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Penny Mordaunt urged Tories to “stand up in fight” as she delivered a rousing speech to the party conference.<\/p>\n
The Commons Leader invoked the spirit of former PM Margaret Thatcher as she warned Labour would take the country back to the 1980s.<\/p>\n
She said: “They want to return us to the 1980s. Conference, we are not for returning.<\/p>\n
Ms Mordaunt also ripped into Labour and Sir Keir Starmer, while mocking Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and the SNP’s Humza Yousaf.<\/p>\n
She said Sir Ed made his predecessor Tim Farron “look like a giant” and that Mr Yousaf “made Nicola Sturgeon look competent”.<\/p>\n
Ms Mordaunt’s speech comes ahead of Rishi Sunak’s address just before midday.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister is expected to use his keynote speech to axe the HS2 leg which was due to connect Manchester with Birmingham as he criticises 30 years of a “broken” system incentivising “the easy decision, not the right one”.<\/p>\n
Mr Sunak will pitch himself as the man to “fundamentally change our country” ahead of a general election expected next year.<\/p>\n
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