“Conference, what a result!
Now I know – I’ve received the memo…
…we musn’t be complacent… there’s no gloating… we show humility in our victory.
But, you’ve got to admit… to see Wales qualify for the Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals. A fantastic achievement!
Thank you to everyone who has come up to me in the last three days to declare that they are now supporting Wales from here on in at this World Cup. That’s the beauty of being part of a family of nations in this United Kingdom…
…we all have options… and it’s amazing the number of people who have discovered Welsh ancestors since last Saturday night.
So it’s been quite a year for us in Wales – and for the Welsh Conservative Party.
Many of you know that because you were there, you helped us.
You helped us win in North Wales, in mid Wales, in South Wales...
…Right across the great nation of Wales, you were there with us – helping to secure the best Conservative result in Wales for more than 30 years.
So I want to start by thanking each and every one of you. Diolch yn fawr.
Those of you who got stuck into that street fight in Cardiff North – and what a brilliant result we had there with Craig Williams – in a seat that Labour thought they had in the bag long before the campaign had even begun.
Those of you who helped our team in North Wales prise the Vale of Clwyd from the Labour Party’s grip with Dr James Davies, who kicked off this morning’s session – James Davies: the local GP, born and bred in the community, who understands more than anybody the importance of a strong NHS and just how unacceptable the standards are that Welsh Labour say people in Wales have to put up with.
And deep in the heart of rural Mid Wales, Chris Davies, not just nudging Brecon and Radnorshire across the line for Welsh Conservatives, but wrestling that seat from the Liberal Democrats with one of the largest swings anywhere in the country. What a massive result that was for our Party.
And then there are those of you here today, who helped pull off what the Labour Party didn’t believe was possible. The Welsh Labour Party, who take their seats for granted, and who even on polling day were out there, trying to mock our campaign.
“Dream on” they said.
Well, we weren’t just dreaming. We had been working night and day, week after week, month after month to win a seat deep in Labour’s heartland, a seat which had never been Conservative and which Labour had held continuously for more than one hundred years.
But ladies and gentleman, when you have a candidate like former Police officer Byron Davies, anything is possible and so yes, from right under their noses, we got rid of Labour from the Gower too.
But Conference, how arrogant is it for any party to assume a seat will always belong to them?
But this is what we’re up against in Wales.
The stuffy Welsh Labour establishment taking their communities and their voters for granted year after year, election after election…
Well Conference, Wales has had enough.
Because I travelled through the Valleys during the election campaign, through those core Labour strongholds, and not once did I see a single Labour poster, or Labour candidate out there in the community speaking to the people they claim to represent. You wouldn’t have known there was an election happening.
I believe Wales deserves better than this. Those working class communities deserve better than this…
…Communities that were the cradles of the industrial revolution, built on the back of effort and industry, with a heritage of self-reliance and standing together, where the people built libraries to educate their children so they could have better life chances and opportunities than they had had, where they built memorial halls to bring their communities together.
These birth places of Welsh socialism, but actually built on deeply Conservative values, have been abandoned by the empty shell of a modern Labour party with nothing to say and nothing to offer those communities that aspire for better, work for better and deserve better.
But we understand that you don’t back workers by ducking the big challenges of our age.
You don’t back workers by loading more and more debt onto future generations; by trapping communities in cycles of dependency; by setting your face against business – the very ones who create jobs and wealth… or by spitting in their faces.
Because whatever venom and bile we have seen outside the entrance of this conference venue this week, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the needs, the aspirations and the ambitions of workers and their families.
The truth is Conference, the truth is… Labour abandoned the working classes a long time ago.
When we came into government five years ago there were 200,000 people in Wales who had never worked a day in their lives – what a tragedy for those individuals and for our nation. There were 100,000 children in Wales growing up in families where no parent worked.
That was Labour’s legacy.
And who marched for those children? Where were the voices on the Left chanting out in the streets against that?
But conference, we were determined to change that. And we make no apology for fronting up to the big challenges that face our society and economy. We make no apology for taking the difficult decisions which have led to unemployment tumbling in Wales, a record number of people going out to work each day; young lads and girls getting their first opportunities on the jobs ladder; and 60,000 more children in Wales growing up today seeing a Mum or Dad go out to work.
Conference, that’s not just economic recovery; that’s social transformation.
Because Conservatives haven’t just become the true party of working people – we’ve always been the true party of working people.
And that is the reason I was attracted to our Party in the 1980s in Wales - at a time when Labour sought to entrench class divisions, and was a vehicle of protest and divisiveness, with zero vision for enhancing the life chances of the most vulnerable in our communities…
…No, instead I was drawn to a Party that stood for opportunity, that didn’t care what street you grew up on, what kind of family background you had or what your parents did for a living – a party led by Margaret Thatcher that understood what Labour will never understand, that it’s true, you don’t just have to take what you are given, but you also don’t extend opportunity and social mobility by locking down the poor into worklessness, welfare dependency and indebtedness.
And Conference, I remember the 1980s in Wales and I know the kind of politics the new Labour leader is trying to recreate here in Britain in 2015 – and there’s nothing kinder or gentler about it.
And so as a Welshman I say to him, you may want to bring back the politics of the past, but the people of Wales are looking to the future and we’ve got no desire to see the wounds and divisions of previous generations become the defining feature of politics today – so to him – the message from Wales, and from this conference, is clear: your politics aren’t welcome here.
And he may think he is coming home to Real Labour when he visits Wales… where he can see a Welsh Labour Government that has banned academies and banned free schools and abolished Right to Buy. But he will also see that Wales is letting go of Labour…. as people across Wales say “enough is enough…. We can do a lot better.”
And we can and we will do a lot better.
One of the enormous pleasures I have had as Secretary of State for Wales in recent months, was spending some time with the Welsh rugby squad. And when you’re at their training base in South Wales, and you see them working ferociously with one goal in mind, you see this amazing huge slogan above their training hall: “Here is where we build our victories” it says.
The values of ambition, hard work, meritocracy, excellence and achievement…
If only they were the values that characterised the Welsh Labour Government’s delivery of public services.
But that’s what socialism does, Conference.
Well, I believe Wales deserves better.
Conference, Labour has no divine right to rule in Wales.
And that is why I have made it my ambition to prise open the iron grip of the Labour Party on Wales… it’s why I returned to Wales when it was declared a ‘Conservative-free zone’ after the 1997 and 2001 elections to stand for our Party in the community in which I grew up. And it’s why I am going to keep pressing on, fighting to take back more ground from Labour.
And I’m delighted to work with such a fantastic team at the Wales Office – a team who share my vision for a stronger Wales, a more confident, more outward-looking Wales: my superb Parliamentary Under-Secretaries Alun Cairns MP and Lord Bourne – both of whom bring with them huge experience from their days as Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly. And I am also supported by my Parliamentary Private Secretary David Morris, our very own Northern Powerhouse and an excellent guitarist too.
Conference, we made great strides last May, but we’re going to need your help again next year to follow this and increase our team in the Welsh Assembly so that we can give Wales the change of administration it deserves and a new Welsh First Minister in the shape of Andrew RT Davies.
So it is my great pleasure now to welcome onto the stage my good friend and Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group: Andrew RT Davies.
Thank you. Diolch yn fawr.”