Northern Ireland Conservative conference hears call to 'rewire, reprogram and reboot the UK state and economy'

Alex Burghart and his party leader Kemi Badenoch both attended the event – which otherwise was fairly low key. The Conservatives currently have no elected representatives in the province.

The leader of the opposition only made a brief appearance – she had been due to attend a lunch event but had to cancel some engagements because of flight cancellations.

The meeting focused on issues such as the Windsor Framework, pressures on the fishing and farming industries and how the party could improve its electoral performance in Northern Ireland.

Mr Burghart said the Conservative Party “have to be about how the bigger picture relates to ordinary families, lives, and we have to be the party of prosperity, because the Labour Party will not be.

“We have to be the party that will fix our public services, because the Labour Party is not going to do that, and we're seeing that that's not happening locally.

“We we have to be the party that is going to rewire, reprogram and reboot the UK state and economy.

“This is sort of moment that I think only comes around every 50 years. It came around in the late 70s, when it was clear that the old way of doing things had run its course and a new beginning was needed.

“The Conservative Party save the country, then it can save the country now. And all we need to do is get the ideas, the plan and the desire and we can do it”.

The small event also heard representations from various industry bodies in Northern Ireland, including Retail NI, Hospitality Ulster and the Ulster Farmer’s Union.

Colin Neill from Hospitality Ulster called for a lower VAT rate in Northern Ireland – something that received unanimous support in the Northern Ireland Assembly in recent weeks. He also raised concerns about an increase in the cost of food, because of businesses having to use the Windsor Framework’s red lane arrangements. He said that would pay for itself within three years.