 that Anthony Eden first spoke of a property-owning democracy. It was here in 1975 that Margaret Thatcher first spoke to us as leader of our party and again in 1979 for the first time as our prime minister. Conservative memories made, Conservative missions defined. And it really is a mark of what our party has achieved. That we can proudly say for the first time since 1997 we have two Conservative members of Parliament. Paul Maynard and now Scott Benton are working with the government to transform a place that Labour left behind for decades. And like hardworking Conservatives across the country they are bringing growth and prosperity. A new town deal for Blackpool worth tens of millions of pounds making good on our promises and getting on with the job. That is our mission. And I'm proud to be bringing party conference back to its spiritual home and bringing millions of pounds into our local economy. And when Conservatives say we back business, we deliver. So to everyone who made this happen, thank you. Now of all the moments of history our party has made here in Blackpool the one I want to focus on today is Margaret Thatcher's speech right here in October 1989. Some of you may remember she said as the iron curtain was about to lift she stood here and she told the winter gardens the torch of freedom that is now the symbol of our party has become a beacon that shed its light across the iron curtain to the east. Today that beacon shines more strongly than at any time this century. Conference in March 2022 we must ask this. Does the torch of freedom shine as strongly in Europe today? Could Margaret Thatcher have she have foreseen that the Conservative Party would meet here in Blackpool more than 30 years later with the precious freedom of Europe once again under threat from Russia? A generation of Conservatives understood the threat of tyranny. Their opposition to it defined their conservatism. So whilst much has changed about our party this much remains the same. It is Conservatives who always carry the torch of freedom. And once again it is a Conservative Prime Minister who is leading the world's response to the crisis in the Ukraine. We were the first country in Europe to arm Ukrainians with lethal aid. We've imposed the biggest package of sanctions in the history of our United Kingdom and we are the largest donor of humanitarian aid. And you know as I walk with my children taking them to school through the calm suburbia of Hertfordshire its values as you know so derided by the left. I actually reflect on the tremendous fortune that we have to live in a country defined by stability, security and yes conservatism. And it might not be fashionable to say it but actually for me those private hedges of suburbia are the private hedges of a free people and I will make it my mission as your chairman to defend those values and defend those freedoms. And right now I am proud that Conservatives like so many Britons up and down our nation are playing their part to support the people of Ukraine in their hour of need. They're donating what they can, they're preparing their spare rooms, they're organising their communities to give those brave Ukrainians the very warmest of welcomes. Just as you know 50 years ago and it was 50 years ago this October that the British people under a Conservative government welcomed tens of thousands of Ugandan Asians fleeing that brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin in Uganda. And you know what, half a century later it is our nation that reaps the reward of the prosperity that they have generated and the public service they have so freely given. Dola Popat, Mohamed Sheikh, Jitesh Gardia are now Conservative peers in our House of Lords. Shailesh Farah is in the House of Commons and our own Home Secretary, Priti Patel, sits round the table of the most diverse cabinet in the history of our nation. Now this government, our government has focused rightly relentlessly on dealing with the Ukraine crisis. But we must be just as relentless in dealing with its longer term consequences. We must confront the fact that this combination of Covid and the Ukraine crisis is placing really significant pressure on both inflation and the cost of living. We need to level with the British people about the causes of this and demonstrate to them the very same resolve that we demonstrated as we did with breaking the Brexit deadlock, as we did in investing in that game changing vaccine, as we did in reopening our economy. But we must also confront the mistakes of the past. Today, we face Russian aggression hampered by our lack of energy independence. Our reliance today on Russian oil and gas was a course set by Labour governments. They were the ones who neglected to invest in new nuclear power. You know Ed Miliband, remember him? He spent ten years blocking it when we could now be relying on it. So it falls to Conservatives to deliver energy independence for the first time in a generation. Phasing out the import of Russian oil by the end of the year. Exploring options to end the import of Russian gas. Of course, that means investing massively in our offshore wind and other renewables. But it must also mean developing new nuclear projects and re-incentivising new oil and gas exploration in this country as we transition. Because do you know what? I really think the British people want to see a bit more conservative pragmatism and a bit less net zero dogma. We are Conservatives. We exist to conserve. Of course we will get to net zero. Of course we will save the planet. We just don't want Vladimir Putin taking it over while we're getting on with it. And we all know the alternative, don't we? Next week marks two years of secure starmer as Labour leader. Well in that time he really has managed to stem his personality on the party. Dull, uninspiring and bereft of ideas. Now some people in his party believe he's not real Labour. And I can certainly see what they mean. He certainly has more faith than any Liberal Democrat I've ever met that Ed Davie marks the path to government. But let's not be complacent about the threat that Starmer still poses. We need to remind people of his sincerity in campaigning to have Jeremy Corbyn that NATO-hating Putin apologist is stored in number 10 as our Prime Minister and we must thank Boris Johnson for ensuring that fate never befell our nation. But the danger has not passed. The Corbynistas, they are still there. You know Starmer, he cannot resist cow-towing to the cancelled culture brigade because his base are the cancelled culture brigade. He's frightened to defend women's rights or protect our heritage from vandals but he fears he would be cancelled. And he won't argue against state handouts because his party don't believe in rolling back the vast Covid state at all. And he can't even get his own MPs to vote for measures to stop those self-righteous environmentalist activists blocking our roads because the lockers on and the gluers on are his own Labour councillors. That is why we cannot let him into office. Now I've had the pleasure and it really was a pleasure of fighting many elections like all of you both inside and outside the party machine. And you know as well as I do it's never going to be plain sailing. And of course we do face a tough path through local elections and on to the next general election. We will be seeking that fifth Conservative win. A feat never achieved before. And that challenge starts this May. Thanks to your hard work we go in defending results that defied expectations both in 2017 and in 2018. By the time when people are worrying about the cost of living we need to be reminding people that the best way to tackle the cost of living locally is to elect Conservative councils that cost less and deliver more. And it is that message. Delivery today, delivery tomorrow and delivery the day after that will carry us through the local elections and on to that general election. And when that general election comes it's going to look a lot more at the campaign of 2015 than the campaign of 2019. We really are going to have to fight this one seat by seat promise delivered by promise delivered door step by door step. So from May we're going to launch our two year election campaign. We're going to launch the target seat strategy and that will build on the experience of the 4040 campaign that we used in 2015. So we'll be building capacity developing profiles and framing the choice. And to implement this we have a fantastic team. I've appointed Tony Lee as our new director of campaigning. Well you all remember Tony as the man who masterminded Andy Street's successful election campaign. I've recruited more than a dozen new campaign managers now embedded across the country and working in critical defence seats. And now we've opened our Leeds HQ which means that when people call up and ask to speak to Conservative central office the next question will be which one? But we all know that people matter more than the party machine. Our diversity challenge is not some lefty tick boxing exercise that dumps people into one category or another. It's our way of finding talent from all over the country and from all different walks of life. Our candidates must reflect the new Conservative party the party of Darlington and Doncaster as much as Devon and Dorset. The party of mill towns and mining towns as much as the metropolis. So today I'm announcing that we are reopening the candidates list for the next general election with a big open call for candidates. We don't mind what you do, what job you do, what you look like, how old you are or where you're from. We're just looking for people with real political conviction who instinctively share our Conservative values. We're looking for people with judgment, with integrity and with wide-ranging life experiences. And for the first time candidates will be put through a new process, a process that matches the very best in class from organisations and businesses all around the world and gives us the most representative and best candidates we've ever had. Now let us contrast that depth and breadth of our talent against the out-of-touch Islington elites who dominate the modern Labour Party. You know what? I'm proud to be a comprehensively educated boy from Watford who now gets to chair the Conservative Party. I'm proud to be the son of a factory worker who gets to sit around the cabinet table. And I'm proud to represent a constituency where people get up early each day and work hard to provide for themselves, their families and their community. And I'm proud of our party. A party with men and women from all walks of life, bound by common Conservative values who believe in our country, believe in our history, believe in our traditions and believe in the enormous contribution that we have made to the world. Those are the values of the British people. They are the values of the Conservative Party. Our instincts are their instincts. Our values are their values. Now Blackpool Conferences have been the launchpad for many Conservative election victories. So let's make today the start of another great journey and let's get on with the job. Thank you.