[Applause] a very warm welcome to all of you here

at the the Heritage Foundation today and to our audience online on both sides of

the of the Atlantic uh the Margaret Thatcher Freedom lecture honors the principles ideals vision and Legacy of

of Lady Thatcher previous uh lectures have included Ambassador Nikki Haley

Soviet dissident Natan sharansky US senator Ted Cruz conservative authors

and commentators uh Charles Krauthammer and Victor Davis Hansen and foreign Statesmen including former British prime

minister Liz truss a former Australian prime minister John Howard and former UK international trade secretary uh Liam

Fox uh my former boss lady Thatcher was for many years the patron of the Heritage Foundation and funded and

established the Margaret Thatcher center of Freedom At Heritage in 2006 she’s greatly missed by us all here

as Heritage it is a pleasure to welcome this morning a very good friend of the Heritage Foundation the right honorable

sella braveman uh kcmp who will deliver the 2025 Margaret Thatcher Freedom

lecture uh following sel’s remarks uh we’ll be conducting a farside chat

discussion on stage with the opportunity for questions from the audience as well uh sella braveman is the former Home

Secretary and Attorney General of the United Kingdom and a leading figure in the British conservative party she’s

renowned for her robust Hardline stance on migration and Law and Order and is a

champion of Common Sense uh conservatism sella is a truly Brave and courageous

thatright politician who firmly believes in securing Britain’s borders and ending Mass migration and the dangerous

policies of multiculturalism in her lecture today uh she will outline a blueprint for the West to fight back

against the toxic ideologies of the woke left and ensure the enduring prosperity

of our great countries please join me in welcoming Suella Braverman onto the stage thank you

[Applause]

Good morning everybody it’s a a real honor to to be here to be back here I was here last week for the

inauguration I want to start by thanking Kevin and Nile and the whole team at the

Heritage Foundation for your principled leadership over so many years uh it’s

great to see many of you in the room from Heritage and hundreds of people online but Heritage has been the

brightest Beacon of Liberty aspiration and prosperity for many years whether

it’s project 2025 or forging close alliances across the Atlantic Heritage

stands like a giant towering over the policy Think Tank landscape and I know

that you will continue to play a critical role in the fight for freedom in the decad ahead now I stand behind countless

individuals who have come before me to deliver this annual lecture like Nathan sharansky the pulet surprise winner

Charles crammer uh to the most recent Liz truss who have all had the honor of

taking to this podium in Washington DC Liberty aspiration and prosperity

have been in short supply in the USA for the last four years but like precious

jewels Rec recovered from the rubble of a disaster they can be dusted down pull

away the cobwebs brush down the dirt and you’ll see what was always there but

obscured the glowing light of the genius of the American people their common

sense and fairness and their aching aching desire to get on and move forward

to make a better life for themselves their families and their communities as Reverend Saul put it so

passionately during President Trump’s benediction at the inauguration last week from every state every city every

village and every Hamlet Let Freedom Ring and it’s about that dawn of Freedom

that I want to speak to you today it’s exactly what’s happening now that

President Trump is back in the White House the United States is once again

The Shining City upon a hill to which the UK and indeed the world will once

look for leadership for courage and for freedom for us in the United Kingdom our

jeels of Liberty aspiration and prosperity lie buried under the weight

of socialism the shackles of political correctness and the feebleness of our political class it’s now for us in the

UK to look enviously from the outside in from the dogghouse of international

relations as the world seems to be waking up from its woke nightmare be it the United States Italy or Argentina we

in the UK have a government that is more anti Freedom anti- aspiration anti- hope

and anti- opportunity than ever before the contrast couldn’t be Starker as

other countries ReDiscover the keys to economic growth we in the UK stand on the brink of a recession job losses and

businesses going bust under Karma the United Kingdom is now more likely than

ever to worship at the altar of punitive Net Zero policies bend the knee at the

cross of a distorted notion of Human Rights and submit to the will of supernational Institutions rather than

standing up for the UK’s National Security and long-term allies and that

is why and I regret to say it but as Donald Trump assumes office for this generation defining presidency and Kia

starma stumbles from one crisis to another it is abundantly clear that the

historic and much vaunted special relationship between the UK and the US

one which has endured since the horrors of World War II was strengthened during the Cold War and formed the defining

alliance against islamist extremism after 9/11 Now lies in tatters and it was our

labor government that broke it just as president Trump is finally taking a har

hardheaded stance against the oppressive regimes across the world Kama is nowhere

to be seen in the battle for civilization the UK has gone awall under

labor on China while Trump has made clear that tariffs will be applied has

imposed visa restrictions on students and blamed China for the pandemic and collusion with Russia on Ukraine stama

has instead sent his Chancellor begging to Beijing look set to approve the mega

Chinese spy HQ in London fails to implement vital national security

measures like the foreign influence registration scheme and turns a blind eye to the genocide of the Hua Muslims

and the unprecedented hostility from the Chinese towards Taiwan and the Philippines whil the US will gradually

wean itself off Chinese dependency the UK only appeases China and prefers to

surrender UK’s sovereign territ teritory in the form of the chos islands to maius

playing into the hands of China by giving them an important strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean and now

starmer is intent on appointing Peter Peter mandelson as our ambassador to the

US a man who has links so deep with China it Beggars belief that he even got

onto the short list labor is betraying the United Kingdom and is betraying the

United States or on the Middle East as the new Trump Administration took immediate steps to

Cil hamas’s brutality with their leaders being ejected by Qatar and hostages

being released although we keep working and fighting for all of them to be released and stopping all unra funding

this labor government reinstated taxpayer funding to unra the holy

discredited UN agency that has been complicit in the October the 7th attacks

and uh perpetuated anti-Semitism and extremism under labor the UK government

is supporting the vexatious arrest warrants issued under by the politicized

international criminal court against Israeli politicians has pledged to recognize a Palestinian State and

imposed an arms embargo on Israel in taking these perverse steps stama and

Lamy have shown themselves to be hamas’s useful idiots to to stand on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of

America or take Iran we know that Trump has no patience with the Ayatollah in

tan who under Biden spaed out of control by funding islamist extremism around the

world and their nuclear bomb program but under labor we have a government that

has failed to prescribe the irgc the Islamic revolutionary guard core the head of the snake when it comes to

Global terrorism on defense fending Trump has electrified NATO by demanding

5% of GDP to go towards military budgets finally someone has said it after

Decades of underinvestment by the UK with an ailen army A depleted Navy and

an under equipped Air Force the UK needs to follow suit immediately of course it

does of course we do but under starma the most we can offer the world’s security is a mey mouthed half-hearted

promise to get to two .5% by 2032 it’s complacent naive and it’s

dangerous on the international order Trump is putting the Sovereign National interest first he recognizes that the

multilateral globalist structures of the world economic forum and the United Nations and the Davos clicks have had

their day and are actively harming our people whilst he pulls out of the

corrupt conflicted and incompetent World Health Organization the the UK is

increasing our funding to this outmoded organization whilst Trump is reinforcing

your Southern border and demanding that other countries do their fair share to fight the global migration crisis Kama

worships at the altar of the Strasburg human rights court and scraps the Rwanda scheme which would have stopped the

boats whilst Trump deports thousands starma appoints an attorney general who

would rather represent Jerry Adams and shamima beum than put the UK National interest first it’s why I keep arguing

that the UK must leave the European Convention of Human Rights scrap the Human Rights Act and the equality act if

we are to fix the crisis on our Southern border of course starma won’t do that

today the world finds itself in a battle a battle between authoritarianism on the

one hand and democracy on the other between an alliance of Russia China Iran

and North Korea and Western democracies exacerbated by globalization and a

migration crisis Trump gets that I get that you get that but starma just

doesn’t understand how exposed we are how fragile our democracies are how

perilous our freedoms are up until last Monday I wasn’t sure which side was

going to win this battle but now I have a bit more hope that Western

Civilization will prevail but the fight is far from over or on matters more close to home

our prime minister could not be more at odds with your president on Net Zero

Trump’s agenda is clear drill baby drill focused on oil gas and fossil fuels as a

way to increase self-sufficiency and lower energy prices for regular Americans but on our side of the Pont

militant Miller Band an Eco extremist who is intent on Plastering our Countryside with solar panels imposing

heat pumps in every house refusing licenses for North seal oil and gas and

allows allowing the closure of our gas blast furnaces he doesn’t seem to care

if we run out of energy which we nearly did a few weeks ago or if it bankrupts the British people and whil the US UK

free trade deal was drafted by the previous conservative government and could be negotiated ated with the

requisite political will we have Labor ministers more interested in undoing

brexit and rejoining the stagnating declining Customs Union of the European

Union so whilst the smart leaders of the world are pivoting towards the USA starma turns away and of course I’ve not

mentioned the eloquence of our labor ministers when it comes to Donald Trump our foreign secretary is on the record

for having called him a racist KKK uh and Neo-Nazi sympathizing

sociopath H and our London mayor just last week trotted out that well-worn smear of

fascist the greatest hits from the left most of the cabinet voted to ban Trump

from making a state visit to the United Kingdom so no wonder secretary Rubio didn’t even bother to call our foreign

secretary upon his appointment no wonder no labor minister of the government was invited to the

inauguration the US UK special relationship is broken and labor broke

it and no wonder no wonder this relationship lies in tatters because

freedom is in crisis in the United Kingdom superficially of course we have

an electoral system a functioning democracy and the rule of law all cherished foundations but look under the

surface and our liberties are being shaken to the core because in the UK we

are in our own struggle we’re in a battle for courage and Common Sense

we’re fighting against the forces of appeasement and progressivism in the UK we have leaders who are more interested

in not offending minorities than speaking the truth about industrial scale rape

gangs we have a police force that will spend more time checking whether your social media comments might be offensive

than turning up to burglaries we have schools with teachers who believe fervently

that boys can be girls and girls can be boys and public institutions enabling this distorted ideology to devastate our

children’s minds and bodies we have leaders who will focus on covering up

the truth about the terrorist aspects the extremist elements of the murder of

three young girls in Southpaw and arresting those people who are angry about that cover up than

looking at the truth looking at why EXT islamist extremism has been allowed to

take root in many communities in the United Kingdom the UK is now a country where

anti-Semitism has become normalized on our campuses through our mainstream media

and on our streets through the hate marches which are enabled by the authorities rather than policed against

and we have an economic weakness that has permeated into our nation’s fabric grown into every facet of Our Lives that

now the number of people in the UK and indeed the West who are sick both physically and psychologically is beyond

comprehension we’ve been demoralized over decades to such an extent that a sentient intelligent species such as

ours capable of Untold greatness has been reduced to questioning an unassailable truth its own

biology now as Home Secretary every single day I fought to put Britain first

I didn’t win all of my battles but I saw the damage that uncontrolled

Mass immigration was doing to our country and when I tried to do something about it through a strong border or

leaving the European Convention of Human Rights or lowering net migration devastating figures have just

released been released today by the way in the UK on projected net migration I was challenged of course by the usual

leftwing opponents that’s par for the course but what was staggering was that

I was actually blocked from delivering these changes by fellow conservatives in the cabinet and in my party you could

call them the conservatives in name only chinos I think you know them as rhinos here you see too many of my fellow

conservatives and they don’t like hearing this but I will keep saying it until I see that my party has changed

have historically seen high levels of immigration as good for the economy they

fail to grasp that GDP has been sluggish throughout the decade of unlimited and

unprecedented migration and they’ve chosen to overlook the really important metric GDP per

capita never mind the costs of spiraling lowcost low skilled migration on our

public services or our communities never mind the fact that the UK population has

now exceeded the French population and is set to increase to

72.5 Million by 20 32 nothing less than a population

explosion for a country the size of the United Kingdom and they’ve been scared as well of tackling the Empire of human

rights that stopped us from deporting illegal migrants to Rwanda they swallowed the Kool-Aid on woke far too

often it was conservative MPS who took the knee after George Floyd there were

conservative MPS who confessed to White Privilege and there were conservative MPS who declared that a transwoman is a

woman it was conservative MPS who said that talking about the rape gangs was

islamophobic even just a few months ago a after our devastating defeat when you

think many of my colleagues would have learned there were too many conservative politicians who were

campaigning for camela as one of the very few Tories who

actually publicly declared their support for Trump before the election there’s a lot of a lot of them who have now

emerged after the results intriguingly you can imagine the vitual that I

received you’ve all got those battle scars too here but for conservative politicians

supposedly right-wing politicians in the United Kingdom to be coming over to the US and delivering leaflets for

camela is astonishing it reflects the state of conservatism in the UK right

now but one example sums up the Mala of the UK right now thousands of girls in towns and

cities around the UK like Rochdale Rotheram Alm Telford and many more and

it’s still going on today have been targeted abused and raped and actually

in some cases tortured when you read some of the transcripts of the judgments of what these young girls went through

by gangs of largely Pakistani Muslim men and to make matters worse the

authorities failed to stop it because they were scared of being called racist

the police social workers teachers counselors all turned a blind eye over a

period of years out of fear they took the easy way

out they ignored the victims sometimes they even blamed the victims or arrested

the victims and they took zero action time and time again all in the name of

not wanting to upset community relations thanks to a few Brave whistleblowers and investigative

journalists like GB news is GB news here GB news should be here because they are heroes in the fight for justice the

Scandal was uncovered but even as as recently as 2023 when Aya’s Home Secretary took an

interest in this issue and chose to visit Rochdale and rotheram to meet the victims and survivors and tackle the

issue I was smeared as being racist even by some conservatives in a way the fear

that crippled those who let those girls down was proven right that didn’t deter

me though I’m proud of the specialist task force that I set up as Home Secretary which led to over 500

arrests and safeguarded over 4,000 victims through its investigations much

more needs to be done and the problem continues today but to be honest until Elon mus came along it was a taboo in

Britain until a few weeks ago there has been an Unwritten code in our country

talk about the rape gangs and you will be called islamophobic I’m glad that many more

have found the courage to voice their anger today thank you Elon or take Southport in response to

the brutal murder of three beautiful young girls age six seven and N Last Summer the government covered up the

terrorist elements of the case the labor government continues to shamefully

deflect blame from the killer himself the murderer himself on to social media

companies internet platforms and Amazon where the murderer bought his knife so

in the name of multiculturalism politicians of the three main parties have consistently

refused to address the elephant in the room that millions of people coming into the UK do not have our best interests at

heart and refuse to assimilate too many immigrants into the UK refuse

to learn English they refuse to wear western clothes and many do not want to

embrace the judeo-christian culture that defines and founded the United Kingdom

with all its wonderful freedoms and opportunities the reason I feel so strongly about this is because I know

the power and good that Britain brings to the world my parents born under the

British Empire came to the UK with nothing in the 1960s my mother was an 18-year-old girl when

she was recruited by the National Health Service in maius to come to the motherland to work as a nurse and my

father kicked out by Kenya came to Britain’s Shores clutching just his

British passport a passport for him as he stood on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport age 19

embodied hope opportunity and freedom my parents built their life by

revering Britain they had nothing but gratitude and admiration for the British

Empire and what our country symbolized to humanity they worked hard they saved

they integrated and they were welcomed by the British that’s why the mass

migration of today makes me so angry because it’s everything that Britain and

indeed the United States is not to many migrants coming to the UK today they

just want to take take take whereas the controlled immigration of decades ago

was much more about give give give the truth is that Britain has imported a

fifth column into our society a column that refuses to integrate refuses to

abide by our laws our customs and our values just today in the times an

article written by preeminent journalists has said that 75% of

people on trial for murder at the Old Bailey that’s the main Criminal Court in

the in England are from black uh backgrounds from war torn

countries 75% of those

defendants so I say to those who want to do our country harm your time is up in

the United States and your time is coming in the United Kingdom we’ve all had enough that means less rhetoric Less

Talk More Action more arrests more deportations more convictions

Mass migration is an existential threat to the way of life in our country and to

Western civilization and the public be it in the US or in the UK have voted time and time again to stop it however

there is some hope the tide of this war has turned as Churchill

said this is not the end this is not even the beginning of the end Perhaps it

is the end of the beginning thanks to Trump free speech for all its faults is

in the ascendancy the speed at which Dei and woke institutional policies are crumbling is accelerating and the

malfeasance of government and the mandac of the administrative state are being exposed with frequent

regularity the prevailing consensus of how multiculturalism was nothing but a

benefit is unraveling at PACE along with many far-left ideologies Progressive thinking is

losing it’s losing with the young it’s losing with the old it’s losing with blue and white collar workers alike and

instead is being forced to take cover in the liberal enclaves of Islington and San Francisco where they weep at the

fall of Justin Trudeau starmer’s plummeting popularity and the defeat of Camala Harris the re-election of Donald

Trump by the American people Heralds the potential that this war is winnable key

questions will emerge will this Inspire citizens in other nations stuck in this political ideology of the farle to

follow suit more importantly what will happen in the west if it does not what

will happen if democracy is indeed thwarted by the existing political class

vice president JD Vance said at the national conservative conference at which I also spoke in the summer here in

DC that the UK was going to be the first islamist nation with nuclear weapons I don’t think he was entirely

joking it is it is it an impossibility that 20 years from now it will be the UK

not China or Russia that will emerge as the greatest strategic threat to the USA born out of a broken relationship

and weak leadership what happens if the UK falls into the hands of Muslim fundamentalism

our legal system gets substituted by Sharia law and our nuclear capabilities vest in a regime not dissimilar to that

of Iran today regardless of whether one thinks this is a realistic outcome which I do

not should we not have the courage to ask these questions and look at where our country is

heading but now thankfully The Tide is beginning to turn towards Freedom if the freedom

Revival fails in the USA we all lose and the loss would be irrevocable technology

digital IDs controllable digital currencies the absolute power of global institutions all paint a dark tapestry

of Perpetual servitude for the people sprinkle in robots and artificial

intelligence jobs become redundant and people have no purpose and falling birth

rates around the world shrinking of the world’s population and we’re very close

to a ruling class deciding that the masses are indeed Superfluous a drain on

precious resources and a cancer on the planet’s ecology with the we and the dav’s desire the Davos Elites desire to

see population reduction becoming a reality if the USA wins we will once

again have freedom but the US needs its allies it needs you it needs us it may

not have starma and his woke socialists in the cabinet but he does have a majority of British public opinion on

his side we must find the courage to shout enough is enough and act differently for our communities and at

our elections because only then will we have freedom freedom is getting up early

in the morning and working hard for you and your family without being molested by oversized bureaucratic government

freedom is the land that we Farm the schooling of our children and the freedom to walk our streets in safety

without it we are mere chattel slaves and that is not a world I will ever capitulate to so Let Freedom Ring from

every state every city every village and every Hamlet Let Freedom Ring thank you

[Applause]

so thank you for uh a really powerful speech I think it’s one of the most

um uh powerful speeches we’ve seen at the Heritage Foundation actually in in all the years that I’ve I’ve been here

and a real wakeup call for the British government uh not necessarily for the

British people I think the British people already uh share so much of your

um of your aspiration for for the future um but your remarks I I think were a

real warning about the uh the future the potential future of the United Kingdom

unless it changes uh course uh and uh I think that uh this is a message that

should be uh heeded really on on both sides of the Atlantic fortunately the United States is moving in the right direction the UK seems to be moving in

in a increasingly perilous uh path um going to ask you uh a few uh questions

uh on a range of of of issues and then I’m going to invite questions from the from the audience and I’m sure there are

PL you questions uh but I’m going to actually kick off with uh an issue that is

um of of growing interest here in the United States it’s an important issue for the Heritage uh Foundation uh and

this is the issue actually of Prince Harris’s immigration records and uh as as you will know many of you will know

here uh the Heritage Foundation has uh called for the release of Prince

Harris’s immigration records in light of his um uh his admission of uh of

widespread illegal drug use in his book uh spare uh and uh in fact we we took the

the Biden Administration to uh to federal court on this on this issue and it’s become

actually an issue of of intense Public public interest uh and uh it it’s a it’s

a growing media story in the United States um in your view uh should uh Prince Harris’s immigration records be

be released by by President uh Trump you have a new US Administration uh with an entirely

different approach towards border security and enforcing uh the rule of of law what’s your what’s your view on this

this matter well I think think that they should be released Prince Harry is not above the law if he is choosing to come

to the US and reside in America he needs to follow American rules and we can’t

have a situation that where there are special rules for him and different rules for another person if he’s broken

those rules uh transparency dictates that the public should know about it and

um I think that you know he is subject to the law and the law must be applied

without fear or without favor to him as it would any other US citizen or indeed

any other Foreigner who might try to come into the US so yes I do support and the president has extensive powers in

this regard so regardless of the uh result from the court I think it’s

pretty POS pretty feasible for the president to direct disclosure of the uh

of the of the documents thank you very much s and uh

um you raised in your uh excellent speech uh the issue of the chos islands

proposed deal uh and the the starma government uh is proposing to hand over

the chos islands to to Marius uh at significant cost as well to the British

tax I think it will cost uh approximately 10 billion pounds over the course of the next 100 years under the

proposed deal and there’s a lot of concern here in Washington with regard to what this means for the US base of

Diego Garcia which is contained within those those islands uh and uh already uh

the National Security advisor and and the new secretary state have have in the in the past uh expressed concerns over

this this deal and I I expect that uh there is going to be a formal response

by the new Administration uh shortly on this and here at Heritage I needless say we’re very very concerned about this

this deal what it means for US National Security the future of Diego Garcia uh and uh maius also as as you mentioned is

a is a close Ally of of China and so this is uh undoubtedly looking like a

big strategic win for communist China at the expense of both the UK and the US uh

and this this deal seems to be incredibly incredibly dangerous what’s

your advice to uh to president Trump uh on how he should

respond well well I would advise president Trump I would urge him and ask

him to kill this deal as quickly as possible it’s a bad deal for the US it

doesn’t serve the US uh National interest and it’s a bad deal for the UK

I I’m I have a a unique take on this my I think I’m right in saying that I’m the only member of the UK Parliament with

maian Heritage at least the commons the elected chamber and my mother is from Marius as I said in my speech but my

loyalties lie first and foremost to the United Kingdom and from a Strategic

Defense point of view this is a disaster for the us as you say the US have a base a military base in Diego Garcia which is

part of the archipelago and by handing these uh

ownership to maius we are effectively handing them indirectly to China because

in no time at all China will locate onto the islands it will have a foothold

in the Indian a foothold in the Indian Ocean which gives it an important Naval presence in that region and poses a

strategic military threat to America so under no circumstances should that be

allowed and that is one of the biggest reasons why the President should kill the deal from a UK perspective listen

it’s a really bad deal um seeding this sovereignty to um the Marius is um based

on very flimsy legal grounds the foreign office and the um uh Marian

government invokes um a non-binding advisory opinion from the Europe um

International court of justice which is based on very very flimsy legal ground so there’s a very weak legal basis for

the UK to give up the sovereignty and from a an economic sense uh this is a bad deal we are giving up the Sovereign

territory to maius and then we’re being charged 9 billion1 billion pounds to leasee it back I mean it just doesn’t

make any sense at all and at the end of the day it is also sending the message

to the world that Britain is weak Britain is absent and Britain is going

to appease communism totally the wrong message that Britain should be

sending yeah very well said I I certainly It’s Our Hope here at the Heritage Foundation this uh surrender

deal is is uh sent to the bottom of the Indian Ocean as swiftly as possible um

and uh you talked in your in your speech about the the new Trump uh presidency

the conservative revolution in the United States how do you think that uh president Trump and his administration

are doing so far in just just the first few days I mean it’s extraordinary the number of executive orders uh the the

sweeping uh political change that we’ve seen just in the space space of a week

it’s extraordinary it’s inspiring it gives me hope as a UK conservative that

change is possible whether it’s the executive orders that he signed to do with deportations and actually

delivering um you know the the removal of thousands of illegal migrants taking

a robust stance towards Colombia whether it’s the executive orders to scrap all

Dei policies from government departments whether it’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization on so many levels

this is a blueprint for what unfiltered raw Common Sense conservatism looks like

and the American people will stand to gain from it and it’s a model of what we must aspire to in the United Kingdom

meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic uh you have a a very left-wing socialist government that is moving in

in a completely different uh Direction and uh cure st’s approval rating I think

is is probably the lowest for any uh prime minister of the modern era uh and

an incredibly uh unpopular uh government uh and a lot of criticism as well uh

leveled out his his cabinet including the uh the chancellor um in your view so

do you think that Rachel Reeves the British Chancellor is is destroying the British economy undermining the

effectiveness of of the United Kingdom uh on on the world stage through her her

socialist economic uh plans absolutely yes um we we we had the fastest growing

economy in the G7 at the time of the general election in July

2024 we had slashed the deficit from over 10% to uh just under 2% we had cut

public sector net borrowing again from about 9% to again uh just over 1% we had

cut inflation from record levels to again 2% by 2024 um what else had we done on the

economy listen we we got a lot of things wrong but on the economy we stabilized it and of course we had a jobs Miracle

we cut unemployment we almost hared unemployment during our time in office and thousands millions of jobs were

created during our tenure so in many respects we left the economy in a good

condition for this incoming labor Administration and in such a short space of time they have wrecked all of it and

it’s the British people who are going to suffer so whether it’s um imposing the

punitive uh increase to employers National Insurance effectively a Jobs Tax making it harder and more expensive

for employers to hire people uh or whether it’s uh the sluggish growth

which means that we’re going to probably enter a recession this year job losses

businesses going bust people having to sell up property uh or whether it’s the

enormous level of red tape that they are uh imposing on business and wealth

creators through their employment Rights bill which will effectively be a deterent to employment uh and a

deterrent to um employers hiring people um or whether it’s the uh inflation

busting payouts that they’ve handed to the union Barons effectively in the UK

we now have an economy that’s not run by elected politician it’s run by the

militant unions in our country uh who are um dictating the terms to this

socialist Chancellor of the ex cheer and we have a prime minister who doesn’t really have a grip and doesn’t have a

view on how to generate growth how to cut taxes how to reduce the size of the

state and how to generate uh Prosperity so yes the economy the British economy

is tanking and uh the real world effect is

misery for the British people uh truly frightening outlook for for the United Kingdom uh and you did

speak about um brexit and uh and brexit under threat uh do you

think that it is the the goal the intention of the labor government to uh

completely undermine the the Democratic will of the British people expressed in the 2016

referendum by by overturning brexit and taking the United Kingdom back into the

sinking European Union do you think that’s the intention of the labor government bearing in mind that nearly every single labor MP voted against

brexit yeah um I think it is their intention uh de facto or de jury I think

that they will undo brexit and pretty much most of the cabinet campaigned for

a second referendum they didn’t just vote remain and oppose brexit they actually wanted to undo brexit and as

you say go against the will of the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union I was one of 17.4 million

I I campaigned to leave the European Union because I wanted uh control of our borders over our laws and I wanted our

sovereignty back but uh under labor and it’s very opposite that we’re talking

about it this week this is the fiveyear anniversary of us leaving the European Union it was at the end of January

January 31st that we actually formally officially legally left the uh European

Union um that you know we are actually now talking about the prospects of it being being reversed you know we’ve

heard from the chancellor again say that she would be very interested in joining a pan European Mediterranean pact um

they’ve talked about a defense uh agreement that would involve pooling I mean that even goes wor further than our

membership uh previous membership of the EU um involved with pooling military

budgets and uh seeding sovereignty over foreign policy but they’re very interested in joining the Customs Union

they’re very interested in giving up our trade sovereignty thankfully under the conservatives we secured over 70 free

trade agreements with other trading nations and that does act as an entrenchment of brexit into our

institution so it’s very hard I think to undo that without major upheaval but

what I think that they the labor government will do is they will move towards closer regulatory alignment they

will probably make some kind of agreement with the EU on migration I

imagine that they will open the door to free movement of people um and they will

uh you know work towards ever closer Union and it’s completely nuts you know the EU economy is in Decline it’s

stagnating it’s a slow it’s not it’s not a fast growing economy the fast growing economies of the world are in the Far

East and and and the the USA the these are the economies where our British

interests uh economically lie but um because of ideological

zealotry uh this labor government won’t see that and we were both actually at the the vote leavea headquarters on on

referendum night celebrating the uh the brexit Victory and it’s very sad uh to

see uh the socialist government uh uh trying to thwart the the Democratic will

of the British people here uh and uh the conservative party as you pointed

out uh has has really uh struggled of course in recent in recent years and and

not least because it has on many occasions failed to advance conservative uh principles and policies

uh what is what is the future of the of the conservative party arguably the most successful uh political party in in the

history of the world over the course of of the last couple of centuries but in real crisis uh at at this at this moment um

reform headed by Nigel far surging in the the British polls uh should the

conservatives and reform be working together in order to oust uh labor at the next general

election and the stakes are incredibly High the stakes are very high and our failure as conservatives needs needs to

be laid bare and we need to be honest about it we need to take responsibility for it we were scared of being conservative too many of my uh uh

colleagues in Parliament were scared of being considered Chino as I as I said

and scared of upsetting offending doing the right thing for the common sense

patriotic majority and rather putting the interests of Elites first um and the

approval of polite Society uh first so I think that we need to reflect on

ourselves and on our party and make sure that we don’t make that mistake again we need to change in order to remedy that

and if you look at the polling it’s very simple arithmetic at the moment you know um I think the last poll that I looked

at reform was polling about 27% we were just behind on

25% um and labor were around 26% something something like that if you

combine the conservative and the reform vote we’re approaching we’re exceeding 50% of the vote that is an important

indictment on this labor government um but it also means that should those Figures it’s a big caveat should those

figures remain the same or roughly the same in four years time um you know the

only way to beat label will be for some kind of accommodation between reform and

the conservative party very premature to be talking about these things now because we are four years away at least

from an election and anything can happen in British politics uh but I think that

if things stay the same as they are now then we do have to face facts and be pragmatic and focus on the goal the goal

must be to get rid of this labor government you spoke earlier about the

uh The Grooming gangs Scandal uh the Bri the biggest Scandal I

think in modern British history uh with the the mass rape of tens of thousands

of British women largely by Pakistani immigrant gangs uh and uh the labor government has

rightly come under very heavy criticism of its handling this uh if you were home

secretary today how would you be handling the uh The Grooming gangs

Scandal and what measures would you be taking yeah well one thing I wouldn’t be doing which is what Kia St did was

branding all those who are concerned about this grooming gangs rape gang

Scandal as being far right that’s what he did literally a few weeks ago he said this was a far right bandwagon and

actually just today a report has been uh has emerged from the home office

repeating that same Trope that anyone who talks about grooming gangs anyone who’s concerned about it is propagating

far right ideology yes that’s what the left does they want to shut it down they want to

shut the truth down they want to shut Justice down the truth is not racist

Justice is not racist and that’s why we all need to be courageous to fight against this nonsense if I were home

secretary today what I would be doing is first of all um I would be focusing on

the operational response because as I said this is still ongoing and

these you know rapists are still operating in plain sight with the

authorities continuing to do nothing because they’ve got away with it for a decade so why would they change now I

would be looking at what uh resource the various police forces have diverted to

the investigations I would be increasing the specialist police resource uh to

expedite the investigations to get more arrests to get more charges to get more

trials and convictions and sentences we saw in the summer how that can be done when the

prime minister is seized of an issue that he’s interested in he can get results in the summer he was very angry

about the Southport riots he convened the criminal justice system and he

galvanized the police the prosecutors and the courts to move quickly so that

they fast-tracked the cases people were rioting on a Saturday and they were in

court on a Sunday and they were being banged up on a Monday it was being move it was being fast-tracked so uh so

effectively uh and they managed to get very uh significant sentences Kiama

could do the same if he had the political will on rape gangs that he is

choosing to do nothing speaks volumes I would also be passing legislation to

change the law one of the failings um and the reasons why this got out of

control is that there were no obligations on professionals to take action and one thing that’s emerged from

the various reviews and the reports is that we do need a legal duty to report a

duty of Care on the police on the teachers on the social workers workers

on the uh people who knew about it professionals to actually take action if

they see this trouble happening and this Behavior going on and um that that way

we can actually hold people to account when they fail to safeguard vulnerable

people and and shockingly the um the Southport

uh uh killing uh crime um has not been

classified yet as a officially as a terrorist incident by by the lab labor government which is which is

incomprehensible and it is so there were there were several charges um put to the

defendant he pleaded guilty um uh to all of them some of those charges were

terrorist offenses um he was found to have uh been looking at extremist uh islamist uh

material online he was making uh you know explosives um and

the authorities and the government have so far still refused to describe the whole incident and the murder as

terrorist motivated or um uh terrorist uh in any way uh that does a disservice

to the victims and the community of Southport to the British people this uh

murderer was an islamist extremist yes and um he carried out the most heinous

of crimes um you know in a way that was holy unjustified and motivated by hatred

and you know to somehow diminish it I think is um uh is wrong it’s absolutely

outrageous and I’d like to take um some some brief questions from from the

audience uh please do keep your your questions uh short to the point and also

identify yourself as as well will be helpful for us so I shall uh yes

actually go go go ahead D yes

yeah and my question is this a lot of people were not sure of the difference between conservatives and labor when it

comes to environmental policies such as Net Zero which is so damaging to the

economy uh as you pointed out and I was wondering uh if you could say something about

that I think previously that has been a fair criticism of us and that’s one example of where conservatives was the

conservative party was scared of being conservative it was a conservative government that legislated for a

crippling 2030 uh Net Zero Target um it was a

conservative uh Administration that uh really pushed through a lot of renewable

sources of energy in a way that wasn’t necessarily very economical for the

British people um and whether it’s electrical electric vehicles whether

it’s uh an extremely disproportionate and costly focus on renewable energy

whether it’s a failure to properly promote uh oil and gas in our country I think uh you know we to to a degree the

conservative party was overtaken by the green lobby and uh it is one example of

where we really need to break with that past and we need to now be unapologetically on the side of you know

lower energy prices and increased and diverse energy Supply and of course we

all care about the environment and we want to do our best but not in a way that bankrupts the British

people thank you for that that question yes we have a question over here yeah

uh thank you madam for your remarks it is uh inspiring to see someone stand up for her principles uh in a situation

that is much Bleaker than in America um I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on

the disconnects between the political class and the uh the citizens of the

United Kingdom um you mentioned that very briefly in your remarks and I wonder how um how that damage that the

gap between that class those two classes have contributed to the decline in the United Kingdom and how that Gap can be

uh bridged how can the political class once again serve uh the citizens of the United Kingdom it’s a great question and

I think it goes to the heart of why my party failed so badly last year it would

be a mistake for outside observers to read the results of the last general election as the British people embracing

socialism just because the labor party won that general election with a record landslide labor did not win their vote

share actually stayed the same in many cases well actually uh karma won with

fewer votes than Jeremy Corbin lost with in 2019 so their vote share has remained

quite stubbornly low this general election result is not a reflection of a newfound love of the British people for

leftwing politics it’s a reflection of a wholesale collapse in the conservative vote share

our vote uh crumbled because people were angry with us and they were felt very

let down with us millions of them went to reform the Challenger right-wing

party and that that split the right-wing vote millions of them didn’t even turn out to vote actually and that’s how

labor came through that is what the general election 2024 means and the disconnect between the

British people and the conservative party uh was was really played out in that general election and there’s one

there’s no bigger example of how that disconnect has uh manifested itself over

the last decade and it’s through migration you know uh every conservative

party Manifesto I think since 2010 has promised to lower overall net migration

so this is not about the boats coming in illegally on the south coast this is about the number of visas that we

issue um through our own will to people coming in from

abroad so every Manifesto 2010 2015 2017 2019 2024 we’ve promised to lower

migration throughout that period what’s happened to migration it’s increased and then it’s exponentially increased

towards the end we are totally out of touch with what the British people have been saying to us time and time again

they voted for brexit the brexit vote in 2016 was in large part motivated by

desire for lower m ation what happened after brexit immigration soared and as I

said data from the office of national statistics published today shows that in

2023 I think it was for the first time our population overtook that of France

and we are projected to continue overtaking it by some margin but we are seeing nothing less than a population

explosion immigration is one example of how the party has been so disconnected why has it been disconnected it’s

because Elites in our party have been more persuaded by an economic Orthodoxy

that has been prevalent in the treasury in the office of budget responsibility in the department for Education the

department for health and the department for business the government institutions have worked on a belief that more

immigration is better for the economy full stop they haven’t looked at the costs of low skilled low wage migration

they haven’t looked at the pressure on public services they haven’t looked on the pressure on housing Supply haven’t looked on the tension that it’s placing

on community they’ve just thought more people coming into the UK is going to be better for

the economy that is manifestly wrong and we’ve been out of touch and as a result

we were kicked out of office thank you and uh I think that uh

let me see there any further uh further questions here um we

have have one over here and I think we’re we’re nearly out of time but please go go ahead thank you uh you

mentioned that it’s been 5 years since brexit but it’s also been 5 years since the late sir Roger scrutin was sacked

from uh the building better building beautiful uh agency after a liberal um

journalist accused him of being racist and a bigot and he was sacked not by

labor but by the conservatives and I guess my question is what is the

conservative party doing to sort of Remedy that disconnect and formulate itself as being true

conservative you know you you pick up on a very powerful example of how we were

scared of being conservatives Roger scrutin the preeminent conservative

thinker of Our Generation uh who set out a philosophy which uh represents

patriotism or as I would put it uh Family Faith and flag conservatism which

is you know um not far off the Maga philosophy it’s very much what we need in the in the UK it’s a a philosophy

that I very much support was as you said uh smeared as racist for speaking about

issues that were very pertinent and to make matters worse kicked out or sacked

by the conservative Administration a great example a great example of where we lacked a backbone where we lacked

courage and we lacked foresight of what it means to be conservative and time and time again conservatives

are smeared as being racist islamophobic fascist extremist divisive because they’re trying to speak

about uncomfortable truths in our country and it’s this weakness that has

really been our our downfall and so your question is what are we doing so that

was a disgraceful decision and again another reflection whether it’s Net Zero or outof control immigration that’s

another example or or conservative ministers saying that trans women are women another example of where the

chinos were running the party and the government and the country and not proper conservatives what are we doing

to fix it well we have a new leader Camy Bok uh she has been very honest about

the pro the problems of the previous administrations let’s hope that she now

take steps to remedy those failings and time will tell you know it is a work in

progress and time will tell uh if we have genuinely changed and actually rediscovered our authentic unfiltered

Common Sense conservatism it’s what we need as a party but moreover it’s what the British people

need yeah thank you for that that question Roger scru of course was a a good friend of of lady thatchers and I

think one of the most Brilliant Minds of um of the last two generations frankly

and uh uh it’s it’s so important as well as as you as you mentioned for for

conservatives to really stand up for conservative principles ideals and policies which was really at the heart

of of of margarth Thatcher’s message and it’s been such a real honor and

privilege to host you today uh your remarks are uh incredibly sound I would

say uh and my former boss margar Thatcher uh if she were here with us today I think would have heartly

approved of everything you said uh and and she would have been I think greatly

concerned about uh the current state of or brisen I think she would have had um

a lot of a lot of Hope of course for for America with the new leadership here and and America seems to be uh undergoing uh

a tremendously powerful uh revolution in the right direction um but uh for

Britain there is always hope in the future and and we need strong uh

conviction based leadership of of the kind that Margaret Thatcher Advanced but

also uh you’re advancing today so so than thank you very much sella for a

fantastic uh Speech a superb discussion and thank you to our audience in person

and also on online uh in the US UK and across across the world uh it’s been uh

uh great to to host you all today and we look forward to uh welcome you all back for future events here at the Heritage

Foundation so a big thank you to to all of you thank you