Category: Speeches

Keir Starmer – 2024 Statement on the One Year Anniversary of 7 October Attacks

The statement made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 6 October 2024.

7 October 2023 was the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. One year on, we stand together to remember the lives so cruelly taken.

Over a thousand people were brutally murdered. Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas. Jewish people murdered whilst protecting their families.

Young people massacred at a music festival.

People abducted from their homes.

Agonising reports of rape, torture and brutality beyond comprehension which continued to emerge days and weeks later.

As a father, a husband, a son, a brother – meeting the families of those who lost their loved ones last week was unimaginable. Their grief and pain are ours, and it is shared in homes across the land.

A year on, that collective grief has not diminished or waned.

Yet their strength and determination to cherish the memories of those they had lost continues, and our determination to bring those still captive home endures. I stand firm in our commitment to bring the hostages home, and we will not give up until they are returned.

One year on from these horrific attacks we must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country. We must never look the other way in the face of hate.

We must also not look the other way as civilians bear the ongoing dire consequences of this conflict in the Middle East. I reiterate my call for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza.

We will not falter in our pursuit of peace and on this day of pain and sorrow, we honour those we lost, and continue in our determination to return those still held hostage, help those who are suffering, and secure a better future for the Middle East.

October 26, 2024
Wes Streeting – 2024 Speech at the Royal College of General Practitioners Conference

The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in Liverpool on 4 October 2024.

[We have approached the office of Wes Streeting for the full version of the speech]

I’d like to begin by saying a public thank you to you, Kamila, and, by extension, to your college. In opposition, we engaged in good-natured but robust debate on the things we disagreed on and, more often than not, found ourselves in violent agreement on the state of general practice today and our responsibility to rebuild general practice for a brighter tomorrow.

That relationship, based on mutual respect and a spirit of partnership, means I come here today feeling that I am not only among friends, but among teammates – a theme I’ll build upon in my speech this morning.

In that same spirit, can I also say a special thank you to Sunaina, Paula, Rumshia and Andy for those outstanding presentations.

You are proof that, while the NHS may be in the midst of the worst crisis in its history, the biggest asset we have are the people who work in it. More than that, you provide hope to a country that is desperately looking for it, because you are showing us not only is reform possible, but it is already happening, and you are showing us what a reformed NHS could look like.

I’m delighted to be the first Secretary of State personally addressing this conference in 7 years. I can’t imagine what the others were so worried about.

I imagine some of you were quite happy to not have to hear from my 7 predecessors who held the job in that time. The good news is I’m here this year, the bad news is, whether you cheer or boo, I’ll be back for more next year. For 2 reasons:

First, I always welcome challenge, and as you might have gathered by now, I love a good argument.

More seriously, I recognise that the health service is in a deep hole, and it’s only by working together that we’ll get out of it.

It’s my job to mobilise nearly 2 million people who work across the NHS to be the team that takes the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, gets it back on its feet, and makes it fit for the future.

I can’t do it on my own. We can only do it as a team.

The team spirit we need to build together starts with honesty.

The NHS is broken. That’s what 2 in every 3 patients believe. I suspect a poll of NHS staff would find the same sort of result. I’m yet to speak to a GP who tells me – on many of the visits I’ve done in the last few years – everything going really well, my workload is entirely manageable, this is just what I signed up for.

And I want to be clear about something else too: the NHS is broken, but GPs didn’t break it.

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And that’s not just my view – that’s effectively the conclusion of the Darzi investigation.

I know he’s a surgeon. Sorry about that.

But I think that, if you’ve read his report, the analysis is so stark and so clear that you might even forgive him for polyclinics.

Lord Darzi found, “GPs are expected to manage increasingly complex care, but do not have the resources, infrastructure and authority that this requires.”

Hospital resources have shot up, while primary care has been neglected. There are 1,500 fewer fully qualified GPs in the NHS today than 7 years ago.

While hospital productivity has fallen, the reverse is true in general practice. Despite there being fewer of you, you’re delivering more appointments than ever before – squeezing the time you spend with each patient. And as RCGP’s research this week revealed, it’s the poorest areas hit the hardest.

Cuts to capital investment mean that one in every 5 of you are working in buildings older than the NHS itself.

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In Lord Darzi’s words, “GPs were to all intents and purposes set up to fail.”

We’re left with a status quo that isn’t working for anyone. Not for patients, 2 in 3 of whom aren’t satisfied with the service they receive – a record low.

Nor does the status quo work for staff – you are working harder than ever before, pushing you to burn out and in too many cases pack it in.

Patients are frustrated they can’t see you. You’re frustrated you can’t meet their demands. It’s not sustainable.

The NHS is broken, but not beaten, and I think what unites all of us – staff, patients and, crucially, the evidence – is the shared conviction that continuity of care, what most people would call the ‘family doctor relationship’ really matters. It’s what drives patient satisfaction, your job satisfaction and better outcomes for patients.

It will be at the heart of this government’s plan to reimagine the NHS as much as a neighbourhood health service as a national health service.

We’ll shortly be embarking on a wide-ranging and deep engagement exercise to build our 10-year plan.

That 10-year plan for the NHS will deliver 3 big shifts in the focus of healthcare:

from hospital to community
analogue to digital
sickness to prevention
And general practice is fundamental to each one.

Just look at what the GPs who introduced me today are already doing.

Paula is using basic technology to meet demand for same-day appointments and giving patients a digital front door, leading the way on ending the 8am scramble.

Advances in big data are going to transform the NHS’s ability to end the cruel postcode lottery of health inequality. Rumshia is already showing us how – by taking screening, checks and care directly to the communities most in need – intervening early and preventing ill health from worsening, what we can already do.

And as Andy and Sunaina have shown, if we bring GPs together with colleagues from mental health services, community pharmacy and social care, all working in lockstep as one team, more patients can be treated in the comfort of their own home – where they want to be. That’s the neighbourhood health service we want to build. That’s the future of the NHS.

And I think we’ve seen in the last 3 months we’ve started as we mean to go on.

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GPs were left qualifying into unemployment this summer. While patients can’t get a GP appointment, GPs couldn’t get a job.

You asked us to act, so we did – in what might be the first example in history of someone signing a petition that actually led to action.

I received RCGP’s petition, we cut red tape, found the funding and we’re recruiting an extra 1,000 GPs this year, our first step to fixing the front door of the NHS.

In my first week as Health and Social Care Secretary, I pledged to increase the proportion of NHS resources going to primary care. And in our first month, the government made a down payment on that pledge, providing practices with their biggest funding increase in years.

I’ve never pretended that one measure on GP recruitment or indeed the funding that was announced was a panacea. But given the £22 billion blackhole we inherited, and the painful cuts we’ve had to make and are having to make elsewhere, be in no doubt how hard we had to fight to deliver that extra funding. It was a serious statement of intent. A proof point. An early decision to demonstrate that we’re serious about rebuilding general practice.

Not everything is about more money. It’s also about less waste.

When I spend time shadowing GPs, one of the things they are dying to show me is the sheer amount of paperwork you are required to fill in to refer a patient.

I was genuinely stunned to hear about one practice that has to complete more than 150 different forms to refer patients into secondary care services.

Practices spend as much as 20% of their time on admin and work created by poor communications with secondary care.

This is intolerable. That time should be spent with patients.

That’s why today I can announce that Amanda Pritchard and I will launch a red tape challenge to bulldoze bureaucracy so GPs are freed up to deliver more appointments.

The challenge will be led by Claire Fuller and Stella Vig, primary and secondary care leaders who have their bulldozers at the ready. Tell them what’s working well, but more importantly what needs to change. We will listen, act and solve this problem together.

Amanda and I will receive the conclusion of this work in the new year. And NHS England will hold ICBs and trusts to account if they fail to act.

The other frustration I hear from staff and patients alike are the pointless appointments you’re forced to hold and patients are forced to attend. You didn’t go through 5 years of medical school plus 5 years of training to tick boxes. So where there are appointments that can be cut out, with patients seen by specialists faster and GPs’ time freed up to do what only GPs can do, we will act.

Starting in November, 111 online, which is available through the NHS app, will pilot directly referring women with a worrying lump to a breast clinic.

That means faster diagnosis for cancer patients.

And more GP appointments freed up.

Better for patients and better for GPs.

I suspect there are other cases that come across your desks every week, where a patient has been passed to you by someone else in the NHS to refer them on to someone else in the NHS. It is a waste of everyone’s time, including yours, and where you give us examples of patient pathways that can be simplified through appropriate patient self-referral or direct referral by other NHS services to save your time, we will act.

It’s not just that I value your time, I respect your profession and your expertise.

General practice is a specialism.

That’s why I am committed to the creation of a single register of GPs and specialist doctors and this government will legislate to give the GMC the power to do it.

It’s symbolic, but it’s also meaningful.

It reflects the partnership I want to build with this profession.

What I need from you in return, is goodwill and the same team spirit.

When the BMA’s GPC returned their ballot result on collective action, I wasn’t remotely surprised.

I know that after years of rising pressures, declining resources and a worsening service for patients, you feel it is your duty to sound the alarm.

And trust me, you weren’t the only ones who wanted to punish the previous government.

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Capping appointments now will only punish patients and make the road to recovery steeper. Be in no doubt – it is shutting the door on patients.

Their care will suffer, receptionists will bear the brunt of their frustration, and the rest of the NHS will be left to pick up the pieces.

Worse still, our collective job will be made harder. Collective action really means collective failure.

Your message has been received. Not from this one vote, but from all the time I’ve spent in general practice in the past 3 years, literally looking over GPs’ shoulders, seeing what you deal with and the state of the crisis for myself.

There’s a reason that, back in July, I rejected the list of hospitals suggested to me for my first visit as Secretary of State, and instead went to Dr Ellie Cannon’s Abbey Medical Centre in North London.

I wanted to send a message that I understand how bad things are, and I am determined to fix them. But I can’t do that alone. We can only do this together.

So I ask GPs to stand down collective action and instead work with a new government that is serious about working with you, to rebuild our NHS together.

There are some tricky issues we’ll need to navigate together.

Take data.

It’s the future of the NHS.

Advances in genomics and data mean the NHS will be able to do things never before possible.

From the moment a child is born, we will know their risk of disease, giving you the tools you need to keep them healthy.

Cancer could be detected from its earliest signs, saving countless lives.

And the NHS will be able to treat patients with personalised medicine – far more effective, with fewer side effects.

That’s the prize waiting for us.

But beyond the day-to-day challenge of whether your machines reliably boot up and the number of passwords you have to enter across a range of applications, we don’t even share patients’ records across primary and secondary care.

I know there are issues we need to work through together around information governance, risk and liabilities. There’s also, let’s be honest, some producer interest in play.

But here’s the consequence of inaction.

Keir and I met a family at Alder Hey earlier this year. Their baby had heart surgery to save his life. When they’d taken the baby home and visited their GP, they weren’t just surprised to find their GP didn’t have sight of the hospital records, they were frightened. Imagine how those parents felt: a tiny life in their hands in front of a medical professional who had only a partial sight on their experience. Imagine how the GP felt, having to ask basic questions about fundamental aspects of that baby’s medical history.

So we need to work together to create a single patient record, owned by the patient, shared across the system so that every part of the NHS has a full picture of the patient.

This applies as much to research as to care. The two go hand in hand.

World-leading studies like the UK Biobank, Genomics England and Our Future Health are building up incredibly detailed profiles of our nation’s health.

Patients have given their consent for their data to be shared with these studies.

But we still see, far too often, that this data is not shared according to patients’ wishes.

That’s why I am directing NHS England to take away this burden from you. Just like they did during the pandemic, if a patient explicitly consents to sharing their data with a study, NHS England will take responsibly for making this happen. In return, we will demand the highest standards of data security.

My concern is that this isn’t just an information governance issue, it’s a culture issue that, unless addressed, will not only exacerbate the shortcomings of the system today, but also squander the potential of tomorrow.

A world in which genomics, AI and machine learning will combine to change our entire model of care – not simply to drive earlier diagnosis and treatment, but to predict and prevent illness in the first place – is a world that we’ve got to embrace.

The UK could lead the world in medical research.

The NHS, created in 1948, a single payer system, is ideally placed to harness the benefits of the revolution in science and technology in a way that Attlee and Bevan could never have imagined 76 years ago.

This isn’t just about the system, the model, but also the ethos. Why do we pay our taxes into an NHS that is free at the point of use? Of course it is because we all derive a personal benefit, but it is also because we are paying in for the common good. In this century, our data will be as valuable as our taxes: we contribute our data in the knowledge that it will lead to more personalised medicine, but also because it will contribute to better care for everyone.

It is that collectivist ethos that created the NHS in 1948 to see us through the 20th century, that will underpin an NHS fit for the 21st century.

Nothing I have seen or experienced in the last 3 months as our country’s Health and Social Care Secretary has weakened my conviction that, while the NHS may be broken, it is not beaten.

But the future isn’t just in my hands, it’s in yours too.

The 3 shifts that underpin this government’s reform agenda:

From hospital to community.

Analogue to digital.

Sickness to prevention.

Those shifts aren’t new ideas and they aren’t radical.

But delivering them really would be.

I can’t do it on my own.

I need every part of the NHS to pull together as one team with one purpose:

To be the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet and made it fit for the future.

That’s the mission of this government and I’m confident that together we will rise to it.

Thank you.

October 26, 2024
Keir Starmer – 2024 Message for Rosh Hashanah

The message issued by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 2 October 2024.

As we usher in the most significant period in the Jewish calendar – a period of deep reflection – let me send heartfelt and sincere good wishes to Jewish communities throughout the UK marking Rosh Hashanah.

So often, Rosh Hashanah is a joyous occasion. But this year, we approach it with anguish too. Our hearts are heavy with the memory of the brutal acts of October 7th. As we remember those who lost their lives, I pledge to do all we can to bring home the hostages.

I also take this opportunity to reaffirm the extraordinary role that the Jewish community plays in Britain today. As I have got to know the community and visited its synagogues, schools and charities, I have been moved time and again by its energy and warmth. It is the achievement of countless people, who by multiple acts of kindness, give Jewish life in this country its humanity and grace.

At a time of huge challenge for the Jewish world, with rising hostility and antisemitism, I stand steadfast this Rosh Hashanah in admiration of this cherished community. The Jewish community, and all it stands for, makes Britain a better, stronger society.

I wish you a happy, healthy and sweet New Year. May you and your loved ones be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Shana Tova.

October 24, 2024
Keir Starmer – 2024 Speech at the United Nations General Assembly

The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 27 September 2024.

Mr President, your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I address the General Assembly today as someone with a deep belief in the principles of this body and the value of international cooperation.

I remember reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a student. It had a profound impact on me.

I’ve spent my career as a lawyer working to protect those rights and the Declaration still inspires me now as Prime Minister.

Because it speaks about our inherent dignity. The very essence of what it is to be human – of equal and inalienable rights based on a foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

Yet as we meet here today that can feel like a distant hope. Conflict touches more countries now than at any time in the history of this Assembly.

Around the world, more fires are breaking out and burning with ever greater intensity. Exacting a terrible toll in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen, and beyond.

The vast majority of humanitarian need in the world today is driven by conflict.

After 20 years of gains in tackling poverty, disease and ill-health, war is one of the main reasons that progress has stalled.

That is a catastrophe made by human hands. It has weakened the cause of cooperation, sowed political division between north and south, and turned the geopolitical dial away from the rule of law towards brute force and aggression.

This matters to us all. It matters to the British people.

My government was elected to change Britain.

To deliver national missions, on higher growth, safer streets, cleaner energy, more opportunity, and a healthier society.

But behind every one of these missions sits another insight.

Something that used to be unspoken but now needs to be said.

That we recognise that our success in Britain can never be separated from events beyond our shores. Global challenges rebound on us at home. And to grapple only with the effects of war, poverty, climate change, pandemics or irregular migration when they arrive on our doorstep is to set ourselves up to fail.

We must work with others to solve these problems at root, to tackle the causes.

Britain is stronger when we do so. So we are changing our approach on the global stage too.

My message today is this: we are returning the UK to responsible global leadership. Because I think the international system can be better. We need it to be better.

People talk about an age of polarisation, impunity, instability – an unravelling of the UN Charter. And I fear that a sense of fatalism has taken hold.

Well, our task is to say: no. We won’t accept this slide into greater and greater conflict, instability and injustice.

Instead, we will do all we can to change it.

This is the moment to reassert fundamental principles and our willingness to defend them. To recommit to the UN, to internationalism, to the rule of law. To work together for peace, progress and equality.

Because it is right – yes, absolutely. But also because it is plainly in our self-interest. So we are ready to step up in a spirit of respect and equal partnership.

I don’t claim solving these problems is easy. But there are positive, practical things we can do together.

This starts with addressing the rising tide of conflict and preventing a regional war in the Middle East.

I call on Israel and Hizballah: Stop the violence. Step back from the brink.

We need to see an immediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement, and we are working with all partners to that end. Because further escalation serves no one.

It offers nothing but more suffering for innocent people on all sides and the prospect of a wider war that no one can control, and with consequences that none of us can foresee.

This is intimately linked with the situation in Gaza where, again, we need to see an immediate ceasefire. It shames us all that the suffering in Gaza continues to grow.

The answer is diplomacy, the release of all the hostages, and the unfettered flow of aid to those in need.

That is the only way to break this devastating cycle of violence and begin the journey towards a political solution for the long term which delivers the long-promised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.

We must also work together for peace in Sudan and a proper response to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

We need to see greater action to deliver aid and to deliver peace.

The world cannot look away.

And we must stand up for international law.

That’s why we are so resolute in our support for Ukraine. They are exercising their right to self-defence as provided for under the UN Charter and recognised by 141 members of this assembly.

We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Because the alternative would be to confirm the worst claims about this place – that international law is merely a paper tiger and that aggressors can do what they will.

We will never let that happen because it is our duty to respond to a more dangerous world with strength to keep our people safe.

But, alone, that’s not enough. That’s not the limit of our responsibility. We must also work together to make the world less dangerous.

And so we have to face some hard truths. The institutions of peace are struggling – underfunded, under pressure and over politicised.

The entire framework of arms control and counter-proliferation – painstakingly constructed over decades – has begun to fall away.

Iran continues to expand its nuclear activity in violation of its international commitments.

Incredible new technologies like AI are being deployed for military use without agreed rules.

These are difficult challenges to grip and too urgent to ignore.

That’s why the new Pact for the Future is so important. We must put new energy and creativity into conflict resolution and conflict prevention, reverse the trend towards ever-greater violence, make the institutions of peace fit for purpose, and hold members to their commitments under the UN Charter.

But again, reducing conflict is not the limit of our responsibility. Other global challenges impact us too.

So we must work to get the SDGs back on track.

So Mr President, under my leadership, the UK will lead again, tackling climate change, at home and internationally and restoring our commitment to international development.

Like many of you in a few weeks’ time I will be travelling to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where a generation of children are having to contemplate fleeing the islands of their birth for good.

The threat of climate change is existential and it is happening in the here and now.

So we have reset Britain’s approach.

We have lifted the de facto ban on onshore wind in England, ended new oil and gas licenses, and created Great British Energy as we become the first major economy to transition to clean power by 2030.

And I’m pleased to tell you that, yes, we will meet our Net Zero target, backed up with an ambitious NDC at COP29, consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, and we’ll support others to do the same.

I know that finance is at the heart of this. So the UK will continue to be a leading contributor to international climate finance.

That includes supporting nature and forests because this is vital for biodiversity and reducing emissions, and it includes funding for climate adaptation, because those who did not cause this crisis should not be left to cope with the consequences.

And the UK will also continue to be a leading contributor to development – committed to returning to 0.7%, when fiscal circumstances allow.

But let’s be frank – public finance will never fully meet the needs. So we must use it as a multiplier to unlock much greater levels of private investment.

And we have already started this work. I can announce today that we are creating a new facility in British International Investment which will work with the City of London to mobilise billions in pension and insurance funds, to invest in boosting development and fighting climate change.

This is a great British innovation and if we are going to deliver in each of the areas I’ve talked about today with all the benefits that will bring, then this is kind of approach we need to take.

Innovating, thinking differently, moving faster and being ready to change how we do things in three key areas.

First, we must change the international financial system to deliver a fairer deal for developing countries.

We will use our seat on the boards of the IMF and World Bank to argue for a bolder approach, to tackle unsustainable debt which is compounding poverty and inequality, depriving the sick of healthcare and children of education.

We must tackle the barriers to investment which choke off the flow of private finance.

And we must put a price on the true cost of emissions through a new levy on global shipping with the proceeds going to tackle climate change and cut emissions even further.

Crucially, we need to accelerate reform of the Multilateral Development Banks so that they shoulder more risk, unlocking hundreds of billions more to help the poorest and build a low-carbon global economy.

A critical milestone in the fight against poverty is approaching with the replenishment of the International Development Association.

This is the chance for everyone to show greater ambition so the IDA can be bigger and better – helping more people, especially those in fragile states and conflict zones.

On that basis, we will be ambitious too. We will increase our pledge and play our part in seizing the potential of this moment.

Second, if we want the system to deliver for the poorest and most vulnerable then their voices must be heard.

We need to make the system more representative and more responsive to those who need it most.

So we will make the case not just for fairer outcomes, but fairer representation in how we reach them.

And this also applies to the Security Council. It has to change to become a more representative body, willing to act – not paralysed by politics.

We want to see permanent African representation on the Council, Brazil, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members, and more seats for elected members as well.

Finally, to support this we will also change how the UK does things. Moving from the paternalism of the past towards partnership for the future.

Listening a lot more – speaking a bit less. Offering game-changing British expertise and working together in a spirit of equal respect.

Joining the Paris Pact for People and Planet, pursuing a new global Clean Power Alliance, standing for a new term on the Human Rights Council, and joining forces to tackle the toughest challenges like Anti-Microbial Resistance, preparedness for the next pandemic and outbreaks of deadly diseases like Mpox.

We are ready to work with all UN members because the scale of the challenges we face demands it and our prosperity and security depend on it.

I say it again – all of this matters to Britain.

Mr President, by tackling conflict, making progress in the fight against climate change and poverty, and reforming the international system, so that it’s fit for the 21st century, we can realise the hope and the promise that shine through in the founding documents of this organisation.

Together, in all our interests, we can change direction from the dangerous, destructive path we find ourselves on and turn instead towards the rule of law towards cooperation, responsibility and progress. Towards peace.

Thank you.

October 22, 2024
Keir Starmer – 2024 Statement at the UN Security Council

The statement made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in New York on 25 September 2024.

Thank you, President. And thank you to our briefers.

I want start by paying tribute to those who see these terrible conflicts and walk towards them.

With no agenda other than helping those in need.

The UN and the ICRC have both lost staff this month, in Gaza, Lebanon and Donetsk. More than 200 aid workers have been killed so far this year, including British citizens.

Their humanity should illuminate the work of this Council. Because we have heard again today just how dire the situation has become.

The Security Council must deliver its responsibility for global peace and security. So I want to use this meeting as a call to action – in three key areas.

First, we need to renew the international consensus on delivering humanitarian support. This should be the bare minimum.

Yet, too often, we are falling short. We must address the situation in Gaza.

The 7th of October was the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

I utterly condemn the terrorist actions of Hamas. The ordeal of the hostages and their loved ones continues almost a year later.

Six of them were killed in cold blood just a few weeks ago. So, I say again: let the hostages go.

And we must face up to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that continues to deepen by the day.

Israel must grant humanitarian access to civilians in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law. There can be no more excuses.

Israel must open more crossings, allow vital, life-saving aid to flow and provide a safe environment for the UN and other humanitarian organisations to operate.

The civilian suffering in Gaza is beyond belief. So we have restarted our funding to UNRWA.

We’re supporting UK-MED to operate their field hospitals and we’re supporting UNICEF to deliver water, healthcare and specialist treatment for malnourished children.

But the most fundamental need is even more basic. They need the fighting to stop.

The situation in Sudan also demands our urgent attention. Millions are facing emergency or famine conditions, exacerbated by deliberate attempts to prevent aid reaching those in need.

This is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today and the worst displacement crisis, with over 10 million people driven from their homes.

It also risks destabilising South Sudan and Chad, which are already suffering their own humanitarian crises.

The UK has doubled its aid for the victims of this war to almost £100 million. But much more help is needed. The world must step up.

Second, I call on the Security Council to seek political solutions that can break repeating cycles of violence like that in the Middle East. The region is at the brink.

We need an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah and the implementation of a political plan which allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes to live in peace and security.

That security will come through diplomacy – not escalation. There is no military solution here. Nor is there a military-only solution to the conflict in Gaza.

This Council must demand – again, an immediate, full and complete ceasefire in Gaza with the release of all the hostages.

We need a political route to that agreement which provides a bridge to a better future. A credible and irreversible path towards a viable Palestinian state.

Alongside a safe and secure State of Israel. This is the only way to provide security and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.

In June, the UK brought a resolution to this Council on the war in Sudan.

Calling for both parties to commit to a ceasefire. I repeat that call today. The warring parties must engage in ceasefire talks.

We support the Secretary General’s Envoy in his efforts towards peace. We must keep working to bring this war to an end and we must ensure those responsible for committing atrocities are held accountable.

This leads me to my third and final point. We must ensure accountability for those violating the UN Charter and this Council must recommit to the values that it sets out.

This should go without saying. Yet, the greatest violation of the Charter in a generation has been committed by one of this Council’s permanent members.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal. It threatens global security. And it has caused colossal human suffering. Over 35,000 civilians have been killed or injured, 6 million forced to flee and almost 20,000 Ukrainian children forcefully deported. Kidnapped, to put it bluntly.

I think of Yaroslav Bazylevych, whose wife and three daughters were killed earlier this month by a Russian strike on civilians in Lviv. And I wonder how Russia can show its face in this building.

Six hundred thousand Russian soldiers have also been killed or wounded in this war. And for what?

The UN Charter – which they sit here to uphold speaks of human dignity. Not treating your own citizens as bits of meat to fling into the grinder.

Russia’s war has triggered a global energy crisis and a global food security crisis, causing hunger in the Horn of Africa. They entered into the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain deal. Then withdrew.

They tried to block the Pact for the Future. Now the world looks on as Russia deepens its military ties, wWith the likes of North Korea and Iran. So there can be no equivocation here.

There must be accountability. Aggression cannot pay. Borders cannot be redrawn by force.

Russia started this illegal war. It must end it – and get out of Ukraine.

We stand with the 89 countries who made clear at the Swiss Peace Summit that Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be the basis of any just and lasting peace.

Any process that does not recognise this will only be used as a pretext by Russia to regroup and come again.

President, in this moment of deepening conflict, the world looks to this Council more than ever. To provide leadership for peace, preserve our collective security and protect the most vulnerable.

The United Kingdom will always play its full part in fulfilling that responsibility.

Thank you.

October 20, 2024
David Lammy – 2024 Speech at the UN Summit of the Future

The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in New York on 23 September 2024.

Mr President, I stand here as a man of multiple identities.

A Londoner. A patriotic Brit. A lawyer.

Proud of my African, Guyanese, Caribbean and Indian heritage.

A committed multilateralist, who believes in the importance of the United Nations.

I agree with my great predecessor, Ernie Bevin, when he said in 1945:

“Our eyes should be fixed upon the United Nations… All nations of the world should be united to look that way.”

The purposes and principles of the UN remain as indispensable today as in Bevin’s time.

Our task is to recapture that founding spirit so that when we reach the UN’s centenary, their legacy endures.

But we cannot ignore the challenges we face. More conflicts than at any time since 1945, costing the global economy over 900 billion dollars, and creating the most refugees and displaced people on record.

Geopolitical tensions arising. Progress against the Sustainable Development Goals stalling. Trust in multilateralism faltering.

The Pact for the Future and this Summit offer a chance for Member States to show responsible global leadership, to engage with the rapid changes of our age, and go further in meeting the needs of everyone – especially the most vulnerable.

As I know all too well, countries of the Global South suffered great injustices in the past. And I have heard repeatedly how frustrated partners are by the unfairness of the global system.

We cannot ignore these frustrations. We must act.

First, as the Secretary-General has said, we need greater collective efforts to prevent and end conflict. For Britain, that means upholding Ukraine’s sovereignty, urging an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, and supporting an end to the fighting in Sudan.

It means robustly challenging Member States who violate the Charter, rejecting a world in which might makes right.

It means a more representative Security Council.

It means supporting the international rule of law, and applying it equally and fairly which is why Britain has proposed the outstanding Professor Dapo Akande for election as a judge at the International Court of Justice.

Second, we need urgent action on the climate and nature crisis.

With this new Government, Britain is renewing our ambitions at home, aiming to deliver clean power by 2030.

And I am determined that we also reconnect abroad, building a Global Clean Power Alliance, championing creativity and reforms to unlock international climate and nature finance, particularly from the private sector, and bolstering efforts to protect at least thirty per cent of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030.

Third, countries like Britain must modernise our approach to development.

This Government believes partnership, not paternalism, is the way to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals.

Making best use of technology and innovation. Putting indigenous people and local communities, including women and girls, at the centre of decision-making on development programmes.

Driving faster reform of the global financial system to strengthen the voice of the most vulnerable and tackle unsustainable debt.

Friends, action on conflict, climate and poverty. Delivered by a reformed multilateral system. This is the path to peace and prosperity on a liveable planet.

All over the world, in every war zone, every refugee camp, the UN is there. A beacon of hope and humanity to which, as Bevin said, the gaze of all nations should turn.

This Summit must direct the world’s eyes towards that beacon once again. And Britain is proud to support it.

Thank you.

October 2, 2024
Lisa Nandy – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 24 September 2024.

Thank you so much, Imogen.

An Olympic Gold Medallist and a Junior Doctor. Here to inspire and to serve, to allow people to dream, to change lives and never take no for an answer.

She absolutely sums up the spirit of our country.

And we need that spirit and that conviction after 14 dark, divisive years.

Successive Tory Governments running down our rich and proud heritage in arts and music and the right of every child to it.

At the stroke of a pen: enrichment funding in schools, gone.

Libraries, theatres, youth workers, gone.

That lifeline for young people, broken.

The promise of a generation inspired by sport, broken.

This is what cultural vandalism looks like. And Conference, it ends today.

No more of their violent indifference to the things that matter most.

Because the rich, diverse culture in our country is not just how we grow as people but how we make and shape a nation.

Conference, we are a better country than the Government we’ve had and we are going to give voice to that country again.

Because the history of Britain is the history of people like Imogen – ordinary, extraordinary people, doing extraordinary things.

Building the rich cultural inheritance that gives our lives meaning, handed down through the generations.

Every Labour Government in history has been animated by a passion for the arts, sport, music and culture which help us grow as people and grow as a nation.

It was the Attlee Government that created the national parks out of a conviction that clean air and recreation belong to us all.

It was Herbert Morrison who brought the Festival of Britain to every corner of the country.

It was the Wilson Government who created the first ever Arts Minister – Jennie Lee – whose motto ‘arts for everyone, everywhere’ enriched lives in every single part of our country.

And the Blair Government, through the amazing Tessa Jowell, who brought the London 2012 Olympics to Britain and inspired a generation of young people like Imogen to go on, dream big, achieve big and inspire the next.

And opened up, with the support of Chris Smith, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, our national museums and galleries to the nation, returning them to the people to whom they belong.

We’ve never accepted that the chance to live richer, larger lives belongs only to some of us. And Conference we never, ever will.

We face a choice as a country and as a government. To be the last guardians of this chapter, or the first pioneers of the next.

So with our fantastic team – Chris, Steph, Fiona, Vicky and Kim – change begins now.

We will be the light on the hill to open up those opportunities to a generation again and put people back at the centre of their own story.

Where their contribution is seen and valued and they can live richer, larger lives again.

And we won’t waste a minute. In our first few weeks, we’ve announced the Football Governance Bill to put fans back at the centre of their clubs and we’re taking action on rip-off ticket touts because culture belongs to everybody.

With Yvette, we are delivering youth hubs, so young people can decide what they want and need in their own communities, because we see their potential not just problems.

And resetting our relationship with our amazing civil society – the charities, the trade unions, the community groups who have been a lifeline in the darkest of times.

They were silenced by the Tories. No more. Our Government believes they are essential partners in the country we seek to build and they have not just a right, but a duty to speak out.

And we won’t stop there.

We are about to kickstart the charter review to ensure the BBC survives and thrives well into the latter half of this century.

And we’re working with the TV industry to ensure it becomes far more representative of the country, with decision makers who hail from every nation and region.

We’re about to kick off a review of the Arts Council to ensure arts for everyone, everywhere because we will never accept that culture is just for the privileged few, to be hoarded in a few corners of the country, and we will never accept there is a trade off between excellence and access.

We will hand back power to communities to reclaim their cultural assets and historic buildings so they have a vibrant future, not a forgotten past.

We will put young people back at the heart of their own futures, through a plan that they will write, because every young person matters, and with this Labour Government theirs is a generation that will be heard.

And we will put rocket boosters under tourism, film, gaming – growing creative industries in Sunderland, Blackpool, Birmingham and Dundee, alongside our amazing Mayors and Councils so, people in every part of our country have not just good jobs in their own community, but the chance to write the next chapter of our national story.

And most of all, most of all, when they erased culture and creativity erased from our classrooms and our communities.

Running down the arts subjects, narrowing the curriculum and slashing council funding so parts of the country became cultural deserts.

They choked off choices and chances for a generation to be able to imagine and create the lives and the country they believe in.

George Bernard Shaw once wrote: ‘Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and, at last, you create what you will’.

We’re going to reignite the imagination of the next generation.

Because a complete education is a creative education.

And that is why Bridget and I have kickstarted a review of the curriculum to put arts, sports and music back at the heart of our schools and communities where it belongs.

It is our ambition that when, in five years’ time, we turn to face the nation again, we will face a self-confident country that can celebrate the rich diversity and inheritance of our communities and all the people in them.

Where everybody’s contribution is seen and valued, and they see themselves reflected in our national story.

Never let them tell you that it can’t be done.

We are the party that gave the world the first ever Climate Change Act, the NHS, comprehensive education, and the Race Relations Act.

We flew the Pride Flag over our embassies in countries where loving who you love was a crime. The light on the hill for people at home and overseas.

It has been a long hard slog back to power through a dark and divisive decade.

But by opening up the arts to everyone, everywhere the lives of children you will never meet, whose names you will never know, will be changed forever because of what we have done and what we are going to do together.

This is the difference every Labour Government has made in power. It is written into our DNA. We change lives and we give our country its confidence back.

And Conference, it is thanks to each and every one of you in this room that the fourth ever Labour Government in history will do it again.

Thank you very much.

September 26, 2024
Yvette Cooper – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, on 24 September 2024.

Pooja, thank you. Thank you for your words. Thank you for your courage.

It is just two years since Ronan was killed, but Pooja has not stopped fighting for him since.

Fighting for Ronan. Fighting for other children, for other mums and dads.

Because no parent should have to go through this unimaginable pain.

So Pooja, we salute you, we support you, and now we are in government we will back you in your fight to save young lives.

Ronan’s teenage killers ordered the ninja sword online.

No checks. No questions asked.

Lethal weapons put straight in the hands of children.

So this Labour Government will bring in new laws to crackdown on dangerous online sales and the gangs who draw children in, alongside new youth hubs to steer young people away from violence – a teenage Sure Start to build hope in the future.

And we will make it a mission for our whole country to halve knife crime in a decade.

And yes, this Labour Government will pass Ronan’s law – a ban on ninja swords.

This Labour Government will.

It’s fifteen years since I’ve been able to say those words at a Labour Party conference.

All those years we said things but couldn’t do them.

So don’t let anyone tell you politics doesn’t matter.

Because six months ago, our party tried to ban ninja swords, but we didn’t have enough MPs to win that vote.

Because of the election – because of the change you campaigned for – now we do.

Ten years ago, I called for buffer zones around abortion clinics, but we weren’t in government. We couldn’t make it happen. Now we can and yes we have.

Because no woman should be harassed on the way to a healthcare appointment that is her legal right.

It can be hard to trust in change when things have felt so tough for so long.

And a year ago at this conference, I warned about the depth of the damage the Tories had done in 14 years.

How they’d taken a wrecking ball to the criminal justice system so criminals laugh at the law.

How they left communities to fracture so criminals and extremists step in.

Conference, eight weeks ago, when the unbearable news broke about a horrendous attack in Southport on little children at a summer dance club, from all across the country our hearts went out to the loved ones of little Alice, Bebe and Elsie. And that’s where all of our thoughts should have stayed.

The following day I met the police officers, paramedics and firefighters who were first on the scene that day, and whose bravery in the face of such trauma saved many young lives.

But within hours the same Southport police were under attack, facing missiles, bottles, and bricks.

The most shocking, violent insult to a grieving community and the police officers protecting them.

A total, total disgrace.

In copycat violence over the following days, stirred up from a safe distance by the grifters and the agitators online, we saw looting of shops, attacks on mosques, a Citizens Advice bureau torched, an asylum hotel set alight, and people targeted on the streets of Britain because of the colour of their skin.

And here in Liverpool, on County Road, the burning of Spellow Library.

A place where children go to read left in ashes.

And I spoke to some of those children who live around the library in Walton.

One told me how scared she was that night, how her mum switched off all the lights in the house, and told her to stay quiet and sit on the stairs as bins were set alight along her street.

Don’t anyone tell me that was protest.

Don’t tell me that was about immigration, or policing, or poverty.

Plenty of people have strong views on immigration, on crime, on the NHS and more, but they don’t pick up bricks and throw them at the police.

They don’t set light to buildings with people inside.

It was arson.

It was racism.

It was thuggery.

It was crime.

And, you know, it happened because criminals thought they would get away with it.

They saw the cracks in the system, the impunity that built up through the Tory years.

And when they decided to run riot those early August days, they thought no one would stop them.

They were wrong.

With Keir Starmer’s leadership, this Labour Government made clear that we would back our police, not blame them.

We would stand up for our courts, not undermine them.

We would pull our communities together, not divide them.

We stood up for the rule of law, decent people stood up for their communities, and, together, we put the disorder down.

But I’ll be honest I’ve been shocked by the response from some of those in political parties on the right who once claimed to care about law and order.

After rioters attacked the police, they should have given full-throated backing to our brave officers.

Instead, too often we’ve seen them undermine the integrity and authority of the police, even making excuses for the mob.

If you remember, back in the run up to Armistice Day last year, disgraceful slurs made against the police which made it harder for them to do their job were treated as a sacking offence for a Tory Home Secretary.

A year on, those same slurs have become an article of faith for every Tory leadership contender.

It is shameful what that party has become.

The Tories, with their mates in Reform, are just becoming right wing wreckers.

Undermining respect for the law, trying to fracture the very bonds that keep communities safe.

They have nothing to offer but fear, division and anger.

But that’s not who we are.

That’s not what Britain is about.

Our country has always championed respect and the rule of law.

That’s what this Labour Party will always stand up for – the party of law and order, now a Government of law and order once more.

And nor will we let disorder and violence silence a serious debate on immigration.

Something that has been missing for too long amidst the chaos, the gimmicks and the damaging, ramped up rhetoric.

A serious government sees that net migration has trebled because overseas recruitment has soared while training has been cut right back, and says net migration must come down as we properly train young people here in the UK.

A serious government sees an asylum system in chaos and say we have to clear the backlog and end asylum hotels.

And a serious government looks at the criminal gangs who are profitting from undermining our border security while women and children are crushed to death in crowded, flimsy small boats and says they’ve got away with it for too long – we will not stand for this vile trade in human lives.

A serious government knows that immigration is important, and that is why it needs to be properly managed and controlled so the system is fair – so rules are properly respected and enforced but we never again see a shameful repeat of the Windrush scandal that let British citizens down.

So in three months, we’ve set up the Border Security Command, launched new investment in covert operations, high tech investigations to go after the gangs, with proper enforcement and returns.

And instead of spending £700 million and employing 1000 people to send four volunteers to Rwanda, we are boosting our border security instead.

Because the best way to do that is to work with countries on the other side of our borders, not to just stand on the shoreline shouting at the sea.

So from our border security to our national security – combatting changing terror, state and cyber threats – to the security and safety of our local streets, we know that security is the bedrock on which communities can come together, and on which all the opportunities Labour has always fought for are built.

You don’t get social justice if you don’t have justice.

And respect is the very foundation of our democracy.

And those Labour values are at the heart of all we do.

And they are at the heart of our mission for safer streets.

Where across the country where for too long rising town centre and street crime have been driving people away from our high streets, corroding the fabric of our communities.

So this Labour Government will bring in new powers on antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and off-road bikes and we will put neighbourhood police back in our communities and back on the beat.

And yes, after years of Co-op and USDAW campaigning, this Labour Government will introduce a new law on assaults on shopworkers, because everyone has the right to work in freedom from fear.

And you know Conference, it is long overdue.

At long last this government will treat violence against women and girls as the national emergency it really is.

When Raneem Oudeh called the police four times the night she was killed, no one came.

So in Raneem’s name, this Labour Government will put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms.

Overhaul protection orders and go after dangerous perpetrators who put lives at risk.

New laws on spiking and online image abuse.

A radical, ambitious Labour mission – for the whole of Government, for the whole country – to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

Because we cannot, and we will not, let the next generation of women and girls face the same violence as the last. Our daughters deserve better than this.

And why do we do all this?

For the same reason that communities came together here in Liverpool and across the country to clear up the damage that rioters had done.

To rebuild the broken mosque wall in Southport.

To find a new Citizens Advice centre in Sunderland.

To clean up the streets.

Because the simple belief that we all share is this: our streets do not belong to the gangs, yobs, and thieves. Our streets do not belong to the racists, extremists and thugs. And our streets will never belong to the stalkers, abusers or rapists.

These streets belong to us all. And it is time to take them back.

So Conference, of course the work is hard.

As a poet once said, ‘our sleeves will grow ragged from rolling them up’.

But if you need hope that together we can deliver, just look down the road again at Spellow Library.

After the fire, a young Mum from Netherton, here with us this morning, Alex McCormick, started a fundraiser.

Donations have poured in from all over the world, thousands of books, hundreds of thousands of pounds.

And already the Labour Council, Mayor and community are restoring and rebuilding Spellow Library, better than ever before.

So when Alex said: “Let’s show the world what community in Liverpool really means”.

She did her city proud, and she did our country proud.

Up from the ashes, a symbol of hope.

A model of what our country can do.

So leave the politics of fear, division and decline to others.

The politics of hope is ours.

The future belongs to us all.

Let change begin.

Thank you Conference.

September 26, 2024
Hilary Benn – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 23 September 2024.

Good afternoon, Conference.

It is an honour to address you today as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in our new Labour Government, and a privilege to be working with such a great team. Fleur Anderson, Ruth Anderson and our PPS Matt Rodda.

The last Labour holder of this office to make the journey from opposition into government was the late, great, Mo Mowlam.

Just consider what she, what that Government, faced in May 1997.

Northern Ireland was still bitterly divided.

Numerous rounds of multi-party talks had shown promise, but not yet succeeded.

At times, the obstacles seemed insurmountable and the threat of violence ever-present.

And yet 11 months later, in April 1998, the impossible was made possible – in the words of Seamus Heaney ‘Hope and History’ rhymed – as the Good Friday Agreement was signed.

Something few people who had lived through the Troubles thought they would ever see.

Peace.

Today, we stand on the shoulders of those giants whose courageous political leadership made it happen. And be in no doubt. This Government will always uphold the Good Friday Agreement in letter and in spirit.

Northern Ireland has been transformed, but as always new times bring new challenges.

I pay tribute to the First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, and to the whole Executive at Stormont, for the positive start they have made since devolution was restored in February.

Stability is the foundation of everything, and with itand their Programme for Government, the Executive can make the most of the opportunities and address the challenges. The longest NHS waiting lists anywhere in the United Kingdom, the pressures in education, the lack of affordable childcare and the demands on the Police Service of Northern Ireland, whose officers do so much to keep people safe, not least during the terrible disorder we saw last month.

There are no easy answers. The Executive, like all governments, must live within its means.

We will support the Executive as it seeks to transform Northern Ireland’s public services.

We get that the Executive needs to be able to plan for the future, so we will take forward discussions on a long-term fiscal framework.

We understand the importance of investment in growth, including through City Deals like the one for Belfast which is roaring ahead and the Derry/Londonderry and Strabane Deal that wesigned last week which will bring huge investment to the North West.

And we will work with the Executive to see all parts of Northern Ireland flourish.

Now, let’s be clear. The UK’s departure from the European Union, and the reckless approach of successive Tory governments, has created a problem in Northern Ireland.

So this Government will take all necessary steps to safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market, maintain the open border on the island of Ireland and uphold our international agreements.

We will implement the Windsor Framework – pragmatically and in good faith.

And we want to negotiate an SPS and veterinary agreement with the EU, not least because it would help smooth the flow of goods across the Irish Sea.

Conference, there is another Tory wrong that falls to us to put right.

I have met many families who lost loved ones in the Troubles. I have found it difficult to listen to their stories. Imagine what it is like for them as they recount yet again the sheer brutality of what happened and some tell of the passing of the years without finding answers.

The Tories’ Legacy Act has rightly been rejected by victims and survivors’ groups, all of the Northern Ireland political parties and the Irish Government, and that is why Labour will repeal and replace it.

And, we will of course make sure that the ICRIR – the Independent Commission whose job it is to find those answers for families – is compliant with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

We will consult widely in doing so, recognising that this will involve really difficult conversations, and many will hold different views about the best way forward.

But history teaches us that it is only by coming to terms with the past that we can move forward to the future.

And what a future – what an opportunity now beckons for Northern Ireland – not least because of its integral place in the UK market and its access to the EU Single Market.

It is home to bedrock and cutting-edge industries.

From shipbuilding to agriculture.

Composite aircraft wings to electric and hydrogen buses.

A growing television and film industry, world leadingcompanies in cyber security and artificial intelligence.

Thriving services, great universities and a dynamic voluntary sector.

As I travel around, I am so impressed and inspired by the creativity, skill and enterprise I see in people right across Northern Ireland, and I want others to see that too so that they come and invest in the jobs and prosperity of the future.

Conference, the Agreement reached in April 1998 did not solve everything.

It was, by its very nature, a compromise. As Mo Mowlam said during the negotiations “Everybody is going to get something. No-one is going to get 100% of what they want.”

And in accepting that, everyone involved – and all of us across these islands – got something that was far, far more valuable.

An end to violence and the dawn of a new era.

So, in that spirit and with hope, let this generation show the same determination as those political giants in whose footsteps we follow as, together, we seek to forge a better future for Northern Ireland.

Thank you very much.

September 26, 2024
Ed Miliband – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, on 23 September 2024.

It’s great to be here in Liverpool.

I want to start by thanking my brilliant ministerial team, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Phil Hunt, Sarah Jones, Michael Shanks and Kerry McCarthy.

And let’s hear it for Charlie for his brilliant speech.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the work you did at the election to sweep away the Tories that failed the British people over 14 long, wasted years.

The governments of Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak.

Consigned to the dustbin of history thanks to your hard work.

And lets thank our leader Keir Starmer who led us out of the wilderness and to election victory.

But friends, we fought that election, not for ourselves, but with one simple idea: things can, and must be better for the British people.

We must build a country that puts working people first once again.

And just look at what your Labour government has been able to do on energy in a few short weeks.

The onshore wind ban in place for 9 years under the Tories, swept away in 72 hours under Labour.

Cheap, clean solar power, blocked for years under the Tories, unlocked in the first week of a Labour government.

Offshore wind trashed under the Tories, roaring back under Labour with the most successful renewable auction in history.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And I’ll tell you something else that has changed.

Now this may surprise you, but the last Tory government believed in public ownership of our energy infrastructure, but only if it was by foreign governments.

We believe the British people have the right to own and benefit from our natural resources.

And friends, we’re making it happen

Great British Energy, demanded by this conference, at the heart of our manifesto, overwhelmingly backed by the public now being delivered by your Labour government.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And friends, my message today is this:

We’ve only just started.

Of course, the country faces hard times.

There is no doubt the Tories have left Britain in a complete mess.

But hear me when I say this – because we are Labour, tough times mean we don’t lower our sights, we raise them.

Why? Because for every family in poverty, every young person denied opportunity, every community locked out of prosperity, the challenges they face after 14 years of the Tories demand more ambition from us not less.

So our inheritance is a call to greater action and a decade of national renewal.

And at the election, there was an argument about our country’s future.

The Tories and their friends on the right said we should turn away from the climate and clean energy.

We said no, and we won the argument.

And I’ll tell you why. Because the British people know that our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower is the way to put energy policy back in the service of working people.

For social justice, economic justice, climate justice.

So as Charlie said, the Tory energy failure has left us exposed as a country with the British people paying the price.

At the mercy of global fossil fuel markets.

That is why energy prices will rise once again on October 1st.

And there is only one way for us to fix the Tory mess: our mission for clean power by 2030.

Onshore wind, solar power, offshore wind, nuclear, tidal, hydrogen, carbon capture.

An armoury of clean power.

While the Tories left us weak and vulnerable, this Labour government will break the power of the petrostates and dictators over our energy policy.

In words that will sound familiar, we can, we must, we will Take Back Control of our energy.

And we will bring this opportunity to your area with our local power plan for local neighbourhoods.

Solar panels on your local school, housing estate, community centre.

Turbines.

Batteries.

Thousands of projects across Britain.

Tackling fuel poverty.

Led by Labour local authorities.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes

And we’ve only just started.

We all know that the poorest people in our country often live in cold, draughty homes.

Many rent from private landlords, below decent standards.

Friends I say it is a Tory legacy.

It is a Tory scandal.

It is a Tory outrage.

This Labour government will not tolerate it.

So I can tell you today: we will end this injustice.

Decent standards for private rented homes.

Warmer homes, lower bills.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And because being Labour means in tough times we raise our sights and don’t lower them, I can today announce that we will go further.

With Angela Rayner, we will ensure that every family living in a council house, every family living in social housing of any kind will have a right to these standards too.

Over 1 million people lifted out of fuel poverty.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And our mission, our energy policy, is about delivering economic justice too.

Clean energy is the biggest economic opportunity of our time.

But for years, our country has been failed by the Tory fly-by-night, short term, free market nonsense that failed British workers.

But friends, no more.

Under this Labour government, as Rachel Reeves so brilliantly said this morning, industrial policy is back.

We care about what we make, where things are made and who makes them.

And I promise you this: I will use every lever we have to win jobs and build new industries for Britain.

Great British Energy, the National Wealth Fund, the British Jobs Bonus.

And let’s spell out what this future means: jobs building carbon capture and storage.

Jobs Manufacturing electrolysers for hydrogen.

Jobs constructing the next generation of nuclear power stations.

Jobs manufacturing for floating wind.

Using the skills of our North Sea workers, and to decarbonise our country.

A plan to re-industralise our country.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And here’s another difference:

There can no longer be the belief, as there was under the Tories, that these new industries could be a union-free zone.

As I said to the energy companies on day 1 of my appointment: decent pay, good conditions, workers and unions must be at the heart of these new industries we build.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And just as we will do right by today’s generations in our energy policy, so we will do right by past generations that powered our country.

Across Britain, hundreds of thousands went down the mines.

Too often they paid the price in ill health, and even with their lives. I know it from my own constituency.

We owe them the greatest debt.

But we know there is unfinished business.

The scandal of the mineworkers’ pension scheme.

And so this Labour government will honour the promise in our manifesto to finally deliver justice to mineworkers and their families.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

Social justice, economic justice and climate justice too.

The greatest moral obligation we have is to do right by our children, our grandchildren and the generations to come.

The Tories used to say that because Britain was just 1% of global emissions, that was somehow an excuse for inaction.

And under them, Britain shrank and deserted the global stage.

We say: never again.

We can only keep future generations safe if we show global climate leadership.

Using the power of our example at home to demand that others act too.

That’s why later this week, Keir and I will be representing you on behalf of the British government at the United Nations, with one clear message.

Britain is back in the business of climate leadership.

Getting serious about shifting away from fossil fuels.

Demanding every major company must have proper climate plans.

The first major country to set the goal of clean power by 2030.

Just as we were the first government in the world to deliver a Climate Change Act in 2008.

That is what we mean by climate leadership.

That’s the difference a Labour government can make and will make.

Social justice.

Economic justice.

Climate justice.

And my friends as we face the big challenges of today, tough times, let’s take inspiration from the Labour governments of the past, on whose shoulders we stand today.

Think for a minute of what they achieved in their time despite all the difficulties they faced.

In 1945, our party, Labour, created the NHS despite inheriting a country ravaged by war.

In 1964, our party, Labour, built the future, despite a legacy of 13 Tory wasted years.

In 1997, our party, Labour, created the minimum wage, rebuilt the NHS and established Parliaments for Scotland and Wales, after 18 years of decline and division.

There is a lesson here, those who went before us did not lower their sights, they raised them.

Now this is our chance, in our time, to write a new chapter in the history of our great country.

That is our obligation to the British people.

Every day in government a chance to change Britain.

And I want to end on a more personal note.

I lost the General Election in 2015.

In tough times you sustained me. You kept me going. And now you have given me the chance to serve.

I will not let you down.

Friends, Labour is back.

Britain is back.

And we have indeed only just started.

Thank you.

September 26, 2024