GovWire

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I feel a profound sense of urgency. Because more will change in the next five years than in the last thirty.

Im convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet the most transformational our country has ever known.

So the question we face today is this: Who has the clear plan and bold ideas to deliver a secure future for you and your family?

The dangers that threaten our country are real. They are increasing in number. An axis of authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China is working together to undermine us and our values.

War has returned to Europe, with our NATO allies warning that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, they might be next.

War rages, too, in the Middle East as Israel defends itself not only against the terrorists of Hamas but a barrage of missiles fired for the first time directly from Iran.

Right now in Africa, conflicts are being fought in 18 different countries. And Putins recklessness has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear escalation than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis.

These are not faraway problems. Iranian proxies are firing on British ships in the Red Sea, disrupting goods destined for our high streets.

Here at home, China has conducted cyber targeting of our democratically elected MPs. Russia has poisoned people with chemical weapons.

And when Putin cut off the gas supplies it had a devastating impact on peoples lives and threatened our energy security.

And in this world of greater conflict and danger, 100 million people are now displaced globally.

Countries like Russia are weaponising immigration for their own ends, and criminal gangs keep finding new routes across European borders.

Illegal migration is placing an intolerable strain on our security and our sense of fairness, and unless we act now and act boldly this problem is only going to grow.

Extremists are also exploiting these global conflicts to divide us.

People are abusing our liberal democratic values the freedom of speech and right of protest - to intimidate, threaten and assault others, to sing antisemitic chants on our streets and our university campuses, and to weaponise the evils of anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim hatred in a divisive, ideological attempt to set Briton against Briton.

And from gender activists hijacking childrens sex education to cancel culture, vocal and aggressive fringe groups are trying to impose their views on the rest of us.

Theyre trying to make it morally unacceptable to believe something different and undermine peoples confidence and pride in our own history and identity.

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But forall the dangers ahead, few are felt more acutely than peoples sense of financial insecurity. Weve been pounded by a series of once-in-a-generation shocks.

The worst international financial crisis since the great depression in the 1930s. The first global pandemic since the Spanish flu in 1918.

The biggest energy shock since the 1970s. Global forces, yet they are hitting our living standards here at home.

We must be prepared strategically, economically, with robust plans and greater national resilience, to meet this time of instability with strength.

And peoples sense of insecurity is only heightened by the fears about new technologies like AI.

When the IMF says 40% of jobs could be affected, or hundreds of leading experts say the risks could be on a par with pandemics or nuclear war, and when children are exposed to bullying, sexualised content or even self-harm online, people want to know theyve got someone in charge who understands these dangers, because only if you understand what is happening can you be trusted to keep us safe.

But the paradox of our age is that for all the profound dangers we face, right now, we also hold in our hands an opportunity for human progress that could surpass the industrial revolution in speed and breadth.

Technologies like AI will do for the 21st century what the steam engine and electricity did for the 19th.

Theyll accelerate human progress by complementing what we do, by speeding up the discovery of new ideas, and by assisting almost every aspect of human life.

Think of the investment they will bring, the jobs theyll create, and the increase in all our living standards theyll deliver.

Credible estimates suggest AI alone could double our productivity in the next decade.

And in doing so, help us create a world of less suffering, more freedom, choice, and opportunity.

Just imagine. Every child in school with their own personalised tutor, and every teacher free to spend more time personally developing each student.

New frontiers in medical diagnostics where a single picture of your eyes can not only detect blindness but predict other diseases like heart attacks or Parkinsons.

And counterintuitive as it may seem, throughout human history, the greatest breakthroughs of science and learning have so often come at the moments of greatest danger.

The first electronic digital computers were developed by British codebreakers in the Second World War. Solar technology went from powering pocket calculators to a viable commercial technology following the energy crisis of the 1970s.

The fastest development, and deployment, of a vaccine in history came during the Covid pandemic.

And so it is incumbent upon us to make this a period not just of great danger, but great progress, too.

Thats why we launched a bold plan to make science and technology our new national purpose.

Were rightly proudof Britains spirit of discovery and entrepreneurship made us the leading country in the industrial revolution.

But we can be just as proud, just as confident, just as optimistic about our future, and our prospects to lead again in this new industrial age.

And doing so will enrich our lives and create good, well-paid jobs in the growth industries of the future here at home.

At the same time, new and fast-growing economic superpowers like India, Indonesia, and Nigeria are significantly reshaping the global economy.

And just as this ever more interconnected world creates new dangers, it also creates new possibilities.

The United Kingdom is uniquely placed to benefit. Weve always been an open, trading, maritime nation; and Brexit has given us the opportunity to trade even more.

And we invent, discover, and produce new products and services that the world wants to buy.

From aircraft wings in Filton, to financial services in Glasgow, to incredible cultural exports like film, music, and TV, or sports like the Premier League.

Everywhere from rural Kenya to the cityscapes of South Korea, people stay up all times of day and night to watch their favourite British team.

Its no wonder that Brexit Britain has leapt above France, Japan, and the Netherlands to become the worlds fourth biggest exporter.

And the more we export, the better our businesses will do, the more jobs we will create, the more wealth we will generate right across our country.

This is the opportunity before us. A world transformed by technological progress. Huge global markets hungry for new talent, goods, and services. You can see it all around us.

Two brothers from Merseyside sat around their kitchen table and built Castore a 1bn sportswear business taking on global giants like Nike and Adidas, their kit now worn by Red Bull Formula 1 and Bayer Leverkusen.

British companies and workers right across the country are pioneering offshore wind and exporting it around the world. Already, weve built the first floating offshore wind farm.

And our innovations have helped reduce the cost of wind energy by around two-thirds, and increased the size of turbines to the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower with blades bigger than Big Ben.

And you can see the opportunity too in healthcare, giving people longer, healthier lives. In Denmark, NovoNordisk created the Ozempic drug which is not only helping to tackle chronic disease globally, but singlehandedly grew Denmarks entire economy last year.

All this progress should show us that while this is one of the most dangerous periods weve ever known, it will also be one of the most transformational.

And if we make the right choices, if we have a bold enough vision, then we should feel confidence, pride, and optimism that Britains future is secure.

My point is this: our country stands at a crossroads. Over the next few years, from our democracy to our society to our economy - to the hardest questions of war and peace - almost every aspect of our lives is going to change.

How we act in the face of these changes not only to keep people safe and secure but to realise the opportunities too, will determine whether or not Britain will succeed in the years to come.

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In the last 14 years, weve made progress in the most difficult conditions any governments has faced since the Second World War.

A world leading economy, weve seen the 3rd highest growth rate in the G7, and created 4 million jobs, 800 a day.

We took difficult decisions to restore our count

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