Theresa May: Speech to Conservative Party Conference 2014

thank you very much well say that thank you Alexander for that thoughtful and inspiring ing speech it's difficult for most of us here in this Hall to really appreciate the effects of stop and search you see most of us are white most of us are of a certain age well we're we're certainly not teenagers anymore but imagine walking home or driving to work one day and being stopped by the police imagine having done nothing wrong you're patted down you have your pockets turned inside out and your possessions examined imagine you ask why you're being searched and you're told it's just routine even though the police need reasonable grounds for suspicion that you've broken the law imagine growing up and the Dignity of this happening to you 20 30 40 even 50 or 60 times and imagine what it's like to feel deep down that this is only happening because you're young male and black properly conducted stop and search is a legitimate and useful police power but figures gathered by the police themselves bear out the experiences of young men like Alexander only about 10% of stop and search incidents lead to an arrest if you're black you're six times more likely to be stopped than if you're white and according to the inspectorate of constabulary as Alexander told us 27% of stops are carried out without the reasonable grounds for suspicion required by law that means more than a quarter of a million stops carried out last last year were probably illegal this is hugely damaging to public confidence in the police it's a dreadful waste of police time and it's simply not right that young men like Alexander who've worked hard respected the law and done all the things expected of them by their parents and by Society should be treated this way and that is why I've always been determined to reform stop and search now under labor you remember them the party of equality stop and search Powers were extended and extended under the conservatives they've been cut back under labor oversight rules and safeguards were downgraded and discarded under the conservatives they've been strengthened and the result is less and better targeted stop and search at its peak under labor there were 1.5 million stop and search incidents per year across the country we've reduced that by a third to 1 million last year the result is less Injustice less anger and more time for the police to catch real criminals but I know that the misuse of stop and search is still a real problem so if those numbers don't keep falling if stop and search doesn't become more targeted if the stop to arrest ratios don't improve we will legislate to make those things happen because I am determined to make sure that nobody should ever be stopped and searched because of the color of their skin conference I could easily spend all my time today talking to you about our other achievements in the home office now because of European free movement rules overall immigration is still too high but where we can control immigration we are controlling it and immigration from outside Europe is down to the levels of the 1990s to deal with Labor's debt crisis we've had cut we've cut police spending by more than a fifth but police reform is working and under this government crime is down by 22% I could go into a lot more detail but instead I'm going to talk to you about the deadly terrorist threat we Face David Haynes was a tireless humanitarian worker who helped Muslims not just in Syria but in Bosnia South Sudan and Libya two weeks ago he was murdered by terrorists simply for being British his murder followed the equ equally barbaric killings of James Foley and Steven stoff American journalists who were reporting to the world the plight of the Syrian people the terrorists who murdered David Haynes like to call themselves the Islamic State but I will tell you the truth they are not Islamic and they are not a state their actions have absolutely no basis in anything written in the Quran what they believe has no resemblance whatsoever to the beliefs of more than a billion Muslims all over the world and like all the other islamist terrorist organizations they have caused the deaths of many thousands of innocent Muslim civilians they occupy large parts of Syria and Iraq and not only are they bringing death and destruction to the people of those countries they have made absolutely clear their desire to attack Britain America and the West isil are just one of the terrorist threats we Face there is Boku Haram in Nigeria al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula in Yemen like-minded groups in Libya al-shabab in East Africa terrorist planning in Pakistan and Afghanistan and homegrown extremists who like the seven seven bombers were radicalized here in Britain last year drummer Lee Rigby was murdered by islamist extremists in London while Muhammad Sim an elderly British Muslim was murdered by a Ukrainian far-right extremist here in Birmingham the police and security service are working hard every day to prevent other terrorist attacks on our streets and we should thank them for the tireless work they do dealing with those threats requires a deep understanding of what is going on in the world and a studied careful response because there are no simple answers we can't go around the world trying to make it in our own image we can't just remove dictators and assume that liberal democracy will follow when you look at what is going on in the across the Middle East there is a battle raging for the heart and soul of Islam itself and that battle is very complicated there is the ancient split between Sunni and Shia Muslims tribal rivales and hostilities autocracies theocracies and yes democracies too states that fight proxy wars against others in third countries countries that sponsor Insurgent movements and terrorism whole regions that are Bel beyond the control of their governments terrorist groups that are more powerful than the States they're based in a conflict between different interpretations of the true Faith between scriptural literalism and modernity between tradition and progress between unelected strong men and popular consent between nihilistic violence and human rights this is a battle that has already been fought for many years and will be fought many years into the future and it is not for Britain or any other Western power to try to Res resolve it only the many peoples of the world's Muslim countries can determine their future yes we should stand up for human rights yes we should support friendly States and moderate elements within other states yes we should provide humanitarian support when Wars are fought but we have to disentangle our own National interest from the struggle that is going on in the Middle East and across the Muslim world that judgment will sometimes be difficult to make but in the case of isil the danger is clear they have already murdered British and American citizens in the most brutal and cowardly manner possible they have attracted tens of thousands of foreign Fighters including thousands of Europeans Americans Australians and British Nationals one of their terrorists has already struck in Europe when he murdered four innocent civilians outside the Jewish Museum in Brussels earlier this year and they have made clear that they want to go on attacking Western targets that is why it is right that we are part of the International Coalition dedicated to isol's destruction if isol succeeded in firmly consolidating their grip on the land they occupy in Syria and Iraq we will see the world's first truly terrorist state established within a few hours flying time of our country we will see terrorists given the space to plot attacks against us train their men and women and devise new methods to kill indiscriminately we will see the risk often prophesied but thank God not yet fulfilled that with the capability of a state behind them the terrorists could acquire chemical biological or or even nuclear weapons to attack us this is not somebody else's battle they have made clear their Ambitions and they have made us their enemies and the lesson of History tells us that when our enemies say they want to attack us they mean it we must not flinch we must not shy away from our responsibility we must not drift towards Danger and insecurity while we still have the chance we must act to destroy isil the threat we Face from Isel is made even greater by the fact that there are at least 500 British Nationals who have gone to Syria and Iraq many of them to fight where they have dual nationality I have the power to deprive them of their British citizenship and keep them out of our country thanks to our recent Immigration Act in certain circumstances I can do the same to naturalize British citizens and keep them out of the country too but under international law no country is allowed to make its citizens stateless and most of those British Fighters are likely to return to the UK in the end so like other countries faced with the same problem and there are 700 from France 400 from Germany 300 from Belgium and thousands in total from countries across Europe we have to deal with the threat the first thing we must do do is discourage young British Muslims from traveling to Syria and Iraq in the first place we know that some have traveled in order to do genuine humanitarian work others have gone in the hope of fighting against the government of Bashar al-assad but some have drawn by the been drawn by the ideology of extremist militias like al- nozra front and isil we are working with families and Community groups across the country to REM people how they can alleviate the suffering of civilians in Iraq and Syria without actually traveling there fighting for terrorist groups is never the answer it is not acceptable and it is illegal so we are working with other European countries to disrupt and prevent travel to the region and when we know people are planning to travel to Syria and Iraq I can strip them of their British passports so far I've removed the passports of 25 people in relation to Syria and I will go on using that power and in a new counterterrorism bill which will be introduced by the end of November we will toughen up these Powers further so when the police suspect somebody they encounter at the border they will be able to seize their passport prevent travel and give themselves time to investigate the suspect the British Nationals who do travel to Syria and Iraq risk prosecution for participating in Terrorist activities abroad this year 103 people have been arrested for offenses relating to terrorism in Syria 24 have been charged and five have already been successfully prosecuted we're legislating to toughen these laws too so it will become a criminal offense to prepare and train for terrorism overseas for people we cannot prosecute but for whom there is evidence of their involvement in terrorism we have some of the strongest laws in the world the police and security service can already apply to me to put these people on terrorism prevention and investigation measures or teins these require subjects to be at a particular address for a number of hours every night limit their access to the internet and telephones and prevent them meeting named Associates we believe we need to strengthen these Powers so I am determined to do exactly that when we came to power we protected the counterterrorism placing budget and the budgets for the security and intelligence agencies and we've given them extra resources forces for surveillance but we must make sure too that the police and the security services have all the capabilities they need to keep us safe and there is one capability that is diminishing at such a pace that not only are we risking letting terrorists plan their attacks undisrupted we are allowing organized criminals to operate undisturbed crimes are going unpunished children are are being abused and lives are being put at risk for years the police and Security Services have had access to Communications data that's the who where when and how of a communication but not its content it's played a significant role in every major security service counterterrorism operation in the last decade it's been used as evidence in 95% of all serious organized crime cases handled by the crown prosecution service and it's played a significant role in solving many of the most serious crimes in recent years including the Oxford Rochdale and rotheram child abuse cases several modern slavery cases and the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman it can prove and disprove Alibis identify associations between potential criminals and tie suspects and victims to crime scenes but because the way in which we communicate is increasingly online our ability to obtain the data we need is declining rapidly and dangerously over a six-month period the National Crime agency estimates that it had to drop at least 20 cases as a result of missing Communications data 13 of these were threat to life cases in which a child was judged to be at risk of IM iment harm in a 3mon period the Metropolitan Police had to drop 12 cases because Communications data was not available these cases included sexual offenses and Potential Threat to life scenarios relating to a suicide threat and a kidnap the solution to this crisis of National Security was the communications data bill but two years ago it was torpedoed by the liberal Democrats now I'm told that the lib Dems now tell the newspapers that they might have to give ground on surveillance powers in a future coalition government agree but they also say that they have no intention of allowing changes before the general election this is outrageously irresponsible because innocent people are in danger right now if we do not act if we do not act we risk sleepwalking into a society in which crime can no longer be investigated and terrorists can plot their murderous schemes undisrupted we have to give the police and the security services the powers they need to keep us safe and that is what the next conservative government will do so we must give ourselves the legal powers and Technical capabilities we need to protect the public but we will not Prevail against the terrorist threat through military strength or counterterrorism Powers alone we need to defeat the ideology that lies behind the threat the extremists Believe In A Clash of civilizations a fundamental incompatibility between Islamic and Western values an inevitable divide between them and us they demand a caliphate or a new Islamic state governed by a harsh interpretation of sharia law they utterly reject British and Western values including democracy the rule of law and equality between citizens regardless of their gender ethnicity religion or sexuality they believe that it is impossible to be a good Muslim and a good British Citizen and they dismiss anybody who disagrees with them including other Muslims as a nonbeliever this hateful ideology has nothing to do with Islam itself and it is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Britain and around the world the Quran says oh Mankind we created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into Nations and tribes that ye may know each other it says let there be no compulsion in religion so let this message go out from this Hall that the extremists will never succeed in dividing us let the message go out that we know Islam is a religion of peace and it has nothing to do with the ideology of our enemies let us stand and let us stand side by side with the British Muslims who are coming together and saying not in my [Music] name we must do everything we can to defeat this ideology and prevent the radicalization of young British Muslims we're toughening up the charity rules and the powers of the charity commission working with ofcom to deal with extremist broadcasts improving the inspection regime and strengthening the rules for schools we're working with the ministry of Justice to tackle radicalization in prisons demanding more from universities to prevent radicalization on campus and improving our ability to take down terrorist material from the internet since the start of this year the police have secured the removal of more than 30,000 pieces of terrorist material we have an established network of organizations that work with people who are drifting into extremism and violence we've made important changes to the prevent program we inherited from the last government we separated it from the integration and Community Building work overseen by Eric pickles there are now strict rules and checks to make sure we do not fund and do not work with people and organizations that do not share British values and our policy doesn't just focus on violent extremism it deals with nonviolent extremism too since 2010 I have prevented more foreign hate preachers coming to Britain than any Home Secretary before me and and despite the European Court of Human Rights I've kicked a few of them out of the country too but we must continue to do more soon we will make prevent a statutory Duty for all public sector organizations I want to see new Banning orders for extremist groups that fall short of the existing laws relating to terrorism I want to see new civil powers to Target extremists who stay just within the law but still spread poisonous hatred so both policies Banning orders and extremism D disruption orders will be in the next conservative Manifesto and I want to tell you about another change we intend to make as part of the government's counterterrorism strategy prevent has only ever focused on the hard end of the extremism Spectrum so the home office will soon for the first time time assume responsibility for a new counter extremism strategy that goes beyond terrorism the strategy will be overseen and devised by the home office but its implementation will be respon the responsibility of the whole of government the rest of the public sector and Civil Society it will aim to undermine and eliminate extremism in all its forms neo- nacism and other forms of extremism as well as is IST extremism and it will aim to build up Society to identify extremism confront it challenge it and defeat it here in the city of Birmingham local people know the problem only too well because it was here that extremists infiltrated State schools and sought to impose a Hardline curriculum on children School pupils were told about the dangers of White prostitutes the call to prayer was broadcast over loudspeakers music was banned boys and girls were segregated trips to Saudi Arabia were arranged for Muslim only children and inspectors found a culture of bullying and intimidation but it is not just a problem in Birmingham following divisive community politics and allegations of this ma the mismanagement of public funds in the London burough of tower hamlets Eric pickles has sent invest inspectors to investigate luta Ramen the elected mayor of the burough across the country across the country there are concerns about the way Sharia law is being applied the way women are told to live and and the intolerant attitudes shown to people of different beliefs and ways of life we must not Sleepwalk into separation segregation and sectarianism we must be we must be clear to people that the United Kingdom is a great place to live we choose to live here immigrants come to live here and many dream of building a life here because we have a free Society we celebrate different ways of life we value diversity and we cherish our freedom to lead Our Lives as we choose all British people including British Muslims are free to practice their faith and wear whatever clothes they choose they are free to establish their own faith schools and give their children including their girls the best education possible they are free to build their own churches temples and mosques and worship freely these are the benefits of living in a puristic society but the whole point of living in such a society is that there are not just rights but responsibilities too you don't just get the freedom to live how you choose to live you have to respect other people's rights to do so too and you have to respect British values and institutions the rule of law democracy equality free speech and respect for minorities these are the values that make our country what it is these are our values and there is no place for extremism here now the will I'm sure be some who say politicians shouldn't get involved in these matters but to live in a modern liberal state is not to live in a moral vacuum we have to stand up for our values as a nation there will I know be some who say that what I describe as extremism is merely social conservatism but if others described a woman's intellect as deficient denounced people on the basis of their religious beliefs or rejected the Democratic process we would quite rightly condemn their bigotry and there will be others who say I'm wrong to link these kind of beliefs with the violent extremism we agree we must confront to them I say yes not all extremism leads to violence and not all extremists are violent but the damage extremists cause to our society is reason enough to act and there is undoubtedly a thread that binds the kind of extremism that promotes intolerance hatred and a sense of superiority over others to the actions of those who want to impose their values on us through violence those extremists are dangerous but they are a small minority we know the overwhelming majority of British people want to be free free from danger free from Fear free from Prejudice free from discrimination free to practice their religion free to observe their cultures and traditions free to dress as they like free to be educated as they choose free to work where they wish free to live with whom they love free to raise their amilies as they see fit free to get on with their lives we must not become a society where these things are no longer possible we must confront segregation and sectarianism we must face down extremism in all its forms we must stand up for our values because in the end as they have done before those values are British values will win the day and we will prevail now

Channel: Conservatives

Views: 69,454

Keywords: Theresa May (Politician), Conservative Party (Political Party)

Id: 3i3V8pd6xOg

Length: 33min 17sec (1997 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 30 2014