Security Minister's speech at the International Security Expo

Thank you very much and good morning. It’s a great pleasure to be here and to join you all in this amazing venue.

Believe it or not, today marks 3 consecutive appearances for me at the International Security Expo.

I am hoping, we will see, that it might be third time lucky!

Not that the scheduling gets any easier for me. 

It is the third consecutive year I’ve had to explain to colleagues in Liverpool why I couldn’t join them at party conference today. 

Fortunately, ‘national security’ remains the most convincing reason available to a Security Minister.

This event has certainly become something of an annual tradition for me.

While the hustle and bustle of party politics carries on in earnest in Liverpool, it means I get to spend important time rubbing shoulders with the robots and drones on display here at Olympia, here in the nation’s capital. 

I’ll leave it to you to decide which group is easier to handle. 

And just to be absolutely crystal clear, when I refer to robots and drones, that is not a reference to anybody here in this wonderful audience!

I dare say that, unlike at party conference, I’m hopefully less likely to be barracked, or to be accosted by someone dressed as a badger. Anyway, hopefully that will be the case, we will see!

But, seriously, this is an engagement I am always very pleased to keep.

Because every time I attend this event, I leave with a much greater appreciation of the expertise, ingenuity and commitment that exists across the UK’s security sector.

Last year I talked about the range of different threats we face.

Across each of them we are making strong progress, and always striving to do so in close partnership with industry.

At our borders, we have strengthened the Border Security Command and delivered new powers through the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act.

Arrests, disruptions and enforcement activity are all up and we have prevented tens of thousands of attempted crossings since the last election.