Sajid Javid, Home Secretary.

Born in Rochdale. One of five sons. Father was a bus driver. Family of seven later lived in a two bedroom flat above a shop. Education: State comprehensive school, Technical College and Exeter University.

Best Conference Quotes

Regarding EU migrants who have already made the UK their home.

“And I say to those EU citizens, who have already made the UK their home. You have benefited our country, you are part of our country, part of many of our families, part of our home. So let me be very clear: deal or no deal, we want you to stay, we need you to stay, you can stay”.

Regarding a second people’s vote.

“We choose the path of modern Britain. Tolerant Britain. Global Britain. That is the opportunity and challenge that leaving the European Union represents. And to meet our best potential, we need to bring the country together. The worst way to do that, would be to backtrack on the referendum result. If Brexit feels like a dividing line in our country now, just imagine what it would feel like if we didn’t follow-through with the result of the referendum. There’s something very ‘Liberal Democrat’ about saying, ‘that referendum was a total nightmare, let’s have another one!’ We all agreed to honour the result. So let’s get on with it. No second-guessing. No best-of-three. One vote, one mandate, one nation moving forwards together”.

Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Education: Shenfield secondary school then Oxford

Best Conference Quotes

“Europe remains, by far, our biggest market. And after 45 years of membership, Britain’s economy has shaped itself around that fact. Complex supply chains cross and re-cross our borders. Over 11,000 trucks each day pass through the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel alone…carrying tens of thousands of tons of food, components and finished products in both directions…with no more delay or bureaucracy than they would crossing the border from England into Wales. And our businesses, and the workers whose jobs depend on them…need that friction-free access to continue. That is why I share the Prime Minister’s determination to get the Chequers Plan agreed. A plan, which delivers on the decision of the British people; avoids a hard border in Ireland; preserves our precious Union…AND safeguards British jobs and British businesses. Mr. Tusk says it won’t work…but that’s what people said about the light bulb in 1878. Our job is to prove him wrong”.

“So over the next few weeks we must stand together…four-square behind the PM…to get the best possible outcome for Britain…while at the same time taking the precaution of preparing for the possibility of “No Deal”. And be in no doubt that I will maintain enough fiscal firepower to support our economy if that happens”.

“Brexit is important. Of course it is. And, let me be clear, it is going to happen because that is what the country voted for”.

Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary

Born in Kennington. One of three children. The eldest son of Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt. Education: Charterhouse school and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Best Conference Quotes

“Our friends in Europe need to understand that 52 per cent of the country aren’t rabid populists trying to build Fortress Britain. We fought for peace on our continent so none of us will ever turn our back on history. But nor, and I want to address our European friends directly now, should you. At the moment you seem to think the way to keep the club together is to punish a member who leaves. Not just with economic disruption. But even by breaking up the United Kingdom with a border down the Irish Sea. What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream? The EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving.
The lesson from history is clear: if you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won’t diminish it will grow…and we won’t be the only prisoner that will want to escape”.

“Never mistake British politeness for British weakness. Because if you put a country like Britain in a corner, we don’t crumble. We fight. So as your friends of many years we say simply this: Brexit is not about whether you succeed or we succeed.  Europe prospers when we both succeed and it’s time to change your approach”.

“Last week in New York I had dinner with perhaps the world’s most experienced diplomat, Dr Henry Kissinger.  Dr Kissinger told me he was asked to write an article supporting ‘remain’ in the referendum campaign – but he refused.  He said America and the world needed an independent British voice and without Brexit he worried there wouldn’t be one”.

Ruth Davidson, MSP. Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party.

Education: Buckhaven High School, University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow.

Best Conference Quotes

“Now is the time for Conservatives to get behind the prime minister, give her the space to get the deal done and to back her to deliver for the country”.

“In terms of a period of silence, I would be very welcoming of one.”

Asked about calls for another referendum on any Brexit deal, she said:

“In terms of our history in Scotland, I’ve been pretty vocal about the fact that you can’t re-run referendums if you are a nationalist because you didn’t get the result you want”.

“I’d be pretty hypocritical if I said you could re-run this Brexit referendum because it wasn’t the result the I argued for.”

Heidi Allen, MP

Education: University College London

Best Conference Quotes

Heidi Allen joins a handful of Tory backbenchers who’ve openly said a so-called People’s Vote may now be needed. And as someone who supported Remain, her comments may come as no surprise.

Saying the “right-wing” of her party had made Theresa May’s Chequers Brexit plan – “dead”.

“They have behaved unacceptably through this and have completely tied her hands,” she told the BBC.

Geoffrey Cox, Attorney General.

Warm up act for the Prime Minister at Tory Conference.

Best Conference Quotes

“At 11pm on 29th March 2019 we will leave the European Union. And soon thereafter in an extraordinary moment in our history the European institutions will no longer have the right to make laws for our country. And that power will belong exclusively to the sovereign parliament of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That is a precious prize”.

“She will deliver the prize that millions voted for and fulfil the largest democratic mandate that any vote has ever returned in our history”.

“But we have to be grown up about it. We have now reached the critical moment, when I am convinced, we must resolve to put aside our differences and unite behind the Prime Minister, to ensure that the decision of the 23rd June 2016 is not set at nought, by those who would have us remain in the European Union. That would indeed have catastrophic consequences for the democracy of our country”.

“The whole premise and principle of Brexit is based on hope not fear. We need not fear self-government”.