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Category: Speeches

  • Alison McGovern – 2024 Speech on Britain’s Labour Market

    Alison McGovern – 2024 Speech on Britain’s Labour Market

    The speech made by Alison McGovern, the Minister for Employment, on 18 September 2024.

    INTRODUCTION

    I want to thank everybody at the Institute and all the Commissioners for this important report today. It’s quite long and represents a very serious endeavour and brings evidence from every part of our country.

    And I think it’s such an important contribution to a moment in which I hope, and I will say this morning, we’ll see a page turned from the policy of the past to a new future for the Department that I proudly serve in Government.

    In July, the Secretary of State gave a speech in Barnsley setting out our plans to refocus the Department for Work and Pensions from being the department for welfare to a department of work.

    We’re going to change the Department for Work and Pensions fundamentally. Because if you go around Jobcentres they still have paper listings on the wall as if it’s 1985. Meanwhile, the rest of the economy is galloping to our AI future. Which is why Liz and I want to be clear we are making an employment service fit for the future, not stuck in the past.

    However, updating the Department for Work and Pensions is not just about technology. Today, I want to set out the failure at the heart of past thinking, and where our new policies will be led not just by new opportunities, but by fundamentally different principles.

    UNEMPLOYMENT IS A PROBLEM OF THE ECONOMY, NOT OF THE INDIVIDUAL

    The report published today describes the UK’s employment service as “the least well-used in Europe” – and I would add least well-loved – “often acting as an extension of the benefit system”. The report highlights the need for far-reaching reforms, including a “clearer separation between employment support and social security delivery”.

    And I agree, that point is at the heart of my speech today.

    I want to spell out fundamental flaws in thinking that have held us back.

    For too long, the question of how to increase employment in the UK has been reduced simply to a question of the individuals out of work. The only question has been whether the social security system undermines a person’s will to work.

    Because for too long, that narrow focus has dominated all thinking. We’ve lost sight of the labour market as a whole.

    For far too long in politics, we’ve asked whether this change or that change to social security will result in more people working, instead of looking at the options that people have in the labour market and asking ourselves whether those options and choices are good enough.

    This was always doomed to fail.  To know that, all you need to do is understand our past.

    William Beveridge called it out in 1909. He said: “The first question must be “not what is to be done with the unemployed individual, but why is he thus unemployed”.

    The truth is, for any individual, you can look at the ups and downs of life and describe why they aren’t working: they got sick, they had kids, there was a bus that could get them there but it was cancelled.  But when there are over 7.2 million people like that who are out of work, that is no longer an individual problem – it’s a failure of our whole economy. As Beveridge described it, it’s a problem of industry and a failure of organisation.

    Look at the evidence:

    • We’ve got millions stuck on waiting lists and 2.8 million out of work sick. Is that social security? Or the people in charge of the health service who were supposed to keep our country well?
    • We’ve got almost 1 in 8 of all young people on the scrapheap – is that the fault of social security– or was it the failure to help the lockdown generation?
    • We’ve got too many insecure jobs, with unpredictable working patterns. And that has nothing to do with social security.
    • And the welfare state is not to blame for the lack of buses after 6pm in northern towns. It is ridiculous.

    What people call ‘welfare’ has been the current obsession.

    HOW TO FIX OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM AND DELIVER A THRIVING LABOUR MARKET

    But this was not a trap that the author of our social security system fell into.

    In his 1942 report, Beveridge wrote that his plan assumed “the establishment of comprehensive health and rehabilitation services, and maintenance of employment, that is to say avoidance of mass unemployment as necessary conditions of success in social insurance.”

    Beveridge did not think social security was a cure-all. He knew its success was conditional – that his system would not work without these two other post-war reforms: the goal of full employment, and the goal of a national health service at the disposal of all workers.

    Social security is there to smooth people’s incomes over time and to take account of life events we all have a strong chance of experiencing – old age, the birth of a baby, sickness or redundancy. Run well, it should be a counterweight to poverty and a stabilising force at a time of distress. But only if we acknowledge that tinkering with its edges will never solve the problems of the broader economy.

    Instead, we need to give people the good choices and chances that they need.

    Because markets can be a force for opportunity and prosperity. But we should also mould them, and shape them, and spread power widely within them. A market for labour that has businesses crying out for staff, and a queue at the foodbank door is failing this country.

    You’ll know that the Commissioners join Beveridge in prescribing the UK Government an objective to move towards full employment. And it’s why Liz and I also join the Commissioners – having announced our bold, long-term ambition to get to an 80% employment rate – the kind of clear objective that our hosts here at the Institute for Employment Studies say will help change the fortunes of our country.

    LEARNING FROM HISTORY: ECONOMIC CRISES AND ACTIVE LABOUR MARKET POLICIES

    The central point I want to make today is that’s right and we’ve forgotten our own history on this point. Particularly, the major turning point after the Second World War whereby the issue that caused the collapse of Ramsey McDonald’s second Labour Government – unemployment – was resolved. Post-war, it was accepted that the economy, and the labour market in particular, ought to keep people (men at least) in work and off the streets.

    The generation that experienced dreadful conflict and mass destitution decided they would put an end to it. They created a department for employment to train and rehabilitate people, industry full of apprenticeships, and of course the Employment Exchanges – what we now call Jobcentres – to connect the unemployed with jobs. The Commission’s report, in my opinion, reestablishes this lesson for the 2020s.

    Beveridge was not perfect, but he was definitely a man who made a difference.

    But it is the story of two women on either side of the Atlantic that I think can help us see even more forcefully why we need a rebirth of active labour market policy today.

    On one side of the Atlantic, Frances Perkins – first woman in the US cabinet, creator of the New Deal and author of the plan for prosperity in response to the destitution of the Great Depression.

    On the other side of the Atlantic, four years earlier, Margaret Bondfield. We all know who that is, right? The first woman in the UK Cabinet, dealing with ever rising unemployment and an unsustainable unemployment insurance bill.

    With active labour market policy for Bondfield not yet invented, the Labour Government collapsed and her political career was all but forgotten.

    Now if you read Bondfield’s memos from the time, and you can see her frustration, repeatedly making the case for increasing the national insurance fund to prevent hardship but with no answer to the cause of the problem. And the populists of the 1930s were at the gate, making the most of the economic distress.

    Caught in the middle, she was desperate for the answer that came just a few years later in the United States with Frances Perkins’ creation of the New Deal.

    Why do I tell her story?

    Because unlike Margaret Bondfield we can’t say we don’t know what the answer is because since then we’ve learnt from nearly 80 years of public policy in response to economic failure.

    We’ve learnt from that failure of the 1930s.

    We’ve learnt from the near full employment that came from the post war consensus.

    We’ve learnt from when the consensus broke down in the 1970s and other crises took over. Inflation became the big challenge that economic policy turned to face down – and the cost of that was a return to high unemployment.

    We’ve learnt from industrial collapse, which saw a move away from the mass employment provided by heavy industries like manufacturing and coal mining towards services and finance.

    We learnt what this would mean for towns and cities across Britain. When women joining the workforce concealed an even worse outcome for men.

    And we’ve learnt that this saw regional disparities deepen – in whole parts of the country, economies simply failed – and many are still yet to properly recover.

    Despite attempts to manage this, the number of people out of work due to sickness grew rapidly, with incapacity caseloads broadly doubling to 2.7m by the time we entered the 2000s.

    So we had to learn through the actions of the last Labour government in 1997, that in response to this horrendous situation, there had to be an explicit rebirth of active labour market policy, with the United Kingdom’s very own New Deal.

    A radical series of reforms designed to provide people with active tailored support to help get them back into work as unemployment fell and the economy grew.

    With a big focus on young people.

    The global financial crash in 2008 saw unemployment rise again and the Department for Work and Pensions then, in response, scaled up its active labour market policy operations.

    And as a result, the global crash did not have a long-term impact on the trend rate of employment. That is not to say everything was perfect, but it’s worth learning from.

    And I’ve certainly learnt from what happened in 2010.

    [Please note political content redacted here]

    Active labour market policy was shrunk back to a preoccupation with social security rules.

    And the results of the past 14 years show what’s been happening with our labour market.

    A quarter of working age people are not in work, with 2.8 million people out of the workforce due to long-term health problems.

    Over 4 million people in work and with work-limiting health conditions which may put them at risk of not fulfilling their potential or falling completely out of the labour market.

    And I want to say to you all this morning – now is the time to turn the page on that failure.

    Because just as in 1930, Margaret Bondfield said of the Unemployment Insurance Scheme that it “is being asked to meet situations for which it was never designed.

    The same is true of our social security system today.  We cannot load every economic problem we face onto minor tweaks in the social security rules.

    Which is why, as part of our Get Britain Working White Paper, we are bringing forward fundamental reforms to employment support.

    That includes changing the outcomes against which we measure its success – for example, not focusing alone on getting people into work but on achieving higher engagement with everyone, much higher employment in the short-term, and higher earnings too.

    We will overhaul Jobcentres in this country and we will get people into work long-term.

    We will have a new youth guarantee so not a single person will be left on the scrapheap when they’re young.

    And because Liz and I know the country doing well is no compensation if your town or city is being abandoned, we will make sure – as the Prime Minister says – that those with skin in the game – our mayors and regional leaders –have the levers they need to make change.

    As the Commissioners have laid out in their report, our highly centralised system needs to move towards a model more in line with those used in other high-performing countries – with more control at the local level.

    This big reform will be matched by the action we’re taking across the UK Government to support jobs and growth.

    We’ll soon be introducing legislation into Parliament so people’s work is better paid and more secure.

    Skills England will change the place of learning in this country to give everyone a chance of success.

    And we will create new Local Growth Plans powering towns and cities up and down the country.

    I know change won’t happen overnight, but I am determined to fix the foundations in the Department for Work and Pensions so that more families can benefit from the security, dignity and prosperity of good work.

    CONCLUSION

    The point I’m making here, I know is not a new or innovative one. As I’ve said, it’s the founding principle of our social security system –

    You cannot have well-functioning social security without full employment.

    Beveridge knew that.

    But let me conclude with a few small points that we could help Beveridge understand.

    Because whilst his principle remains the same, the circumstances we make these reforms in are very different.

    So it is for us to apply that principle to the society we have now – more than 80 years later.

    Where the health system – still as vital as ever – must address a very different set of challenges. Not infectious disease, but chronic poor mental health.

    Where women’s role in the workforce makes the need for a proper childcare system as pressing as Beveridge believed the need for a reformed health system was in the 1940s.

    Now Beveridge also didn’t give any evidence that he foresaw the rise of the motor vehicle, which – combined with inadequate investment in public transport – forces those who can’t afford a car to face limits on their ambitions – especially if they live in an area with fewer opportunities and chronically bad transport.

    Changing that will be part of better organisation for our economy and I hope that Beveridge might have thought was a good idea.

    Our desire for an 80% employment rate comes from a serious understanding of our country’s history, and also from facing the reality of the economy today. We have a serious understanding of the challenges and opportunities before us, and who they apply to.

    That is why what is not needed now is a sticking plaster, or a tweak or an amendment, but a change in principle, in policy and in practice. Leading to a better organised economy – and a market that works – spreading opportunity and prosperity to every corner of our country.

    Back in the 1930s, the New Deal provided Americans with a springboard and a safety net. And a recognition that you don’t get one without the other.

    What unites these moments in history that I’ve talked about is an ambitious idea about what can happen if you put a platform under people and see what they could do and what they could achieve.

    The report that the Commissioners have written – published today – I think is very ambitious. But I hope I have made the case, in my remarks, that it ought to be ambitious.

    Because for too long, our economic policy has shrunk the people of this country. Our new economic approach will see people for all they could be and all the opportunities they deserve.

  • David Lammy – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    David Lammy – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 22 September 2024.

    Conference, everyone in this room has their own story.

    My story starts in place called Dongola Road, in the shadow of Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm Estate.

    Life was not always easy. My mum struggling to put food on our table.

    Skinheads shouting abuse as we walked by.

    My father leaving when I was 12.

    He didn’t leave me very much.

    But he did leave me a map, an atlas of the world which I put on my bedroom wall. And from this map, I learned about the countries my ancestors had come from. Transported from West Africa to Guyana as part of the Transatlantic slave trade. Long before my parents moved from Guyana to Britain to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War.

    Conference, I can’t tell you how it feels to stand here today. A Black working-class man from Tottenham; a child of the great Windrush Generation.

    Now back on this stage as the Foreign Secretary in a Labour Government.

    My job is to tell a new story about the United Kingdom abroad.

    A story of openness. A story of the future. A story of hope that will reconnect Britain with the world once more.

    Conference, when I stood in this room last year, I said we had a once in a generation chance to get Britain’s future back.

    The chance to win back the public’s trust. To turn the page on 14 years of Tory decline.

    Well Conference, we did it.

    And when I say we did it – I mean you did it.

    Every party member who walked dozens of miles knocking on doors.

    Every activist who convinced a young person to register to vote.

    Every supporter who endured the failing private train networks to campaign in an unfamiliar town.

    Every single one of you who supported our leader – our Prime Minister – Keir Starmer.

    You are the greatest advocates of our values, our missions, and our purpose.

    We are forever grateful to you for the greatest electoral turnaround in our party’s history.

    From electoral oblivion less than five years ago, to a Labour majority today.

    Thank you, thank you.

    Of course, you, the party members in this room, did not just change the fate of our party. You changed the fate of our country.

    Now, together, let’s work to change the fate of our world.

    Conference, for 14 long years, the Conservative Party misused the British state.

    Handing out crony contracts to their mates. Crashing the economy with their delusional ideology.

    For 14 long years, the Conservative Party damaged our reputation abroad, threatening to break international law.

    Threatening our European friends and treating them as our as foes.

    For 14 long years, the Conservative Party abandoned our values.

    Tearing up climate commitments.

    Threatening to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

    On my first weekend as Foreign Secretary – when I travelled to Germany, to Poland, to Sweden in less than 48 hours – I was proud to say: Britain is back.

    When Keir Starmer, and my dear friend John Healey and I flew to Washington DC a few days later to meet with world leaders and commit unshakeably to NATO, we were proud to say: Britain is back.

    When the Labour government hosted 45 European leaders at Blenheim Palace, to reset our relationship with Europe, we said: Britain is back.

    When we restored funding to UNRWA for their work in Gaza, what did we say Conference? Britain is back.

    When we stood up for international law when it was not easy: what did we say? Britain is back.

    In my first four months, I visited 10 countries, engaged over 20 world leaders and 40 foreign ministers and what did I tell them? Britain is back.

    And when, unlike Rishi Sunak last year, the Prime Minister and I travel later this week to the UN General Assembly later, what will I say?

    Britain is back. Britain is back. My friends, Britain is back.

    Conference, unlike the Tories, We understand Britain needs to work with its neighbours to flourish.

    We know that Britain’s strength is founded on its alliances.

    That is why we are resetting our relationship with Europe. Since July, we have launched negotiations on a wide-ranging bilateral treaty with Germany. I have been on a joint visit with the French Foreign Minister, the first of its kind for more than a decade. I have welcomed the Spanish and Polish Foreign Ministers to London.

    We will reduce trade barriers to help boost business, jobs and economic growth, and we will seek a new broad, ambitious new UK-EU security pact to strengthen cooperation on shared threats that we face, enshrining a new geo-political partnership.

    Because Britain is back. A leading nation in Europe once again.

    Earlier this month I was in Kyiv – the frontline of the defence of European democracy – meeting with President Zelenskyy, two and a half years into Putin’s full-scale invasion.

    I took an overnight train with Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, to send a clear message. If the West does not demonstrate it can outlast Putin, it does not only threaten Ukraine’s democracy, it threatens us all.

    We need to show Putin that Britain and its allies are not going anywhere.

    Which is why this government has increased support to Ukraine and we have committed £3 billion per year in military aid for as long as it takes. And it is why I told Zelenskyy; this Labour government will always stand with his courageous people.

    We need to send another message to Vladimir Putin: your interference in our democracy; promoting disinformation and encourage disorder on our streets; encouraging kleptocrats to store their ill-gotten gains in our property market must end.

    And that is why I am proud to tell Conference, together with two of our closest allies – the United States and Canada – and the rest of the G7, we are taking action against Russian disinformation. Exposing their agents, building joint capability and working with the Global South to take on Putin’s lies.

    Conference, last year, as we boarded trains up to Liverpool, we read the horrific news that Hamas terrorists had murdered around 1200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 others.

    What has followed those atrocities is a horrific war. Tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children killed and injured. Their homes turned to rubble, leaving Gaza a vision of hell on earth.

    Meanwhile dozens of Israelis remain cruelly held captive and Israel faces threats from all angles with Iran and its proxies seeking to wipe Israel off the map.

    Conference, I know, like me, you are desperate to see the conflict in the Middle East come to an end. And this Labour government has already made clear Britain’s principles.

    In my first weeks of government, I went to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to call for an immediate ceasefire. Words no previous Foreign Secretary had even used.

    We have used the full weight of Britain’s diplomacy to push to protect civilians, now. Get all the hostages out, now. And unrestricted aid into Gaza, now.

    We have provided millions to fund field hospitals in Gaza. We brought the Security Council together to demand polio vaccinations for Palestinian children.

    We have respected the independence of the international courts and we have made the right decisions to stand up for international law.

    We have called out the violent settlers in the West Bank. We have continued to fight for the hostages and to support their families.

    We have never lost sight of the end goal: an irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.

    I believe in the right of Israel to be safe and secure. I also believe in the justness of the Palestinian cause.

    And it is only once Palestinians and Israelis have the same fundamental rights – sovereignty, security and dignity in their own independent, recognised states – that we can achieve a just and lasting peace for all.

    In recent days, we have seen a worrying escalation between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah.

    This is in nobody’s interest.

    Our message to all parties is clear: we need an immediate ceasefire from both sides so that we can get to a political settlement.

    So that Israelis and Lebanese civilians can return to their homes and live in peace and security.

    And to British nationals still in Lebanon, let me say clearly: for your own safety, leave now.

    Iran is not only destabilising the Middle East but providing support to Putin’s barbaric war through exporting ballistic missiles.

    That is why we put new restrictions on Iran Air that will stop it entering the UK and new sanctions against the IRGC.

    Conference, in a world filled with conflict it is easy to take our eyes off the most fundamental threat that our world faces. The climate emergency.

    Treated by the last government with a cynical disdain that we cannot afford.

    With Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband, I will help restore Britain’s climate leadership, for British jobs, opportunity and growth. And because climate matters.

    The climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Labour Foreign Office does. Because climate matters.

    With Labour, Britain will lead a new Global Clean Power Alliance. Because climate matters.

    With Labour, Britain has founded Great British Energy. Because climate matters.

    We will accelerate onshore wind. Why? Because climate matters.

    We will appoint new climate and new nature envoys. Because climate matters.

    We have pledged to end new oil and gas licences while guaranteeing a fair transition in the North Sea. Why? Because climate matters

    And Conference, the Conservatives abandoned our leadership on international development too.

    With my dear friend Anneliese Dodds, we will strengthen development leadership, capability and expertise, and support faster reform to the global financial system.

    Our goal is nothing less than a world free from poverty on a liveable planet. That’s what a Labour government will achieve.

    Conference, the world we face is filled with disorder. Conflict in Europe, Africa and the Middle East; great power competition, an increasingly assertive China and a climate emergency.

    But together we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the change we want to see.

    Not just in Britain, but in Europe and in the world.

    Just as Clem Attlee’s 1945 government rebuilt the country after the second world war; just as Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s seized the white heat of technology to face the future; and just as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s government transformed our public services, we in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, have the opportunity to make history.

    With a decade of national renewal. Our Prime Minister has laid out five missions for this purpose.

    Five missions that will give our country the growth it needs and the security it deserves.

    Five missions that will allow Britain to return to the top table of international diplomacy.

    A Britain Reconnected.

    Britain back where it belongs.

    Conference, thank you. Thank you very much.

  • Lucy Powell – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Lucy Powell – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Lucy Powell, the Leader of the House of Commons, on 22 September 2024.

    I’m thrilled to be here speaking as the first Labour Leader of the House of Commons in 15 years.

    But what on earth does the Leader actually do apart from carrying swords in Coronations?

    My job is two-fold: restore trust and respect in politics, and ensure we deliver our bold and ambitious legislative agenda.

    Both are vital and connected and much needed.

    Populism and extremism feeds from a belief that nothing ever changes, and that all politicians are the same.

    The easy answers, lies and conspiracy theories too readily sought when the status quo fails to change and improve ordinary lives.

    Progressive politics needs and must show the opposite.

    That politics is a force for good.

    That it can bring about change.

    That it does work in the interest of the many, not the few.

    That democracy, not hate and fear, can deliver change.

    And after an era of false promises, misspent hope, money wasted, long-running injustices, denied, broken public services, economic folly which cost us all, a country which doesn’t work, it’s no wonder people have lost hope.

    That’s why our drive to a government of service is so important.

    Rebuilding trust and delivering what we said we would.

    And let’s be honest, Conference, some want to paint a picture that nothing will change, that we are just the same.

    I totally refute that.

    First, conduct matters.

    That’s why one of the first things I did as Leader was to pass a motion to limit MP’s second jobs.

    And we will go further.

    I’ve set up the House Modernisation Committee to drive up standards, tackle bad culture and make Parliament more effective.

    Transparency matters too and it’s not always easy.

    But the question is ‘are we delivering on our promises, without fear or favour?’

    And judge us by our actions. We are on the side of fans, passengers, consumers, and workers.

    This couldn’t be more different from the recent past.

    Instead of strengthening the rules for MPs, when one of theirs was found in serious breach for lobbying Tory MPs voted to get him off the hook.

    And what about their fast lane for mates, billions of tax-payers cash spent on crony COVID contracts?

    And let’s never forget they changed the law so we couldn’t socialise, while secretly partying themselves and then lying to Parliament about it for months.

    So, don’t let anyone tell you we are all the same, Conference, because we are not.

    The most important thing to rebuild trust, is doing what we said we would, bringing about the real change people voted for.

    It sounds basic, but it is the bedrock.

    In Parliament that change has begun. I was so proud to be at the heart of shaping our first legislative programme for government in 15 years – a Kings Speech that is bold, big and it’s Labour.

    It’s the most ambitious of any new incoming Government for a very long time.

    And look what we’ve done already.

    The Fiscal Responsibility Act – our first new law – so that Liz Truss can never happen again.

    A first Bill to take our railways back into public ownership.

    Legislation to set up Great British Energy.

    A Bill that puts water bosses on notice to clean up our rivers.

    We’ve introduced the renters rights Bill, finally ending no fault evictions.

    House of Lords reform.

    And conference, we are working at pace to meet our manifesto commitment, to introduce the Employment Rights Bill within 100 days.

    All this in a short time, using the Parliamentary majority we all fought so hard for.

    That’s what change looks like.

    We’ve done more to improve lives in 14 weeks than the Conservatives did in 14 years.

    But that’s not all.

    Some of the promises we made go deeper. To those who’ve faced injustices and been let down before.

    We are determined to show we are different.

    It’s why we’ve moved so quickly on the Infected Blood Compensation and Post Office Redress schemes.

    And it’s why we’ve introduced Martyn’s Law. A promise we made to Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett, to help keep venues safe.

    And Conference, I am so proud that it is our Labour Government that will finally enact Hillsborough Law.

    That’s the change a Labour Government brings.

    And there’s lots more to come, I can tell you.

    That’s what a government of service means.

    Power with a purpose, in service of the many, not the few.

    Restoring a belief that politics really can change people’s lives.

    It’s the only antidote we have to cynicism and populism.

    We have a chance now to prove it.

    It’s a big responsibility, so let’s get on with it.

  • Darren Jones – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Darren Jones – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 22 September 2024.

    Conference, I want to start by saying thank you.

    Thank you to Keir Starmer, our Leader, the seventh Labour Prime Minister of our country, for leading us to victory in an election so many thought was impossible for us to win.

    Thank you to you, our members, for all that you did to give this great party of ours the chance to serve once again.

    For giving me the chance to serve in the cabinet of a Labour government.

    Conference, for generations, my family worked at the Bristol docks.

    Ernie Bevin, that great trades union general secretary and Labour statesman, who started life organising workers in my constituency gave them power at work through collectivism.

    Bevin said to my forefathers: change begins.

    My grandparents grew up in the council flats that the Atlee Labour government built in the 1940s, the same council flats that I grew up in as a child. Homes that gave families like mine the security of a roof over our heads.

    Attlee said to my grandparents: change begins.

    And the Blair Labour government, with the National Minimum Wage and its mantra of education, education, education, lifted me and my family out of poverty.

    Blair said to my family: change begins.

    Each generation. A new Labour government giving power, housing, education, the National Health Service to the National Minimum Wage.

    Generational opportunities for working people like you and me.

    And now, with a new generation, and a new Labour government, Conference, we will deliver generational change for Britain once again.

    But conference, we should want more than that.

    More than a once in a generation chance to serve.

    I want our Labour Party to become the natural party of government.

    A title the Conservative Party claimed for years, but we can take it from them.

    We have the chance to prove that we are the changemakers. That our changed Labour Party can be trusted to govern.

    Not just for one or two terms, but three, four and five.

    That together, as a united Labour Party, we can deliver for Britain.

    Now, conference, I see my job as Chief Secretary to the Treasury – other than the Chancellor – as one of the hardest jobs in government.

    The person responsible for every pound and every penny.

    The person who wants to say yes, but often has to say no.

    The person who follows the money and asks: does it add up? How will it be paid for? Can we afford it? How do you know it will be spent well? How do we really fix this problem?

    But underneath these questions is a serious point.

    When the Conservatives crashed the economy, working people paid the price.

    When they left no money public services and ran away, working people paid the price.

    When the Tories lied to the public, we all paid the price.

    These problems that we are dealing with, they are not inevitable problems, they were problems created by the Conservative Party.

    So, conference, let us be clear: never again.

    Never again will we let the Conservatives wreck the economy.

    Never again will we go back to the chaos of the Conservative Party.

    Conference, never again should we let the Tories get their hands on the keys to Downing Street.

    But Conference, I have a secret to tell you about Downing Street.

    There is no magic wand behind those black doors. It’s just us, people making decisions with Labour values in our hearts.

    To fix the foundations and rebuild Britain requires difficult decisions every day.

    But these difficult decision give us the opportunity to invest in change.

    To deliver a more productive, future facing economy – delivering a better future for families across the country.

    A more modern, effective government to get Britain building again.

    High performing, personalised public services, not least to transform our National Health Service.

    A new Britain, fit for the 21st century.

    Conference, that’s why I’m so proud to be working with Britain’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, my friend and boss, the woman who’s going to put rocket boosters under the British economy: Rachel Reeves.

    With Wes Streeting, who will fix our broken NHS.

    With Bridget Philipson, who will give kids from backgrounds like hers and mine that precious thing: opportunity.

    With Ed Miliband who will be bold in tackling climate change, and Yvette Cooper will halve violence against women and girls.

    Why, with our mission leads and all of us around the cabinet table and in Parliament, we will prove once again that Labour governments deliver real change for Britain.

    Conference, progress is always founded on hope.

    Hope that better days lie ahead.

    Let us remember that this is our moment, because it is our Labour movement that gives people like you and me, families like mine and yours, that great opportunity to achieve more together than we do alone.

    Let us together take forward the power of our Labour movement.

    The power that won us this General Election, to win us the next election and the one after that.

    To power the change this country needs.

    Conference: change begins.

  • Angela Rayner – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Angela Rayner – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, on 22 September 2024.

    Thank you for that introduction Paul and thank you for what you and your members do to support people across this region.

    Conference, 12 months ago, I stood here and said I hoped never again to open conference as Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

    So, it an absolute great honour to stand here today as your Deputy Prime Minister and it is an honour to open the first Conference of a Labour Government.

    And Conference I want to start off with a thanks to the British people.

    You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it.

    You kept faith with us and we will keep faith with you.

    And let me thank all of you in this room too and my brilliant ministerial team. Every member, activist, councillor, community leader, trade unionist and I saw so many of you on my battle bus during the campaign.

    You have been our voices in our communities for the last 14 years. Voices that spoke up when the Tories’ told us to shut up.

    They thought our Party was history. But this year Conference we made history. Together.

    Not just a victory for our party but a victory of our values. A victory not of politicians but of people.

    We won because we had the courage to change our party. The discipline to make hard decisions and the determination to remain united.

    And now, change begins.

    Even now – especially now – there will be no complacency.

    We’ve seen where that leads.

    Don’t forget what they did: partygate, Covid contracts, the lies, division, scapegoating, and the unfunded tax cuts for the richest that crashed our economy. Don’t forget any of it.

    The Tories failed Britain and they tried to cover it up.

    A crater in the heart of Britain’s economy. A puncture in the pocket of every working family. And a £22 billion black hole.

    And not so much as an apology, let alone an acceptance, from the Tories.

    Instead, next week they will gather in the wreckage of their defeat. Reduced to 10-minute auditions for wannabee leaders, beating each other to different shades of blue. On a show that no-one is watching.

    Perhaps that’s why Kemi launched her leadership campaign with an attack on Doctor Who.

    It was bad enough when they wanted to deal with Farage. Now she’s doing sidedeals with the Daleks.

    But Conference, at least after three months as shadow housing secretary, she finally expressed concern about a tenant. It’s just a pity it was David Tennant.

    And Conference, It’s easy to forget they had five leadership candidates. Not exactly the famous five.

    They have left us to clear up their mess and I’m not just talking about the wallpaper in number ten.

    The Tories have left us facing tough choices. And even tougher ones face families across Britain, struggling to make ends meet.

    Look, I get it – balancing my own department’s budgets brought me back to the old days when I had 60 quid to get me and my son through the week.

    I know more than most that every pound counts.

    So let me be blunt. We can’t wish our problems away. We have to face them.

    That’s the difference between opposition and government.

    But Conference things can get better, if we make the right choices.

    Sustained economic growth is the only way to improve the lives of working people.

    And we are fixing the foundations to put Britain back on the path to growth.

    No more talking, but doing. 80 days in government and we’ve been busy.

    A devolution revolution. A bill to deliver new rights and protections for renters. Planning reform to get Britain building. A landmark review to fix our NHS. A child poverty taskforce. 100 new specialist officers to tackle criminals. An end to one-word Oftsted inspections. Ending the ban on onshore wind, and fines for bosses who pollute our waters.

    Bills to kickstart GB energy and prevent another Liz Truss disastrous mini budget, put buses back in local hands, and bring rail into public ownership.

    Conference, change has begun.

    And Conference many of you know, for me that means: good jobs, secure homes, and strong communities. Fixing the foundations of a good life.

    I know it only too well because they were the foundations on which I built a life for my own family.

    The foundations of what made Britain great – and will do so again.

    When I had my son as a single mum I wanted to work and had to figure out a way to do it.

    My Nana said that as long as I put him to bed she’d have him in the evening and that was after she finished working hard all day herself, so that I could work nights as a home help.

    I got the job. I loved it and loved the people I cared for, but it was tough at times.

    I started on casual terms, and I wasn’t paid for travel. Insecurity at work is the daily reality for so many.

    Far too many people across our country know the world of work isn’t working for them.

    Now, you may have heard me mention that I was a trade unionist.

    If you don’t know that, I should probably tell you that Keir’s dad was a toolmaker. And if you didn’t know Keir’s dad was a toolmaker, I probably need to tell you he’s the Prime Minister.

    But neither of us make any apology for where we came from or how we’ve ended up here.

    So when I took on this job, I promised the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation – nothing less than a New Deal for Working People.

    And I can confirm today that the Employment Rights Bill will be tabled in Parliament next month.

    They said we couldn’t do it. Some tried to stop it in its tracks.

    But after years of opposition we are on the verge of historic legislation.

    To make work more secure and more family friendly. Go further and faster to close the gender pay gap. Ensure rights are enforced and trade unions strengthened.

    That means repealing the Tories’ anti-worker laws and new rights for union reps too.

    A genuine living wage and sick pay for the lowest earners.

    Banning exploitative zero hour contracts and unpaid internships.

    Ending fire and rehire and we will bring in basic rights from day one on the job.

    Conference, this is our Plan to Make Work Pay – coming to a workplace near you.

    But 14 years of Tory chaos has not just left its mark on people’s jobs, but on homes too.

    Not enough are being built. The Tories failed to meet their targets year, after year, after year.

    Michael Gove handed back nearly £2 billion to the Treasury in unspent housing funds. Mortgages have soared. Leaseholders are left at the mercy of eye-watering charges. Renters face crippling rent hikes in damp and mouldy homes. Homelessness is all around us.

    The simple aspiration of a safe, secure and affordable home is further out of reach than ever and we can’t go on like this. So change must begin at home.

    We are tackling the Tories’ housing emergency.

    We will get Britain building and building decent homes for working people.

    A new planning framework will unlock the door to affordable homes and provide the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.

    And Conference, our renters’ bill will rebalance the relationship between tenant and landlord and end no fault evictions – for good.

    Our long-term plan will free leaseholders from the tyranny of a mediaeval system.

    And a cross-government taskforce will put Britain back on track to ending homelessness.

    Whether you’re a leaseholder, a tenant, a home-buyer or without somewhere to live – this government is on your side.

    But my mission is not just to build houses, it is to build homes.

    Because we cannot build at any cost. These new homes must be warm, secure and most importantly safe.

    We will give families the security they need to have the best start in life.

    I know first-hand the difference a decent home can make.

    When I was growing up we didn’t have a lot. But we had a safe and secure home. Today, not everyone does.

    Working with the Prime Minister on the Grenfell Inquiry was the most sobering moment of my career: 72 lives lost, 18 children, all avoidable. A fatal failure of market and state. A tragedy that must never happen again.

    It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of buildings still wrapped in unsafe cladding seven years after Grenfell.

    And that’s why we will bring forward a new remediation action plan this Autumn to speed up the process and we’ll pursue those responsible – without fear or favour.

    This must lead to new, safer social housing for the future.

    Under the Tories, new social housing plummeted.

    We will reverse that tide – with an ambition to be build more social homes than we lose, within the first financial year of this Labour Government.

    In my first weeks in office, I set out how we will start this council housing revolution.

    But Conference, with Government support must come more responsibility.

    This is why today I want to give you my promise that this Labour Government will take action to ensure all homes are decent and safe, and residents are treated with the respect they deserve.

    And Conference, of course, many Housing Associations, councils and landlords do good by their tenants and I know how hard they’ve had it after 14 years under the Tories.

    Which is why I will work in partnership with the sector to deliver the change.

    I will clamp down on damp and mouldy homes by bringing in Awaab’s Law in the social rented sector this autumn and we’ll extend it to the private rented sector too.

    We will consult and implement a new Decent Homes Standard for social and privately rented homes, to end the scandal of homes being unfit to live in.

    We will also ensure social housing staff have the right skills and experience. And I will ensure 2.5 million housing association tenants in this country can hold their landlord to account for their high quality services and homes. So that repairs and complaints are handled faster, but more importantly, so social housing tenants are treated fairly.

    I am under no illusion about the mountain we have to climb.

    We all saw that this summer: violent extremists preyed on our communities and local councils were left picking up the pieces.

    Local leadership is the foundation of strong communities.

    That’s why I have put local government back where it belongs, at the heart of my department’s name and mission.

    Because the best decisions are made by those with skin in the game.

    When I worked in care, me and the home-helps joined the union because we knew we had a part to play in improving things.

    We came together to work with management to deliver a service from 7am -10pm, seven days a week ,and provide flexibility for the predominantly female workforce.

    We proved we could boost productivity and provide an improved service to those we cared for as well as manage our own caring responsibilities outside of work.

    And Keir and I are determined to end this ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach and trust those with skin in the game.

    The last Labour government created the London Mayor, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

    We will seize this moment and finally complete that irreversible shift in opportunity, power and wealth across our whole country.

    It’s how we can deliver real, sustained change for every region and Labour mayors have already proven it.

    Buses under local control in Greater Manchester, £2 fares in West Yorkshire, Oxford Street regeneration in London, publicly-owned battery trains in Liverpool and opportunities for unemployed young people in the West Midlands.

    Labour mayors have shown what is possible when Labour is in power.

    And that’s why I am giving mayors more powers over house building and planning, as well as transport and skills.

    A new White Paper will map out how we will move power out of Whitehall.

    I am delighted to announce today that we will move forward with two Investment Zones – creating high quality jobs in advanced manufacturing in the West Midlands and life sciences in West Yorkshire.

    Just this week, I agreed eight devolution deals, all four corners of Yorkshire will now have a local champion.

    New Mayors for Hull & East Yorkshire and Greater Lincolnshire.

    Warwickshire, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, and Cornwall will get new powers over skills.

    And today I am proud to announce the next step in our devolution revolution.

    This government will change the future of the North of England, so Northerners will no longer be dictated to from Whitehall.

    Conference, we will be the government to complete devolution in the North.

    The change will be irreversible and I will get it done.

    As a proud Northerner this milestone is personal for me!

    And Conference, it was the foundation of a decent home, secure work and a strong community that nurtured me.

    The youth club on a Friday afternoon gave me somewhere to go, with a youth worker I could trust.

    A sure start centre is where I met other mums and learned how to look after my new baby.

    Conference, a community raised me. None of those people cast me aside or gave up on me.

    And when I became a home help, suddenly it was my job to look after the people who had once looked after me – retired professors, teachers, nurses, police officers. They needed my care in the last years and days of their life. Care that they deserved. Care that it was my honour to provide.

    I find myself once again with the opportunity to serve those people who never gave up on me.

    On 4 July, the people entrusted us with the task of change. And Hope won.

    Now is our moment, not just to say but to do.

    Labour Governments of the past took on this same challenge, at a time when Britain desperately needed change.

    They delivered a better Britain when the odds were stacked against them.

    And that is exactly what this Labour government must deliver once again.

    So Conference, let’s get on with it. Thank you.

  • David Lammy – 2024 Kew Lecture on Climate Change

    David Lammy – 2024 Kew Lecture on Climate Change

    The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, at Kew Gardens in London on 17 September 2024.

    Thank you Kew Gardens, for hosting my first set piece speech as Foreign Secretary.

    Just after hosting the Colombian President of this year’s Nature COP in Cali this morning.

    Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have dominated my time in office so far. But I was very clear in Opposition that, in this job, I would focus on the most profound and universal source of global disorder – the climate and nature emergency.

    Over my political career, it has become clearer to me how this crisis defines our time. As a young backbencher, I admired Robin Cook making climate a geopolitical issue for the first time – he was a pioneer, ahead of his time.

    Four years ago, I spoke about the essential link between climate justice and racial justice. And as Shadow Foreign Secretary, I set out how our response to this crisis both can create unparalleled economic opportunities and is the central geopolitical challenge of our age.

    Time and again, it is the most vulnerable who bear the brunt of this crisis. From Ella Kissi-Debrah – a nine-year-old Londoner killed, in part, by unlawful levels of air pollution near her home, to communities in the Caribbean, whose leaders tell me they feel neglected, as they struggle with stronger, more frequent tropical storms caused by a crisis not of their making.

    So our goal is progressive – a liveable planet for all, now and in the future.

    But we need a hard-headed, realist approach towards using all levers at our disposal, from the diplomatic to the financial.

    And I say to you now: these are not contradictions. Because nothing could be more central to the UK’s national interest than delivering global progress on arresting rising temperatures.

    My argument to you today, is that demands for action from the world’s most vulnerable and the requirements for delivering security for British citizens, are fundamentally aligned. And this is because this crisis is not some discrete policy area, divorced from geopolitics and insecurity.

    The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. It’s pervasive. And accelerating towards us at pace.

    Look around the world. Countries are scrambling to secure critical minerals, just as great powers once raced to control oil – we cannot let this become a source of conflict.

    In the Arctic and Antarctic, global warming is driving geopolitical competition over the resources lying beneath the ice. And in the Amazon, there have been the worst droughts ever recorded, partly as a result of deforestation. In the Caribbean, I saw on day one in this job the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl – the earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record. And in places like the Sahel, South Sudan and Syria, rising temperatures are making water and productive land even scarcer.

    These are not random events delivered from the heavens. They are failures of politics, of regulation, and of international cooperation. These failures pour fuel onto existing conflicts and regional rivalries, driving extremism, displacing communities and increasing humanitarian need. And it would be a further failure of imagination to hope that they will stay far from our shores. That we can keep them away.

    Let’s take migration. We are already seeing that climate change is uprooting communities across the world. And by 2050, the World Bank’s worst-case estimate is that climate change could drive 200 million people to leave their homes.

    Or we could take health. The World Health Organisation says climate change is now the biggest threat to human health.

    We saw in the pandemic how quickly an infectious disease could spread from animals to humans, and then from a city the other side of the world to here in Britain. This becomes only more likely as the climate and nature crisis grows. And this crisis threatens the things we take most for granted, from the food that we eat to the air that we breathe.

    But despite all of this, there remains a tendency for climate and nature policy to end up siloed. Too often, it has felt the preserve of experts and campaigners. Fluent in the sometimes impenetrable dialect of COPs. But distant from others working on foreign policy and on national security. And that has to change.

    Don’t get me wrong – we absolutely need campaigners like those in this room, or experts like those working here at Kew. And I am grateful to them all.

    But today, I am committing to you that while I am Foreign Secretary, action on the climate and nature crisis will be central to all that the Foreign Office does.

    This is critical given the scale of the threat, but also the scale of the opportunity. The chance to achieve clean and secure energy, lower bills and drive growth for the UK, and to preserve the natural world around us, on which all prosperity ultimately depends.

    The truth is that in the last few years, something went badly wrong in our national debate on climate change and net zero. I take no pleasure in saying that.

    That’s why the Prime Minister is resetting Britain’s approach to climate and nature, putting it at the centre of our cross Government missions, approaching 100 days in office and we can already see the difference which this has made.

    We have seen with the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, the Green Deal, in the European Union, and the accelerating transition in China, foreign policy, economic and industrial policy becoming increasingly intertwined.

    That is why the Prime Minister is resetting Britain’s approach to climate and nature, putting it at the centre of our cross-Government missions.

    Approaching 100 days in office now, you can already see the difference this has made. Lifting the de facto ban on onshore wind in England. Pledging to end new oil and gas licenses while guaranteeing a fair transition in the North Sea. Switching on Great British Energy to crowd investment into clean power projects. Launching a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan, for completion before the end of this year, so that we can clean our rivers, plant millions more trees, improve our air quality and halt the decline in species. And with over 90% of the UK’s biodiversity within our Overseas Territories, looking to expand the Blue Belt programme to increase marine protection.

    This domestic programme is not just essential to our economy, but to restoring our international credibility. We are bringing an end to our climate diplomacy of being “Do as I say, not as I do”. But this domestic ambition on its own is not enough.

    That’s why this issue has been on the agenda for nearly every meeting that I’ve had with another Minister in my early weeks, from our closest friends in the G7, to the world’s biggest emitter but largest renewables producer in China, to India, and to members of ASEAN, with whom I announced a new joint Green Transition Fund in the first few weeks in office.

    With Ed Miliband and Steve Reed leading COP negotiations on climate and nature, we have a pair of experienced, determined negotiators. And with Anneliese Dodds as Minister for Development, we will be a united Government team, all drawing on the FCDO’s diplomatic and development heft to push for the ambition needed to keep 1.5 degrees alive.

    To drive forward this cross-Government reset even further, I am announcing today that we will appoint new UK Special Representatives for Climate Change and Nature. These will support me, together with Ed Miliband and Steve Reed respectively, as we reboot internationally, showing that whether you are from the Global North or the Global South, we want to forge genuine partnerships, to tackle this crisis together.

    And I want this diplomatic effort focused particularly on three priorities.

    First, we will build a Global Clean Power Alliance.

    This Government has set a landmark goal – to be the first major economy to deliver clean power by 2030. We will leverage that ambition to build an Alliance committed to accelerating the clean energy transition. And today we are firing the starting gun on forming this new coalition.

    The International Energy Agency forecasts consumption not just of oil, but of all fossil fuels, will peak this decade. We are rapidly discovering new, more efficient ways to reduce emissions. Global investment in clean energy is now almost double the investment in fossil fuels.

    But while some countries are moving ahead in this transition, many are getting left behind.

    Without clean power, it will be impossible to decarbonise vast sectors of the economy, such as transport. We therefore need to accelerate the rollout of renewables across the globe in a way that this Government is doing at home.

    Now, of course there are different obstacles for different countries. But despite several other valuable initiatives pushing forward the energy transition, there is no equivalent grouping of countries at the vanguard of the transition, reaching across the Global North and the Global South together, dedicated to overcoming these barriers.

    So the Alliance needs to focus on scaling up global investment. Emerging market and developing economies outside China account for just fifteen per cent of global clean energy investment. The cost of capital in the Global South is often triple that in the Global North. And almost 700 million people have no access to electricity at all.

    We must unlock global finance on a far, far, larger scale, so we can back ambitious plans from those moving away from fossil fuels – as Anneliese Dodds has just been doing in Jakarta, discussing Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership, and close the clean power gap by helping more countries to leapfrog fossil fuels to renewable power systems.

    The Alliance should also focus on diversifying the production and supply of critical minerals. Copper and cobalt. Lithium and nickel. The lifeblood of the new economy. We need to bring these commodities to market faster. While avoiding the mistakes of the past, by helping developing countries to secure the economic benefits while promoting the highest environmental standards for mineral extraction.

    The Alliance could inject impetus into expanding grids and storage as well. The IEA assesses that the world needs to add or refurbish the equivalent of the entire existing grid by 2040.

    And we are working on a global energy storage pledge at COP29. We have to plug the gaps in meeting these targets.

    Finally, the Alliance can increase deployment of innovative clean energy. There is huge demand for affordable clean technologies from green hydrogen to sustainable cooking and cooling. And we have got to progress commercialisation of the tech with the greatest potential.

    And we will take a phased and inclusive approach to building the Alliance, listening to those leading the way on clean power and those who share our ambitions.

    But the shared goal is clear – making Net Zero Power a reality, everywhere.

    Second, we must unlock much, much more climate and nature finance. This is critical to my progressive realist approach to the crisis.

    Tackling this crisis requires global consensus – that is the principle at the heart of the COP process. And we can only reach a consensus by heeding others’ concerns as well as our own. As I know all too well, countries of the Global South suffered great injustices in the past.

    But I have heard repeatedly our partners’ frustrations at the unfairness of the global system today – particularly how difficult it is for them to get international climate finance.

    As my good friend Mia Mottley argues so powerfully, the problem is systemic.

    For example, Africa is on the climate frontline. Natural disasters alone have affected 400 million Africans this century. Yet Africa receives just over three per cent of climate finance flows. And debt servicing alone averages ten per cent of Africa’s GDP.

    Change is critical. There is no pathway to countries’ development aspirations without climate resilience, action on the nature crisis and access to clean energy, and no pathway to a sustainable future without development that leaves no one behind.

    The agreement on loss and damage at the last COP was an inspiring example of what the world can achieve by working together. That was the same spirit in which developed countries committed in 2009 to 100 billion dollars a year in international climate finance.

    Ahead of the Spending Review, we are carefully reviewing our plans to do so. And at the same time, we are pushing for an ambitious new climate finance goal focused on developing countries at COP29 in November.

    Because that is the right thing to do. But, especially in times of fiscal constraint, we need to become more creative in unlocking private sector flows for the green transition, and especially adaptation, across the Global South.

    London is the leading green global financial centre. And I have been delighted to learn how UK experts have been developing more effective financing models. For example, Britain helped establish the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility back in 2007, the first such fund that pays out after a specific trigger such as earthquakes or tropical cyclones.

    And after Hurricane Beryl, it once again proved its worth, paying out over 76 million dollars as the region began to rebuild.

    I am determined to restore Britain’s reputation for commitment and innovation in the world of development finance. This starts with the multilateral development banks.

    And that’s why, subject to reforms, we support a capital increase for the IBRD, the world’s largest development bank and a key source of climate finance.

    And that’s why next month I will lay before Parliament a UK guarantee for the Asian Development Bank, which will unlock over 1.2 billion dollars in climate finance from the Bank for developing countries in the region.

    But impact is not simply a question of more creativity. To tackle systemic problems, we also need to reform the system itself.

    So, for example, we are co-chairing with the Dominican Republic the Green Climate Fund this year and driving forward reforms to speed up developing countries’ access to it.

    But I have also heard our partners calling for international tax rules to work better for developing countries, for unsustainable debt to be tackled more rapidly, and for obstacles that inhibit the flow of private capital to be addressed.

    My ambition here is clear: for the UK to lead the G7 debate on international institutional reform.

    Third, we must not just halt, but reverse the decline in global biodiversity.

    Sometimes we become numb to the scale of the nature crisis. One million species facing extinction, including one third of both marine mammals and coral reefs. And wildlife populations fallen by 69 per cent since 1970, mostly due to a staggering 83 per cent collapse in freshwater species.

    Biodiversity loss is as much of a threat as changes to our climate. And with nature loss undermining progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, action on nature is also pivotal to genuine partnerships with the Global South.

    We need to bolster the global effort to protect at least thirty per cent of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030. So we are completely committed to ratifying the High Seas Treaty, and to securing agreement on a Plastics Treaty. And here I pay tribute to a predecessor Zac Goldsmith.

    And I have been looking hard at the successes of our development programmes on nature. One programme has mobilised well over a billion pounds to protect and restore forests across nearly 9 million hectares of land. And in the future we plan to expand this programme in the Congo Basin rainforest, the second largest on the planet.

    Some of our funding has also been used for incredible research. Few would believe that, thanks to the FCDO, a South African business is trialling new biodegradable nets that, if lost, leave no toxins or micro-plastics behind. I want many many more examples like this.

    The FCDO spends around five per cent of its development budget on research. And I am announcing today that we are starting to develop a new programme of research into nature and water specifically with over one hundred researchers and officials having just met in Kenya to begin this agenda.

    I am also looking at how we deliver our development programmes on the ground.

    Indigenous communities particularly are important in this regard – like the incredible female sustainable business owners I met in the Amazon last year – are nature’s best custodians.

    Nature has been declining 30 per cent less, and 30 per cent more slowly, in indigenous lands than in the world as a whole. Evidence shows that putting local communities at the centre of decision-making leads to better outcomes for the natural world.

    This is the model of development that I believe in. The modernised approach to development this Government will be implementing. The spirit of partnership, not paternalism, in action.

    For me this is deeply personal. Far from here, in Guyana’s rainforests, lies Sophia PointI established this small conservation centre five years ago, with my wife, in one of the last unspoilt biodiversity hotspots in the world.

    And it was fascinating last week to discuss it with Sir David Attenborough last week and hear his reminiscences of visiting those same rainforests as a young man.

    I told Sir David that his first book, Zoo Quest to Guiana, came out 1956, the year my father emigrated to Britain.

    In fact my Father used to bring me to Kew Gardens. I mean, I look back, he’s now not alive so I can’t ask him, but I now realise he brought me here to somehow be in touch with Guyana and those rainforests.

    And we discussed how Sir David’s work and that of Sophia Point is rooted in a concept common to the indigenous people of that part of South America and many farmers and others in Britain and around the globe.

    Stewardship of the natural world.

    That we have both an interest and a responsibility to maintain a liveable planet for ourselves and future generations.

    That is our goal. Ultimately, there will be no global stability, without climate stability.

    And there will be no climate stability, without a more equal partnership between the Global North and the Global South.

    For Britain to play its part, we must reset here at home, and reconnect abroad. That is what this Government will deliver. So that, together, we can build a better future for all.

  • Ed Miliband – 2024 Speech at the Energy UK Conference

    Ed Miliband – 2024 Speech at the Energy UK Conference

    The speech made by Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, at One Great George Street, London on 17 September 2024.

    Thank you, Emma [Pinchbeck] for that incredibly kind introduction and for your thought leadership and public advocacy.

    And thank you to Energy UK for hosting this important conference.

    I wanted first to thank all of the companies gathered here for the work you do for our country.

    [political content removed] it is an absolute privilege for me to have the chance to work with you in government.

    Now unusually for a cabinet minister, as you know, I’m in a job I’ve done before.

    It’s a rare privilege to go back to a job you first did 16 years ago and seek to learn from experience and maybe even do it better.

    I would recommend it if you’re thinking about it.

    The more serious reason for mentioning my previous role is back in 2008, a few months into my role, I gave a speech about the strategic framework that would underpin our approach. That’s what I want to do again today 16 years on, including specifically by reflecting on what has changed since then to learn lessons for the future.

    In my experience, this strategic framework really matters for government because it sets out the direction of travel providing a clear routemap for business and a plan for the country.

    First, this is my argument today, back in 2008, debates were shaped by the energy trilemma – the trade-offs between affordability, security and sustainability.

    The trilemma helped promote the idea that while fossil fuels might not offer sustainability, they did offer security and affordability to the country.

    Our mission today is shaped by the reality that, for Britain, this old paradigm has disintegrated.

    The experience of the last 2 and a half years has shown us that fossil fuels simply cannot provide us with the security, or indeed the affordability, we need – quite the opposite.

    Second part of my case is that the trilemma has been replaced by a clean energy imperative: the drive to clean energy is right not just on grounds of climate, which we all knew back then, but also energy security and affordability.

    As the Climate Change Committee puts it very well, “British-based renewable energy is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce vulnerability to volatile global fossil fuel markets.”

    The lesson for this government is that we must build a new era of greater energy independence on the foundation of clean energy.

    Third part of my remarks is about proceeding from that is strategic framework as a government, the context is that, compared to 2008, it is much clearer how enormous the challenge of the energy transition is, but it’s also clearer the opportunities that there are for job creation and growth.

    So I will come, at the end, to reflect on our approach for the government to the task ahead and how we can work with business to meet it.

    First part of my remarks is with what Britain has been through in the last 2 and a half years:

    The worst cost of living crisis in a generation, driven by the unprecedented energy shock that followed Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    It has been a disaster for business, family finances, the economy and the public finances – and it still casts a long shadow.

    Typical energy bills nearly doubled in the space of a year.

    Millions struggled with fuel poverty and many still face enormous debts.

    Inflation soared and growth sputtered.

    And the government was forced to spend the eye watering sum of £94 billion to support households with the cost of living, almost as much as our defence budget over the entire period.

    And the crisis isn’t over.

    Bills will rise again next month due to the latest gyrations of global gas prices.

    Now it’s our view as a government that no country should experience a crisis of the scale, the one we have been through, with such devastating effects, and simply carry on as it did before.

    We must learn the lessons.

    And the central lesson of the crisis for Britain is that we paid a heavy price because of our exposure to fossil fuels.

    Yes Britain has made progress on the rollout of renewables, but we still depend on gas to generate more than a third of our electricity and to heat more than four out of five of our homes.

    The decline of North Sea production since the 2000s now means more than half of that gas comes from abroad.

    But what matters even more, and this is the critical point, is that whether the gas comes from the North Sea or is imported, it is sold at the same price on the international market.

    Britain is a price-taker not a price-maker.

    So every therm of gas we bought, wherever it came from, shot up in price in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    This is the fundamental point not understood in policy debates.

    And so as long as we are dependent on fossil fuels, no matter where they come from, we will be stuck on the rollercoaster of volatile international markets.

    We simply won’t have control over our energy bills and any politician that pretends we will is trying to fool you, because these markets are in the grip of dictators and petrostates.

    What’s more, we know that from Russia’s war in Ukraine to conflict in the Middle East, we live in an age of heightened geopolitical risk.

    So Britain remains exposed to another surge in prices and indeed the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned about this and the potential cost to billpayers and taxpayers.

    Dependence on fossil fuels leaves us deeply vulnerable as a country.

    The government’s view is we cannot go on like this.

    The second part of my case is that in place of the trilemma, there is now a clean energy imperative: the answers to security, and affordability, as well as sustainability, all now point in the direction of investing in clean energy at speed and scale.

    The sustainability case is clear because we know it is the use of fossil fuels that is driving the climate crisis.

    But the security case too is stark—and I think has been too often underplayed.

    It has been put well by my Irish counterpart Eamon Ryan who I met last week, who rightly says: “No one has ever weaponised access to the sun or the wind.”

    Homegrown clean energy from renewables and nuclear offers us a security that fossil fuels simply cannot provide.

    The energy is produced here, consumed here and is not subject to the same volatility of international markets.

    And it is on affordability that the most transformative development of recent years has taken place: the dramatic drop in the price of renewables.

    This is a genuinely transformative change since I was Energy Secretary in the 2000s. Since 2015 alone, despite recent global cost pressures, the price of both onshore wind and solar has still fallen by more than a third.

    The price of offshore wind has halved.

    And the price of batteries has fallen by more than two-thirds.

    This means, on the basis of the prices in our recent auction, renewables are the cheapest form of power to build and operate. I could not have said that back in 2008.

    And the price of fixed offshore wind in the auction was around 5 to 7 times lower than the price of electricity, driven by the price of gas, at the peak of the energy crisis.

    Cheap, clean renewables offer us price stability that fossil fuels simply cannot provide.

    That means that if we are serious about energy security, family security, economic security and national security, we need the greater energy independence that only clean energy can give us.

    Of course, there will be a transition that will take time, and oil and gas, including from the North Sea, will continue to play an important role in our economy for decades to come.

    This is the crucial point, what our whole mandate is about for clean power by 2030…

    But the lesson I draw is that the faster we go, the more secure we become.

    Every wind turbine we put up, every solar panel we install, every piece of grid we construct helps protect families from future energy shocks.

    This is an argument that we need to have as a country – what Emma said is right – because the converse is also true.

    Every wind turbine we block, every solar farm we reject, every piece of grid we fail to build makes us less secure and more exposed.

    Previous governments have ducked and dithered and delayed these difficult decisions, and here is the thing: it is the poorest in our society who have paid the price.

    My message today is we will take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists, because the clean energy sprint is the economic justice, energy security and national security fight of our time.

    And that’s why, and I couldn’t have said this in 2008, one of the Prime Minister’s 5 driving missions is to make Britain a clean energy superpower:

    Delivering clean power by 2030. And accelerating to net zero across the economy.

    Driving to homegrown clean energy not just in the power sector but when it comes to how we heat our homes, fuel our transport and power our industry.

    And I just want to say to this audience – it’s really important that the mission driven government approach means that this is a whole of government mission, led from the top by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor and indeed championed by the Foreign Secretary, who is giving a speech later on today about his commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

    This then is the strategic paradigm for policy under this government.

    The good news is that the clean energy imperative that I described, in particular the fall in the costs of renewables, has accelerated how quickly we can make the transition compared to what we imagined back in 2008.

    It is important to say this: the world has consistently outperformed projections for the global deployment of renewables, an illustration of our ability – time and time again – to do more than we think is possible, mission impossible.

    But it’s also true to say that much else that we have learnt since then suggests the challenge is greater.

    Of course, we knew in 2008 that we faced the task of transforming our economy more profoundly than at any time in more than 200 years.

    But the task is now more urgent, and the stakes higher.

    Climate change is no longer a future threat but a present-day reality.

    And the world is way off track from where we need to be to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.

    Indeed the prospects are truly frightening.

    And for Britain of course, in 2008 we were aiming for an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050. That was one of the changes that I made when I became Secretary of State.

    Since 2019, it’s been net zero.

    At the same time it’s clearer the challenges are greater, so the opportunities are more clearly greater too.

    This is a chance to create hundreds of thousands of good jobs and drive investment into all parts of the UK.

    That is why our clean energy mission is at the heart of our growth mission.

    And we have huge strengths to draw on.

    Our status as an island nation, with our unrivalled potential for offshore wind.

    The unique geology of the North Sea, which has capacity to store 200 years of our carbon emissions.

    The rooftops of our great towns, villages and cities to harness the sun.

    Britain’s considerable nuclear expertise and our skilled workforce who have a huge role to play in powering our clean energy future, with a new generation of nuclear, such as Sizewell C and SMRs.

    And significant opportunities in hydrogen, tidal and other technologies.

    These are exciting possibilities.

    With Britain’s dynamic businesses, world-leading universities, and our skilled scientists, technicians and engineers.

    I genuinely say we should be incredibly optimistic about what we can do together for our country.

    This is much more at the centre of our economic strategy than it was then.

    We need to face facts, however.

    Britain is not on course to meet the challenges or maximise the opportunities.

    The Climate Change Committee progress report published 2 weeks after we came to office said we were way off track to meet our 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution: with just one-third of the emissions reductions required backed by credible plans.

    And I’m afraid, this is something we need to work on together, Britain has underdelivered on promises of clean energy jobs.

    Germany has almost twice as many renewable jobs per capita as Britain.

    Sweden almost 3 times as many.

    Denmark almost 4 times as many.

    As other countries race ahead to lead in the industries of the future, Britain must not be left behind.

    This government was elected to both rise to the challenges more effectively and seize the opportunities more effectively too.

    And that’s what I want to focus on in the last part of my remarks.

    And I want to say something about how the role of government can contribute: as architect of the clean energy system, as the driver of the dynamism and as the guarantor of fairness in the transition.

    First, on government as architect, 5 days into my job, I appointed Chris Stark, formerly of the Climate Change Committee, to head up 2030 Mission Control in my department.

    Mission Control is about a new way of working, bringing together the relevant players across government and industry to plan and deliver.

    The task I have given Chris is to set out a plan for 2030 clean power, at least cost to billpayers and taxpayers, maximising the economic opportunities for Britain.

    I genuinely believe the absence of a plan is one of the reasons for our inheritance and why our country has been left so exposed.

    Of course, the energy transition is fraught with uncertainty but unless there is a line of sight for businesses and investors, you just won’t have the confidence to invest the hundreds of billions that Emma talked about in her speech.

    So as a first step, Chris and I have asked the Electricity System Operator, the NESO, to provide advice on the pathway to 2030 clean power, including where infrastructure should be sited, to maximise speed and minimise costs.

    Their expert advice will inform our 2030 plan.

    Second, having a plan is merely the first step because the next test is whether you are willing to make the decisions to meet it.

    For too long, investment in clean energy has been held back by inertia across the board: on planning, grid, supply chains and skills—and because of the failures of government.

    I guess I should say here, to some businesses in the room, on the basis of past experience, the state as driver of dynamism might sound like an oxymoron.

    You might indeed laugh.

    We intend to try and shatter your disillusion.

    In 2 months or so, we’ve already lifted the onshore wind ban.

    Consented nearly 2GW of nationally significant solar.

    And delivered the most successful renewables auction in British history.

    I want to give you another concrete example of mission-driven government in action. I want you to think of your frustrations.

    For 15 years, offshore wind has been plagued by a long-running dispute over defence radar.

    A week before the AR6 auction, I was warned that unless we resolved the funding of this radar it could drive up auction prices, leading to higher costs for consumers.

    Working with the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence we resolved the auction issue and reassured developers.

    That was mission drive government in action. That was us armed with the Prime Minister’s commitment and mission to work with the rest of government.

    We won’t always get it right but this a sign of how we intend to proceed.

    This is a government in a hurry to deliver our mandate from the British people.

    Third, if the transition is to succeed, government must act as a guarantor of fairness.

    As somebody who believes this country suffers from deep injustice, I am determined that we do not go from an unequal, unfair, high carbon Britain to an unequal, unfair clean energy Britain.

    We must, in this transition, tackle fuel poverty, create good jobs, clean up our air, improve access to nature and quality of life.

    And I passionately believe we can.

    Our Warm Homes Plan will fund energy efficiency and clean heating to upgrade homes and cut fuel poverty.

    Great British Energy’s Local Power Plan will deliver the biggest expansion of support for community-owned energy in British history and ensure benefits flow directly to local communities, part of our commitment that where communities host clean energy infrastructure, they should benefit from it.

    We will also stand up for billpayers by reforming Ofgem to make it a strong consumer champion.

    And this winter we are committed to working with suppliers, and across government to help those who are vulnerable.

    And this role for government, in guaranteeing fairness, applies as much to workers.

    I know from my own constituency, a former mining community, that for decades the demand for good jobs has not sufficiently been met.

    We have the greatest opportunity in a generation to meet this demand and I am determined we will.

    Great British Energy will work with business to invest in frontier technologies to help us lead as a country.

    Our National Wealth Fund will strengthen our supply chains.

    The British Jobs Bonus will help reward those who invest in our industrial heartlands and coastal communities.

    And we are determined to ensure a fair transition for every industry, including our North Sea communities.

    Our North Sea workers have huge talents which can continue to serve us in oil and gas as well as industries like CCUS, renewables and hydrogen.

    And we need your help to undertake this transition in the right way.

    Understanding your responsibility to build the supply chains for new industries in Britain because we do care where things are made.

    Embracing the voice of workers and a role for trade unions as fossil fuel industries have traditionally done.

    And acting together with us to ensure no worker, no community is left behind.

    People will judge us on whether this transition delivers fairness, and rightly so.

    To sum up our approach working with you: government as architect, driver of dynamism and guarantor of fairness, working in the closest partnership with business to make this transition a success.

    Let me end my remarks where I began.

    It’s an absolutely enormous privilege to be working with business and indeed civil society on the most important challenges facing our country and our world.

    I confess I am at one and the same time energised by the task and also conscious of the deep responsibility it carries.

    We know the stakes of action versus inaction.

    We know we can only deliver energy security, lower bills and good jobs for today’s generations if we become a clean energy superpower.

    And we can only deliver climate security for future generations, including Emma’s daughter, by showing global climate leadership, built on the power of our example. That is the summary of what this government is setting about doing.

    And when the Prime Minister talks about mission-driven government, this is what he means.

    The people in this room are what he means.

    Working together with government for:

    Energy independence.

    Lower bills.

    Good jobs.

    And a healthy environment we can pass on to future generations.

    I have absolute faith that together we can do great things for our country and our world.

    I am still in politics because of how much I care about this fight.

    And I look forward to working with you all in the months and years ahead.

  • Keir Starmer – 2024 Speech at the Holocaust Educational Trust

    Keir Starmer – 2024 Speech at the Holocaust Educational Trust

    The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 16 September 2024.

    Ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, Chief Rabbi…

    It’s an honour to be here with you this evening.

    It is important to be with you this evening.

    Thank you, Craig for that kind introduction.

    And of course a huge thank you…

    On behalf of everyone here tonight…

    To Karen Pollock…

    And all the team at the Holocaust Educational Trust.

    For over 35 years,

    This world-leading charity…

    Has been supporting hundreds of survivors…

    Training thousands of teachers…

    And educating tens of thousands of our young people.

    And you do it with an energy and an urgency…

    That is both inspiring…

    And sadly, needed now more than ever.

    And I have met some of the ambassadors you have seen yourselves, so many inspiring people in the room with us this evening. Brimming with a determination to ensure the stories are told again and again, taking on the mantle themselves.

    And earlier this year at one of your events…

    I met Manfred Goldberg…

    Reliving the sheer horror of his experience…

    …including losing his brother Herman.

    I can barely imagine the courage it takes. To tell that story not once, but over and over again because it is necessary because it is hard, so so hard, and so important…

    But like so many survivors…

    He does it for one reason: So we might learn and never forget.

    And when I was speaking to Janine earlier this evening. It reminded me – of listening to a survivor in Camden, when I was in secondary school – where I live – a school we know very well – a boys secondary school and a survivors was speaking an at assembly – boys came in 11-18  noisy boisterous , hard to calm down, sitting down they didn’t know what they were about to hear.

    And they started speaking.

    Nobody said to the boys shh.

    They just fell silent, totally silent and still and I witnessed it myself – this whole group of boys who had been rowdy minutes before totally silent. Totally absorbed completely listening to what they were being told.

    Manfred that is the power of what you are doing, that is why it is so important. Every boy I sat with at that school took it in and what was being said and I will never ever forget it.

    And before I go on…I know Manfred and Janine are here.

    In fact, all survivors that are with us tonight…

    As Prime Minister, speaking for the whole country, I just want to say an enormous and heartfelt thank you for what you do.

    I am really proud there are so many of my cabinet here with me this evening. That is really important, I am even prouder that so many of my political rivals are here with us this evening, standing together, cross party, standing united on this important work. Thank you to all of those politicians that have come this evening.

    I want you to know…

    We have heard you.

    We feel very deeply…

    …the responsibility of defending the truth of history.

    And we hear your message about the present and the future too.

    Because as Manfred has said so powerfully –

    He never thought he’d see this antisemitism again.

    Just last week…

    …I sat with Ayelet Svatitzky…

    One of her brothers was murdered on October 7th.

    Her mother who is 79 and another brother, Nadav, were taken captive.

    Her mother was eventually released…

    But Nadav died in captivity.

    She described in heartbreaking detail…

    The utter devastation she felt.

    Her whole life stopped. Her family shattered. Talking, sometimes not talking, because I was hard for each of us to know what to say.

    I want you to know as Prime Minister, I will do everything possible…

    To help bring those remaining hostages home.

    But we’ve also got to fight this underlying hate…

    This resurgence of antisemitism.

    You know, every year we say never again.

    Yet on October 7th…

    Over a thousand people were massacred by Hamas…

    For the very same reason: because they were Jewish.

    We say never again…

    And yet in the last year…

    We’ve seen record levels of antisemitism…

    Right here in Britain…

    Hatred marching on our streets.

    The pulse of fear beating in this community.

    Children afraid to wear their school uniforms…

    Students targeted on university campuses…

    All again, because they are Jewish.

    We say never again…

    And yet right now online

    Our children are swamped with misinformation…

    Disinformation…

    As Karen touched on…

    Holocaust denial…

    Conspiracy theories…

    Contorted versions of history.

    Pure hatred and prejudice.

    So I say tonight: we will not shy away from this.

    We will not be silent…

    We will not look the other way…

    We will call out Antisemitism for what it is:

    …Hatred pure and simple.

    And we will fight this with everything that we have got.

    Just as I fought to bring my party back from the abyss of antisemitism, I promise you I will do the same in leading the country.

    .So yes, we will build that national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre

    And build it next to Parliament.

    Boldly, Proudly, Unapologetically.

    Not as a Jewish community initiative….

    But as a national initiative.

    A national statement of the truth of the Holocaust…

    And its place in our national consciousness.

    And a permanent reminder of where hatred and prejudice can lead.

    And yes, we will proudly support this remarkable charity…

    The Holocaust Educational Trust.

    You know, it was Gordon Brown…

    Who pioneered government funding of your world-leading programme…

    Lessons from Auschwitz.

    And over the last twenty years…

    Tens of thousands of students have had that life-changing opportunity…

    To visit Auschwitz in person – and to share their experience with their peers.

    The shoes, The hair, the suitcases, the train tracks, the gas chamber…

    … utterly, utterly horrific.

    But it’s a truth we have remember.

    I know there is there is nothing quite as powerful as seeing it for yourself.

    My wife Vic has been, I must go.

    So I will join the Holocaust Educational Trust…

    …for one of these visits.

    This government will continue funding Lessons from Auschwitz…

    And I can confirm that tonight we are providing at least

    £2.2 million next year to do that.

    But look, we cannot stop there.

    It’s too important.

    This was the first year that participation in Holocaust memorial day fell.

    We can’t sit back and accept that.

    We’ve got to be bolder and more defiant…

    …about the national importance of Holocaust education.

    As you will all know, the Holocaust is on the curriculum at Key Stage 3.

    And there is currently a review of our national curriculum.

    But tonight I am making two decisions in advance of that review.

    First, the Holocaust will remain on the curriculum come what may.

    And second, even schools who do not currently have to follow the national curriculum…

    Will have to teach the Holocaust when the new curriculum comes in.

    For the first time, studying the Holocaust….

    …will become a critical, vital part of every single student’s identity.

    And not just studying it…learning from it too.

    And above all, acting on its lessons.

    Because this is not just about rules and requirements.

    It’s also about the quality of that teaching.

    The support that schools and teachers have.

    And that’s where charities like this Trust come in.

    Tonight, you’re showcasing Testimony 360…we saw a glimpse a moment ago.

    It’s an incredible programme.

    If you’ve not done so, I urge you to see it.

    It uses advanced technologies to allow students…

    Not just to hear Manfred’s testimony…

    But to ask him questions.

    To interact with him.

    Now of course, it will never quite be the same…

    …as meeting a survivor in person.

    But what a way to preserve survivor testimony.

    And what a way to engage young people at such a critical moment.

    And I think this captures the essence…

    …of what we need to do right now.

    To extend the reach of Holocaust education…

    And to share the message of survivors like Manfred across the generations.

    So tonight, I want to set up a new national ambition…

    That as part of their education,

    Every student in the country should have the opportunity…

    To hear a recorded survivor testimony.

    And I want us to fulfil this ambition, in this precious period…

    While we have survivors and still able to help us get this right.

    As you all know, in the coming months…

    We’ll mark the 80th anniversaries…

    Of the liberation of Auschwitz in January…

    …and the British liberation of Bergen Belsen in April.

    And in August, the 80th anniversary of the arrival of 300 orphan survivors…

    Who were rehabilitated in Windermere…

    And went on to make extraordinary contributions to our country.

    As we mark each one….

    Let’s be even bolder and more ambitious than ever before…

    In sharing their message….

    And fighting this antisemitism, and all forms of hatred in our society.

    So together we can ensure that the message of Britain’s Holocaust survivors…

    Will echo eternally across the generations…

    And that the Holocaust is never forgotten, and never again repeated.

    And finally, one more thing…

    I know that we’re now approaching the Jewish New Year…

    So to each and every one of you…

    May I say…

    Shana Tova.

  • Stephanie Peacock – 2024 Speech at ParalympicsGB Homecoming

    Stephanie Peacock – 2024 Speech at ParalympicsGB Homecoming

    The speech made by Stephanie Peacock, the Sports Minister, on 12 September 2024 at the Birmingham Town Hall in Birmingham.

    Thank you Andria, David and the whole National Lottery family for inviting me to speak today.

    It is an absolute privilege to be here in Birmingham to welcome home ParalympicsGB and get the chance to celebrate your remarkable achievements in Paris.

    I cannot imagine how the last few weeks must have been for all of you. The build up… the excitement… the adrenaline.

    What you achieved out there was absolutely phenomenal.

    Second place in the medal table – for the third consecutive Paralympic Games.

    Unbelievable displays of stamina, skill and strength.

    You built on the record-breaking performances of Rio and Tokyo, and you made the whole country very proud.

    Whether you brought home a medal or not, your performances were testament to what can be achieved through focus and commitment.

    You withstood pain and overcame everything in front of you, pushing yourselves to the absolute limit.

    I hope you’ve all had a chance to relax and really soak in everything you accomplished.

    I was delighted to be in Paris to cheer you on as I know people up and down the country were doing the same.

    This Government wants to support the next generation of athletes to make their dreams a reality, and that is exactly what we are going to do.

    We are reviewing the ways we can put sport back at the centre of the curriculum.

    We want to make sure that every child, wherever they live, can access first class grassroots facilities.

    I will continue to work with our Arm’s Length Body Sport England, who do great work in making sure each of their programmes directly impacts disabled people and those with long term health conditions.

    This includes initiatives such as the We Are Undefeatable campaign, and partnerships with disability sports organisations.

    We are fully committed to enabling you to excel on the world stage and will continue to support you in the run up to LA 2028.

    None of that would have been possible without the infrastructure that UK Sport and ParalympicGB support, and of course the enduring support of the National Lottery.

    The National Lottery has been instrumental to our continued success at the last few Paralympic Games.

    Thanks to the funding generated by National Lottery players, ParalympicsGB has continued to excel, cementing its remarkable position of second place on the all-time Games medal table.

    I know that many of you, straight after you finished your event, spoke about how important the National Lottery has been to your journey, and how it has been the bedrock of your success.

    So I would like to thank everyone at the National Lottery, and all the people who play, for helping to do their bit and backing successive generations of GB Paralympians.

    All of you here today have helped to inspire and paved the road for the next generation, so I hope you enjoy the celebrations tonight.

    I hope to see as many of you as possible in the coming months, encouraging others to follow in your footsteps.

  • Chris Bryant – 2024 Speech at Connected Britain 2024

    Chris Bryant – 2024 Speech at Connected Britain 2024

    The speech made by Chris Bryant, the Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms, at ExCel in London on 12 September 2024.

    I’m here to make you an offer. An offer I hope you won’t want to refuse.

    We all know this country has great potential, but we have struggled in recent years. Too many things just don’t seem to work. Economic growth has been anaemic at best GDP growth per head of population has fallen. The cost of-living crisis has hit family budgets and businesses.

    People are desperate to turn the corner.

    Which is why we as a government are keen to fix the foundations – the foundations of our society and our economy. And no foundations are more important than our digital telecoms infrastructure.

    And the phrase that keeps on coming back to me is from E M Forster’s novel, Howard’s End. He wrote ‘Only connect! Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted. Live in fragments no longer.’

    So my offer to you, my ask, is simple: help us fix the foundations, help us achieve that ambition of ‘only connect’, so that our society and our economy can stop living in fragments. If we can do that together, UK productivity could improve, your customers would have more fruitful lives economically and socially, government could be more efficient, the economy could grow and the financial return to your companies would be more secure.

    This is a two way street. We know that investment needs to be driven by competition and we recognise the challenging investment climate against an international background, so we want to support industry to invest – through a stable fiscal framework and the right regulatory framework, light touch where it can be, but timely where enforced standards can facilitate secure decisions and investments.

    I would also add that we as ministers want to make timely and evidence-based decisions.

    Let me be specific about what that looks like.

    First, the basics of infrastructure rollout.

    Nobody seriously doubts that digital infrastructure underpins the modern digital economy, is a key driver of productivity and growth and is as essential as water and electricity.

    I won’t bore you with the statistics that you already know, but suffice it to say that we have made significant progress on superfast broadband, on gigabit capable broadband, on 4G and 5G non-standalone. Project Gigabit and the shared rural network have brought connectivity to many who would otherwise have missed out and I can assure you that our ambitions have not changed.

    Second, opportunities for better government.

    The Police and courts services are significant consumers of voice and data services. Standalone 5G could enable  video transmission from body cameras and drones, in vehicle connectivity and support virtual court hearings in rural areas.

    Standalone 5G can also transmit high resolution images from scans in hospitals, support autonomous medicine distribution – and enable more care in the community rather than in hospital beds. Future diagnostic imaging is likely to get greedier – and patients and local health services are going to need gigabit broadband to meet the challenge.

    So help us build better, more productive public services.

    Thirdly, opportunities for better lives.

    If we get the legislation right on smart data, smarter gas and electricity metres could make it far easier for households to heat their homes and save on fuel bills. That would be good for personal finances and help us meet our net zero commitments.

    There are economic advantages as well. Just think of the video games industry, one of our great success stories. It sits at the junction between tech and creativity. It needs strong connectivity, not just in offices in Leamington Spa, Dundee and Guildford, but in the countless flats and homes where designers work and in consumers’, customers’ and players’ homes. The circle of buffering doom is not the name of the latest game, but it is still a reality for too many.

    Fourthly, we need to safely and responsibly retire obsolete legacy systems and future-poof our infrastructure.

    The classic case here is Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the old copper wires that provided our landlines for generations. They are failing at an increasing rate and need replacing. But that poses a real challenge for Telecare devices, 3 million of which are still operating on the old system. Government must and will do its part here. I have written to all the key local authorities to ensure that they work with operators to protect all vulnerable customers as they safely transition to fibre. And I have written to those who provide telecare devices to urge them to stop selling analogue-only kit that will very soon be unusable. In return, I’m delighted that all the operators are working on greater security during transition and greater battery resilience.

    I could make very similar arguments about 2G. So, let’s work together.

    Fifthly, I want us to connect everyone, but the truth is that far too many individuals and communities are excluded from the digital world.

    Around 1.5 million people live in digital poverty with either no or limited access to connectivity. 2% of school children are only able to access the internet at home via a mobile phone and that figure rises substantially amongst the poorest families. 27% of adults on low incomes only access the internet by smartphone.

    It is a shocking fact that the UK’s digital inclusion strategy is now more than ten years old – and ten years out of date. That cannot be right. Tackling digital inclusion is a key priority for this government. We want to take everyone with us – because if people are excluded by geography, age, financial status or lack of skills, that is a problem for the whole of society – and for you.

    So we want to work with you to find creative solutions to digital inclusion.

    I am grateful for the many social tariffs that are available, but only 8.3% (380,000) of over 4.6 million houses on Universal Credit take one up; only 45% of those eligible know that social tariffs exist, and 1.5 to 2 million are likely to struggle to afford even a social tariff.

    I’m certain we can do better – but we need to work together, government and industry, to realise the full potential of every community.

    Sixthly, we need to make the connection between two different aspects of my portfolio – telecoms and space.

    The UK has a real competitive advantage in space and I want to exploit that to its full potential. I’m also conscious that Al working with telecoms data stands a real chance of driving far more efficient use of telecom connectivity. I hope to say more about this soon.

    Seventh, I want us all to think about not-spots that have been a bit neglected.

    Why, oh why, can’t we sort connectivity on trains? And in urban areas, many of which are falling behind rural areas for all sorts of complex reasons to do with wayleaves. And after live music events – or rugby matches in Cardiff – when you can’t call a friend, text them or WhatsApp them to arrange to meet up. My plea is simple – help!

    Let me turn to what we are already doing as a government.

    We want to support commercial investment, so we are  ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework for the fixed and mobile (wireless) networks; we are undertaking a Mobile Market Review to understand the technological and structural changes taking place in the sector; and we are looking at how we can further reform planning regulations to remove barriers to infrastructure deployment.

    In order to remove barriers to rollout, we will implement the remaining telecoms provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 as soon as possible; we will support the deployment of full-fibre to multi-dwelling units, such as blocks of flats and social housing, whilst remaining mindful of the need to maintain wholesale competition.

    And we will put additional momentum into flexible permitting for street works and supporting their implementation as early as possible. That said, I do want to ensure far greater cooperation between operators to prevent unnecessary telegraph pole deployment or street  excavation. I understand the economic realities, but the market was made for humanity, not humanity for the market. Today I met with representatives of the fixed-line industry, and I welcome the industry’s initiative to revise the Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice. I am hopeful that industry can deliver changes leading to better engagement and more considerate siting. But we reserve the right to take further action if this doesn’t deliver the goods for consumers.

    In order to realise the full benefits of adopting advanced connectivity, we are delivering the £36 million 5G Innovation Regions programme which empowers 10 regions across the UK to develop stackable use cases and commercial models for investing 5G in key sectors; and we are delivering the UK Telecoms Innovation Network (UKTIN) 5G Adoption programme to promote the adoption of 5G by businesses and local authorities.

    We also want to help shape the next generation of telecoms technologies and develop more UK-based and UK-generated innovation. To that end we have made a £70 million R&D investment in three university-led Future telecoms research hubs and provided funding for 16 innovative UK business consortia, developing the next generation of tech. And we are building alliances internationally including through joint R&D partnerships  with India and Korea, through more UK participation in Horizon Europe and by establishing the Global Coalition on Telecoms with the US, Australia, Canada and Japan. I should also say a word about security and resilience.

    We continue to work with communications providers and Ofcom to strengthen the security and resilience of UK networks and services.

    On network resilience, I am keen that mobile consumers are able to have continued access to the network, even when power cuts disrupt local access. Climate change shows us we must be prepared for severe adverse weather and the disruption that can bring, often in rural and remote communities. Mobile operators have some power back up mitigations in place, but they vary significantly by site and by operator. Some sites have back up power lasting several hours or even days, but there is a lack of consistency nationwide.

    Universal solutions may be difficult and expensive, but it’s  important to look closely at what solutions might be appropriate. I know Ofcom are looking at this closely following a Call for Input earlier this year, and we will want to work with Ofcom — and the power and telecoms sectors — to explore the right approach that balances the relevant factors.

    An important aspect of that resilience is maintaining diverse and healthy supply chains, without which the UK  network is vulnerable to disruption. I am especially grateful to the Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Advisory Council for their new report, released today (Thursday 12 September), setting out recommendations on telecoms diversification policy. Obviously we need to carefully review their recommendations, but we will provide an official government response as soon as possible and we are already acting in this area, delivering the £250 million ‘Open Networks’ R&D Fund focussed on development of interoperable Open RAN to increase the number of actors in the supply chain; building testing infrastructure — including UK Telecoms Lab, focused on security.

    Let me end where I began, with E M Forster’s ‘Only Connect’. He wanted us to connect the heart and the brain. I want us to connect our artistic and our technical abilities; I want us to connect our finance, venture capitalist and tech industries; I want us to connect every   part of the country, every community and every family. And above all I want us as a government to be plugged in to the solutions to connect us all. I hope you’ll work with us.