Kevin Hollinrake MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party, CPC 2025 Speech

“Welcome to Manchester. A storied Northern City, a city so full of history, industry, sport, and sadly the scene of two tragic bombings.

Now, we are also horrified by the vile terrorist attack on Thursday morning – on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Our thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives and with the entire community.

Antisemitism is a stain on our nation's soul.

We stand in grief and solidarity with the Jewish community.

Can I ask everyone to join me in a minute's silence in their memory?

There is plenty of banter between Yorkshire and Lancashire, but you cannot walk through this great old beautiful City – even as a Yorkshireman – without admiring it.

Take the time during conference to look up, above the shops and bars and see the beauty of this wonderful City.

Our Northern towns and cities gave our country so much – our cotton, wool and steel industries powered the country and it's great to see the Conservative Party gathering here.

Can I thank you, Stewart, for that brilliant introduction and for all you and the National Convention do on our behalf.

And thank you to all of you, the councillors, the members, the volunteers, the supporters. You are the backbone of the most successful and long-standing democratic party in the world.

It is an honour to serve as your Party Chairman. You do the hard yards, you knock on doors, you deliver leaflets, you persuade neighbours, friends and strangers alike.

You make the difference.

Without you, there is no Conservative Party. No Conservative Victory.

Now, I'm not a career politician,

I used to be an estate agent.

I'm the only person who has entered parliament and improved his social standing.

Can I just take you back to those days – 1992. Black Wednesday had shaken the economy. Two months after I had started by business.

At that point we hadn't even sold a single house. Not even listed a single house.

Then our big chance came, the phone rang, and Mrs Clark asked me to go round and value her home.

I arrived the next morning. Unfortunately, twenty minutes late. She wasn't very happy.

I'm sorry I'm cancelling the appointment. We shouldn't be late for appointments.

A little bit of fast talking on the doorstop. She agreed to give me another chance.

I was looking for an icebreaker.

A set of golf clubs, or a book on a bookshelf.

And my eyes settled on a painting over the mantlepiece. It was a painting of a gentleman, in a big black cloak with a big black hat. An old oil painting, guilt frame.

I said to Mrs Clark, that's a beautiful oil painting.

She said thank you very much, she said that's a family heirloom.

I got a bit closer. I said the gentleman in that painting looks just like Anthony Hopkins.

She said that is my great grandmother.

Okay, no we didn't get the house on the market.

But from that rocky beginning with 2 people, we built a national network. Hunters into a national network, of over 200 branches, 1,000 employees. Things were going pretty well.

But calm seas never made for great sailors. 2008 happened. Everything fell apart. The financial crash almost destroyed us.

Our finance director even booked a meeting with the administrators. But we refused to take that route.

Much as I am proud of the business we built, floated on AIM and eventually sold in 2021, what I'm proudest of is surviving the massive market shock we lived through.

In the darkest of business times, we fought, we rebuilt, and we thrived.

We could have cut and run, chosen an easier path, left it all behind, or joined a rival business.

Some people do that when times are tough.

Everyone would have said quitting would have been the right thing to do, the easy thing to do, yet we held our nerve, rebuilt our business and rebuilt our brand.

What really saved us? Resilience.

And resilience is exactly what our country, and our Party needs now.

My resilience, of course, came from my parents.

Dad, a hard-working Yorkshire farmer and milkman.

Mum, from Salford, a social worker who helped offenders leaving prison.

Despite the obvious challenges, she was successful.

She had a simple, unique and controversial formula – no drink, no drugs, no nonsense.

It was tough love.

When we were kids, we also felt the tough love.

If we ever felt sorry for ourselves, we were told, quite simply,

“Plenty worse off than you”.

Tough Love – that's what builds resilience.

This party and this country, both need some tough love right now.

Memories are very short in our world, you know, we actually achieved some great things in government.

We balanced the books for day-to-day spending after 2010, we delivered Brexit, we protected jobs and businesses through Covid; and we kept Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street.

He would have been a disaster for this country.

But let's be honest, despite the good we did, at times we made mistakes.

At times, we were too soft.

We forgot about tough love.

We were too eager to please, too eager to please everyone.

In politics, you can't please all the people all of the time, and I'is a mistake to even try.

Look at the country today. We are led by a weak Prime Minister who blames everyone but himself for his failures.

The economic doldrums we are experiencing, the limbo we are in today, they are purely down to him.

He and his team have crashed business confidence.

According to the Institute of Directors, this was plus 5 in July 2024 – today it is minus 74 – its the biggest drop ever recorded, and the lowest level ever recorded. Even worse than Covid.

Business people, the risk takers are the engines of growth and the creators of jobs and opportunities in this country.

“The strong horse the pulls the whole cart” as Churchill called them.

They understand that taxing your way to prosperity simply does not work.

On tax and spending – particularly welfare spending – we are the only party; still right of centre, still right on the economy, and still right for Britain, you can't build a strong country on borrowed money.

In Yorkshire, we know you must live within your means, you must not waste what you've earned, and you always look after public money as if it were your own.

On her hundredth-year anniversary, Mrs Thatcher would be proud, that her party is the only one who understands that we are spending other people's money.

So, the choice is clear: weakness and moonshine with them, or truth, responsibility and resilience with us.

Only a Conservative Party and a Conservative Leader will deliver.

Stronger borders – immigration under control, illegal migrants and foreign offenders deported.

A Stronger Economy – living within our means.

A Stronger Britain – tackling crime, anti-social behaviour, rough sleeping, communities living separate lives.

A welfare system that protects the vulnerable, but insists that those who can work, do work.

Kemi Badenoch – a leader who embodies Conservative values – is the only leader that will do all this.

Kemi has heard “no you can't” all her life – and turned it into “watch me.” That is resilience in action.

Kemi is a fighter.

When I was Post Office Minister, she fought for me and the Postmasters in Cabinet to secure the billions now paid out to victims of the Horizon Scandal and the historic quashing of 700 convictions.

Only Kemi will offer this country the courage, conviction, and tough love it needs.

But she can only do this as a team.

It starts with us.

Everything, every one of us does.

Every conversation, we have with our customers, the voters.

Every post. Every leaflet. Every vote. Every single one matters. Together, we can and will rebuild.

Resilience and a determined team saved my business.

Resilience and a determined team will rebuild our country.

What Britain needs now is a strong, tough, authentic, Conservative government.

What Britain needs now is Kemi.

Thank you.”