{"id":495343,"date":"2025-10-13T05:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T05:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495343\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T05:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T05:25:11","slug":"kevin-hollinrake-conference-gave-us-back-our-confidence-now-its-time-for-every-conservative-to-share-our-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495343\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Hollinrake: Conference gave us back our confidence, now it’s time for every Conservative to share our message"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Hollinrake is Chairman of the Conservative Party.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Conservative Campaign Headquarters, we know very well that \u201cself-praise is no recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n

So it was very heartening to hear Conference described by attendees and observers as \u201coutstanding\u201d, \u201cfabulous\u201d and a \u201cgenuine return to core Conservative principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was good to hear the positive reception for the policy proposals from my Shadow Cabinet colleagues and, of course, for the brilliant, barnstorming finale from Kemi. It was a true tour de force and included the totemic announcement of the scrapping of Stamp Duty on primary dwellings.<\/p>\n

It was also important to hear the encouraging words of thought leaders such as new Conservative member Matthew Syed, who said that \u201cKemi Badenoch is the only leader who is articulating the true nature of the challenge we face,\u201d and \u201cWith discipline and intelligence I think it is likely that we will win the next general election and reverse the decline of a great nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

All tangible evidence that our plan is working.<\/p>\n

We are all so grateful for the huge amount of effort and expertise dedicated by the team at CCHQ, and for the attendance and support of every single member who came to Manchester.<\/p>\n

Loyalty only really counts when the chips are down.<\/p>\n

Despite our obvious challenges, Manchester was buzzing. In conversation after conversation I had, you could feel a new sense of confidence, optimism and purpose about the Conservatives under Kemi\u2019s leadership. We are starting to believe in ourselves again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember that this year\u2019s Conference wasn\u2019t just about policy announcements; it was about something far more important \u2013 the values that built our Party and our country: hard work, personal responsibility, fairness and resilience. I am very grateful to all those members who contributed to our work around values and principles so ably led by my predecessor, Nigel Huddleston.<\/p>\n

Those values drive me. I\u2019m the son of a Yorkshire farmer and a social worker from Salford who brought me up on tough love. That tough love shaped me \u2013 and it\u2019s exactly what Britain needs now.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest: our country has lost its way. For a while, so had our Party. We\u2019ve become too used to excuses and easy promises. Labour\u2019s answer is always more borrowing and more spending. But you can\u2019t build a strong country on borrowed money.<\/p>\n

Only the Conservatives, under Kemi\u2019s leadership, will have the courage to do what\u2019s right, not just what\u2019s popular. That means living within our means, rewarding hard work, protecting the vulnerable, but expecting those who can work to do so. That\u2019s what tough love looks like in government \u2013 doing the hard things because they\u2019re the right things, not because they\u2019re the easy ones.<\/p>\n

Our values are lived out every day by the people who make this country work \u2013 the small business owner who keeps the lights on, the parent who skips a holiday to save for their children\u2019s future, the young person who wants to get on through hard work and hard work alone.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Britain our values stand for \u2013 a country that rewards graft, respects personal choice and believes in aspiration. It\u2019s the Britain Kemi speaks for.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the moral heart of Conservatism \u2013 and after Conference, it feels like we\u2019ve reconnected with who we are.<\/p>\n

For that small business owner, we will scrap business rates. For that parent, we will reverse Labour\u2019s education taxes.<\/p>\n

For the young person who wants to get on, we will abolish Stamp Duty and introduce our First Jobs Bonus, so that they can experience the feeling of getting the keys to their first home.<\/p>\n

For the veteran who\u2019s suffering from persistent malicious prosecution, we will deliver justice and an end to vexatious prosecutions.There is only one party willing to tell the hard truths and do the hard yards. There is only one party that can deliver a Stronger Economy and Stronger Borders.<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch shows what those values look like in action. She\u2019s faced doubters all her life \u2013 and every time, she\u2019s proved them wrong. She says what she believes and stands her ground because she cares enough to tell the truth.<\/p>\n

I saw that first-hand in government. When I was Post Office Minister, Kemi backed me and the postmasters in Cabinet, helping to secure the billions now being paid to victims of the Horizon scandal and the overturning of 700 wrongful convictions. That\u2019s what leadership looks like: courage, conviction and compassion in action.<\/p>\n

Politics is about framing a simple choice in people\u2019s minds. \u201cStronger Economy and Stronger Borders\u201d will be our hill to die on, because we are now the only party with a clear plan to make the changes we need to protect our borders \u2013 and the only one still right of centre on the economy.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s our turn.<\/p>\n

Conference was the spark \u2013 but we\u2019re the fuel. Every one of us has a role to play in rebuilding our movement and our country.<\/p>\n

At CCHQ, we are already building a world-class campaigning machine to make sure that voters understand our message and our choice:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Cutting edge campaigning tools<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a membership recruitment strategy and members\u2019 portal<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a relaunched Young Conservative movement with national and regional structure<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a new business engagement strategy and a new Conservative Business Network<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 stronger repetition and message discipline through our media and social channels<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a revised candidate selection process tailored to recognise a proven track record in politics<\/p>\n

What you do at the sharp end counts much more than what we do at the centre. Every doorstep conversation, every leaflet, every social media post, every donation, every phone call counts. It amplifies our message and hammers home our choice.<\/p>\n

When times are tough, we don\u2019t jump ship. I have no time for those who have no stomach for the battle. You\u2019re either up for the fight for our values \u2013 or you\u2019re not. Hard yards win the day.<\/p>\n

As one of my predecessors, Edmund Burke, said, \u201cNo one ever made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If every single Conservative supporter puts their shoulder to the wheel and votes at the ballot box, we can and will win again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Hollinrake is Chairman of the Conservative Party. At Conservative Campaign Headquarters, we know very well that \u201cself-praise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,44435,15897,163026,134692,393,163027,4884,163028,44438,257,1271,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-495343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cchq","10":"tag-conservatism","11":"tag-conservative-party-conference-2025","12":"tag-edmund-burke","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-first-jobs-bonus","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-horizon-scandal","17":"tag-kemi-badenoch-mp","18":"tag-london","19":"tag-stamp-duty","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115365198176210623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}