Thank you, conference!
It’s great to be back. Back in Edinburgh and back at Conference.
Because I love conference. And you know what, I love our party. We are a family. And, like all families, we don’t all agree on everything all the time...But when we get together – when we debate, discuss, plan, challenge each other and ourselves on our vision for the future, I am reminded why I joined this great party in the first place fifteen years ago – because, no matter the challenge, no matter the headwinds we might be facing – we look forward with optimism, with a smile, prepared to make the case for a better Scotland with good humour and good grace – convinced that our vision of a better tomorrow will win out.
So, thank you. Our members, our activists, my friends for everything you do to make this great party what it is. For being prepared, time and time and time again, year in, year out, to get out there and champion our cause, and for giving Kemi, Russell, myself and all our elected representatives the confidence knowing we have your support.
There’s no shying away from it, we face rough seas.
And, let’s face it, there’s quite a lot of doom and gloom about our Party’s prospects right now. I rather think John Curtice is slowly morphing into Private Fraser whenever he talks about us. But does that deter me? Does that deter us? Not one bit. If anything, it drives us forward to prove the doomsters and the gloomsters – and those people in the Scottish media who frankly want to see us fail, wrong.
We are the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party – if we’re not being written off, there’s something wrong.
We were told we couldn't become the opposition at Holyrood, then Ruth Davidson came along and changed that.
Then people said it wouldn't last, and we went and won more votes than ever in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
Commentators were predicting we would lose all our seats at the General Election last year, but I still beat the SNP in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine. And increased my majority.
As did David Mundell and John Lamont in the Borders and Dumfriesshire.
And, despite a tough night for our party across the United Kingdom, we were joined by two brilliant new Scottish colleagues in John Cooper and Harriet Cross.
So, our party has been told we've got no chance plenty of times, only to upset the odds.
It's what we do as Conservatives.
If Aberdeen scored as many last-minute equalisers as we do, I’d be a much happier man.
But Conference, Aberdeen, not for the first time, showed what is possible. They went to Hampden, told that there was no chance, that the result was inevitable.
Yet the sea of red that welcomed the team back to the Granite City, Scottish Cup in hand, showed what can be.
Now we must do the same, keep working hard, keep believing, and prove the naysayers wrong.
Because we know that in a head-to-head contest, we can still beat the SNP. And, not only can, must.
How do I know that, because conference we've shown it again and again over the last year.
Just weeks after Russell and Kemi were elected as our new leaders, we won four by-elections across the North East in one day.
We won in Central Buchan, Fraserburgh and District, the Mearns and Elgin South.
Then at the start of this year, we won right here in Edinburgh, in Colinton and Fairmilehead.
In all of those by-elections, our vote share rose, too.
Our party can still win all over Scotland, no matter what commentators and pollsters say.
Difficulties are there to be outdone. Challenges are there to be faced. Obstacles are there to be overcome.
My optimism isn't blind faith. I'm optimistic for a reason.
In Russell Findlay and Kemi Badenoch, we've got two new leaders taking the party in the right direction.
I'm proud to work closely with both of them as friends, colleagues and as the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
I backed both Russell and Kemi from the very start because I could see they had the resolve and the determination to lead our party.
I knew they both had the drive to take whatever was thrown at them and keep fighting.
To take on Swinney and Starmer and holding the failing SNP and Labour governments to account.
Conference, as you know, here in Scotland, Russell has been doing a fantastic job leading our party.
He uses all of his 30 years' experience working as an investigative journalist to expose the SNP's record in power.
He's been all over Scotland making our case and reaching out to people disillusioned with politicians.
He's putting forward a vision for a different Scotland after decades of left-wing rule by the SNP and Labour before them.
He gets what people in the real world want to see because he only became a politician a few years ago.
Russell has real life experience and he's putting it to good use by building a policy platform that connects with people's everyday concerns.
He's focused on what really matters, not gimmicks or obscure, niche issues.
And Kemi is doing the exact same as our UK party leader.
She didn't go along with the gender madness of the SNP and Labour, she was one of the first to speak up against it.
She's got the strength to do what's right and not just go along with brief, fringe fads.
She knows what she believes, she's passionate about Conservative values, and she will stick to them.
The contrast when she's opposite Sir Keir Starmer at the despatch box could not be clearer.
Kemi will keep her promises, Keir has broken most of his after just one year in power.
Kemi knows what's right, Keir keeps turning left.
Kemi will stick to her principles, Keir doesn't have any.
And let's not forget, Kemi knows what a woman is, Keir hasn't a clue.
Conference, with Russell and Kemi leading our party, we are once again representing people who hold Conservative values and believe what we believe.
They're renewing our party with common sense - and common purpose.
They're united and working together as UK and Scottish leader on the big challenges facing our country.
That's what our party must do - focus on delivering the positive solutions that will help people's lives and get Scotland and Britain back on track.
The Conservative Party is at its best when we are laser-focused on delivering for people with aspiration and ambition.
When we're fixated on championing small businesses and helping entrepreneurs to succeed.
When we're determined to spread opportunity across the country and give everyone a chance to get ahead, no matter where they come from, whatever their background, or what their parents did.
The future of Scotland and Britain is at stake.
Our country's security depends on a strong Conservative party that stands up for what's right.
Ronald Reagan, once said that the "first duty of government is to protect people."
On every front, the SNP and Labour are failing to do that.
They haven't protected anyone's economic security by raising taxes or ripping away their winter fuel payment, even if they will hand it back later.
They haven't protected our food security by hitting rural businesses with a Family Farm Tax.
They haven't protected our energy security by insisting on no new oil and gas developments.
Alongside, being your Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland I am acting Shadow Secretary of State for Energy.
As a North East loon, now representing a constituency so deeply connected to our North Sea energy industry I am all too aware of what is at stake.
Because the decisions made by this Labour Government, spearheaded by the dangerous eco-zealotry of Ed Miliband, do not just affect my corner of the country but will be felt the length and breadth of Britain.
We can all see what is happening in the world. It is more unstable, there is more risk out there, we are more vulnerable.
That is why the decisions of this Government are so gravely concerning. Their economic incompetence coupled with their frightening ineptitude when it comes to our energy security is making the United Kingdom more vulnerable.
Their mad-cap drive to Clean Power by 2030. £8bn wasted on a company no one wants, no one needs, and no one knows what it’s supposed to do – all to deliver around 200 jobs over five years.
The pledge to cut energy bills by £300- mysteriously missing from Labour press releases since the election.
Actively accelerating the decline in our North Sea. At this time – actively choosing NOT to drill for oil and gas, our own oil and gas- forcing us to become increasingly exposed through over reliance on imports from overseas. Imports that are shipped in diesel chugging tankers across the Atlantic from America, or from Norwegian wells, wells in the very same Sea that we should be drilling.
The Labour Party are overseeing the wilful de-industrialisation of our nation.
Investment is drying up, work is being put on pause, companies are literally shutting up shop, jobs are being lost.
But make no mistake, these decisions, this hostility to our oil and gas workers is not simply the preserve of the zealots in the Labour Party. The SNP have their fingerprints all over the Job losses, the well closures, and the pylon applications.
We need Conservative leadership because we know where the SNP and Labour will take us.
It's always the same with these left-wing parties. Big promises, but small achievements.
They take more from taxpayers but give less back in return.
They tell people how to live instead of giving them the tools to succeed on their own.
They would rather control people's lives than provide the freedom for hard workers to create better circumstances for themselves and their children.
Our country cannot afford to leave the SNP and Labour to run things.
And don’t think for one moment the snake oil salesmen in Reform care one jot for Scotland. For our United Kingdom.
Let me be absolutely clear. Reform is, quite simply, not a conservative party, not a unionist party, not a serious party. The only achievement that Nigel Farage could potentially have in Scotland next year would be handing John Swinney and the SNP five more years in Bute House. And you know what Conference, he has said he isn’t really that bothered about that.
Well, I am. We Conservatives are. Scotland has suffered for too long for that to be allowed to happen.
But look, I know, we all read the polls. We all see the headlines. We know we’ve much work to do to win back the trust of the Scottish and British people. People wanted change. They wanted a change from us.
Why? Well yes, we made mistakes. But more than that I think we stopped explaining to people what we stood for- what we believed in. Maybe because we didn’t know ourselves. We were confused as to who we were. And in that vacuum, we allowed others to define us and our beliefs, to misrepresent who we were.
From the left and, yes, now from the right.
But we must step up. Britain needs us more than ever. So, it is up to us to make the case for conservatism afresh. A renewed, bold. Optimistic vision for our party and our country.
Only we Conservatives know that in the tradition of Margaret Thatcher, celebrating 100 years since her birth and 50 years since she became leader this year, only we know that only by setting people free to realise their full potential will they ever realise the potential of their communities and their countries. We know that with personal responsibility comes pride in oneself, in one’s work, in one’s home and one’s country. We know that free trade breaks down barriers between countries and cultures, spreads wealth and creates opportunities for all.
Freedom, liberty, personal responsibility and equality of opportunity. These are exciting ideas. If we, in the Conservative Party can’t get passionate about them, can’t excite passion in others about them, then we are truly lost. And Scotland needs them now more than ever.
So let us get to work.
Ronald Reagan, that great communicator, spoke of building a shining city - a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.
That must be our vision for Britain as Conservatives. So, under Russell and Kemi, let us strengthen our own shining city. Let us buttress her walls against the combined threats of socialism, separatism and apathy and let us ensure that its warm glow grows in strength and reach.
This is the most successful Party in the history of the world, and we would not be that if we did not do battle. From the days of Robert Peel, who laid the foundations of modern governance, to the iron resolve of Margaret Thatcher, who revitalised Britain’s economy and global standing. Our Party has renewed itself before, whilst remaining the voice of resilience, of aspiration of action.
And we will do so again. Because frankly friends, Scotland, Britain, cannot afford for us not to.
