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[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] [Music] [Music]
I thought it was never going to end. Good afternoon conference. >> Richard, what a fabulous speech. Lots of passion, lots of facts, lots of humor. And we all have to remember that without Richard, Reform UK would not have survived as a political party during those very difficult years. And I am very blessed. I am very blessed to have a deputy leader as talented and as hardworking as Richard is. He's a tremendous credit to this party. Give him a round of applause.
I'm I'm pleased to see the membership is now up through 242,000. Quarter of a million. Here we come. It has been I really believe it's been the most incredible conference. The big word that comes out of it is energy. The energy has been literally unbelievable. The enthusiasm has been extraordinary. And the fact that you've all stayed right to the very end. And what a strong end it was, wasn't it, Lucy Connelly? Wow. What about that?
But there was one speech yesterday that made me think deeply about our future. And that was Preston Manning, the founder of the Reform Party of Canada, a party that came from nowhere and took over the government of Canada and ran it and ran it well for 10 years. and he talked about the story of how they did it. And there was a point that he made. The point that he made was when we had our disagreements, we had them in private. >> Now, you know, you can't get a large number of counselors from a county and everyone's going to love each other, then everyone's going to agree. It's not possible with human beings that that could ever be the case.
But my sort of big message at the end of this conference as we head towards those massive elections in Wales, in Scotland, in London, in the Midlands, and elsewhere next year is that you are the people's army. And to succeed, it needs one thing, discipline. Can we please exercise discipline and air our disagreements between each other in private and not in public? And if we do that, we will succeed. We will.
Now, there was another speech yesterday right at the end that really did move me and it was Lee Anderson, who by the way can be incredibly funny when he wants to be, but there was a very serious message that came from Lee yesterday and it talked about good, sound, solid principles. He talked about his life and it encapsulated everything we're about. He talked about his family. He talked about his community. He talked about his belief in country. He talked about getting up in the morning, going to work. He talked about self-ride, self-respect, getting on with life, not relying on others to bail you out of your problems, whilst at the same time fully understanding there are some in society who do need help. But I think we all know we're now living in a country where we're paying a lot of people not to go to work who should be going to work.
And I want to I I want to invite I want to invite Lee Anderson up onto the stage now. Come on. Great man. >> I was so impressed by what Lee said and particularly as you'd worked within the system, Lee, hadn't you? >> Yeah, I wor within the system. Nigel, I worked for C advice bureau for many, many years. I see I saw real poverty. I saw real desperation, but I also saw some people that should have been going to work. Some may be swinging the lead sometimes, but it's not fair because we should always protect our our vulnerable, our disabled people, the people that need the real care. But there's Yeah. Yeah. There are millions of people out there and I don't always, to be honest with you, Nigel, I don't always blame the people cuz I was lucky. I was lucky in the fact that I was I was lived in little Terry house with mom and dad. But like I said yesterday, we had we were the alarm clock generation. I heard me dad get up in the morning and go and do his shift. didn't have much money, but that taught me the value of hard work and family. Get out there, do a job, do some graft, and provide for your family. And if we all do that, under Nigel Faraj's leadership, we'll make this a better country.
Well, having heard all of that, I have no hesitation in announcing henceforth Lee Anderson is this party's welfare spokesman. Congratulations, Lee. Now, [Music] can I please can I please just say this? This was the one man that had the guts at the end of the last parliament to join reform and he won his seat with an even bigger majority, >> bigger vote share. Yeah, >> bigger vote share. He encouraged people in Ashefield and in neighboring areas to put their names forward for the county council elections and we had a massive success.
Next year we're going to need up to 5,000 of you standing in Swindon, standing in bits of Kent, standing in bits of Yorkshire, standing in the West Midlands, Wales, Scotland and London where we're going to need almost 2,000 people as candidates. Last year at the end of the conference, I I urge people please put your names forward to be a candidate and people went out and the reform village is there today and they volunteered in large numbers and I have to make that same call to you conference this afternoon. Are there people among you prepared to stand up? Prepared to stand up and be candidates next year. Who wants to be a candidate next year? Stand up. >> Stand up. >> Come on. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. This is the People's Army in operation. Well done all of you. Fabulous. Come on. Fabulous.
Well, thank you. Thank you. You do realize that you're all on camera. if you don't mind. Good. Good. There's no turning back for any of you. Okay, we're going to end this conference now. I'm going to invite all the other speakers, those that have participated on the stage here over the last two days to come and join Lee and I now and give them a big hand as they make their way up the steps. You better come in. [Music]
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody. Thank you to the team. Thank you to you for all being here. I'm very proud to lead a party like this. I've had a fantastic conference. I really am honored to be doing this job with your enthusiasm, encourage, love, and support. Now, we will end the conference by singing the national anthem, but I I am going to keep the microphone as far away. I'm gonna let Andrew Jenkins be the be the star. So, please stand for the national anthem and travel home safely. >> Please join in as well. [Music] God save our gracious king live. [Music] Heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat up [Music] [Applause] here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]