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LIVE Reaction as PM vows to

'level up' UK in conference speech
It is our mission as Tories to promote opportunity,
says Johnson | Follow BBC Politics on Twitter

Summary
Boris Johnson has delivered his speech to the
Conservative Party conference, promising to promote
"opportunity" and "level up" the UK
He told the conference the country is going "towards a
high-wage, high-skill, high productivity and, yes, low
tax economy"
But the PM also said there is a "huge hole" in finances
and it is only responsible to raise taxes to fund
healthcare
Other pledges from Mr Johnson include planting more
trees, increasing rape prosecutions and tackling
people traffickers
His speech came amid disruption to food and fuel
supplies and concerns over the rising cost of living
On Tuesday Mr Johnson told the BBC he was "not
worried" about what he says are short-term labour
shortages rising prices
A £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit comes into effect
today

Live Reporting Related Stories

Edited by Johanna Howitt

15:09
"48 new hospitals, 50,000 more nurses"

It’s not clear exactly what constitutes a "new"

hospital, as the government's pledge that Boris
Johnson repeated in his speech includes
refurbishments of existing hospitals. The pledge
is for the hospitals to be built by 2030, so it’s
very much a work in progress.

So far, construction has begun at six sites. One

is a new cancer hospital in Bath. The other five
are hospital builds planned under pre-existing
schemes over the last decade, including building
work that stopped after the collapse of the
construction firm Carillion.

The Conservatives promised 50,000 more

nurses for England by March 2025. The latest
figures show there were 310,251 full-time
equivalent NHS nurses and health visitors in
June 2021. While that is up 14,158 since
December 2019, it still leaves 35,842 full-time
equivalent posts to fill over the next three-and-a-
half years.

You can read more about how the

Conservatives are getting on with meeting
some of these pledges here.

14:55
Strong speech or bluster and buffonery - MPs
react to PM's speech

PA

Labour's Sarah Champion says Boris Johnson’s

conference speech "had plenty of jokes but lacked
any solutions - it’s disgraceful there was no mention
of the petrol crisis, court backlogs, NHS backlogs or
the cost of living."

Lib Dem Alistair Carmichael says of the speech

"everything about it suggests that he believes they
are untouchable and beyond real world
accountability."

"Thank god that’s over," says the SNP's Pete

Wishart, adding: "Bluster, buffoonery, beavers and
burgers - let’s build back a Scotland without him."

But, Conservative James Morris welcomes "a

strong speech".

"We were elected in 2019 on a mandate to level up

areas that have been left behind, and despite the
challenges of Covid-19 we are building back better
and getting on with the job," he says.

14:51
Watch: Johnson on 'can-do' government

BBC Politics
@BBCPolitics

"This reforming government… that got

Brexit done, that's getting the Covid
vaccine rollout done, is going to get
social care done"

PM Boris Johnson says his government

will deal with the "biggest underlying
issues of our economy and society"

bbc.in/3BcpqRo

1:48 PM · Oct 6, 2021

48 See the latest COVID-19 informat…

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14:48
'He will deliver on skills'

BBC

Councillor Davida Ademuyiwa believes Boris Johnson will

deliver on his promises

Another local councillor, Davida Ademuyiwa, is

incredibly pleased by the speech.

"I am very interested in skills and he spoke so much

in terms of levelling up and helping stop all the
potential wasting away," she says.

"I believe in him and what he has said. He has

delivered on so much already, like delivering Brexit
and who knows what would have happened if we had
a Labour government during this crisis.

"I care about the future of young people, and I believe

he will deliver."

14:47
'PM makes me excited for the future'
Jennifer Scott
Political reporter, BBC News

BBC

Alastair Chambers was thrilled with the speech

The vibe on the conference floor as the members

flood out of the speech is upbeat and celebratory.

Words like "brilliant", "fantastic" and "great" come

from the party faithful who are beaming with pride at
their prime minister.

One local councillor tells me the people that used to

call him "Tory scum" are now some of his biggest
supporters because of Boris Johnson.

"The speech was passionate and exciting, and I'm

excited about what the future holds," says Alastair
Chambers.

"[Johnson] kept us going through the pandemic, the

country came together, and he will help us level up."

Reuters

Some delegates at the Conservative conference have

been wearing badges that seem to embrace the phrase
used last week by Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner.

14:39
Do we have the fastest growth in the G7?

Early on in his speech, Boris Johnson said that

as a result of the coronavirus vaccine roll-out we
have “the fastest growth in the G7” group of big
economies.

UK GDP, which is a measure of everything

produced in the country, grew 4.8% between
April and June, compared with the first three
months of the year, and that is more than any
other G7 country.

But the UK economy was hit particularly hard by

the pandemic, and if you take a longer view the
picture looks less rosy.

If you compare GDP between April and June

2021 with the last three months of 2019, before
the pandemic hit the UK, the UK had joint-fifth
best growth in the G7, equal with Germany and
with only Italy doing worse.

And as we have mentioned before, there are

differences in the way that different countries
work out their GDP figures.

14:33
Was PM criticising Theresa May and David
Cameron?
BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

BBC

New Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries says the PM

delivered "a visionary speech".

On Politics Live she was asked if Johnson was

criticising his predecessors David Cameron and
Theresa May when he said "past governments
dithered and delayed", Dorries says: "You'd have to
ask him."

"I think we are very much in a world.... It is a new

direction for a new age," she adds.

"I don't think I'm looking over my shoulder, I don't

think the prime minister is - that wastes time."

14:28
An impassioned defence of British life
Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Spirit. This is the sort of stuff Conservative delegates

love - an impassioned defence of key parts of British
life.

Boris Johnson is so popular with many in his party

because he makes them feel good and is
overwhelmingly positive.

The final section of the speech encapsulated that -

and is key to understanding Johnson's success.

14:27
Members rally
From our reporter in the conference hall

Jennifer Scott
Political reporter, BBC News

The end of the speech appealed to the sports fans

and gets them riled to hold aloft their signs and cheer
out the boss, more like a rally than a Tory conference.

Applause continues as he walks through the crowd

and they seem to have got what they wanted.

But will it play as well with the country?

BBC

The audience waved their party-issued placards as the PM

left the stage

14:25
PM and Mrs Johnson leave the hall

It's a quick exit for Boris and Carrie Johnson...

BBC

After a brief wave to the audience....

BBC

...they leave the stage...

BBC

...and make their way through the auditorium.

14:20
Johnson ends speech to standing ovation

BBC

The PM delivers a final riff on the "spirit" of the British

people "that can be found in the hearts and minds of
kids growing up everywhere".

He picks up his notes, gets a standing ovation from

the crowd.

At just under 45 minutes it was roughly half the length

of Sir Keir Starmer's speech to Labour's conference
last week.

14:16
PM hails the UK's 'unique spirit'

The PM steps up the rhetoric as he reaches the

climax of his speech, which has gone by in near
record time.

"We need the spirit of the NHS nurses and the

entrepreneurs because each enables the other," he
says.

He hails the England football team and the

"indomitable spirit" of tennis sensation Emma
Raducanu.

14:15
'We are at risk of a cancel culture know-nothing
iconoclasm', warns PM

He says people admire the UK for its traditions, they

love the groovy new architecture and the fashion and
the music.

He says he was "minded to ignore" people who attack

Winston Churchill as a racist.

"But as time has gone by it has become evident that

this isn’t just a joke they really do want to re-write our
national story," he says.

"We really are at risk of a cancel culture know-nothing

iconoclasm."

He says Conservatives will defend "our history... not

because we are proud of everything but because
trying to edit it now is as dishonest as a celebrity
trying furtively to change his entry in Wikipedia."

14:13
Is it enough?
Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

This speech is designed to be a broad pitch to the

country; what Boris Johnson wants to do as prime
minister.

Levelling up is at the heart of it and the PM has talked

about addressing geographical inequalities and
getting better teachers into schools in disadvantaged
areas. Is it enough?

I don't think many in government would argue the

definition they've given is comprehensive.

This is an idea that ministers want to develop in the

coming months and years.

Some will want considerably more detail on what it

will involve.

14:12
Johnson: We will use Brexit freedoms to do
things differently

BBC

The prime minister says his government will use

"Brexit freedoms to do things differently".

He reels off a number of pledges including protecting

grassroots fan-based football and building new free
ports.

"We will fulfil our ambition of becoming a science

superpower," he says citing gene editing, data
management and AI.

He says Brexit also allowed the UK to sign the Aukus

deal - "I know that there has been a certain raucus
squawkus from the anti-Aukus caucus," he says.

But adds that Aukus is "simply a recognition of the

reality that the world is tilting on its economic axis".

14:11
Further attack on 'Captain Hindsight' Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer is "Captain Hindsight", says the PM,

"attacking one week then rowing in behind when it
seemed to be working the human weather vane, the
Starmer chameleon".

It's a line of attack familiar to Prime Minister's

Questions viewers, but the Tory faithful are enjoying
it.

14:10
Starmer like 'a rattled bus conductor'

Johnson reaches for some exotic metaphors for the

customary attack on the opposition.

He calls Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer a "seriously

rattled bus conductor - not that they have bus
conductors nowadays - pushed this way and that by a
Corbynista mob of sellotape-spectacled sans-culottes
or the skipper of a cruise liner that has been captured
by Somali pirates".

(We're told the sans-culottes were the people of the

lower classes in late 18th century France who
became militants in the French revolution)

14:05
Private sector investment can help reach net zero
- PM

BBC

On to the environment now, with the COP26 climate

summit in Glasgow just weeks away.

He launches into an anecdote about a visit to the

Moray Firth, to see "an aquatic forest" of wind
turbines.

He says Britain can get to net zero carbon by 2050,

saying it will take "massive private sector investment"
as well government action.

14:04
PM announces funding for maths and science
teachers
Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

We have a policy! The prime minister has talked

about levelling up a lot in this speech - and the
education announcement we've just had is inteded to
put some meat on the bones.

The government will fund £3,000 premiums to get the

best science and maths teachers into schools that
need them.

It's the first policy of the speech so far - in a

conference where beyond justice crackdowns, there
hasn't been much.

14:03
'Build back beaver'