Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine spoke to a full house at European Movement UK’s event at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Lord Heseltine is a Patron of European Movement UK and his speech is in full below:

"At the start of World War II President Roosevelt was forced by his Republican opponents to agree that America would not take part.

"Hitler then made the unbelievable mistake of challenging America's sovereignty by attacking the convoys upon which we depended before they reached the open sea. I have been privileged to live since then within the safety and security of the pax Americana that one President after another has sustained since they helped us to secure victory in 1945.

"The United Nations with its wide spread of social and cultural agencies; Marshall aid to help fund the post war rebuilding of Europe; and the NATO alliance to ensure it could not happen again. I gave a speech in tribute to all this in 1986 called ‘An alliance not an Empire’.

"There are other uncomfortable memories from the end of the 1930s. The rise of fascism found its followers from the top to the bottom of European society in Germany, Italy and Spain, whilst Mosely marched his followers through London's East end. It required Churchill's iron determination to stop his conservative colleagues seeking peace with Hitler.

"When World War II ended the universal view was that it must never be allowed to happen again.

“Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, who later became French Prime Minister, were amongst the most influential Europeans who created the European coal and Steel Community. Churchill articulated the idea with the words ‘we must create a kind of united states of Europe’. Note his words; he said ‘We’ not ‘They’. Harold Macmillan set us off on our controversial post- imperial journey; Ted Heath secured our accession to the treaty of Rome. Margaret Thatcher's greatest achievement was to help create the European single market; John Major secured the Maastricht compromise that prevented free movement and kept us out of the single currency.

"I worked for them all and remain convinced of the arguments in favour of Europe. If the conservatives want to return to power they would do well to remember what our party achieved then.

"I am dismayed by the drift of events in world politics. the economic collapse of 2008 and the covid crisis have seriously contributed to the lack of confidence in governments and the right wing equivalents to the fascists of the thirties are back on the march: Le Pen in France, AfD in Germany, Fdl in Italy, Vox in Spain and conspicuously Reform in this country. Much of President Trump's language in America coincides with words here in Europe. The immigrant has replaced the Jew as the problem which needs a solution, although recent events here have cast a dark shadow.

"There is no question that we need effective control of our borders but we must recognise that they are Europe's too, and we should join them in creating secure frontiers everywhere.

"But first let us understand the nature, motive and scale of what we all face. The cell-phone is available worldwide. Our living standards, whilst criticised here. are much higher than in many other parts of the world. That simple reality, together with the consequences of global warming which is threatening coastal communities and scorching inland areas will increase pressures on all our borders. The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers want to share in our standards, and to escape from persecution or civil war. To describe them as thieves or rapists is not just dishonest but encourages the worst sort of prejudice in our communities. If you want further proof just visit any part of our health services, social services, public or private sector offices or academia.

"Let us get a sense of perspective into our analysis. Last year 950,000 immigrants entered our country of which 50,000 - about one in twenty - crossed the channel in small boats. It is the latter, of course, headlined in the daily press that serve as a continuing indication of the much wider problem. If not one single boat reached these shores it would hardly touch the underlying problems facing our workforce; and the demand for a constant supply of overseas workers.

"Recent statistics show that our workforce is shrinking by 5,000 workers a day who are moving into long term inactivity. Add to this the growing number of retired citizens who are also inactive and this problem can only get worse. If we are serious about drastically reducing legal immigration then we are going to have to find people from within our own society to fill the jobs which overseas workers are now doing. The present level of social security means that for many people there is little incentive to enter full time employment. There is also a black economy.

"The introduction of identity cards could play a part if employers had to check people's right to be in this country before employing them. There are many local jobs that need doing and a more effective management of the unemployment system could link social security with undertaking one of these. I wrote a pamphlet in the 1980s called No time for Ostriches advocating this idea.

"Most of us carry a plethora of cards: driving licence, credit and debit cards, the new health service cards - all of which carry many personal details; and many of us have passports. As the technological revolution continues to unfold it is logical to make an identity card mandatory for those citizens so that, in our labour force, there is a condition of carrying a card to qualify for work, health, and social services. This would, incidentally, make working casually for cash, thus avoiding paying tax, more difficult and reduce those who thrive in the black economy, a natural home for illegal immigrants.

"I have no faith in the present government’s ability to rebuild our economy but expect it will stumble along for the next four years. I want the conservatives back in power.

"It was a privilege beyond measure for me to serve in the conservative government that was elected in 1979 and led our country for 18 continuous years. That government - first under Margaret Thatcher- has been portrayed as a right wing administration, but however much that may suit the more zealous of my colleagues the truth was often very different.

"I think my experiences in introducing development corporations building anew the east end of London and at the same time acting as a sort of clerk of works in restoring confidence to Liverpool must rank as the most interventionist ministerial experience in peacetime ever. The point is that it was all under Margaret's careful eye. I remember no criticism from her. Indeed she called the cabinet to a political meeting for me to expand on the interventionist managerial techniques I was using to run my department. I ran the numbers employed down from 52,000 to 39,000 in three years simply by controlling recruitment. By taking a personal interest I discovered that for every 10 officials that retired in the normal course of things we needed to replace six. The only thing necessary was to seek detailed information about what every official was doing and cost it. That requires management techniques unfamiliar to ministers, many of whom had never run anything in their careers. She then promoted me to the far more challenging task of managing the defence budget; she was much more practical than doctrinal.

"I want to see the election of another Tory government. I believe there are five broad issues that they must address. the defence of the realm; the restoration of strength and confidence in our economy; the rule of law; the threat to our environment from pollution, global warming and climate change; and the restoration of British influence in the world.

"This is an agenda that should appeal to the younger electorate that will be in place by the next election.

“It is time that the Conservative party wakes up to the reality of the changing views of that electorate. As I prepare this speech, the latest YouGov poll puts the conservatives on 16 points; one ahead of the LibDems; 6 points behind Labour and 13 behind Reform. It is a long way to the next election but there is danger in a strategy that is mixing up the immigration problem with our wider relations with our European neighbours. The danger is clearly revealed in another set of polls. The number of people aged below 50 who think it was right for us to leave Europe is less than 20 percent and with the 18 to 24 year olds it is only 13 percent. The new cohort of 16/17 year olds will reinforce this position, but only if we ensure that they are properly informed. Overall, the latest polls tell us that 56 per cent now believe it was a mistake to leave. Only 31 per cent believe it was right. The tide is turning.

"A stark warning comes when you look at the age group of the present conservative supporters and see how weighted it is towards older voters. If the conservative party ever hopes for re-election, it must remember its previous successful periods in Government, build on those successes - and the policies that achieved them.

"It will require courage; the country is living beyond its means. Many people will not like the necessary changes. The local revaluations I introduced in 1990 are now seriously out of date and thus deprive Local Government of much needed resources. There are opportunities to introduce a wider range of purchase tax bands that could raise funds from products that contribute to obesity, damage the environment or fuel the gambling boom.

"Local charges, with appropriate dispensations, could raise money from tourists, as all of us who travel abroad know when we visit cultural institutions abroad.

"Much the most effective cost free way to galvanise our economy is to build on the tried and tested methods to attract additional expenditure on the back of what is already included in the Public Expenditure programmes. We have made progress in overturning the top heavy apparatus of government in this country by the creation of mayors. The Government should simply have completed this by abolishing the districts and unitaries within the counties and establishing mayoralties everywhere. Then they should create a single pot of money, made up of the £10 billions that are in the various capital budgets of the spending departments and invite the mayors to bid for the money they need for locally based strategies. They would have to state how much extra funding this would enable them to deliver. It would have the effect of galvanising local people in the Universities, quangos, private companies and overseas investors to use the money targeted at the strengths and opportunities relevant to each local economy. Whitehall and the Treasury will not like this and will be unwilling to accept the argument that every country like ours shows how effective a process this is.

"There are numerous examples of how experiments here have delivered results. It is particularly depressing that two of the Conservatives who did so much to reinvigorate local Government, Greg Clark as Secretary of State and Andy Street as Mayor of Birmingham, have not been elevated to the House of Lords.

The most extreme example is that, when I set up the London Docklands corporation they were able to raise ten pounds of private money for every pound of public money they spent.

"It is almost certainly too much to expect this Labour government to reverse its tax policies which are driving the rich overseas, threatening the farming community and destroying the incentives for the small and medium private companies to grow.

"We must not abandon the shared laws of Europe. The scantiest knowledge of European history and our role in it is a story of one war after another. Between states, alliances of states and ultimately across much of the continent itself. It was a story of political failure where dialogue and negotiation was replaced by bloodshed largely of generations younger than those in charge. In one of his most famous speeches Winston Churchill at Zurich in 1946 called for a Council of Europe and a Charter of Human Rights. This country was the first to ratify the Charter before it came into force in 1953 It was the first legally binding international human rights treaty.

"The court itself came into existence in 1959 with the British Lord McNair as its first President. The UK has had a British judge ever since as one of the 46 judges representing the 46 signatories. In the event that a case is brought concerning the UK that British judge will be involved in the proceedings. If any changes are required, the worst thing is to walk out and turn our back on one of the most civilised of European creations. The right way is to follow David Cameron’s example and seek change by agreement as he did in 2012 with the Brighton Declaration. It is more than possible that the widespread concerns about asylum seekers across Europe would make review welcome to many signatories.

"The threat from global warming must not be ignored in the hope that it may not happen or because there is a backlash against the cost. The Climate Change Act 2008 was prepared by the conservative opposition led by David Cameron. So comprehensive was the parliamentary support that Gordon Brown agreed to accept it as a government bill which was passed with only five dissenting votes. The Act set up the Climate Change Committee. This committee has been supported by our party and indeed on its recommendation we passed into law the Net Zero target by 2050. We should be proud of our role in the battle to halt climate change. It was Margaret Thatcher who gave one of the starkest and earliest warnings of the dangers. Today the evidence in storms, coastal erosion, flooding, fire and the spread of desert is all too clear. It would be an act of unforgivable irresponsibility to undo all that Conservatives have done to play a leading role in this world threatening crisis.

"European companies need the same scale of research and development support as available to their competitors in America, China and, increasingly, India. That cannot be done by nation states working alone. Airbus is the clearest example of how cooperation can challenge the world.

"I am proud to have introduced blocking shares into Rolls Royce after the conservatives rescued the company in the 1970s and again later in British Aerospace. I took the initiative to bring European space research together under the European Space Agency in 1973 and secured for Britain leadership in satellite technology.

"Typhoon aircraft are now patrolling Polish air space and I am proud that it was a British led consortium including Germany, Italy and Spain that developed and built them. I came face to face with the reality of the competition our companies have to face in 1984 when the American general responsible for President Reagan's star wars missile shield came to see me when I was Defence Secretary. 'I have a 29 billion dollar budget' he said 'and I can place £100m of that with your Heriot Watt university where they are at the leading edge of some particular technology'. He was travelling the world entering partnerships at the frontiers of technology. All to go back to silicon valley where it could be used by America's companies. Only European cooperation can keep us in that league.

"We must play a leading part in building a more effective European military capability within NATO and prevent a Russian victory in Ukraine. There can be little doubt that the West was asleep on the job as Putin attacked Ukraine. First he annexed Crimea: nothing happened. I can hear his generals saying 'Go on Vladimir - they won't do anything'.

"They were right. He stirred up the Donetsk and we still did nothing. 'We told you so,’ said the generals. He put the troops in and at last NATO did react. But President Trump's over-friendly relationship with Putin has raised the urgent requirement to form a more coordinated European military capability in NATO. If Europe really had to act in the absence of the US, do we really know who is in charge and how quickly they could assume command? There is also a need for more effective procurement policies to get longer production lines and more coordination on the battlefield. Left to their own devices and their own pattern of customers the individual national companies will not do this without leadership from governments.

“Above all we must make clear that we will never have any part in the populist extremism of Nigel Farage.

“We have to deal with President Trump for the next 3 years. We don't need his mouthpiece anywhere near Number 10."