Conservative Party conference returns to Blackpool

Blackpool Council said it hopes "it will be the first of many" political conferences held in the resort

The Conservative Party is to return to Blackpool to stage a conference in the resort for the first time since 2007.

The event is set to be held in a new £28m conference centre within the Winter Gardens on 18 and 19 March.

The conference is estimated to be worth nearly £2.5m to the local economy, according to tourism bosses.

Blackpool South MP Scott Benton welcomed the news and said he wanted to "showcase the wonderful place".

The Tory MP added that he hoped to "convince the party to hold many more events in Blackpool in the years to come".

'Major player'

A Blackpool Council spokeswoman said she was "delighted to see the return of a mainstream party political conference to Blackpool" and hoped it would "be the first of many".

"Our investment in a new conference centre to complement the existing facilities in the Winter Gardens is a statement of our intent to once again become a major player in the conference market.

"We look forward to welcoming delegates back to Blackpool," she said.

The conference centre works have been completed and it is due to be officially opened soon, the council added.

Labour last had their annual conference in Blackpool in 2002 when former US President Bill Clinton combined a speech to the party faithful with a late night trip to nearby McDonalds with actor friend Kevin Spacey.

The Tories in Blackpool

The Blackpool Winter Gardens has seen memorable moments at Conservative Party conferences:

• Future party leader William Hague took to the stage in 1977 as a precocious 16-year-old with an address where he told the older party members: "Half of you may not be here in 30 or 40 years' time, but I will be and I want to be free"

• Employment minister Norman Tebbit made headlines in 1981 when, in a speech which came three months after the Toxteth Riots, he told the conference: "My dad didn't riot in the 1930s - he got on his bike and looked for work"

• In 2007, future PM David Cameron, in an effort to goad the sitting Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown into calling an election, said: "So, Mr Brown, what's it going to be? Why don't you go ahead and call that election?"