Full text: Liz Truss’s Tory conference speech

My friends, it’s great to be here with you in Birmingham. It’s fantastic to see the cranes across the skyline building new buildings, the busy trams coursing down the streets and the bull standing proudly at the heart of Birmingham.

My friends, this is what a city with a Tory Mayor looks like – it’s positive, it’s enterprising, it’s successful. And Andy Street is a human dynamo, delivering for the people of Birmingham.

And our Teesside Mayor Ben Houchen is also delivering new jobs and investment. This is what modern Conservatism looks like. Let’s get Tory mayors elected in London, in Manchester, in West Yorkshire and right across the country.

We gather at a vital time for the United Kingdom. These are stormy days. Together, we have mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the rock on which modern Britain was built. We are now in a new era under King Charles III. We are dealing with the global economic crisis caused by Covid and by Putin’s appalling war in Ukraine.