Definition
A whip speech is the closing speech delivered by the second speaker of each team in British Parliamentary debate. Its job is to summarize and weigh the round as a whole, comparing the strongest clashes across both sides, rather than introducing brand new arguments. Judges typically penalize a whip speech that raises fresh material, since the opposing team has no chance left to respond to it.
Example
A strong whip speech does not repeat the team's case from scratch. Instead it says something like: "This round comes down to two clashes: whether the policy is affordable, and whether it actually reaches the population it targets. On affordability, our side's figures went unanswered. On reach, their strongest response never addressed our enforcement point." That is weighing, not restating.
Common mistakes
The most common failure is treating the whip speech as one more chance to make the case from the beginning, which wastes the speech's real purpose: telling the judge how to weigh what has already been said. A second common mistake is sneaking in a new argument disguised as a summary; judges are trained to notice material that was not actually raised earlier in the round and to disregard it even if it sounds persuasive.