Category: Speeches

  • Lucy Rigby – 2026 Speech at UK Digital Assets Week

    Lucy Rigby – 2026 Speech at UK Digital Assets Week

    The speech made by Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, in London on 6 October 2026.

    Thank you, and good morning everyone. 

    It is a real pleasure to open UK Digital Assets Week. 

    Just across the road are the Crown Jewels: some of the most valuable assets in the country, protected by centuries of law, institutions and very serious-looking security. And here we are, discussing assets of a very different form, but those that will undoubtedly play a very significant role in our country’s future and indeed our future prosperity.  

    And, the question facing us today is not whether digital technologies will change financial services. 

    They already have. 

    The question is whether we in the UK are prepared to move quickly enough and ambitiously enough to shape that change. 

    And my message today is very simple. 

    We are prepared, we are moving quickly, and we are more than ambitious enough to lead the world in digital assets. 

    When we take a step back, and we should take a step back, looking at the last couple of centuries, it’s fair to say that we are used to technological development giving us new products and new services. 

    But on occasion, technology changes something more fundamental: it changes the infrastructure on which an economy operates. 

    The move from paper to electronic trading transformed our financial markets in the 1980s and 1990s. 

    And I believe the shift from electronic markets to truly digital markets will prove just as significant.  

    This isn’t just about getting rid of paper or putting existing processes onto a slightly better computer system. 

    It is asking whether the architecture of finance itself can be better. 

    Whether assets can move more efficiently. 

    Whether transactions can settle faster. 

    Whether collateral can work harder. 

    Whether new forms of money can improve payments. 

    And whether technology can open markets to greater competition and innovation. 

    That is why digitalisation is not a niche technology agenda. 

    It is an economic agenda. 

    A competitiveness agenda. 

    And, increasingly, a national endeavour.  

    Government can create the conditions. 

    Regulators can provide clarity, confidence and appropriate safeguards. 

    But it is firms, investors and entrepreneurs who will deploy capital, build products and compete in these markets of the future.  

    That partnership is the basis on which the UK will succeed. 

    As we take this partnership forward, we also need to work closely with international partners to realise the benefits and avoid fragmented markets. 

    I am keenly aware of this as we gear up for our Presidency of the G20 in 2027.  

    Of course, saying that we want to succeed is the easy bit. 

    The substantive question is what we are actually doing about it. 

    And that is where I think the UK story is at its most compelling. 

    Last year we published our Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, built around market optimisation, transformation and leadership.  

    We are removing legacy processes; 

    Creating the regulatory environment in which new infrastructure can develop;  

    Building a regulatory framework for cryptoassets and stablecoins; 

    We are putting our own sovereign issuance onto digital infrastructure. 

    And critically industry is forging the path ahead. 

    That is why I appointed Chris Woolard as our Wholesale Digital Markets Champion. 

    His first report in July set out a clear challenge: that tokenised markets are fundamental to the future of financial services, and that the decisions we take now will help determine whether the UK remains at the heart of the next generation of global markets. 

    Since then, Chris has announced the composition of his industry action groups, bringing together firms from across the sector to tackle the practical barriers to adoption. 

    It is fantastic to see both the variety of firms and the seniority of the people involved. I would like to thank everyone involved in the process for committing your time and enthusiasm to this project. 

    That commitment matters. 

    Because the challenge now is not proving that the technology works. 

    It is creating the conditions in which markets can adopt it at scale. 

    The prize is significant. And this is a moment when the UK has an opportunity to move as one, be brave, and establish itself at the forefront of the next generation of global financial markets. 

    We can see momentum building across the system. 

    Take the Digital Securities Sandbox. 

    The Sandbox was designed to give firms a route from testing new technology to using it in live UK financial markets. 

    And that journey is now happening. 

    In July, HSBC became the first firm to receive approval to operate a live Digital Securities Depository in the Sandbox.  

    ClearToken has become the second firm to receive that approval.  

    That is real progress. 

    And as part of making sure the sandbox continues to work for firms, we intend to lay secondary legislation over the coming months to support the delivery of digital services and issuances in the DSS. 

    So we are moving from experimentation to live activity, with digital financial-market infrastructure trading digital securities here in the UK. 

    DIGIT is a symbol of the government’s commitment to this agenda, and of its willingness to play an active role in digitalisation. 

    The Digital Gilt Instrument – DIGIT – will be a digitally native UK Government debt issuance issued onto the HSBC Orion platform in the Digital Securities Sandbox. 

    The DIGIT pilot issuance in the first quarter of 2027. And, we are taking steps to prepare for potential further issuances, subject to the success of that first transaction.  

    To support the government’s objectives, HSBC and LSEG are working together to develop a bilateral link – the first of its kind – which will allow investors to access DIGIT through either infrastructure. 

    We are intending to list DIGIT as the first digital asset on the LSEG main market. And we are engaging the sector more widely to support the delivery of the pilot. 

    Today, I am pleased to be able to announce that we have appointed six firms to act as Joint Lead Managers for the pilot issuance of DIGIT.  

    This is an important moment for the project and is another major step toward delivering on our ambitions for digital assets in the UK. 

    These institutions will bring vast experience from both traditional sovereign debt issuances, and from digital markets, and their appointment reaffirms the commitment to ensuring the success of DIGIT. 

    The United Kingdom’s strength comes from being one of the world’s great meeting places for international capital. 

    And our ambition is that the same should be true of digital capital markets. One of the objectives of DIGIT is to act as a catalyst to support the development of DLT. 

    We want to build an ecosystem that connects the world with the UK right at the centre.

    But digital securities are only one part of this transformation. 

    If we are going to build genuinely digital markets, we also need to think about digital money. 

    There is little point transforming one half of a transaction if the other half remains dependent on older technology. 

    And this is an area where developments are moving quickly. 

    Our approach is not to pick which form of digital money will ultimately win. 

    Instead, our job is to create conditions in which responsible innovation can compete. 

    Stablecoins. 

    Tokenised commercial bank deposits. 

    A diverse system, where different forms of money play their own role and can be freely exchanged. 

    And over recent months we have made substantial progress towards putting that framework into practice. 

    This year marked an important change in the UK’s approach to cryptoassets. 

    We moved from debating the shape of regulation to implementing it. 

    The regulations I took through in February bring a broad range of cryptoasset activities within the FCA regulatory perimeter from 25 October 2027.  

    In June, the FCA published a substantial package of final rules and guidance covering stablecoin issuance, regulated cryptoasset activities, prudential requirements and more.  

    And just last month, the FCA published its final perimeter guidance to help firms understand where authorisation will be required. The application window opened last week (30 September) for firms seeking to use the transitional arrangements.  

    That is a significant step forward. 

    We want businesses to build here. 

    We want them investing here. 

    Hiring here. 

    And launching products here. 

    Being a leading digital assets centre means having standards as well as ambition. 

    The two go hand in hand.  

    Trust is an asset. 

    Clear rules are an asset. 

    And a jurisdiction in which consumers, investors and counterparties know where they stand has a genuine competitive advantage. 

    Our approach to stablecoins brings that philosophy to life. 

    Stablecoins have real potential to support growth and make financial markets more efficient.   

    They can enable faster, lower cost transactions, more efficient settlement and new forms of innovations, including programmable payments. 

    But that potential can only be realised if stablecoins are appropriately regulated and truly stable.  

    That is why we have acted to create a clear regulatory framework for stablecoins in the UK.   

    Through the cryptoassets regulatory regime, we have established a regulated activity for issuing stablecoins, giving firms certainty to invest, innovate and grow.  

    And we are continuing to refine that framework.  

    In September, we laid legislation making targeted amendments to the cryptoassets regulations, following extensive engagement with industry.  

    These changes are designed to provide greater certainty for firms providing stablecoin payment services and to remove barriers to important use cases.  

    As many of you will know, we are consulting on reforms to the payments regulatory framework, including proposals to bring UK-issued stablecoin within the payments services perimeter.  

    The amendments to the cryptoassets regime will ensure firms are not required to secure cryptoasset permissions now, only to seek reauthorisation following the planned payments reforms.  

    Taken together, these are the building blocks for a credible and competitive UK stablecoin market. 

    We also recognise that stablecoins are inherently global.  

    That is why international cooperation matters.  

    Through the Transatlantic Taskforce, we are working with the United States to promote appropriate alignment on stablecoins; helping to provide firms with the confidence and clarity they need to operate across borders.  

    Because if we get this right, stablecoins could be transformative for consumers, businesses and financial markets alike. 

    We are also considering how we use our powers to establish Overseas Recognition Regimes for digital assets. 

    And this brings me back to the bigger picture. 

    It is easy to view each of these initiatives separately. 

    But that misses the point. 

    These are different components of the same strategy. 

    Transactions need digital forms of money with which they can settle.  

    A digital asset needs infrastructure on which it can be issued, traded, settled and held. 

    That infrastructure needs appropriate regulation. 

    Markets need standards and interoperability between platforms 

    Firms want government vision, to enable innovation to follow and capital to flow.  

    And international markets require connectivity across borders.  

    Money. Assets. Infrastructure. Regulation. Industry adoption. International connectivity. 

    That is the package. 

    And it is why I am so optimistic about the UK’s prospects. 

    Because few jurisdictions can combine everything that Britain can. 

    Deep capital markets. 

    Global financial institutions. 

    World-class regulators. 

    A strong legal system. 

    A thriving technology sector. 

    And an international financial centre that has spent centuries adapting itself to the needs of global commerce. 

    Digitalisation doesn’t make those advantages irrelevant. 

    It gives us an opportunity to renew them. 

    But we cannot be complacent. 

    Other jurisdictions are moving quickly. 

    Leadership in the next generation of financial markets will be earned by jurisdictions that can combine innovation, regulation, infrastructure and adoption. 

    That’s why we’re laying the necessary foundations for success.  

    There is a lot still to do, but we are making substantial progress. 

    And I want the markets of that future to be built, connected, financed and scaled here in the United Kingdom. 

    That is the opportunity. 

    That is our ambition. 

    And that is the national endeavour I hope everyone in this room will join us in delivering. 

    Thank you.

  • Kemi Badenoch – 2026 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Kemi Badenoch – 2026 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Conservative Party, in Birmingham on 4 October 2026.

    Welcome to Conference, everybody.

    This year, we are delighted to be back in Birmingham.

    The city of a thousand trades, built by entrepreneurs, small businesses and family firms.

    Birmingham, a city with so many canals that some people call Venice the Birmingham of the Mediterranean.

    They do!

    Birmingham’s wealth was built by the hard work of ordinary people, not by a growth strategy from Number 10 North.

    And despite Labour’s best efforts, crushing businesses, imposing more and more taxes and failing to collect rubbish, Birmingham still holds its head high.

    The Jewellery Quarter was given World Craft City status just last year.

    Those businesses deserve a lot better than Labour are giving them.

    Birmingham can and will be Conservative again.

    It is the youngest city in Europe, full of people who want a government looking to the future instead of trying to take Britain back to the past.

    When I was elected leader, at every husting I was asked, what is the Conservative Party going to do to get young people back?

    And so, it is fantastic that this year there are 50% more young people attending our Conference.

    And as you can see, this is proof that they are coming back.

    Because while other parties hark back to the past, we are for the future.

    Conference, when I said I was going to renew the Conservative Party, I meant it.

    I did not just mean changing our policies, like on Net Zero and the ECHR, although we have done that.

    And I did not just mean booting out the plotters and the badly behaved, although we have done that too.

    I meant something much more fundamental.

    A Conservative Party that knows what it stands for.

    A Conservative Party that knows what it believes and knows who its people are.

    That is the Conservative Party I am bringing back.

    When we win the next election, and we will, we are going to need to hit the ground running.

    We will need to be ready from day one, having already shown people what kind of government we are going to be.

    And that is why today I have published The Right Way.

    In 1976, the Conservative Party published The Right Approach, a book which described what was going wrong in our economy and the right approach to fix it.

    We governed for 18 years after that because we started with the right foundations, and we are going to do the same again.

    Things are tougher now than they were in 1976.

    It is not just the economy that is going wrong.

    It is our entire way of governing.

    This Conference, we will be talking about how we are going to fix our country.

    For too long, politicians have announced targets and devised complicated schemes without asking what was actually causing the problem.

    Lots of people are trying to fix symptoms.

    I want to fix the causes.

    I have always said that the Labour Party goes wrong when it follows its principles.

    We go wrong when we fail to follow ours.

    The Right Way sets out those principles.

    Wealth must be created before it can be distributed.

    Freedom requires responsibility.

    People will flout the rules unless there are consequences.

    A government should be judged not by how nice its intentions are, but by what it actually achieves.

    Government must be strong where only the state can be.

    But it must be restrained where people are better placed to decide for themselves.

    Conference, that is what this party believes, and that is what you are going to see this Conference.

    These are our principles and they are also common sense.

    So, I am very excited about being in Birmingham this week because we are going to be talking about ideas with no distractions.

    We are going to be having debates.

    We are going to have arguments.

    They are going to be fun.

    We are going to challenge each other and afterwards we will still be a united party.

    No other party has published a diagnosis of this country’s problems.

    They have not set anything out because they have not even thought about it.

    Look at Keir Starmer.

    In 2023, he announced his five national missions for government.

    Then, before the election, he replaced them with six First Steps.

    Six months after that, he abandoned all of them with a Plan for Change, which added three foundations and six further milestones.

    He said growth was his number one priority, then it was women’s safety, then it was the cost of living.

    Finally, he said defence was his top priority, which was so convincing that his Defence Secretary resigned.

    Ladies and gentlemen, that is not what governing is.

    All of that was nonsense.

    Keir Starmer did not have a plan, and that is why he is gone.

    Andy Burnham does not have one either.

    And that is why I know the announcements he is making will all come to naught.

    Conference, we have to be different.

    Different from Labour and different from the party we were two years ago.

    I have written The Right Way because I have learned the lessons.

    This party has learned the lessons.

    We know how difficult it is, once you are in government, to work out what you think.

    You cannot fix the engine after the plane has taken off.

    That is why we are using our time in opposition wisely.

    In government, we will be buffeted by unexpected events.

    Wars we were not predicting, like the war in Ukraine and now the war in Iran.

    Governments were not expecting the global financial crisis.

    In the 2019 General Election, no one would have believed that a global pandemic was coming.

    We have to be ready for anything.

    We will be pressured to bend with the wind.

    That is why we need strong roots to make sure we do what is in Britain’s long-term interests, instead of politicians’ short-term interests.

    I am not doing this on my own.

    I have got a great team.

    I have got you.

    And this team will make the bold choices this country needs.

    A team that will navigate the complexities of today’s world.

    A team that will follow The Right Way and lead us into a stronger and more prosperous future.

    We are in a different phase.

    We have a different Prime Minister, so we are going to have a different Conference.

    Each day, we will be showing you how we will deliver on our priorities.

    Earlier today, you heard about how the Conservative Party is fighting to keep our country united.

    Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are being run by people who want to rip the United Kingdom apart, and my team will not let them.

    And tomorrow, you will hear from our new Economic Team about how we can get a growing economy, one where we become richer and have a better quality of life.

    On Tuesday, we will be showing how you cannot have social security without national security.

    I will be sending clips of that one to Andy Burnham.

    And then on Wednesday, you will hear about our plan to enforce the standards and rules we expect in this country and bring back consequences.

    And then, after that on Wednesday, you will hear from me.

    Conference, this is how we are going to govern.

    As a team, pulling in the same direction, following our values and principles.

    This Conference is going to be a festival of ideas.

    There will be all sorts of new and exciting events for you to enjoy.

    And the next one is right now with me.

  • Andrew Griffith – 2026 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Andrew Griffith – 2026 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the 2026 Conservative Party conference on 5 October 2026.

    Conference, the Britain we love has a debt problem, a tax problem and a growth problem.

    But above all, it has a Labour problem.

    You cannot have a stronger country without a strong economy.

    And it will take us, Conservatives, to make our economy strong again.

    I joined our party as a teenager under Mrs Thatcher because I was convinced that the right way was Conservative.

    And it is a pleasure to speak to you, seeing so many young people here today, because that is how they feel too.

    I came to Parliament after 26 years in business.

    Like Kemi, I am not a career politician.

    I am here to fix our country.

    My experience of business is not unique in our Party, but it is far too rare in Westminster.

    Growing up, I remember the industrial unrest of the late seventies, the blackouts and doing my homework by candlelight.

    But I also remember what followed.

    A country reborn from a new economic vision.

    Led by a conviction politician who made the hard choices that turned Britain around.

    When it was my turn to find a job, there were plenty around, thanks to the Conservative deregulation of the City known as the Big Bang.

    And after a few years into a career, my wife and I could find a home because, back then, London was actually building homes.

    I can still remember the excitement of turning the key in the door and the smell of fresh paint.

    And it was an era when anything felt possible.

    A new terminal at Heathrow Airport, urban regeneration, driverless trains on the Docklands Light Railway, mobile phone calls on networks built by business.

    After difficult years, Britain was once again on the rise.

    Conference, that feeling is what we need again today.

    Watching Andy Burnham last week in Liverpool, I was quite shocked.

    Daydreaming about the 2030s while fuel prices and the cost of mortgages soar today.

    A Prime Minister who wants to return Britain to an imagined past.

    His socialist fever dream of the 1970s.

    We have always known that Labour’s understanding of maths was dodgy, but now its history is too.

    Conference, it makes our task even more important than ever.

    Not simply to fix the economy, but once again to fight a battle of ideas about the very basis of where prosperity comes from.

    Too many in society today believe that business is bad, wealth is unworthy and that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, life would be better if we only had greater public control, more regulations and higher taxes.

    And that anything might be improved by putting Angela Rayner in charge of it.

    Today’s Left does not even understand the basic truth that you can eat the goose, or you can have a supply of eggs, but you cannot do both.

    For those of us who believe in free markets, in enterprise and in lowering the burden of regulation, that is partly our failure.

    Because for too long we failed to properly make our case.

    Despite Ronald Reagan celebrating Britain as the birthplace of economic freedom, in government we allowed restrictions on everything from the type of car you could buy and how you could heat your home, to banning adverts for certain types of yoghurt.

    Britain today is close to being a command economy.

    Where the state spends 45 pence in every pound and millions of working-age people have their entire lifestyle funded by others.

    Meanwhile, other countries chose the other path, the path of free markets and enterprise.

    And unsurprisingly, they are winning.

    Three decades ago, Britain was the ninth richest country in the world.

    Today, we are barely in the top 30.

    Britain is competing in a global race with leaner, fitter economies while carrying too much weight on our back.

    So, Conference, the stakes could not be higher.

    No one else is coming to save our economy.

    And it means that never again must our Party squander its duty to serve by being divided or losing touch with our principles.

    We will inherit from Labour one of the worst economic situations in history.

    We will have to be the ones to make the hard choices and tackle the debt, to help our country live within its means.

    As a finance director for more than a decade, I long ago made peace with the idea that you can strive to be respected, but you should not expect to be popular.

    So, I am setting out more of those choices today.

    We will build on our plans to reduce the size of the Civil Service by extending them across arm’s-length bodies as well.

    There is no good reason why their headcount has grown by 40% since 2016.

    We will reverse that.

    We will make further reductions in overseas aid, Net Zero subsidies and government advertising.

    And we will crack down on healthcare tourism in the NHS and stop foreign abuse of the student loan system.

    The Left will criticise, but Conference, you know these are common-sense policies that will save the taxpayer money.

    Now, fiscal discipline can stop the bleeding, but the only true path back to financial health is growth.

    Those countries that have growth do not need to talk about it.

    They take it as read that their children, if they work hard, will get a good job.

    That station by station, bypass by bypass, the public realm improves each year.

    That life expectancy goes up.

    And that a better standard of living, perhaps bringing with it the need to work fewer hours, just happens.

    So, who will provide this?

    Well, not a Labour government that has so lowered the world’s confidence in Britain’s ability to pay its debts that we now pay more to borrow than Greece.

    And certainly not the Chancellor, one of Gordon Brown’s longest-serving Treasury ministers.

    Yes, the same Gordon Brown who raided Britain’s pension funds and sold the gold.

    John Healey resigned in protest at Labour’s failure to fund defence but now refuses to find the funding.

    Shameful.

    Defending our nation is the first duty of government.

    He has been Chancellor for nearly three months.

    In my first three days as Shadow Chancellor, I showed how we would find the money.

    And my promise to you, Conference, is this.

    Whenever I am asked by Kemi and our Defence Secretary to do so, I will always find the money to defend Britain.

    We have the plan to make our country prosperous again.

    What does that look like?

    Well, five things.

    Lower, simpler and fairer taxes.

    Cheaper energy.

    Getting people into work.

    Cutting red tape.

    And backing business.

    We have heard from Claire Coutinho and Andrew Bowie about their plans for cheaper energy.

    How we will get Britain drilling again and make it easier to build new nuclear.

    And from Helen Whately and Laura Trott, their plans to get people off welfare and into work.

    So let me pick up the other elements.

    First, lower, simpler and fairer taxes.

    Conference, this will be my personal North Star as your Chancellor.

    I did not come here to raise taxes.

    I came here to lower them.

    No country in history has ever taxed its way to prosperity.

    So, we will cut taxes, but only when we can afford to do so, and always saying clearly how we will fund that within our Golden Economic Rule.

    We have already set out some of our plans.

    Scrapping the Family Farm and Family Business Death Tax.

    Removing the spiteful VAT on independent schools.

    And cutting business rates for a quarter of a million pubs, shops and high street businesses.

    And Conference, on the doorsteps, let us remind everyone of one of our biggest and best policies.

    Scrapping stamp duty entirely on primary homes.

    It is a bad tax, thwarting the ambitions of so many young people hoping to buy a first home, the couple trying to move before the baby arrives, or grandparents trying to downsize to be nearer their grandchildren.

    Like Nigel Lawson, it is my ambition to scrap at least one tax every Budget.

    What would we prioritise?

    There is a lot.

    Tax cuts that help growth.

    Tax cuts that improve incentives to work.

    Tax cuts that make life simpler and fairer.

    I am announcing one today.

    An administrative nightmare for business that puts up the price of every supermarket shop.

    So, Conference, we will scrap Labour’s packaging tax.

    You are all pretty well-informed.

    Because it is a tax that most will have heard of, but I include it to make a much bigger point.

    It is the sort of thing the old Conservative Party went along with.

    They would have said, do not make a fuss, or it is only a couple of billion.

    Well, Conference, no more.

    Now, we are unafraid to tell the truth.

    And when we see Labour inflicting economic self-harm, doing damage to businesses or adding extra costs on families, we will never hesitate to call them out.

    Another Labour tax is their plan for a vindictive raid on family homes.

    They pretend it is a mansion tax, but it will hit people here in Birmingham, in Manchester and those living in ordinary homes making long commutes to our capital city.

    For many, it will be simply unaffordable.

    They may have bought their home decades ago, be retired and on a fixed income.

    £75,000 over ten years.

    Where is a widow supposed to get that sort of money?

    They do not care.

    And right now, Andy Burnham is recruiting an army of snoopers.

    That is right.

    In Labour’s Britain, they do not use satellites and drones to defend our country, but to spy on citizens to see if you have a particularly well-kept garden.

    It is an anti-growth tax that will distort the housing market and remove the incentive to make home improvements.

    So, Conference, today I can announce that we will scrap Labour’s Family Homes Tax.

    Labour wants to make home ownership more expensive.

    We want to make it more affordable.

    There are too many examples in our tax system where taxes penalise values we should instead celebrate.

    We believe it is unfair for anyone to face a situation where more than half of any extra income they earn goes to the government.

    Some face paying 60% on every additional pound they earn.

    Eliminating these rates will take time and the capacity to do so, but that, Conference, is our ambition.

    That is what we mean by lower, simpler and fairer taxes.

    And it is why, yesterday, we announced the end of the childcare cliff edge, which can leave working parents thousands of pounds worse off.

    Conference, while Labour attacks families, we Conservatives will support them.

    It is not just families.

    For many, time spent filling in a tax return or hanging on an HMRC helpline steals time away from their business, their family and the very reason they work so hard.

    Our tax code is a cat’s cradle of complexity, one of the worst in the world.

    So, as well as cutting taxes, tax simplification will be a mission for every Treasury minister.

    And it is why, in my very first speech as Shadow Chancellor, I set out our aim to simplify taxes for small businesses and the self-employed and review Making Tax Digital and IR35.

    Because in this party, in our party, it is the people who take a risk, start a business and create jobs whom we will always champion.

    Conference, to grow, we need to seriously cut red tape.

    Now, even as I say those words, I wince slightly.

    Let us be honest.

    We have all heard politicians promise to cut red tape, only to preside over an ever-growing mountain of it.

    So why will it be different this time?

    For one, we will be more prepared than ever before.

    We will set out our plans line by line, every Bill, every regulation, every chapter.

    We will tackle upstream sources such as the public sector equality duty and the ECHR.

    And our new approach to candidate selection means that if you vote Conservative, you will get a Conservative MP who will follow through when they get to Parliament.

    Our work is already well advanced.

    You heard from Katie how we will get Britain building.

    The biggest reforms to the cost of housing in a generation.

    Saving up to £50,000 on a new home.

    Freeing up our financial services from misguided rules which have starved our businesses of the capital they need to grow.

    No more regulator-imposed diversity targets or mandatory ESG reporting.

    We will repeal the job-destroying, 330-page, union-authored Unemployment Act.

    Harmful Net Zero targets go, and we will repeal the Climate Change Act 2008, which has deindustrialised our country without helping to protect our nature.

    And we will tackle the one true growth industry in the UK today, the lawfare and judicial review that means building anything is just too hard, too slow and too expensive.

    And then, we will back business because their success is Britain’s success.

    And we know that only the private sector creates jobs and prosperity.

    Now, words are cheap, so let me give you a tangible example.

    Countries on the rise have the best infrastructure and connectivity to the world.

    But our national hub airport is being held back.

    What used to be the world’s busiest airport is no longer even Europe’s.

    The Prime Minister says he wants growth in every postcode.

    Well, not the Heathrow postcode, apparently.

    That is not leadership.

    So let me be clear.

    The next Conservative government will do whatever it takes to end the delays and boost capacity by backing the third runway.

    We are all in for growth and we will legislate to sweep away the blockers.

    Cheaper flights, better connections and more exports of high-value British goods.

    Conference, I refuse to accept for a single moment that the country of Brunel and Bazalgette, of the Vaccine Taskforce and the Mulberry Harbours, has to sit around waiting until the 2040s to get a third runway built.

    Let me conclude with what those speeches and banners in Liverpool last week failed to understand.

    Labour thinks hope is something you can hand out like a type of food stamp.

    But hope is something people find for themselves when they believe their lives are getting better, that they have more choices and more freedom.

    A society that cannot offer hope to its young people has little hope for its future.

    As a parent of lockdown-generation children myself, I feel this strongly.

    I sometimes see the uncertainty in the eyes of that generation.

    Their worries about whether things will be okay.

    Too many are already voting with their feet.

    Last year, an average of 350 young people left Britain to live elsewhere every single day.

    The equivalent of a jumbo jet taking with it their hopes, dreams and ambitions.

    Because, like all young people down the generations, they are looking for better jobs and a better life.

    Because they see other societies offering hope while Britain under Labour offers more of the same.

    Many Labour MPs spend their time talking about safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to come here.

    Well, what about safe and legal routes for our own young people to get a job, buy a home and have a good life?

    Does that not count?

    What kind of government is so passive in the face of its young people leaving?

    And what kind of future is it where grandparents must travel across continents just to spend time with their grandchildren?

    Conference, it is our duty to offer those young people a better future.

    For too long, I have heard it said that young people will not vote Conservative.

    Well, in 1979, the most popular party amongst the young was the Conservative Party.

    Because that is what happens when it is our party giving them the path to a job, a home and a stake in a growing economy.

    Now, you have heard a lot about the challenges today.

    I will always be honest about the state of the nation’s finances.

    But what you have not heard, what you will never hear, is me talking Britain down.

    I am an optimist.

    Britain can once again be the best, the most respected and the most prosperous country in the world.

    For those countries that get it right, the next decades will be a golden age of longevity and abundance.

    Those who have written this country off have always been proven wrong.

    So, if you are thinking of leaving, whether you are young or old, do not.

    Many of the things we hold dear are threatened as never before, but none have yet been lost.

    Stay.

    Stay and help us win.

    Be part of Britain’s next comeback.

    The arc of history is not set in stone.

    It can yet be bent to our will.

    The changes we seek will not be easy.

    They will need people, policies and plans, Bills written, budgets prepared and a team ready to go on day one.

    But we can do it.

    Conference, the time is coming.

    When Britain decides it has had enough of mortgaging its future.

    Where hard work triumphs.

    When people will no longer be treated as cash machines for the benefit of others while their own hopes and dreams slip from their grasp.

    Only one party, the Conservative Party, can meet that moment.

    The leader with the backbone to make tough choices.

    And the united team to deliver them.

    Conference, when the story of Britain’s next economic comeback is written, it will be a Conservative story.

    Every generation has its destiny.

    This is ours.

  • Alex Norris – 2026 Comments on Scrapping Judge Only Trials

    Alex Norris – 2026 Comments on Scrapping Judge Only Trials

    The comments made by Alex Norris, the Justice Secretary, on 4 October 2026.

    This government inherited criminal courts on the brink of collapse, with victims waiting years for their day in court. I remain committed to bringing down the backlog and delivering swifter justice for those who so desperately need it. But I have heard the strength of feeling on the proposals for increasing the number of judge-alone trials in the Crown Court and have made the decision to change course.

    This allows us to start that work far earlier, ensuring that under this Government we do not have victims waiting endlessly for justice.

    Justice delayed is justice denied, and I am committed to maximising efficiencies in our system alongside record investment. I remain committed to structural reform which is crucial if we are to bring down the backlog.

  • Ellie Reeves – 2026 Attorney General Swearing-in Speech

    Ellie Reeves – 2026 Attorney General Swearing-in Speech

    The speech made by Ellie Reeves, the Attorney General, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 2 October 2026.

    My Lady Chief Justice, Lord Chancellor, members of the Court.

    It is an honour to take my oath this morning.

    It was less than a year ago I was being sworn in as Solicitor General.

    It was a job I loved, and gave me an insight into the talent, the dedication and the professionalism of the people who work in the department.

    The Attorney General’s Office is a place where we get things done.

    So, while I am new to this role, I am not new to the work, and I am pleased to drive it forward.

    I want to take a moment to recognise the judiciary and the extraordinary work you do.

    You uphold the rule of law with independence and integrity, often in the most difficult and sensitive circumstances.

    I will work hard to protect this independence, which is at the core of our justice system.

    I look forward to working closely with you, Lady Chief Justice, and with judges across our courts, to strengthen public confidence in our justice system.

    I also want to take a moment to pay tribute to Richard Hermer.

    It was a privilege to serve alongside him. I learnt a lot from him and owe him a debt of gratitude.

    And I am really pleased to have Andy Slaughter as our Solicitor General.

    I could not think of a better person to have in the role.

    His longstanding experience of Parliament and the criminal justice system will serve him, and all of us, extremely well.

    Andy, you often say you’ve only waited 21 years for your appointment.

    I think that confirms that you possess two qualities essential for any Law Officer: remarkable patience and an admirable refusal to give up.

    And it is a genuine relief to know I will now have you beside me at the Justice Select Committee rather than the other side of the table, asking the difficult questions.

    Having served both as the Shadow Solicitor General and as Chair of the Justice Select Committee, I cannot think of a better person to have in this important role.

    And of course, it’s a privilege to see our new Lord Chancellor in post.

    He and I were elected to Parliament on the same day, just over nine years ago.

    As a Minister in the Home Office, Alex had to grapple with some of the most difficult challenges facing our government.

    He tackled those issues with determination, respect and thoughtfulness. As Lord Chancellor he’ll show those same qualities.

    And I know how committed he is to the rule of law and ensuring that our justice system delivers for ordinary people.

    Lady Chief Justice, you touched on my own journey into law.

    It is true that growing up I didn’t know any lawyers.

    I went to my local South East London comprehensive and when I was around 17 I distinctively remember saying to my dad that I might want to study law at university, maybe even become a barrister, but I didn’t think that was something girls like me from schools like mine did.

    Dad – I still remember your words today. You said, “Well Ellie, if you don’t do it, how will things ever change!”

    And Mum and Mike, your words were just as impactful, you both thought I should apply because, and I quote: “you love arguing with people, so you may as well get paid for it.”

    So, with that ringing endorsement, off I went to Oxford University to study law.

    In one of my earliest seminars, our professor told my class we were practically guaranteed a training contract in a magic circle law firm, but I knew that wasn’t why I was studying law.

    There is nothing wrong with that work, but I wanted to be able to make a difference to people’s everyday lives.

    So, after being called to the bar in 2004, I trained as an employment rights lawyer, representing trade unions and their members for over a decade, before setting up my own consultancy, to support women facing maternity and sex discrimination at work.

    Representing people at work taught me that law doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

    It’s people’s pay packets, it’s their livelihoods, it’s their safety and their dignity at work. 

    The law makes a real difference to people’s lives.

    And that’s what has shaped my work in law, and in Parliament, and will continue to do so in this role, as Attorney General.

    As Solicitor General, I made tackling violence against women and girls my number one priority.

    I was proud to be able to help design and publish the Government’s VAWG strategy;

    To unlock five million pounds for the CPS to better support domestic abuse victims in the crown courts and roll out the early Victims Right to Review scheme.

    And as Attorney General just this week I have announced the national roll out of the Victim Transformation Programme, including dedicated victim liaison officers for victims of domestic abuse.

    That is progress, but there are more challenges we still face.

    Public confidence in our criminal justice system is low, and there is much more to do to deliver for victims.

    I will work closely with the Lord Chancellor and Home Secretary to make sure we do.

    I know there is impatience. People want government to get things done. And done now.

    That’s why, a few weeks ago, I changed the Legal Risk Guidance.

    I want to empower our brilliant government lawyers to find creative and innovative solutions, support ministers to take legally sound decisions that stand up to scrutiny.

    And crucially, I want them to enable this Government to deliver for ordinary people.

    Lady Chief Justice, to swear this oath today is an honour and a great responsibility.

    As Attorney General, I will work to uphold the rule of law, strengthen confidence in our justice system, and ensure the law continues to serve the people it exists to help.

    The legal profession should be open to everyone, regardless of their background.

    If there is one bit of advice I could give any aspiring lawyers thinking the profession might not be for them, it would be this. Follow your dreams and don’t let barriers get in the way, instead: strive to break them down.

    And as Attorney General, I will work to break down those barriers, increase opportunity and help widen access to our brilliant profession.

  • Angela Rayner – 2026 Statement on Grenfell Tower

    Angela Rayner – 2026 Statement on Grenfell Tower

    The statement made by Angela Rayner, the Housing Minister, on 30 September 2026.

    Today, my thoughts are first and foremost with the bereaved families, survivors and immediate Grenfell community. 72 innocent lives were lost in the Grenfell Tower tragedy of June 2017, and those most affected have been waiting more than 9 years for this next step towards justice. I pay tribute to the dignity, persistence and courage of the Grenfell community, and their campaign for justice and answers.  

    The Government failed in its fundamental duty to keep the residents of Grenfell Tower safe. Lives were lost as a consequence of profound failures within the building safety system. On behalf of the British state, I am sorry.

    The Metropolitan Police Service has today announced it has handed case files to the Crown Prosecution Service. This marks an important step. Operation Northleigh has been conducted independently of government. And it is right that the independent criminal justice process now takes its course. 

    The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was notified in 2023 by the Metropolitan Police that it was under investigation. The department cooperated fully throughout. In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, the department has not until now discussed publicly the detail of the investigation, including its own status as a subject of it. 

    The Metropolitan Police has today confirmed to the department that a file relating to MHCLG has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to conduct a full and independent review of the evidence to determine whether the evidential requirements in relation to a potential breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 have been reached.  

    I recognise the significance and gravity of this development, and we will respond with the appropriate and necessary diligence and care. The CPS will lead on the next steps and the government will continue to cooperate fully in the next stage of this process.  

    The Grenfell Tower Inquiry exposed profound failures in the building safety system. As Secretary of State, I recognise that confidence will only be rebuilt through sustained action and visible change. I will ensure that the lessons from the Inquiry drive real and lasting change in how government works and provides safe homes for people across the country to ensure a tragedy like Grenfell can never happen again.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2026 Speech at the International Security Expo

    Dan Jarvis – 2026 Speech at the International Security Expo

    The speech made by Dan Jarvis, the Security Minister, on 30 September 2026.

    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.

    Progress on security legislation

    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.

    In March we published the 2026 to 2029 Fraud Strategy, committing over £250 million pounds of investment.

    And we have established a new Online Crime Centre, bringing together law enforcement, intelligence agencies, banks, communications providers and technology companies to identify and dismantle fraud networks at scale.

    Earlier this year, the government published the Cyber Action Plan.

    Backed by more than £210 million pounds of investment, our aim is to strengthen the resilience of public services and improve our ability to respond to cyber incidents, including ransomware.

    This will soon be followed by NCAP – the National Cyber Action Plan – bringing industry and the private sector within scope.

    Alongside this, the CSRB, the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, will deliver the most significant update to the UK’s cyber regulatory framework for years.

    And in July, the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026 came into force – providing powerful new tools to detect, deter and disrupt those acting on behalf of hostile foreign powers.

    In another important step, earlier this year we published the Home Office statutory guidance for organisations in scope of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act.

    We know the act as Martyn’s Law after Martyn Hett who, along with 21 other victims, tragically lost his life in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack.

    It is a testament to the extraordinary and inspiring courage and leadership of Martyn’s mother, Figen Murray – who I am delighted to see in the audience today after deservedly becoming chair of this expo – and whose campaigning has been absolutely vital in driving the legislation forward.

    Figen, thank you for everything that you have done.

    As we move towards commencement, we will continue working closely with the private security industry and its regulator – the Security Industry Authority – to support implementation and embed a culture of preparedness across the United Kingdom.

    Looking ahead, our focus is also on ensuring the wider regulatory system delivers the protections the public rightly expect. 

    Earlier this year we saw what effective enforcement looks like with Ofqual restricting an awarding body’s ability to register new learners after serious concerns were identified.

    The SIA backed that up with decisive action by removing qualifications from its approved listings, stopping further learner registrations, and ending its relationship with that organisation.

    This sends a clear message that the SIA will stamp out malpractice whenever and wherever they find it.

    The government also remains committed to recommendations 7 and 8 of the Manchester Arena Inquiry and is reviewing consultation responses, with a formal response to be published as soon as possible.

    And the Home Office is working with HRMC, the SIA and the Fair Work Agency to understand what further support we can provide.

    Both the SIA and the relatively newly formed Security Guarding Leadership Group – S12 – are represented here today and I encourage those with an interest to go and speak with them directly.

    Of course, legislation is only part of the answer.

    It is also about developing real-world capabilities.

    I’m therefore pleased that in June, I was able to open Europe’s biggest drone testing centre to drive autonomous innovation, support SMEs, boost exports and create jobs.

    As the drone threat evolves, so too must our response. That is why we continue to invest in our specialist police counter-drone capabilities.

    In April, we also launched the National Canine Training and Accreditation Scheme, providing a single national centre for the accreditation of private-sector explosives detection dog teams.

    A reminder that while technology is transforming our sector, some of our most effective security capabilities still run on 4 legs.

    And tomorrow, we will launch a public consultation on proposals to strengthen controls under the Poisons Act, including bringing plant toxins into the regime for the first time.

    This supports our commitment to respond decisively to the findings of the Southport Inquiry, specifically around strengthening controls where substances present a clear risk.

    Last year I also spoke about the importance of moving from developing strategy to implementation and delivery.

    The next test, as I see it, is clear: to build out our country’s resilience and sovereign capabilities by leveraging and scaling-up the extraordinary talent and expertise of this sector.

    We have all seen how global shocks can expose vulnerabilities and create strategic risks.

    That is why this government is placing renewed emphasis on strengthening the sovereign capabilities that underpin both our security and our prosperity.

    In April, we launched a £500 million Sovereign AI Fund with a clear message that the UK must be “an AI maker, not just an AI taker”.

    The objective is to ensure strategically important AI companies start, scale and remain in the UK, rather than being acquired or moving overseas.

    And as the world’s attention shifts dramatically to the risks of AI, I am proud that the UK is home to one of the world’s leading AI Security Institutes.

    Earlier this year, the government announced new measures, including the introduction of dedicated National Security Procurement Leads, to leverage some of the annual £400 billion pounds spent on public procurement to strengthen resilience, support British industry and protect critical supply chains.  

    Because where it is right to do so, government spending should not simply buy capability.

    It should also help sustain the skills, technologies, supply chains and industrial capacity that our country relies upon.

    The government has already confirmed that British-founded firms have secured billions of pounds of additional public contracts under this approach, helping support jobs, innovation and growth across key sectors of the UK economy.

    And there is more we can do.

    Because we recognise that technological advantage and industrial resilience are central to our security and economic success.

    Artificial intelligence.

    Cyber security.

    Secure communications.

    Counter-drone capability.

    Next-generation screening and detection.

    Advanced data analytics.

    These are strategic capabilities for the United Kingdom.

    And many are being developed by businesses right here in this room.

    Supporting growth and exports

    The numbers, as always, tell a powerful story.

    The UK’s security and resilience sector now generates £27.6 billion in annual turnover, supports almost 150,000 jobs, and has grown dramatically over the last decade.

    The latest figures for exports reached £12.9 billion in 2024 – accounting for roughly half of all sector revenue – and positioning the UK third globally for market share, after the US and China.

    Just as importantly, this is a sector which creates opportunities across the whole country.

    More than half of security sector jobs are located outside London, helping drive growth, productivity and prosperity in every region of the UK.

    And as Security Minister, I want to do everything to support the continued growth of the sector.

    That means creating opportunities both at home and abroad.

    The government recognises security as a sector where the UK possesses genuine competitive advantage.

    The export statistics demonstrate the trust that partners around the world place in British innovation, British expertise and British standards.

    That is why the Home Office is working closely with our diplomatic network to help UK companies compete internationally, as well as with colleagues across BIST – the newly expanded Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

    That support means connecting companies with overseas decision-makers. Encouraging trade missions. And using ministerial and diplomatic engagement to open doors in high-growth markets.

    And where fresh opportunities arise, we will always seek to grasp them by bringing together our international partners and our leading security suppliers.

    A good example is Morocco’s preparations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, where the government is supporting British companies compete for billions of pounds worth of contracts across infrastructure and security sectors over the next 3 years.

    Where government can help open a door, make an introduction or support a bid, we absolutely will do so.

    That is why I’ve recently written out across the diplomatic network to all serving UK Ambassadors and High Commissioners, encouraging each of them to leverage their host country contacts in support of the UK security sector and the annual Home Office Security and Policing event in March, which I know many of you here will be attending and provides another excellent opportunity. 

    S&P draws in hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors every year, including high-level delegations and buyers from dozens and dozens of countries. As a closed Home Office event, we intend for every part of the Home Office and key government departments and agencies to be represented in order to engage with industry. It is not to be missed.

    Before I conclude, I also want to encourage everyone here to spend time engaging with colleagues from across government. And specifically the Joint Security and Resilience Centre.

    Known as JSaRC, its purpose is simple.

    To listen.

    To understand.

    And to help create pathways for innovation and partnership.

    So please take the opportunity to speak to the JSaRC team.

    I want to finish by reflecting on another significant milestone since last year’s expo: the first National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism. An annual event that took place on 21 August and attended by our Prime Minister.

    The day was established to honour those whose lives have been changed forever by acts of terrorism, and to ensure their voices remain at the very heart of our national response.

    I have to say being at the inaugural ceremony was one of the most humbling experiences of my years in public service.

    And it was a reminder – not that any of us in this room needed one – of the single thread that binds us all together.

    Ultimately, the goal of every capability that we develop.

    Every law that we strengthen.

    And every partnership that we build:

    Is that together, we protect the people of our country.

    Thank you very much.

  • Andy Burnham – 2026 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Andy Burnham – 2026 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, in Liverpool on 29 September 2026.

    Thank you so much, Conference. Thank you.

    And Nadia, I love you Nadia. I am so proud of you, so proud of you up on the stage. Thank you.

    All Together Now. That’s my rallying call to the country today. When we pull as one, there is nothing we can’t do.

    Today we draw a line on a decade of division. We stop doomscrolling on posts running Britain down. And we put the country on a new path.

    Britain with belief again. People with hope again. 

    It’s very hard to put into words the emotion I feel standing here before you all.

    For me, life truly has come full circle because this is where my story began. My grandad drove a lorry along these docks for Tate & Lyle. 

    My gran Kitty inherited the drive of her Irish ancestors. She walked three miles out of the bombed-out city after the war to put a deposit down on a house, without Jimmy’s knowledge actually. I wouldn’t do that to you John, wherever you are Chancellor!

    She put a deposit down on a house. The house where I was born. It changed the fortunes of my family.

    It was where my mum and dad started off, built a partnership and went on to create our own family home and filled it with life, love and laughter.

    Eileen and Roy gave me a care for people. Forged by her faith, his politics and the values of this great city we are in again for our conference.

    They guided me to the point where I stand before you today.

    Ours is the same story of so many families, British families of my generation. A story of working-class aspiration. A desire to get on and give back, never pulling up the ladder. And a post-war Britain that backed them to do it. 

    It’s still there, as I saw in Stourbridge this summer. I watched a whole community getting stuck in to support those whose homes had been burnt down. Proof the British people haven’t changed. Still as great as they ever were. 

    But something is different these days. That sense of the powers-that-be pulling against the people not with them. If there’s one thing I want to put right, it’s that.

    Imagine living in a Britain where people feel the country has their got back again. A Britain for everyone, no matter who we are or where we’re born. We would be unstoppable. And we will be.

    Conference, I am 10 weeks into this job. And not all of my recent predecessors have been able to say that.

    I’ve been thinking very carefully about what to say to you today. Of course I am here to speak to you, our Labour family. The other family that love so much. 

    For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say thank you Keir. And to thank you to the whole of this conference and all of you for the backing that you have given me.

    The politician in me wants to give the usual tub-thumping conference speech today. But the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed.

    This country isn’t where any of us would want it to be. Politics-as-usual has taken it backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough. That’s why I feel I have to break the mould today.

    I am going to give you a real speech. 

    I left Westminster a decade ago because of my frustration at its failure to face up to what happened at Hillsborough. Its refusal to treat all parts of the country equally and fairly. Its capitulation in the face of the social care crisis.

    So I became an outsider from the Westminster club. When I asked the people Makerfield to support my return, it was not because I missed Westminster so much. It was to come back to change it. To make politics work for you.

    Everyone can see the position Britain is in. Everyone knows things are not working as they should. Everyone is talking about how life is too expensive. Everyone wants less drift and more direction.

    Today I answer that call.

    Hope comes from honesty and we will have hope again. But first, honesty. It comes from saying the things politicians usually avoid.

    I will say it straight. Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time. Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit.

    And what has it given us? A country run for vested interests. Not in the public interest. With power held in too few hands. And too many places left to drift. 

    I am ready to do things my predecessors wouldn’t. I will make a break with the direction of the past 40 years and put Britain on a new path.

    Build a new economy and a new politics. That is the case I make to you today. 

    Conference, change will be difficult. It always is. But I know we can do it. Because we have done it before.

    In 1945, we had the vision to win the peace. We had the bravery to make change. We built good homes, secure jobs, health and education for everyone. We gave Britain hope again.

    We made working-class aspiration feel real for families like mine. We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s.

    Suddenly, the common wealth we had created, this party, the wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.

    Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care. Broken up and sold off.

    The British Right talk about ‘taking back control’. Never let them forget, they are the ones that gave it away in the first place.

    Economic control diminished by selling off essentials. Political control corroded by the hollowing out of councils. Immigration control weakened by Brexit.

    Later this year, we will publish our plan for Britain and set out how, over 10 years, we will make this country work for you again.

    More control of the basics so that we can make it more functional. More power in the hands of people and places to set their own ambitions. And from there, good growth in every postcode, hope in every heart.

    Our journey starts where I started, in the Old Roan, not far from here. With housing. A home. 

    That home on Keeble Drive unlocked the aspiration in my mum and dad for a better life for us all and has taken us to places we could never have imagined.

    With a good home, everything is possible. Without one, it feels like nothing is.

    Kids can’t have a good start in life. Families can’t have good health, physical and mental health. Over a million people are in that position on housing waiting lists – almost exactly the same number as the homes we lost through Right-to-Buy in the 1980s.

    I will not rest until we live in a Britain where everyone has a roof over their head every night and no one is forced to sleep rough on our streets.

    On my first day in this job, on the steps of Downing Street, I set an immediate mission to end the need for rough sleeping. Everyone In. Our new permanent national policy.

    Putting the right principles and standards back at the heart of this country. The care for people I got from my mum and dad at the heart of the running of the British state. 

    From there, the biggest council house building programme since the post-war era, led by Angela Rayner.

    And I am specific about council homes because we need to restore stronger democratic control over our housing stock.

    We will help councils build again and make it affordable by building on unused public land. We will reform Right-to-Buy. Not taking the right away from anyone in an existing home. But removing it from the new homes we build so they are there for generations to come.

    Rebuilding our common wealth. Restoring the public housing stock to what it once was, not just by building new but acting on the private rented stock too. 

    Go to almost any town across Britain and you will see plenty of empty homes. We will give councils the power to take control of them and bring them back into the public housing stock. 

    You will see rented homes in a poor state of repair too on so many British streets. Homes which harm the health of the people inside and drag down the streets around them.

    The worst of it? Often owned by absent landlords who are paid through the benefits system but refuse to reinvest anything in the upkeep of the property.

    It is time to call an end to this. Landlords who rent out the worst quality homes will be given warnings to improve them. If they refuse, we will make it much easier for councils to acquire those homes and we will legislate if necessary.

    We don’t let people sell food which damages health. So why allow it with homes? From now on, we won’t.

    This is what I mean about taking back control with our communities.

    But I also want to get back to a Britain where young people starting out are able to buy a home like my mum and dad did. Like I did.

    They have had it tougher than us. Working hard, paying bills, trying to save but looking at a student loan which never gets any smaller.

    Today I say to them we are bringing back the hope you can have a home of your own. 

    Your First Home will reduce the size of the deposit you need. It will open up home ownership to those not backed by the bank of mum and dad.

    And we promise we will not forget our promises to leaseholders. We will introduce a Bill before Christmas for long overdue Leasehold Reform.

    To the millions of leaseholders across the country, you have my word. The days of you being squeezed for every penny are coming to an end.

    Conference, this is the break we are making with the flawed thinking of the last 40 years. 

    Not seeing housing only as a market with winners and losers, but as an essential everyone needs for a good life.

    And the next stage of our journey is to apply that same philosophy to the most basic thing of all. 

    Water is a symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain. A service where the shareholders never lose and the public never win. From which some have syphoned out easy money while the public picked up the bill for the sewage in our seas.

    It stinks. I will not allow it to continue like this.

    Today I can confirm Angela Eagle will present a strengthened Water Bill to Parliament. The centrepiece of that Bill will be this – the repeal of Margaret Thatcher’s ideological ban on public ownership of water companies.

    It will start a 10-year journey to a very different water system. 

    It will strengthen public control. Mayors will have new powers to hold water companies to account, with tougher consequences for those which repeatedly fail. It will close the loopholes used to pay excessive bonuses.

    Where private companies serve the public interest, we will support them. But the consequences will be clear for those who do not, including taking back control or public ownership.

    Conference, when people hear the phrase public control, I am sure some think it’s anti-business. It’s the opposite.

    Businesses need the basics to be functional and affordable too, as does the wider economy. As someone said to me recently, there’s a reason why you can’t build all over the Water Works and the Electric Company on the Monopoly board. 

    One of the biggest barriers to growth in the UK is the cost of energy. British businesses and billpayers pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe. 

    Within 10 years, I want those costs to be in line with our neighbours. 

    This means reforming a broken energy market so it better serves the public interest. 

    We are already taking more control of our electricity prices with a massive expansion of home-grown renewables and nuclear. I have asked Miatta to speed up the breaking of the link between what we pay for power at home and the international gas market, to get bills down. 

    And we will be pragmatic in relation to the North Sea as we build a bridge to a clean energy future and face the climate crisis. 

    But it’s not just the price. The system needs to work better too. You would not believe how many businesses complain to me they can’t get going because they can’t get connected to the grid.  

    It pushes costs up. It drags growth down. And it holds Britain back. We won’t get the growth and inward investment we need if we don’t fix it.

    So, for the first time, we will have a national energy plan and we will bring back local democratic control through a stronger role for mayors and local leaders. 

    But we must go further. Today I can announce our plan for Great British Grid. A new branch of Great British Energy. A publicly-owned company that will challenge the private sector operators. 

    It will increase competition, drive down costs and speed up connections so businesses can expand and grow more quickly.   

    Energy, water, housing. Back under stronger public control. We rely on them, we pay for them and once again we will have power over them.

    I realise people can’t wait forever for change though. They need breathing space now. And I am determined to provide it.

    I can say to everyone watching, you will see VAT disappear off your electricity bill this Thursday. I didn’t expect a standing ovation for that but I’ll take it. Thank you, Conference!

    From January, you will be able to travel for the whole of 2027 anywhere in England paying no more than £2 for a single bus journey. You knew I wouldn’t get through a conference speech without mentioning buses, didn’t you?

    These things are not everything but I hope you will see it as a sign, a strong one, of our intent to get your bills and fares down as you wait for the bigger changes to come.

    I would love to go quicker. But I have to be honest about what the country can afford. I will stick to our fiscal rules to get borrowing and debt down. 

    The approach I am outlining today is the responsible one. If we build a generation of council homes, we will save billions from the housing benefit budget over the decade.

    If we get energy bills down, we will better control inflation and support the economy. 

    If we change the way we support people, we will get more people into work and the welfare bill down. 

    Not through crude cuts. That should never be the Labour way. 

    But by investing in people in their success, supporting them to get where they want to be, rather than paying for failure as the country does now. 

    Our plan for public control is a plan for growth, growth of people, places and businesses.

    The truth is this. When we gave up public control, we left people exposed. Just when it was getting harder to grow up and harder to grow old.

    Support has been cut away from young and old. And that leaves the country paying for failure on a grand scale.

    Almost a million young people not working or learning. Thousands of older people stuck in hospital because of the lack of good home care. 

    We can’t afford to carry on like this.

    In 1945 we had the Beveridge Report. We need something similar now. A new social contract for the 21st century.

    You know of my long-held ambitions to reform social care. When I was a new MP in the early 2000s, I despaired at what I saw when my gran Kitty went through the system. 

    I winced at the pain it caused my mum. My gran’s engagement ring ripped from her finger and stolen in a care home. Care not worthy of the name.

    And the modest savings she had built up through her life, starting from the house where I was born? All taken to pay for it.

    I vowed then to fight for something better for my parents’ generation. And here we are 25 years later. If anything, it’s worse today than it was then.

    What an indictment of my generation of politicians, myself included. Too cowardly to fix something as basic as the care we give to each other.

    Is it any wonder people are giving up on politics?

    I watched closely the people who looked after my dad. Caring for other people’s parents on poverty pay, but doing it with huge skill, humour and humanity.

    Holding a threadbare system somehow together.

    Yet invisible to the political class of this country.

    I want to speak directly today to our care workers.

    You are not invisible to me.

    I see you.

    I thank you.

    And I am sorry that my profession has let down yours for so long.

    I promise you: I won’t leave this job without doing everything I can to change things for you.

    And I say the same to our wonderful NHS staff.

    We have let you down too.

    Left you under intolerable pressure.

    At risk of burn-out.

    Dealing with 999 calls from a failing care system.

    Corridor care your daily reality.

    If we carry on like this, Conference, broken social care will break the NHS too.

    And we can’t let that happen, we must never let that happen, this party that founded the National Health Service.

    There is only one real answer.

    A person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home.

    A system in the best traditions of this party, where everyone contributes and everyone is covered.

    Free at the point of use and no care charges paid out of your basic state pension.

    Care that is about people not profit. 

    Which gives peace of mind over care needs in later life.

    Which protects people’s homes and their savings.

    And gives proper recognition to the care workers we will all need to rely on at some point in our lives.

    Conference, this is the National Care Service we will build.

    We will, we will. Thank you, Conference. 

    We’re going to do it. We are going to do it.

    A landmark policy as significant as the creation of the NHS itself.

    And utterly essential to securing its future.

    NHS savings from fewer ambulance call-outs, A&E admissions and vulnerable people being stuck unnecessarily in hospital.

    We will start laying the ground now for the National Care Service and introduce it in the next Parliament. 

    Louise Casey’s review will advise us on exactly how and Yvette and I will seek to build the maximum national consensus around her recommendations.   

    It will be fully funded, and not through borrowing.

    Conference, I won’t pretend some of this won’t be difficult.

    I accept I may pay a political price.

    But someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off.

    It’s the leadership I promised you when I asked to be your leader and I will do it.

    But I’ll be honest as well.

    We promised in our manifesto to keep the Triple Lock unchanged throughout this Parliament. 

    I will honour that promise.

    I will honour that promise, and I will do more.

    That promise will take the state pension to a record high.

    From there, in April 2030, we will adjust it.

    The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%.

    And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.

    But this change will generate significant savings which we will use to build up our National Care Service.

    Some may not realise it but older people with nothing more than the state pension, or only a little more, can find themselves paying care charges today from that small income.

    Under my plan, this will no longer happen.

    I can also confirm today our commitment to ensure that the low-income pensioners won’t be dragged into paying income tax in this Parliament.

    So this is the deal.

    A state pension that rises every year.

    No care charges.

    And a high-quality National Care Service to give peace of mind in later life. 

    Conference, I am going to go out and argue for that.

    A good deal for our pensioners and for older people in the 21st century.

    And I will do it in memory of my dad and out of complete respect for everyone who cared for him.

    Conference, we will need to show the same boldness for our young people too.

    Just when growing up got harder in the social media age, their support was stripped away.

    Youth services practically abolished in the 2010s.

    Children’s mental health services cut.

    Families left to battle for support for kids with special educational needs and disabilities.

    So many young people cast adrift by a school system built for some, not all, overly focused on the university route and not enough on technical education.

    Should we be really surprised that the numbers of late teens and early 20s on benefits has grown?

    Conference, it’s not their fault. It’s ours.

    Politicians fail to give people, young people, the support they need as they grow up in a tougher world and then threaten them in their 20s that they will strip away what they’re left with.

    How is that fair? How does that build a strong society?

    We have a choice, Conference.

    Either we invest in our young people.

    Or we pay for failure through the benefits system.

    Truthfully, we can’t afford to do both.

    My choice is to invest in them.

    We can’t retake control of the country’s future if we leave so many of our young people drifting towards it.

    We await the final report from Alan Milburn’s review.

    But I can say now we will change the education system and the welfare system. 

    We will rebuild a system of comprehensive education in this country with parity between academic and technical, with Lucy Powell leading the way.

    Good quality pathways for all from 14.

    And the right support for our young people when they need it.

    A 45-day work placement between 16 and 18.

    An apprenticeship at 18.

    And no long waits anymore for mental health support growing up.

    We will need a fundamental rethink of the welfare system to find the money for these opportunities upfront.

    And we will require young people to take up the help presented to them – guaranteeing in-work support and not leaving those out of work losing confidence and connection.  

    This is a different approach to welfare. 

    It is based on a philosophy of social security.

    A country which invests in people’s success, rather than abandoning them and paying for failure, will be much more resilient to the shocks we will undoubtedly face in the rest of this century.

    And more able to meet its NATO obligations on defence.

    This leadership we are showing at home will be matched on the international stage. 

    I will be steadfast in my support for Ukraine and stand up to threats wherever they come from. Whether Russia, Iran or anywhere.

    And Conference, we will be principled in our leadership in securing a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, as Ed Miliband has shown.

    This is the Labour way. A plan for Britain that will enhance our social security and our national security.

    You don’t make Britain safer by leaving a younger generation without hope stuck at home looking at screens. 

    You do it by giving young people hope again. 

    And you do it by getting our economy growing strongly again.

    I know Britain is full of brilliant businesses who want our young people to succeed and want to employ them.

    And we will help them do that and grow together.

    I have a theory of growth.

    It starts by retaking control of the essentials that make a place work or not.

    You’ve got to have that control over the fundamental things that everybody needs.

    And from there you devolve more power to places to put them in charge and decide their own destiny.

    And then in doing those things we optimise the conditions for businesses to grow.


    And make sure we support our people so they are there for our business to employ.

    Conference, I developed this approach over a decade leading the country’s fastest-growing city region.

    And I could not have been more proud to hand over to Bev Craig as the new Mayor of Greater Manchester.

    It’s like the other way round from when Alex Ferguson handed over to David Moyes, I think this is David Moyes handing over to Alex Ferguson.

    We have a theory of growth, and we built it with Steve too when we left Westminster together, and with the other mayors who are with us today.

    And you can see the change, you can feel it in this city, can’t you. 

    Amazing isn’t it, to be here, to see it every year, because we come back every year. 

    We see the change every year, and how good is that to see.

    And we want it everywhere, don’t we, every place represented in this conference hall here today. 

    And that’s what I intend to do.

    I intend to take what I did in Manchester, our plan for good growth, and drive it from the very centre of Government into every postcode in Britain.

    Number 10 North, in lockstep with John and the Treasury, overseeing the rewiring of the British state, the rebuilding of resilience in our communities and the re-industrialisation of our regions. 

    Changing government procurement so that it backs British business, as our trade unions have rightly pushed us to do.

    And that will require culture change in Whitehall.

    The Mayor of the Liverpool City Region should not have had to fight Whitehall as hard as he did to get a new ferry built on the banks of the River Mersey.

    And what a job he is doing.

    Liverpool growing faster than the UK economy.

    How often have we been able to say that in our lifetimes? What a brilliant thing to be able to say.

    Places written off by the powers-that-be in the past now proving them wrong.

    Bringing big names in AI like Kyndryl into the city. 

    I see huge potential for more of this in every part of Britain.

    I see start-ups and scale-ups pouring out of our world-class universities.

    I see businesses up and down the country playing their part and ready to do more.

    As Gordon Brown has said, we can be the world’s innovation nation, and he’s right, we can.

    A nation trusted by others to be a global leader in AI, an honest broker 

    When Britain takes the Presidency of the G20 next year, I will show our new-found confidence as a country, and I will show it to the world by putting AI centre stage and Britain will then work to develop a new global code to capture its benefits whilst being clear-eyed about its risks.

    Just as Gordon did in the financial crisis in 2008, so Britain will do it again, step forward, and bring people together around what’s right for the future.

    Securing our prosperity, but also our safety, and particularly the safety of our young people.

    We led the world first’s industrial revolution from the Midlands and the North of England.

    So why can’t we lead the next?

    We can, Conference.

    And we will.

    We are a country full of working-class aspiration.

    And we will be the Government that unlocks it.

    Conference, there is one final thing we need to change if our plan for Britain is to succeed.

    Our politics.

    Westminster prizes point-scoring over problem-solving.

    And that is why so many things go unfixed for so long.

    If we want to change Britain, we need to change ourselves.

    I will work as hard as I can to get as much cross-party support for our plan for Britain.

    If we can secure that, it will project a message of confidence and stability to markets and the world about Britain’s future direction.

    It is why I decided to make this a very different conference speech.

    We can’t succeed in the eyes of the world if we continue with the levels of political turbulence we have seen in recent times.

    It is always in my mind that I’m the seventh Prime Minister in ten years. 

    It is why I want to underpin our plan for Britain with a new politics.  

    We will all have failed in our public duties if we carry on as we are and open the door of Number 10 to a divisive government on less than 30% of the vote.

    Conference, in past years you have voted twice to support electoral reform. 

    I hear you, I agree with you and today I am announcing a new national commission on electoral reform.

    I invite all the political parties to be part of its work.

    We will contest the next election with a manifesto commitment to change the electoral system so that everyone’s vote counts and everyone’s voice is heard.

    As you can see, what I am outlining is a more serious and thought-through prospectus for the future of Britain than people have been offered in a generation.

    I appreciate some of it is difficult. 

    I accept people, including in this hall, will not agree with every part of it.

    But I believe this is what we need, small things will not get us through what are difficult times.

    We need to be bigger and to have the courage of our convictions.

    I believe we can turn Britain around, but it requires us to think bigger about what we need to do.

    I will try my best to find common ground.

    But let me be clear.

    Where I can’t agree with others, I will fight hard for what I believe to be right and what I believe to be in the best interests of this country.

    On the day my dad died, the Scottish First Minister said I would be the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

    I quote that not to seek sympathy.

    Nor to criticise John Swinney, I don’t think he knew the news at the time.

    And anyway, my dad Roy would have been the first to defend his right to say it.

    I relay it because I want you to know how it made me feel.

    Utterly determined to prove him wrong.

    Whatever its flaws, this country gave my dad a good life.

    And it has given his sons opportunities he didn’t get for himself.

    He recognised that and was grateful for it.

    And so proud of what Nick, John and I did with them.

    If only, if only he had been able to appreciate that moment of the family in Downing Street.

    The son of a man who failed his 11-plus becoming Prime Minister.

    The fact it could even happen in this country would not have been lost on him.

    He could have gone to university himself, but times were different then so it wasn’t an option.

    But he voted every time, religiously for the Labour governments which changed education so his sons could do that.

    The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in.

    A union of nations that gave trade unions and the cooperative movement to the world.

    The National Health Service.

    A country that stood up to fascism.

    A country of solidarity not separation.

    That’s the Britain my dad represented.

    Britain is not perfect. It can be better and we will make it so.

    But it still stands for something worth saving, worth fighting for.

    And we will always be stronger facing a changing world together, rather than separating.

    So I am going to use this job to build the kind of Britain my dad wanted to see – and fight with everything I’ve got to keep it together.

    Not the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

    Rather the first to rewire it to make it work for all people and places.

    Driving power out of Whitehall and into every postcode of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England and closing divides between people and places.

    The first Prime Minister to make a break with politics-as-usual. 

    I believe the plan I have outlined today will not just hold us together, it will allow us to rise again.

    Britain to rise again.

    And we will be a Britain again confident of our place in the world.

    It has changed dramatically since 2016.

    And, in the spirit of this speech, we have to be honest.

    Brexit hasn’t given us control.

    We’ve lost some of the control we had over our economy, as a decade of low growth has put us in a weaker position.

    And we’ve lost some of our control over immigration.

    At its most fundamental level, this is a debate about fairness.

    So I understand the anger about what is happening in the Channel.

    Shabana has done a great job in beginning to restore our grip over the system.

    People arriving on small boats down 40% on the last year, 50% from the early 2020s.

    Net migration down more than 80% since the peak of the Boris Johnson era.

    Conference, we make these changes but we will always grateful – always, and we thank them – to those whose who have come here and are contributing to our country.

    Than you, to them.

    But control over immigration was weakened when we lost collaboration with our European partners.

    And we are still having to work hard to bring it back.

    Later this year, there will be a UK-EU summit where one of the issues on the agenda will be how we best work together on immigration.

    And beyond that we will work to secure gains for our industries most harmed by Brexit.

    Conference, these are important concrete steps.

    But they are not enough.

    I say this to you and the country.

    We will not give Britain the clear path we need into the rest of the century until we decide on a long-term relationship with what is still our largest market.

    I cannot say to you truthfully that where we are is good enough.

    Brexit has done more harm than good.

    We need to restore a higher level of growth and prosperity for Britain.  

    So, I will take the opportunity around the summit to lay out to you, to lay out to the country, what I believe the different options are for Britain’s long-term relationship with our European partners.

    And there are different options.


    And I will see if we can find consensus around one which will give us clarity about our position, and the future of the continent we live in.

    Well, Conference, I did warn you this speech would be different, didn’t I?

    But I think this moment in our country’s history requires it.

    1945.

    1964.

    1997.

    Now.

    All moments of Labour governments.

    All moments which saw Britain rediscover a sense of hope.

    When I walked up Downing Street on my first day in the job, I promised to give Britain a circuit breaker.

    To get us out of the rut we’ve been in.

    To get us believing again.

    I say to this to everyone watching at home.

    You may disagree with some or all of what I have said today.

    But I have given you what you often say is missing from politics.  

    Honesty, ideas and a clear direction for the country we all love.

    I now want to make a direct appeal to you.

    If you agree with enough of what I have said, get behind this plan. 

    And get behind each other.

    It’s time to draw a line.

    To move beyond a decade of drift and division.

    To bring a spirit of unity and positivity back to our country.

    To unlock the working-class aspiration that is still there in every postcode in this great land.

    All Together Now.

    We can do it.

    We will believe again.

    We will hope again.

    Thank you, Conference.

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2026 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Shabana Mahmood – 2026 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, in Liverpool on 28 September 2026.

    Thank you. Thank you, Conference.

    Before I begin, let me address the events of yesterday morning outside RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

    I would like to thank the police. For their swift response to the situation. We must allow them to continue their work and not fuel any speculation. Particularly as this could prejudice investigations.

    But I can say this: The nationalities of those responsible are now known. And they are all British citizens.

    I can also say that thanks to the excellent work of the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team the scene is now safe. And the residents of Whelford will shortly be returning home. I thank them for their cooperation. And, more than that, for their spirit of resilience. They represent the very best of our country.

    Now, while I will not comment further on the specific incident. It is a reminder that at a time of heightened threat we must all remain vigilant.

    And to all those who mean us harm and plot violence on our soil. Let this be a reminder: You will never defeat us.

    Conference, a year ago I became Home Secretary. On this stage last year, I told you it was the honour of my life. And I meant it. This year, I stand before you to report back on a first year in office.

    As I do so, I could stand here and list the facts.

    Knife crime: down.

    Serious violence: down.

    Net migration: down.

    Small boat crossings: down.

    I could point out that no Home Secretary in recent history has been able to say any of that. And that is a tribute to the work of this Government and my ministerial team. It is also a tribute to my predecessor, Yvette Cooper, who laid the foundations we have built upon.

    But I don’t only want to talk about what this Government is doing. Nor even what we are achieving. Instead, I want to talk to you about why we are doing it.

    Why must a Labour Home Secretary restore control at our border? Why must a Labour Home Secretary cut crime? Why must a Labour Home Secretary keep our communities and our homeland safe?

    The answer goes back to why this party exists. The thing that brought us all into politics: Fairness.

    The job of a Labour Home Secretary, just as the job of every Labour Government, is to make this country fairer.

    Let me tell you why this matters to me.

    My parents came to this country from rural Kashmir because they knew they would get a fair shot at a better life here. A fairer shot than they could ever expect back home. Where past was precedent. And where your birth dictated your future.

    They were, largely, welcomed to this country. Because most Brits thought it was right to welcome people who came here legally, built a new life, and contribute to our nation.

    There were exceptions to that welcome, of course. This was the 1970s. But they were exceptions, not the rule.

    Fairness is what unites us in this country. And a fair society unlocks the very best of us. Because when people think this country is fair. They are more open and generous to others.

    When we are secure in ourselves, we are more tolerant too. Because the existence of one group does not threaten another. And so, a proud Muslim like me can be a proud Brit and a Brummie too.

    When fairness isn’t present, the opposite is true. When this country feels unfair. People turn inwards. A Britain that is unfair is one that is smaller and colder for those who look like me.

    So my job is to create that fairness. In our immigration system. And on our streets. And, in doing so, to hold this country together. At a time when others seek to divide us.

    Conference, there is nothing fair about a lack of control at our borders. It is not fair that criminal gangs determine who comes to this country.

    It is not fair that they put dangerous boats into the water with no regard for human life. Shown once again today, with three more tragic deaths in the Channel.

    It is not fair that those with a genuine need of protection cannot find a safe and legal way to claim asylum.

    It is also not fair that communities across this country have been asked to bear so great a burden, with around 90,000 people living in asylum accommodation.

    For that reason, to restore fairness, we must restore control.

    That work has begun and is bearing fruit. We are turning the tables on the criminal gangs. We have stopped over 48,000 attempted crossings. And small boat arrivals are down significantly with this summer recording the lowest number since 2021.

    Fairness isn’t only about control. Fairness is also about offering sanctuary to those who are truly fleeing war and persecution.

    So as we tackle the gangs and reduce the incentives that draw people here illegally. We are also opening new, capped safe and legal routes.

    I know that the British people have not given up on their belief that we should be compassionate, live up to our international obligations, and save the lives of those fleeing war and persecution.

    But I also know this process must be capped and controlled, with communities ready and able to welcome those who come here.

    For that reason, I can announce today that from next month, we will begin accepting applications from charities and nonprofits to sponsor refugees through our new safe and legal routes.

    This will start with a community sponsorship route allowing local communities to host refugees. And a student sponsorship route which will allow universities to do the same.

    Applications will open in October. With the first arrivals in autumn of next year.

    Applications for sponsors for a further work route will open in the Spring of next year.

    And that is not all, Conference.

    I can also announce that this Government will reopen the UK Resettlement Route in partnership with the United Nations.

    We will take vulnerable refugees from across the world and give them the chance of a new and better life here in Britain with the first arrivals this year.

    I am proud to say that around a quarter will be Afghan women and girls fleeing persecution under the Taliban.

    And Palestinians who have fled the horrors of Gaza.

    Conference, conference, that is what we can do, this is who we can be, as we restore control to our borders. Bear down on small boat crossings. And unlock the inherent generosity of this country.

    As we restore control and fairness to our asylum system. We must do the same for legal migration too: Fair to those who seek a new and better life here, like my parents did. And fair to those already here, including British workers, and especially the young.

    That same principle underpins my reforms to the right to live here indefinitely. Ensuring settled status is earned by those who have shown a consistent commitment to this country.

    I know that, throughout our consultation process some have said elements of these reforms are not fair.

    And to that, let me say this: we will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally and fairness to British citizens across this country.

    Fairness cannot end at our borders. It must extend to every street in this country.

    While you might not believe it, from all the false talk of a broken Britain. Some of the most serious crimes that we face in this country are falling, and falling fast.

    Murder is down by 9 percent.

    Serious violence by 11 percent.

    And knife robberies by 16 percent.

    These are extraordinary successes. And they are what happens when we have a Labour Government in power.

    But it is also true that our steps forward have not been true everywhere. If you are the victim of crime in one part of this country, you could be two and a half times more likely to see that crime solved than if you live elsewhere.

    Meanwhile, across the country, certain crimes, particularly those that tear at the fabric of a local community are still too high. Like shop theft, which though now falling, is still far too high.

    To achieve fairness in every community, we need to do some things we know work, like neighbourhood policing. Which was hollowed out under the Conservative government but which we know cuts crime and deters criminality.

    I am proud to say that this Government has put 3,800 more officers into neighbourhoods across the country.

    But if we are to police every community fairly, we must also police differently.

    I have long argued that the criminal justice system has failed to respond effectively to the scourge of violence against women and girls.

    In our landmark strategy, we seek to right that wrong. And I am proud to have recently announced that every police force in England and Wales will soon have specialist officers trained in the delicate and difficult work of investigating these heinous crimes.

    Better policing also demands new policing structures.

    And that is why this Government will launch the National Police Service focused entirely on national and international crime.

    We are also reviewing the structure of local forces to ensure every part of this country has excellent neighbourhood policing as well as access to the specialist policing that we know every community needs deserves.

    Since we took office. We have taken major steps forward.

    But it is still too often true that where you live determines what you get. We will only have a fair country when we have security in every home.

    That is not just a British value. It is a Labour value.

    When we are secure in our homes, we open our doors to others. When we feel unsafe, we bolt the door to outsiders and those who are different from us.

    Safety at home unlocks the generosity of spirit that this party knows is within us all.

    I know, personally, that this doesn’t always feel true today. I know the fear that some communities have felt in recent times. The sense that the forces of division in our country are growing stronger, while the unifying voices grow weaker.

    I have felt the same shiver of revulsion and fear at the sight of racists, masked up and dressed all in black. Whose actions are designed to threaten communities like mine.

    I know that other communities have felt the same fear. Like British Jews, facing the rising tide of antisemitism. And targeted by the hostile acts of foreign powers who plot violence against our fellow countrymen and women.

    This country is only truly fair when we are all safe within it.

    So, I am proud of the work we have done to tackle extremism, in all its forms. And I am proud of the State Threats Act which we passed at pace to tackle hostile foreign powers seeking to operate and sow division in this country.

    I know there is more we must do to tackle the threats ranged against us.

    And I think particularly of the new and growing threat posed by young minds warped online and alone which we will begin to address in legislation announced in the King’s Speech later this year.

    Once again. And with particular resonance today. I must thank those who protect us, day and night, in policing and our intelligence services.

    Their successes are rarely seen. But – as I know all too well. We are all safer, each and every day, for their presence.

    They protect us all, without fear or favour, and we all thank them for it.

    Safety, security and control.

    Some say these aren’t Labour values.

    Conference, they are wrong.

    These are the preconditions for a society that is fair. And that drive towards fairness is what brought this party into being and every single one of us into this hall.

    So when the Tories in the Tory Party and the failed Tories in the Reform Party try to pretend otherwise. Let’s just remind them of their record:

    Losing control of our borders.

    Hollowing out policing on our streets.

    Fourteen years of making this country less safe. Less secure. Out of control. And unfair.

    By restoring safety, security and control. We are restoring fairness and creating space for compassion, tolerance, and generosity.

    And that is why the numbers I started with in this speech with matter:

    Knife crime: down.

    Serious violence: down.

    Net migration: down.

    Small boat crossings: down.

    That is how we make this country fairer. That is how we defeat the forces of division. That is how we hold this country together.

    Conference, it is what a Labour Government does.

    It is why a Labour Government exists.

    And it is why I remain so proud to be your Labour Home Secretary.

    Thank you, Conference.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2026 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2026 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, in Liverpool on 28 September 2026.

    Thank you conference. Thank you Tom. Tom, it’s a privilege to have you with us today and that introduction, and those words, mean a great deal to me.

    Conference, it’s good to be back. 

    Now some of you know I think, when I was a younger MP, some people used to say I looked a bit like Prince William. I tell you, twelve months as Government Chief Whip, I think I definitely now look more like George V. Five generations!

    But conference, it is good to be back. Back to deliver for workers with our game-changing employment rights act. Back to deliver for British business so they can invest and innovate and grow. And back to reindustrialise every corner of our country, bringing jobs, growth and hope to every postcode.

    And make no mistake, conference, we cannot and we will not succeed in that historic mission unless we work together with business, with entrepreneurs and with our great science, technology and innovation base.

    And conference, I appreciate that it can be tricky to come to the great city of Liverpool and talk about the other great city down the road. But bear with me, because this is a story about the growth and renewal that I believe we can deliver across the whole of the United Kingdom.

    When I was 18, I arrived from Sunderland to the bright lights of Manchester. Now back then, Manchester looked very different too. The scars of deindustrialisation still visible. 

    But today, Greater Manchester is a blueprint for what happens when we get things right, for what can be achieved when political leaders, business leaders and civic society work together, and where power isn’t hoarded in the centre of government but used to give people what they need for their area to succeed.

    And that story, that renaissance, led by our Prime Minister Andy Burnham, is a story I want to see for the whole country. And that is why conference it’s at the heart of our aim to reindustrialise Britain. 

    Reindustrialisation isn’t nostalgia. The sectors of the future aren’t just about ideas. They rely on hard infrastructure and physical production. They create good jobs. And I refuse to let Britain be a country that generates the great ideas, only for other countries to build and scale them.

    So I am delighted to lead a new department that combines the brilliance of our science base with the dynamism of British industry, so that ideas from our world-class universities become semiconductors manufactured in Durham, so that critical minerals mined in Cornwall power the next generation of AI chips, or so that life science discoveries in Cambridge become NHS treatments sooner.

    That is what our modern Industrial Strategy is all about. Inventing it here, making it here and creating the good jobs here.

    And, while the economy has grown per head, every quarter, with this Labour Government, make no mistake conference, we all know we have much more to do.

    More to do for the small business, struggling because they haven’t been paid on time. More to do for our incredible services sectors, who need barriers knocking down to deliver in every part of the world. And more to do for the workers, the people delivering this growth, the people I meet every time I step foot on a factory floor.

    Conference, that is who I think about every day I am lucky enough to do this job. 

    That’s why our science budget is the largest it has ever been. It’s why our expanded Growth Guarantee Scheme is getting money to small business. It’s why the British Business Bank not only has more capital to deploy, it has dedicated regional funds so that no part of the UK will miss out.

    So to the communities who saw good jobs go decades ago and still don’t feel they’ve replaced them – which is as true in parts of the South as it is in the North – my message is simple. We see you, we hear you, and we have a plan to reindustrialise Britain.

    And conference, let us always celebrate the things that make this country great. The things we will never stop defending against those who only seek to talk Britain down.

    Let’s not listen to the mantra of misery from the Tories and Reform. For them, Britain can’t be seen to succeed, because if it did, there would be no way for them to profit from the politics of division and grievance.

    And don’t get me wrong conference, of course there are challenges. But the difference with Labour is we’re about providing answers, not lashing out in anger.

    We don’t bury our heads in the sand, we tackle the big issues head on. And nowhere is that more true than where we’re fixing the industries the Tories left to squander.

    Take steel. It was a proud national asset, left for years in severe neglect. Workers like Tom, unions and their communities, ignored. 

    And I didn’t do it lightly, conference, but the day this Labour Government stood up for steel, stood up for Scunthorpe, and took control of British Steel, was one of the proudest days of my life.

    You know, as Tom described, when British Steel was on the brink, they did have to come and say to me, Secretary of State, you don’t have the power to stop this. And, to be fair, they were right.

    But I knew I had to stop the kind of industrial devastation that has left too many places in the UK have felt in our history.

    I knew what was right, and I knew I had 400 friends in Parliament, my fellow Labour MPs, who would be willing to come back on a Saturday and give me the power I needed to make a difference.

    Most of all, I knew I had you. Decent, ordinary people, who have come together to build a extraordinary, political movement to make sure that wealth and power isn’t just available to those who are already wealthy and powerful.

    That’s what this Party was founded to do. 

    And that’s why we will also deliver the transformation at Port Talbot to guarantee a strong future for Welsh steel making. And it’s why we have also refused to let Speciality Steel in South Yorkshire go to the wall. 

    And to all of those working right now in our historic automotive sector, at JLR, at Toyota, and the people I am proud to be of and from, Nissan in Sunderland, let me tell you, I will never stop fighting for automotive jobs and for those sites to continue to be the jewels in the crown of the UK’s advanced manufacturing sector.

    And on trade, conference let’s never forget that this Government has succeeded where the Tories failed.

    We’ve done a deal with the fastest growing economy in the world, India. We’ve done a deal with the biggest economy in the world, the US. And we’ve done a deal with our largest trading partner, the EU.

    We won’t fight the battles of the past, but we will always work alongside the countries that are not just our closest partners, but our fellow European brothers and sisters.

    And conference, I am also proud that for us, trade is about Labour values. Just as we’ve shown in Israel and Palestine, making sure our commitment to a two state solution is a real one.

    Now finally conference, I know the other parties don’t like our New Deal for Working People. They’ve made it quite clear whose side they’re on.

    But, let’s not forget, this is about no more or less than a person who goes out to work getting a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. It’s putting an end to exploitative zero hours contracts so workers get one that reflects what they regularly work. It’s about giving workers protections to stop harassment, and ending fire and rehire – proving once and for all that only Labour, not Farage, not Polanski, is on the side of working people.

    But conference, there is one area which both workers and businesses raise with me repeatedly, and that is bogus self-employment.

    Loopholes in our employment laws being used to define workers as self-employed when they are clearly not, denying them basic employment rights, undercutting businesses who are doing the right thing, and leaving people with the sense that playing by the rules doesn’t pay.

    Everyone can see this isn’t right. It is a fundamental question of fairness. And conference, I am proud to announce to you today this Labour Government will put an end to it.

    We will close the loopholes, we will stop the most egregious examples of bogus self-employment, and we will level the playing field for business. And in doing so, up to 100,000 more workers will get access to the national minimum wage and holiday pay.

    So conference, it is good to be back. We’ve shown the difference we can make. But there’s so much more that we can deliver together.

    Because only Labour is proudly pro-worker, proudly pro-business and unapologetically pro-Britain.  

    Thank you so much conference, it is great to be back with you.