Full text: Boris Johnson’s Tory conference speech

It’s great to be here in Manchester at the best attended conference for years and I know that some of you may have been mildly peppered with abuse on the way in but are you abashed? are you downcast?

Of course not. We are conservatives and we get on with serving the people and speaking of service I should begin by paying tribute to my predecessor Theresa, I know the whole of conference remains full of gratitude to you, and to Philip May, for your patience and your forbearance, and yes, we will continue with the work of tackling domestic violence and modern slavery and building on your legacy

I have been prime minister for only seventy days but I have seen so many things that give cause for hope: hospitals that are finally getting the investment to match the devotion of the staff; schools where standards of reading are rising through the use of synthetic phonics; police colleges where idealistic young men and women are enrolling in large numbers to fight crime across the country; shipyards in Scotland that are building superb modern type 26 frigates for sale around the world; and every one of those high wage high skill jobs in shipbuilding is a testament to the benefits of belonging to the United Kingdom the most successful political partnership in history which we will protect and we will defend against those who would wantonly destroy it.

And I say to Ruth Davidson as well: thank you for everything you did for the cause of Conservatism and unionism in Scotland and Ruth, we will honour your legacy too and I am proud of the role this government is playing in every one of those investments and they are only possible because It was this Conservative government that tackled the debt and the deficit left by the last Labour government

It was because we cleared up the wreckage they left behind that we...