not, our growth will be stunted. More places will be left behind , and ever more of our behind, and ever more of our time will be spent debating the side issues and symptoms rather than the deeper, more structural challenges we face. We wont allow this to happen. So where allow this to happen. So where a consensusis allow this to happen. So where a consensus is false, we will challenge it. Where a vested interest is placing itself above the needs of the people, we will stop it. And where common sense is under attack from an organised assault, we will defend it. Defend it. Today today i will set out how we will achieve this, beginning with a set of long term decision lines to build a Brighter Future for our children and to fund mentally change our country and conference. You can already see my approach in the course i charted on net zero and we conservatives love our Natural World and we are determined to be good stewards of it. In my own constituency, it is the beauty of the North York Moors and swaledale and wensleydale that makes the place home. We conservatives also value frankness , choice and consent, frankness, choice and consent, and we leave that we believe that politicians have a duty to treat Household Budgets with respect , and that treat Household Budgets with respect, and that change only endures if we bring people with us. As you could tell by the reaction to my decision to chart a new course to net zero, it was not the easiest argument to have. But when i looked at the reality of what people were being asked to do, the thousands of pounds people would need to pay, of pounds people would need to pay, all of that disproportionately falling on the poorest in society, by the way, and all of it not actually necessary in those timeframes to meet our net zero targets. And in spite of us doing more than any other country, i concluded its simply wasnt right. So i decided to take a pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to reaching net zero. And i wont take any lectures from other countries that have done far less than us or for those or from those for whom spending thousands of pounds means nothing. Change is means nothing. Change is difficult , particularly means nothing. Change is difficult, particularly for those who disagree. But remember this we will still meet our international obligations. We will still meet our domestic targets , and we will still get targets, and we will still get to net zero by 2050. We have solved a problem and offered an unapologetic defence of good conservative common sense. Conservative common sense. So as much to the country i make this promise to all of you in this promise to all of you in this hall as i did last summer. I will tell it as it is. I will i will tell it as it is. I will lead in a different way because thatis lead in a different way because that is the only way to create the sort of change in our politics and in our country that we all desperately want to see. Now, i came into office in difficult circumstances and i dont want to waste time debating the past because what matters is the future. The facts are the facts. You cant borrow are the facts. You cant borrow your way out of inflation, ian. And if we want fundamental change in our country, we need a Strong Economy as a foundation. Strong economy as a foundation. Thatis Strong Economy as a foundation. That is why halving inflation was the first and most important of the five priorities i set out at the start of the year. Every thing we want to achieve requires getting inflation under control. Inflation is the control. Inflation is the biggest destroyer of all of industry , of jobs, of savings, industry, of jobs, of savings, and of society. No policy which puts at risk the defeat of inflation, no matter its short term attraction, can be right not my words, but those of Margaret Thatcher as true now as they were then. They were then. I know you want tax cuts. I want them too. And we will deliver them. But the best tax cut we can give people right now is to halve inflation and ease the cost of living. Cost of living. And with inflation under control , our Debt Reduction will become easier. And as debt falls, confidence grows and as confidence grows and as confidence grows, so too will our economy. We need our economy our economy. We need our economy to grow faster and for people across the country to feel the benefits of that. Like other western economies , we havent western economies, we havent grown quickly enough in recent years. But dont let labour and the others talk down our nation. We now know that we have had one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic of any major economy in europe. Economy in europe. Since leaving the single market. Weve grown faster than france and germany , not despite brexit, and germany, not despite brexit, because of. Because of. Brexit we have the largest life sciences, Financial Services, creative and tech sectors in all of europe and we have near record numbers of people with the security that a job provides and if we want to keep growing, we have to create the conditions in which business is can drive growth. And thats exactly what were doing. We exactly what were doing. We still have the Lowest Corporation Tax rate in the g7. Corporation tax rate in the g7. And thanks to the chancellors business tax cuts, we are the best place to invest in the machinery and equipment that your Business Needs to grow. Your Business Needs to grow. More innovation drives growth in a modern economy. So we also a modern economy. So we also have the most generous tax regime for research and development in the g7 and our brexit freedoms make us ever more competitive from Financial Services to Clinical Trials to agriculture, we are creating a more agile regulatory system , more agile regulatory system, freeing up businesses to drive the growth our country needs. The growth our country needs. The fact we control our own trade policy now is why we can be the first european country to join the £11 trillion pacific trade pack. Lynn leading us to the Fastest Growing region in the Fastest Growing region in the world and opening up new markets for our farmers and Great British products. We have Great British products. We have new freeports 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 and thank you, kemi, for cutting away brussels red tape and saving Small Businesses. £1 billion a year. Brexit was more than a vote to leave the eu. It was a vote to leave the eu. It was a vote to change to become something more. It was a statement of our belief that britain could begin a new story, one which reached all parts of our country and everyone in it. We must keep everyone in it. We must keep making the case for taking back control because if we dont, our opponents will try and neuter this change to align us with the European Union so that we never seize the full opportunities of brexit. Now we know where Keir Starmers heart lies on this issue and we know he cant be trusted on it either. First, he trusted on it either. First, he said hed respect the referendum result , then he wanted a second result, then he wanted a second referendum, then he wanted free movement. Then he didnt referendum, then he wanted free movement. Then he didnt. He said he wouldnt try and renegotiate our deal. Then he renegotiate our deal. Then he said he would. And then just two said he would. And then just two weeks ago he was caught on camera telling a meeting of International Politicians that he now just wants to follow all the eu rules. The irony isnt lost on me. While were busy lost on me. While were busy thinking about the future of the United Kingdom , keir starmer is United Kingdom, keir starmer is just banging on about europe. You just cannot know what youre going to get with him. The only thing that is certain is that it wont be what hes promising you. But the worst thing about sir keir is that he just says whatever he thinks will benefit him the most. Whatever he thinks will benefit him the most. It whatever he thinks will benefit him the most. It doesnt matter him the most. It doesnt matter whether he can deliver. It doesnt matter if its true. It doesnt matter if its true. It doesnt matter if he said the opposite. Just a few weeks or months ago, he is the walking definition of the 30 year political status quo. I am here political status quo. I am here to end. That is why we have to to end. That is why we have to beat him and conference that is why we. Why we. Will now. Now, if we are to create now. Now, if we are to create change and drive growth across our country, then we must get our country, then we must get our infrastructure right. A our infrastructure right. A false consensus has taken root that all that matters is our links between our big conurbations. This consensus conurbations. This consensus said that our National Economic regeneration should be driven by cities at the exclusion of everywhere else. It said that the most important connections those cities could have was to london and not anywhere else. And it said that the only links that mattered were north to south, not east to west. What we really need, though, is better transport connections in the north. A new Network North that will join up our great towns and cities in the north and midlands. I wanted to come here to manchester today to say that this will be our priority , our this will be our priority, our focus, our project act, hs2 is the ultimate example. All of the the ultimate example. All of the old consensus. The result is a old consensus. The result is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been pred than doubled, which has been ripped heatedly delayed, and it is not scheduled to reach here in manchester for almost two decades. And for which the economic case has massively been weakened. With the changes to weakened. With the changes to Business Travel post covid, i say to those who back the project in the first place, the facts have changed and the right thing to do. When the facts change is to have the courage to change is to have the courage to change direction. Change direction. In and so i am ending this long running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the hs2 project and in its place and in its place , in its place and in its place, we wil