He also talked about the Israel/Hamas War and the Lib Dem commitment to humanitarian values.
He had been introduced by Gloria Adebo, our brilliant candidate in the Rutherglen and Hamilton by-election
Thank you so much Gloria.
Conference, Gloria had never run for Parliament before, but you wouldn’t know it from the warmth and reception she receives on the doors.
She is a natural campaigner. A community campaigner.
And she well deserves her place in our forward-looking Future Leaders Programme.
Thank you Gloria.
Gloria, like so many of you, is in politics because she is determined to change the lives of the people around her. To fight for her town and to change this country for the better.
And she demonstrated how we do that in this party. Door by door. Street by street.
And you know what conference, we are going to need to do a lot more of that.
Because this may be the last time we meet like this before polling day.
There is a jar of tamarind sauce in my fridge that actually goes off after the last possible date for the General Election.
It really is that close. At most it’s 9 Liz Truss’ away.
It’s game time.
So I need all of you firing on all cylinders.
Because this is an election the likes of which we haven’t had for more than a decade.
A change election – one of real opportunity for our party, and a rare opportunity for our country.
Conference, you can change a nation and the course of history in the vote you cast. And my goodness don’t we need that change right now.
It’s hard to overstate the damage that the Conservative Government has done to our politics, our institutions and our way of life.
Brexit, Liz Truss, skyrocketing mortgages.
They gleefully rush to marginalise the vulnerable and the powerless.
They have demonised refugees and sought to sow division with small-minded culture wars.
They have demolished trust in the great offices of state.
Last month, in the early hours of the morning, muffled by the gales of Storm Agnes, a chainsaw felled one of the most iconic trees in Britain.
The Sycamore Gap tree had grown in the lee of Hadrian’s Wall since the 19th century. Its loss feels like a poignant motif for the state of our country.
There is a dark poetry here. The felling of that mighty tree happened on the eve of the Conservative Party Conference. Think of their logo. Not dissimilar to that tree. And they know a lot about wanton acts of vandalism as well.
Constitutional vandalism, economic vandalism, the vandalism of honesty and common human decency.
Conference, we will tear the Tory Party up by the roots.
Following our record by-election victories, John Curtice said the Liberal Democrats “have been making the spectacular look routine”. Well, there’s more to come. We are second to the Conservatives in 80 seats.
In those historic victories we started even further behind and look what we achieved.
It’s not just the Blue Wall of the Conservatives in the South we will be taking down. We have our grappling hooks in the acid yellow wall of the SNP.
Only the Liberal Democrats can beat the nationalists in huge swathes of Scotland. From Milngavie to Mallaig. Cupar to Cape Wrath.
Because if you are looking for change you won’t find it in the SNP. They have been in power longer than the Tories.
A government that has failed Scotland for 16 years has no part to play in what Britain needs to become.
A party for which good headlines matter more than good public services has no part to play in what Britain needs to become.
Ministers who conspired to erase pandemic WhatsApps which they knew an inquiry and grieving families would want to see. They have no part to play in what Britain needs to become.
It’s time we were rid of them.
Millions of decent, honest, liberally-minded people right across this country are fed up with the pair of them.
They are crying out for representation which embodies the values they hold dear. For someone who will put the interests of their communities first. Who will carry themselves with integrity and lead by example.
Like Ed Davey, who lost both his parents to cancer as a child, now determined to end unacceptable treatment delays and drive up cancer survival rates.
Like Wendy Chamberlain who saw the best and worst of society as a police officer. Now at Westminster she is one of the very best at holding the powerful to account – at exposing the worst of government sleaze.
And we are so proud that Wendy has brought into law her landmark Carer’s Leave Act, creating a new right that will help 2.4 million carers across the United Kingdom better balance work and care. What a difference that will make.
Thank you Wendy.
Before politics, I spent more than a decade as a youth worker with disadvantaged young people. I understand what life is like at the hard edge of our communities. I carry their stories with me every day when I walk through the doors of the Scottish Parliament.
Now is the time when we need leaders to rise and draw on the experiences they bring, reach out beyond the divisions and put country before party.
It is honest and selfless community leadership that defines us as Liberal Democrats.
That is the kind of leadership the country has been starved of for far too long.
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