 Rhaid. Rhaid, byddwn ni'n swydd. Rhaid dweud i'n mynd i'w wych. Yma ddim yn bydd i'w wneud. Rwy'n fyddi'r ddechrau, rwy'n dweud o'i gweliannod o'r clywbau o'r rei ātio i'r ddechrau Eurwyr Ffathwrm, Fathwrm Pristaeco. Rwy'n dweud, Fathwrm, si'n budd i'w gweld ar y dyfodol, Fathwrm, mae'n amser bwynt i'r dweudio i'n dweud i'r dweud i'r dweud. I know how much work you do behind the scenes to not only build the consensus for the support for your brave people, but also help deliver real action in that support in that country. And conference, I can't tell you how nice it is to be here, how genuinely nice it is to be home. Not only because Blackpool is next to my wonderful constituency of Wyham Preston North, but also because Lancashire is where I live, it's because it's a county, it's one of the places that's helped the modern, shaped the modern Conservative Party, and I know that if we can win in Lancashire, we can win in the country. Every year in this town, veterans of my regiment, the Scots Guards, meet here to remember the Falkland Islands and the Battle of Tumbledown. This year it will be especially important for them as we mark the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the Falkland Islands from the grip of the Argentinian military dictator General Geltiarri. Many said it couldn't be done. That sending a force 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic was an impossible task. But history is littered with those that underestimate this plucky island. General Geltiarri was not the first dictator to underestimate us. And while many here will remember the amazing sea harrier and the battles of Tumbledown, Goose Green, Mount Kent, we will also sadly remember the 255 British lives lost, and actually also the lives of the young Argentinians who were sent needlessly to their deaths in order to save a dictator's political position. It sounds a bit familiar. There were many standout contributions to that campaign, but Margaret Thatcher stood out for her leadership and determination to stand up for the values and freedoms we all hold so dear. By her leadership, she equipped the forces with the most important weapon of all, the moral component, that deep sense that we were fighting for what was legal, justified and right. And today that same moral component is what is arming the men and women of Ukraine. Who would have thought that after 31 years after the end of the Cold War we would once again be facing such a direct threat to our freedoms and values. As we gather here today, we should spare a thought for the brave Ukrainians fighting the occupying forces of Russia, as we are lucky enough to sit here in comfort. I'm proud of what the UK has done to add to that moral fight. Through Boris Johnson's leadership on sanctions and military aid, Britain has led the way. Since 2015 we have helped train Ukrainian forces, underwritten equipment sales where no one else would, and we were the first in Europe to join the US in sending defensive weapons to the forces of Ukraine. To date, we have sent over 4,000 for our new anti-tank, lightweight missile, known as the Yenlaws, a further consignment of javelin and anti-tank missiles and thousands of items of body armour and other defensive equipment. But we've also led alongside Poland and the US the distribution of many other nations' donations. And just like in 1982, Putin's arrogant assumptions have directly led to the casualties and attrition amongst the Russian army. The Kremlin assumed that Ukraine would not fight. He was wrong. The Kremlin assumed his army was invincible. They were wrong. And they assumed the international community would splinter and they'd been proven wrong. We've never been more united on sanctions, on military aid and in NATO. The deaths of so many young Russian soldiers are the responsibility of the Kremlin. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, mothers of those killed in action called the dead boys boys and zinc because of the zinc coffins that their bodies came back in. None of us should let today's Russian president forget that despite dozens of presidents and prime ministers urging him not to invade, the international community called for peace. He chose zinc. The UK can and will do more to help Ukraine and that's why last week I announced that we should be upgrading our aid to include the Star Street anti-air missile. But the UK is not going to just stop there. We are standing by our NATO and European partners. Countries such as Poland, Romania and the Baltic States who border the conflict. President Putin has been clear in his threats that all of us are at risk. So in the last few months I've sent 450 soldiers to Poland to help with engineering, air defence and humanitarian tasks. We've also added another battle group in Estonia and at the same time increased Typhoon and F-35 deployments over Romania and Bulgaria. Typhoon jets that are, by the way, made in Lancashire. Conference, I used to joke to my officials that defence never sleeps. Turns out my joke is a little flat, so it turns out to be true. Over the last three years we've been on the forefront of the COVID response, the evacuation in Afghanistan are not pitting and now in Ukraine. My team of excellent ministers, Baroness Goldie, Jeremy Quinn, James Heapy and Leo Docti, never stopped working delivering both on operations and on defence reforms. I simply couldn't do it without the team I have. But even before the events of the last two years, the Prime Minister generously gave us a defence settlement the greatest since the Cold War, an extra £24 billion over the next four years. This has enabled us once again to make sure that we have the proper defence programme and reform that puts men and women of the armed forces at the heart of all we do. The defence command paper we published in March was very timely and many of the reforms we're delivering are the right for this competitive age. But defence isn't just about the front line. It's also about everything else that goes on behind it. The defence industry, the training, the skills, the civil servants and the veteran services. Behind every front line is a strong support base. The failures of the Russian army in Ukraine show us that. Unless you invest in the people, then nothing can be achieved. Defence and levelling up go hand in hand. As a Lanxer MP, I'm incredibly proud of our Prime Minister's determination to level up across the whole of the UK and to invest in skills and jobs up and down the country. And after Covid we all have that duty to build back better. Through the Ministry of Defence is industrial strategy that we've also recently published. We're supporting with £6.6 billion of investment into R&D to make sure that the UK continues to have a competitive, innovative and world-class defence and security industry. And that will underpin our national security, drive investment and prosperity across the Union and contribute to strategic advantage through science and technology. A great example of that is the new defence science and technology laboratory due to be opened next week in Newcastle. The location of the unit with its proximity to world-class universities with a high proportion of STEM and computing students will allow it to thrive, supporting world-class defence development from within the heart of Newcastle. Whilst also supporting new jobs in the North East. Newcastle is DSTL's first established science and technology hub and will specialise in artificial intelligence and data science. A1 AI data science will benefit from an extra £142 million investment from DSTL over the next four years. This is not the only new defence investment taking root in the North. Last autumn, I announced that the recently established National Cyber Force will be permanently based in Salmsbury, Lancashire. The site will continue to contribute to national security whilst also boosting skills and employment and investment for the next age into the local area. It will be backed by £5 billion of investment to 2030 and will be jointly run by the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ. The site will be, as I've said, at Salmsbury. Nestled between Blackburn, Preston, Bolson and Burnley and will create thousands of new skilled jobs in a region with award-winning further education colleges, world-class universities, thriving defence and an aerospace sector. Labour talk we deliver. But that's not all. A further delivery against the government's pledge to level up and decentralise. I can announce today that the new home of the Defence Business Services that's the organisation that supports the MOD's financial and HR services as well as veterans will be based right here in Blackpool. I remember being an MP in opposition to Labour. I never saw any of that investment in Lancashire. I saw lots of talk but it always ended up somewhere in London. Conference, last year Labour claimed that our new plan for UK defence wrist and I quote that the UK was going to be out of step with our NATO allies. But quite the contrary. The principles set out in the Prime Minister's integrated review have served NATO and our allies well in this dark hour. And of course I welcome that our policy has attracted support from across the house. But let's not forget many members of Labour's front bench will also on the front bench of Jeremy Corbyn. Who wants to abolish NATO? And blame the West for Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. I remember going up to Baron Furness where I was told by some Labour politicians that under Jeremy Corbyn there would still be submarines to be made so that tourists could go and look at the seabed. In contrast, the year of the Falkins conference Mrs Thatcher told that a Conservative party conference that peace, freedom and justice are only to be found where people are prepared to defend them. That remains the case today. 40 years ago, the 74 days of the Falkins conflict tested the resolve of the British nation. But freedom prevailed. I'm proud that we see today the same resolve across all our generations standing in support of Ukraine. Slavia Ukraine. Thank you very much.