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Category: Speeches

  • Penny Mordaunt – 2023 Speech to the UK Youth Parliament

    Penny Mordaunt – 2023 Speech to the UK Youth Parliament

    The speech made by Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, in the Commons on 17 November 2023.

    Thank you for being here.

    Many powerful men and women have sat in the seats you are sitting in today.

    What may surprise you is that all of them, for at least for some of their careers, would feel nervous, just as I’m sure some of you are nervous about today.

    You might be feeling fear and dread as to how well you are going to do today.

    But to be here, many of you, in fact all of you, will have had to show courage. To overcome the dread and many other obstacles to be here.

    The dread that says that you don’t belong here, or that you’re not good enough to be here.

    So as Leader of the Commons let me give you some advice for today.

    The dread is your friend.

    The dread means you are never going to be underprepared or complacent.

    The dread means you have already overcome your fears because you feel so strongly a call to serve others, and that means you’re going to be good at what you’re going to do today.

    The dread compelled you to know yourself and what is in your hearts.

    So if you are nervous today, that is good, be reassured and use that energy to do something wonderful here. Listen, learn and inspire others.

    I wish you well today and you have chosen an excellent theme and topics, and it has been my privilege to help some of you from my neck of the woods prepare for today – in one of my schools, with teachers, dinner ladies, local authority directors, testing your ideas and answering your questions.

    And I wanted to give you some words of advice to spur you on today and forever to live fulfilled lives in the service of one another.

    The words I am going to say to you now are not the words of Wilberforce or Churchill.

    They are from a student called Keith.

    People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred.

    Love them anyway.

    If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

    Do good anyway.

    If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

    Succeed anyway.

    If you do good today it will be forgotten tomorrow.

    Do good anyway.

    Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

    Be honest and frank anyway.

    The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

    Think big anyway.

    People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs.

    Fight for underdogs anyway.

    What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

    Build anyway.

    People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

    Help people anyway.

    Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth.

    Give the world the best you have anyway.

    Members, do not underestimate what you can accomplish, do not doubt the good you can do. And do not forget the importance of having fun while you are doing it.

    Welcome to the House of Commons.

  • Robert Halfon – 2023 Speech to the Committee of University Chairs

    Robert Halfon – 2023 Speech to the Committee of University Chairs

    The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, in London on 15 November 2023.

    Good morning and thank you for that introduction. The Committee of University Chairs promotes the highest standards of governance across the UK’s higher education sector. I am delighted to join you today to talk about lifelong learning, and how our reforms will open up your courses to new students like never before.

    From my travels around the country, I know that education is not and cannot be for young people only. Indeed, the definition of lifelong learning, it being the continuous, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge, expertise, and skills, alludes to that fact that learning is not restricted to childhood or young adulthood but occurs throughout working life. Lifelong learning is therefore an essential part the education offer in this country. As a component of the ladder of opportunity, it contributes to education’s true purpose: to provide a route for people of all backgrounds to gain valuable skills and well-paid work.  And it has never been more relevant than to today’s workforce. With an ageing population, an ever-increasing demand for skilled professionals, big data, and automation and artificial intelligence generating what is set to be, a technological revolution of unparalleled proportions, it is apparent to all that individuals will need continuous access to education and retraining throughout their lives.

    That is why the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will, truly, be transformative for both further and higher education. The entitlement will be equivalent to four years of higher education funding – £37,000 currently – and will galvanise people to train, retrain, and upskill across their working lives. This could be through a full-time degree, or individual modules, or other courses like higher technical qualifications or HTQs. HTQs are designed in collaboration with employers, so students can be confident that they will gain the skills needed to get on in their chosen career. HTQs lead to prestigious, sustainable jobs such as software developer, quantity surveyor and nursing associate – the jobs that employers are crying out for people to fill. So, from the 2025 to 2026 academic year, the LLE will be available for:

    • Full courses at level 4 to level 6, such as a degree or higher technical qualifications.
    • Modules of high-value technical courses at level 4 to level 5.

    This will allow people to adapt to the ever-evolving demands of the world’s sixth-largest economy. The LLE presents solutions and offers answers to this multitude of changes and opportunities.  It only takes a spark to start a fire, and the trailblazing initiative that is the LLE will revolutionise this country’s landscape of education and opportunity and alter for the better people’s perception of possibility in adulthood.

    Education is, without doubt, society’s greatest leveller. Firing the imagination, it opens new doors and ensures nobody is left behind. The Prime Minister has described education as the closest thing we have to a silver bullet: the best economic, social, and moral policy. Widening access to higher education this century has transformed our nation, but we need to do more. And so, we are. With the LLE, we are lighting a fire to forge an ambitious future and provide pathways for everyone, whether that be through education or employment, reskilling, or upskilling.

    So, the LLE will level-up access to later-life learning. It will bring FE and HE together to create a new universal student-finance system. It will enable the configuration of funding around modular, flexible provision, allowing learners to study at their own pace and in a way which suits them. It will expand maintenance support to all eligible learners and all targeted support grants are being extended to part-time courses for the first time. We will be expanding support for living costs to technical courses at levels 4-5, which remain pressing, whatever and however you study. It will remove the restrictions on students taking courses at the same or a lower level to ones they’ve already done. This will allow both new and retuning learners the freedom and the funding to upskill or retrain as best serves the next step in their careers. It will offer people regular start dates, opportunities, as they’ll be able to pick up a module at any time and move more seamlessly between institutions. And finally, it will allow learners to see their loan balance through their very own LLE personal account so they can make informed choices about the courses and learning pathways available.

    This is what is unique about the LLE. This change to student finance will offer diverse educational opportunities, enabling students to learn at a pace that suits them, fitting study around work, family, and personal commitments. Because whether through full-time degrees, individual modules or higher technical qualifications, we want learners to have a real choice in life. They should not feel limited to just one path or one shot at success.

    We have already made tremendous progress at pace on the LLE. Most recently, for example, and something of which I am particularly proud, the Lifelong Learning (HE Fee Limits) Bill became law in September. It has created a new system for applying fee limits, ensuring that the fee cap is calculated on the same basis, whether a learner is studying individual modules separately, or studying them together on a typical full-time course.

    During the passage of the act, I committed to provide further information on fee limits so providers could prepare for the LLE’s introduction. I am pleased to announce that this information is today being published on gov.uk. In this, we are setting out the list of chargeable numbers of credits for every course type, as well as the number of credits that can be charged for in any single course year.

    Of course, not all programmes are credit-bearing courses. Courses such as medicine, veterinary science and dentistry are exceptions, and their fee limits will be set using a default number of credits.

    The publication also includes the list of course types to which this default system applies, to give providers and learners all the information they need to prepare for 2025.

    It also gives me great pleasure to say that we are also setting out further detail today on learner entitlement. The LLE will be available to both new and returning learners.  Whilst new learners will be able to access the full entitlement (equivalent to 4 years full-time tuition), those returning to higher-level education will be able to access their residual tuition loan entitlement. They can use this to access any LLE course, whether a full degree, short course, or a module. This opens up the entitlement to people of many different educational backgrounds, allowing them to refresh their skills or seek brand-new qualifications.

    Details of how we will calculate residual entitlement are also being published today. We will consider both the cash value of loans taken out by learners, and the modern equivalent cost for those who studied under previous funding regimes. In doing so, we have prioritised value for taxpayers, and ensure that learners who want to use the LLE to retrain or upskill can do so on an equitable basis.

    The Lifelong Learning Entitlement represents a significant leap forward in providing accessible, adaptable, and inclusive education. It embodies this government’s commitment to empower individuals to furnace their own education pathways, adapt to change, and contribute to a stronger and healthier economy. Truly, I am so excited to be consistently making great strides on the LLE and its plethora of constituent parts. And I am so enthusiastic that this once-in-a-generation reform of our higher-education sector will enable people to move seamlessly between further education and higher education, taking the opportunities that best serve their career stage and fit around their commitments.

    However, this can’t happen without your support. I hope that the higher-education sector will embrace the burning ambition of the LLE. It has the power to light the proverbial fire, to benefit learners, employers, and universities alike.

    For learners, the LLE will kindle a desire for personal and professional development, allowing them the opportunity to learn, reskill or upskill. For universities and colleges, the LLE will spark discourse about efficient and effective education delivery, inspiring them to think differently, more radically, and to trigger spirited and significant collaboration and co-operation between higher and further education. For employers, the LLE will ignite the talent foundry and cast a stronger and larger labour force. This will allow them to bridge skills gaps in their workforce, encouraging staff to upskill via modular learning and progress professionally in a way that is responsive to their needs.

    I hope I have painted an exciting picture of the developments to come. Together with other DfE initiatives like skills bootcamps, apprenticeships, and our adult learning offer apprenticeships, the LLE forms part of our blazing desire to enhance human capability and productivity, so that every person in this country can pursue the education that they need and deliver on their full potential. I hope you see the possibilities that this landmark reform will present to the sector, and I look forward to working with you to make those possibilities a reality for universities, colleges, and students.

    As we move forward, therefore, let us embrace this revolutionary reform and transformative journey together. Education should inflame curiosity and creativity. It should fuel a passion for learning and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Just as a fire spreads and grows, so should education spark a desire to explore and discover new things. With the LLE, we hope that lifelong learning will become the norm. Even more so, we hope students catch a spark and light a fire. We want our education system to be about those fires. So very many of them.

    Thank you.

  • Victoria Atkins – 2023 Speech at the NHS Providers Conference

    Victoria Atkins – 2023 Speech at the NHS Providers Conference

    The speech made by Victoria Atkins, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 15 November 2023.

    Hello, everyone.

    I want to start by thanking you all for all the fantastic and vital work you do.

    I’m sorry I can’t be with you in Liverpool. But I’m really looking forward to getting to know you and working with you in the weeks and months ahead.

    It’s a genuine pleasure and a privilege to be your Health and Social Care Secretary.

    My belief in our National Health Service, and its founding principles, is one of the reasons I came into politics.

    Now, I know you might hear this a lot. But for me, it is truly personal.

    Like families up and down the country, I owe our NHS a lot. It has cared for me and my family, and brought my wonderful son into the world.

    And I want to make sure that it’s here in fighting fit form for our children and our grandchildren, just as it’s been here for us.

    We have got a lot of work to do. As we continue to bed-in the reforms government brought forward last year to create strong and integrated care systems across England.

    This will be a shared endeavour.

    And it will require all of us to work in partnership. Across our acute hospitals, mental health, community, general practice, and pharmacy.

    As we reduce the pressures that I know you’re facing, we give patients the best possible care, and deliver the Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan for winter.

    We know winter will be challenging. But this year, we have all started to prepare earlier than ever before.

    And using our recovery plan, we can continue to expand capacity, build resilience, and deliver better care. This has to be our number one priority.

    And I recognise that this requires working collaboratively with other organisations and sectors. For example, working with the police to support people suffering from mental health crises.

    And I’m also very conscious that I’m not just the Secretary of State for the NHS – I’m also the Secretary of State for Social Care.

    Our unpaid carers and social care workers look after millions of people every single day. And I cannot wait to work with them too.

    Now, we’ll face challenges along the way. But believe me, I am an optimist. Together, we can overcome these challenges, and take the long-term decisions that will build a brighter future for our NHS.

    And this is the approach I will take to industrial action.

    I’m acutely aware of how the strikes have disrupted patient care, and I’m committed to getting around the table.

    Because, I want to see a fair and reasonable resolution.

    This winter will be challenging, but I know that rising to such challenges is what you all do so well.

    You’ve overcome a once in a generation pandemic. You’ve tackled the longest waits for care it left behind. And you’re delivering reforms that will give patients more choice and control over their care.

    We’ve got clear recovery plans in place. Financial certainty for the rest of the year. And the first-ever, fully funded, reform-focused, long-term workforce plan. Something that I know NHS Providers have been a strong champion for.

    Now, I started this speech by thanking you. I mean it sincerely to you and all of the incredible people who work in our NHS and social care services.

    So, let’s roll up our sleeves and get on with the job. Now is the time to deliver for patients, and deliver for our NHS.

  • Robert Halfon – 2023 Speech at the Association of Colleges’ Annual Conference

    Robert Halfon – 2023 Speech at the Association of Colleges’ Annual Conference

    The speech made by Robert Halfon, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, in Birmingham on 14 November 2023.

    Good morning, and thank you for that introduction.

    The Association of Colleges is an important voice for further education, and a key contributor to the work of the department. After a year in-post as Skills Minister, I’m delighted to be speaking today on how we are continuing to move skills to the centre of education.

    I first visited Harlow College shortly after being elected as an MP. Thanks to the vision of two exceptional leaders – including Karen Spencer, the current Principal – it has been transformed into one of the country’s leading colleges. I’ve now visited more than 100 times, as well as many other FE colleges, from Loughborough to Oldham, Waltham Forest to Stroud, and Telford to Gateshead. Seeing their facilities and focus on training students for success, helped me understand how FE colleges bring about social justice.

    FE colleges are places of social and economic capital, and I am proud to be their champion in government. From beginning on the backbenches, to chairing the Education Select Committee and my time as Skills Minister – everything I’ve done in Parliament has been to promote skills education and boost support for FE.

    I don’t hold a meeting, or comment on a ministerial submission without asking: “What about FE? What are we doing to help it thrive?”

    As my officials will tell you, further education does not get forgotten on my watch.

    I believe FE colleges are a key pillar of the Ladder of Opportunity, enabling people of all backgrounds to gain sought-after skills and good jobs.

    I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved over the last year. We saw more than 335,000 apprenticeship starts, with full figures for the academic year to be published shortly.

    To help colleges and providers accommodate these new apprentices, in March we distributed £286 million via the Capital Transformation Fund to enhance your facilities. In July we announced £185 million for the 2023-24 financial year, to drive forward skills delivery in further education. This will be followed by £285 million in 2024-25. It will allow colleges and other 16-19 providers to improve recruitment and retention of teachers in high-value technical and academic subjects. In fact I was delighted to receive feedback last month from a college Principal, who was able to give their staff a significant pay award following this announcement. Our investment recognises the importance of your work to the country’s future economic growth and prosperity.

    In order to look to what the future holds, I’d like to glance back to the past. Some of you may know that I’m a great admirer of many 20th Century American presidents. The obvious parallel with my life is that of Franklin D. Roosevelt – who despite being paralysed by polio, taught himself to walk short distances with leg braces and a cane.

    The great wartime president famously pitched his 4 universal freedoms in 1941 to persuade America to abandon non-interventionism and join the war effort.

    As I’m sure you know, those freedoms were: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, and Freedom from fear.

    While I’m glad to say that further education does not face a comparable existential threat, Roosevelt’s freedoms got me thinking about what FE needs to thrive, and where its future lies. I think there are 4 challenges it will need to meet over the next few years. I will outline them here, along with the support government is providing to help the sector face these changes.

    The first challenge is fully resourcing the further education we know we need.

    Properly resourcing further education includes allowing colleges to focus on what you do best –teaching vital skills, rather than negotiating bureaucracy and red tape. I will make sure we deliver existing commitments to make things easier, such as bringing together multiple revenue and capital grants in a Single Development Fund. We have already simplified funding rates at Level 3 and below, and reduced the apprenticeship onboarding process by a third. Our Expert Provider pilot is exploring how to further simplify the delivery of apprenticeships, so that you can focus on growth and quality. I have asked officials to think radically about streamlining end-to-end funding processes, and would welcome your input on this.

    Deploying funding where it will hold most value for learners and businesses is really important. Last week we announced the Local Skills Improvement Fund allocations – more than £200 million for colleges and universities to offer training to address specific regional skills needs. Through Local Skills Improvement Plans, priority sectors are now able to steer funding towards the local skills provision needed to grow their workforce and the regional economy.

    Bringing about a skills revolution, where more people choose high-quality technical education, necessarily means more FE teachers. On top of the additional £470 million I previously outlined to help with recruitment and retention, we are also investing in a package of direct support for those entering the workforce. This includes the new measures linked to the Advanced British Standard. We are expanding the Levelling Up Premium to give eligible teachers up to £6,000 annually, after tax, in addition to their pay. That’s those in the first five years of their career, teaching key STEM and technical subjects in disadvantaged schools, and – for the first time – in colleges too.

    It is really significant that the Prime Minister mentioned these incentives in his speech to party conference, an arena where further education hasn’t frequently been acknowledged. When I say we are bringing FE to the centre of our policy plans, I mean it. I hate it when people call further education the Cinderella sector – but as in the story, Cinderella is now well on her way to joining the royal family. FE is central to the world class education system we wish to build.

    This brings me to the Advanced British Standard, and our second challenge: rolling-out T Levels while we develop this new, overarching qualification.

    When the ABS was announced, there was some concern that it had come to bury T Levels. What was the point of 3 years’ roll out, if T Levels were eventually going to be surpassed by something else? I’m here to tell you that one supports the other: T Levels will provide the backbone of the Advanced British Standard. We will continue to roll them out, with more to come in 2024-25.

    Technical education has undergone unprecedented reform over the last decade, and we will continue this programme to simplify the skills landscape and create a stronger set of qualifications than ever before. All of this puts T Levels in a better position than any current qualification. As I say, they will be the backbone of the occupational route of the Advanced British Standard – making them the most “future proof” option you can offer 16-19-year-olds.

    It’s thanks to all those pioneers here today, who championed T Levels from the start, that we can see a way to achieving a long held ambition: parity of esteem for technical and academic education. But we need your continued support. The best advocates for T Levels, who can demonstrate their benefits and versatility to upcoming year groups, are yourselves – Principals, tutors and teachers.

    I’ve really enjoyed meeting college staff who have welcomed the Advanced British Standard, and the breadth of education it will, for the first time, afford every young person. Thousands of T Level students have gone on to take apprenticeships, jobs with top employers and places at university. Now is the time to persuade the Year 11s visiting your open days to consider T Levels, and the life-changing opportunities they bring.

    The third challenge is to re-enforce further education as the Ladder of Opportunity for those who need it most.

    FE’s power lies in the difference it can make to the lives of people who need a leg-up.

    That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about it, and keen that this life-changing difference can reach as many as possible.

    The Lifelong Learning Entitlement will do just that, democratising access to student finance like never before. It is the most exciting opportunity for learners in a generation, opening up skills training to people who previously thought it wasn’t affordable or applicable to them.

    The LLE will transform FE when it launches in 2025. It will provide a loan entitlement equivalent to four years’ post-18 education (£37,000 in today’s fees) for use throughout people’s working lives.

    As well as conventional higher technical or degree level studies, it will be redeemable against  high-value modular courses, provided by FE colleges and universities.

    I think it’s hard overstate just how much flexible student finance will alter attitudes to retraining and upskilling. Like getting on and off a train, learners will be able to alight and board their post-school education when it suits them, rather than being confined to a single ticket. They can choose to build their qualifications over time, using both further and higher education providers. They will have real choice in how and when they study, enabling them to acquire life-changing skills to improve their employment options.

    The prospect of attaining good, skilled work will be in closer reach of everybody.

    And that opportunity is so important. My hero President Roosevelt knew this.

    When he spoke directly to the American people in 1937, he said:

    The inherent right to work is one of the elemental privileges of a free people. Continued failure to achieve that right and privilege by anyone who wants to work, and needs work, is a challenge to our civilization and to our security.

    Endowed, as our nation is, with abundant physical resources, and inspired as it should be with the high purpose to make those resources and opportunities available for the enjoyment of all, we approach this problem of reemployment with the real hope of finding a better answer than we have now.

    The LLE is that real hope of a better answer – that education can live up to its ideals by being available in the right way, at the right time, to those who need it most.

    The LLE has the power to light the proverbial touchpaper – to benefit learners, employers, and colleges alike. I hope it triggers significant new collaborations between businesses, colleges and universities. Your ongoing engagement is crucial to delivering this transformation of student finance, and ensuring it benefits as many people as possible.

    Further education students need just as much support to complete their studies and make a success of their efforts as undergraduates. In fact, they often need more – especially those from a disadvantaged backgrounds. The social justice of helping these students to succeed is a key pillar of the Ladder of Opportunity, and an absolute priority for me.

    That is why I am delighted to announce the appointment of Polly Harrow as the first Further Education Student Support Champion. She will act as a channel between the sector and government, driving a strategic approach to improving the experience of students at colleges. I look forward to working with her, alongside Shelagh Legrave the FE Commissioner, to bring your concerns to the heart of government.

    The 4th challenge we face is the future! The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence and the rising demand for green skills.

    AI is the acronym of the moment, but it will have a huge impact on our future – including the labour market. Lots of repetitive administrative tasks will be streamlined, but programmers and task managers will be still needed to build and manage the digital infrastructure. As with other automated systems, complementary human skills will ensure AI is used to greatest effect and to maintain quality outputs. FE will be a crucial part of this new dynamic, with its ability to adapt provision to meet the skills needs of local employers. We’re already seeing great examples of provision innovation, such as Basingstoke College of Technology’s new skills modules on using AI safely and productively.

    And some tasks will always require a human touch. The government’s transformative expansion of childcare is just one of the currents that run counter to the idea that human work is drying-up. Growing the Early Years workforce to deliver these reforms is a government priority, and presents a huge opportunity for colleges and learners. Now is the time to enter this expanding industry, with great training and progression routes.

    Green skills are another important aspect of the future labour market. They should be part of your skills offer – not just to arrest global warming, but to catch the global winds of economic change. The economy and the jobs market are shifting permanently in this direction, and your learners should have the training opportunities to capitalise on that. Harlow College, which I mentioned earlier, has two green training facilities – an advanced manufacturing centre for electric vehicles, and a renewable energy centre. They are already bringing sort-after skilled employment to people in my constituency.

    Our Skills Bootcamps have already seen 1000s of adults get a head start in sectors that need them, including green industries. Bootcamps currently offer flexible training in green construction, renewable energy, natural resources protection and green transport. I would encourage all colleges here today to apply for Skills Bootcamps funding and embrace this unique entry point for adult learners. Officials from the department are running a Bootcamps breakout session tomorrow, which I’d urge delegates to join!

    I want to finish by turning back to President Roosevelt, and his stirring address to Congress in 1941. Elsewhere in the speech he describes ‘equality of opportunity for youth and for others’ as an important part of a strong democracy.

    Many of you here today do so much to advance this measure of progress – working tirelessly to extend equality of opportunity to all your students. That to me is the true purpose of education:  to bring about social justice, so that everyone has the chance to improve their prospects, and contribute to society and the economy.

    I know we have much more to do, within a changing economic landscape – but I look forward working with you to accomplish it.

    Thank you, and I hope you enjoy today’s conference.

  • Lucy Frazer – 2023 Speech to the WeCreate Conference

    Lucy Frazer – 2023 Speech to the WeCreate Conference

    The speech made by Lucy Frazer, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 14 November 2023.

    Good afternoon everyone.

    I wanted to start with a huge thank you to all of you for making the time to be here today.

    Today isn’t just about celebrating all the things that make our Creative Industries special, but it is also about looking ahead to the future to see how we, together, can chart a course that keeps these crown jewels of our economy shining for years to come.

    And there’s no better place to look to that future than right here in Manchester.

    As somebody who grew up not too far away in Leeds, I remember Emmerdale, visits to the IMAX in Bradford, and the arrival of the Armouries.

    I soon learned at school that across the M62 Manchester was one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution – a city dubbed ‘Cottonopolis’ in honour of its place at the epicentre of our thriving cotton industry in the 19th century.

    But Manchester – as you all will know – is also a thriving place for our culture.

    Oasis, Danny Boyle, Lowry.

    Creativity is part of the fabric of this city today.

    Just look at this venue we’re gathered here today in.

    The largest cultural investment in this country since the Tate Modern two decades ago.
    Built on a site already rich in creative history

    This is the former site of Granada Studios – which had hosted the Beatles’ first TV appearance and was home to Coronation Street.

    And now we have this incredible multi-purpose cultural hub that will welcome millions of guests a year, support thousands of jobs across the local creative economy and host hundreds of gigs, exhibitions and events every year.

    I was absolutely delighted to be here when it opened officially a month ago.

    It was clear then – and it’s still clear now – that this venue will be one of the focal points of a vibrant cultural scene in Manchester and the country for decades to come.

    When I was made Culture Secretary at the start of this year, I made growing those creative industries one of my main priorities.

    In the past decade or so, these industries have become one of our most powerful economic engines of growth.

    And if we can help more people across the country to discover and nurture their creative potential, then we will see our economy and wider society grow and grow and grow.

    Earlier this year we set out a long term plan for the future of the creative industries.

    The Sector Vision was developed across government and I’m delighted to be joined here today with Minister John Whittingdale and Viscount Camrose from DSIT, as well as  colleagues from the Departments for Education, and Business and Trade.

    The sector vision was developed jointly, as well as through government, with industry too through the work of the Creative Industries Council, who I met with this morning.

    And I want to work with each and every one of you to deliver on our Creative Industries Sector Vision.

    It’s a blueprint with three very simple aims:

    • to grow our Creative Industries by an extra £50 billion by 2030
    • to create a million extra jobs – all over the country – by 2030
    • and to deliver a Creative Careers Promise that harnesses the potential of young people and constructs a pipeline of talent into our creative industries.

    We’re already making progress towards those ambitious goals set out in our sector vision, unveiling millions in new funding to drive growth in our grassroots and scale ups and banging the drum for our creative careers.

    We are doubling the number of areas in the Create Growth Programme, with almost £11 million additional funding which means we are able to provide targeted support to around 1,800 creative businesses so that they can access private investment and scale up.

    Thanks to this new funding, businesses in the East and West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, the South West and the East of England will benefit from tailored workshops, mentoring and training to maximise creative potential.

    Greater Manchester has been delivering this programme and an earlier pilot, and it’s because of the success we’ve seen here in transforming local creative businesses that we are expanding it to other areas today.

    From today, we’re also launching applications to the £5 million Supporting Grassroots Music Fund to ensure support for the lifeblood of our world-leading music sector and cornerstones of our community.

    I am also pleased that today marks the beginning of Creative Careers Week – an initiative supported by my department to inspire the next generation to go into the creative industries so we can build that pipeline of talent and I welcome the many events happening across the country to encourage more young people to consider a job in these inspiring sectors.

    But most importantly today I am here to talk and to listen to you.

    Because we can only achieve our ambitions – this growth can only happen, these jobs can only be created, this pipeline of talent will only be sustained – if you are supported to maximise your potential.

    And that is what today is about.

    Some of you have been working with us already, whether that’s through our UK Global Screen Fund, The Create Growth Programme, the UK Games Fund or the UKRI Creative Clusters programme or our work with the Arts Council.

    It’s great to be joined by organisations such as Production Park, HOME, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, but it’s also exciting to meet new organisations as well

    Today I want to be a call to arms to all of you to share your ideas with us in Government and to work with us to unlock the creative potential of our people and our businesses – particularly here in the North.

    This region is already a driver of growth across the UK economy with major employers, export intensive businesses that attract significant investment from overseas.

    We will never deliver on the goals we set out in the Creative Industries Vision without your businesses, your ideas, your imagination.

    Government, industry and academic leaders across the North are already forming a grand coalition to develop a new regional strategy – The Northern Creative Corridor.

    There’ll be new details about this exciting initiative announced tomorrow.

    And I also recognise that it’s a difficult time at the moment.

    The cost-of-living has been a bit of a perfect storm for the sectors you all represent and you’re all wrestling with different challenges: whether that’s the tight labour market, access to finance or the possible future impact of AI.

    But none of this should dampen our ambition.

    You know better than anyone else that the North of England emanates so much creativity and that, with the right conditions, creative businesses can flourish.

    So, I’d just like to end by one final thank you to all of you for being here today and for investing your time and energy in the future of our creative industries.

    I hope you find the sessions useful and that we can keep this partnership going long into the future.

    I mentioned earlier this venue is the biggest cultural investment from the Government since the Tate Modern.

    Today that venue is a global cultural icon, famous around the world.

    I and my Ministerial team can’t wait to work with you to make this venue and our Creative Industries in the North as big a success in the years to come.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2023 Speech to the FOSI Annual Conference

    Michelle Donelan – 2023 Speech to the FOSI Annual Conference

    The speech made by Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, on 14 November 2023.

    Hello and thank you for having me here today, it is a pleasure to be in Washington.

    Now from the outset I must confess I have brought a numerous amount of British bugs with me, and so if I end up coughing, spluttering, drying up, please forgive me and bear with me, but I will do my very best throughout the speech.

    And there is a reason that my first speech on the subject of online safety, since the UK’s world leading Online Safety Act passed is taking place here in the United States. Because the UK and the USA obviously share a special relationship that is fundamentally about our values.

    The Online Safety Act – which I want to talk about for a bit today – is about reaffirming our longstanding values and principles and extending them to the online world. Empowering adults, protecting free expression, standing up for the rule of law, and most importantly, protecting our children.

    These are the values that Britain has pioneered for centuries, and they are also the values that made the extraordinary story of the United States possible.

    In the most recent chapter of that story, the transformational power of the internet has created the online world that is increasingly, seamlessly intertwined with the real world. But the values that made our free, safe, liberal societies possible have not been reflected online – especially when it comes to social media.

    The guardrails, customs and rules that we have taken for granted offline have, in the last two decades, become noticeable in their absence online. FOSI have been an important part of the conversation to identify this problem, and I want to extend my thanks to you for all the tireless work that you’ve done on this incredibly important agenda.

    And thanks to the work of campaigners here and in the UK, lawmakers from Washington to Westminster have taken the issue of online safety increasingly seriously, especially when it comes to the protection of our children.

    And today I want to share with you how we rose to the challenge of online safety in the UK – what we did, how we did it, and I guess why we did it as well.

    I think the why of that equation is the best place to start, given FOSI’s role in helping to answer that question over the years. Now, my department was created back in February to seize the opportunities of our digital age. Not just the opportunities that are in front of our generation now, but the opportunities that will potentially shape the futures of our children and our grandchildren.

    My 6-month-old son will grow up thinking nothing of his ability to communicate with people thousands of miles away and, I hope, he’s going to go on and do much more. Sharing research with his school friends potentially, learning new languages about countries that he might not have even visited, and gaining new skills that will enable him to fully take advantage of his talents when he grows up. Of course, if you ask my husband, he will tell you he hopes that those talents will lead him to the Premier League football.

    But we cannot afford to ignore the dangers that our children increasingly face online and I do think it is a sobering fact that children nowadays are just a few clicks away from entering adulthood, whether that’s opening a laptop or picking up an iPad.

    And despite the voluntary efforts of companies and the incredible work of campaigners, the stats tell us unequivocally that voluntary efforts are simply not enough.

    Did you know that the average age that a child sees pornography is 13? When I first heard that, it really, really struck me as something that needs to be dealt with. And a staggering 81% of 12–15-year-olds have reported coming across inappropriate content when surfing the web, including sites promoting suicide and self-harm.

    Now, regardless of ideology or political party, I don’t think anyone can look at what’s happening to our children and suggest that a hands-off approach that has dominated so far is working.I believe that we have a responsibility and in fact a duty to act when the most vulnerable in our society are under an increasing threat – especially our children.

    So, when I stood in the House of Commons during the Bill’s passage, I said enough is enough – and I meant it.

    Now, I defy any person who says it cannot or should not be done – as adults it is our fundamental duty to protect children and be that shield for them against those who wish to do them harm. And that is why in the UK, I have been on somewhat of a mission to shield our children through the Online Safety Act.

    And we started with the obvious – applying the basic common-sense principles of what is illegal offline, should actually be illegal online. Quite simply if it is illegal in the streets – it should be illegal in the tweets.

    No longer will tech companies be able to run Wild West platforms where they can turn a blind eye to things like terrorism and child abuse. The days of platforms filled with underage users, when even adverts are tailored to those underage users, are now over.

    If you host content only suitable for adults, then you must use highly effective age assurance tools to prevent children from getting access.

    We can and we will prevent children from seeing content that they can never unsee – pornography, self harm, serious violence, eating disorder material – no child in Britain will have to grow up being exposed to that in the future and I think that that is quite remarkable. Because when we consider the impact that that content is having on our children, it is quite frankly horrific.

    Of course, we know that most websites and all the major social media platforms already have some policies in place to safeguard children – in a few days I am travelling to Silicon Valley to meet many of them, and what I will be telling them, is that the Online Safety Act is less about companies doing what the Government is asking them to do – it is about the companies doing what their users are asking them to do.

    Most companies actually do have robust and detailed terms of service. In fact, all of the 10 largest social media platforms in the world ban sexism, they ban racism, homophobia, and just about every other form of illegal abuse imaginable.

    Yet these terms are worthless unless they are enforced – and too often, they are not consistently enforced.

    So, the legislation that we have produced in the UK will mean that social media platforms will be required to uphold their own terms and conditions.

    For the first time ever, users in Britain can sign up to platforms knowing that the terms they agree with will actually be upheld, and that the platforms will face eye-watering fines if they fail to do so.

    But do not make the mistake of thinking that this Act is anti-business. Far from it, we view the Online Safety Act as a chance to harness the good that social media can do whilst tackling the bad, and because we believe in proportionality and innovation, we have not been prescriptive in how social media giants and messaging platforms should go about complying.

    I believe it’s never the role of the Government to dictate to business which technologies they use. Our approach has remained ‘tech neutral’ and business friendly.

    To borrow an American phrase, we are simply ensuring that they step up to the plate and to use their own vast resources and expertise to provide the best possible protections for children.

    And I know this matters on the other side of the Atlantic too, because the online world does not respect borders, and those who wish to do our children harm should not be undeterred by this sense that they can get away with it in some countries and not in others, or that they should be able to use this to their advantage.

    And that is why in the UK, we are taking steps to enable our online safety regulator, Ofcom, to share information with regulators overseas including here.

    These powers will complement existing initiatives, such as the Global Online Safety Regulators Network. A vital programme – which of course was launched at the FOSI conference last year – bringing together like-minded regulators to promote and protect human rights.

    And this momentum has been backed up by government action too. I am talking about the US Administration establishing an inter-agency Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force, and both of these are very welcome signs of the increasing unity between the UK and the US on this important agenda.

    Many of the aims perfectly complement what we are trying to do in the UK and I am keen that both our governments continue to work together.

    And while protecting children has remained our priority throughout the legislative process, we have been incredibly innovative with the way that we help protect adults online too. I believe when it comes to adults, we must take a different approach to the one that we take for children.

    Liberty and free expression are the cornerstones of the UK’s uncodified constitution, and of course at the heart of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. So when thinking about protecting adults online, we knew we could not compromise these fundamental principles.

    In fact, I believe that the Act would have to actively promote and protect freedom and liberty for adults if it were to be successful in the long term, and that’s exactly what we did.

    So rather than tell adults what legal content they can and cannot see, we instead decided to empower adults with freedom and choice – on many platforms for the very first time. Known as user empowerment tools, the Bill requires companies to finally give adults a direct choice over the types of content they see and engage with.

    Taking the power out of the hands of unaccountable algorithms and placing it back in the hands of each and every individual user. Where an adult does not want to see certain types of legal content, they will have the power to toggle that content on and off as they choose, and in some cases, filter out keywords.

    Choice, freedom, and control for adults, while robustly protecting children at the same time. Combined together, these form the framework that we believe will become the global norm for online safety in the decades ahead.

    Now, just finally, while the glow of our successful Global AI Safety Summit is still bright, I want to touch briefly on the challenges of AI when it comes to online safety.

    We are discussing ‘New Frontiers in Online Safety’ today – and it is impossible to do that without talking about the technology that will define this century.

    Although AI brings enormous opportunities – from combating climate change to discovering life-saving drugs, to obviously helping our public services, it does also bring grave risk too – including on online safety, and we saw that just the other month in southern Spain, where fake, nude images of real girls had been created using AI – a case that shocked us all.

    And recently in Britain, fake AI-generated audio also targeted the leader of the opposition and spread rapidly on social media before being promptly debunked. So, we must be clear about the serious threat AI presents to our societies, from our children’s safety to our democratic processes and the integrity of our elections, something that we both care acutely about as we march towards our elections.

    And that is why we hosted the first ever AI Safety Summit earlier this month at Bletchley Park, where 28 countries and the European Union were represented, representing the vast majority of the world’s population. And we signed an unprecedented agreement known as the Bletchley Declaration.

    Despite some claiming that such a declaration would be rejected by many countries in attendance, we actually agreed that for the good of all, AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used, in a manner that is safe, in such a way as to be human-centric, trustworthy and of course responsible.

    But I have been clear that when it comes to online safety, especially for our children, we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball in the decade to come.

    And the historic Bletchley Declaration lays out a pathway for countries to follow together that will ultimately lead to a safer online world, but it is up to us all to ensure that we continue down that pathway.

    And In support of that mission, I have directed the UK’s Frontier AI Taskforce to rapidly evolve into a new AI Safety Institute, giving our best and brightest minds a key role to really delve into the risks that AI presents as well as the pre-deployment testing. And of course, it will partner with the US’s own Safety Institute which the Vice President announced in London during the summit.

    We must also recognise AI can of course be part of the solution to many of the problems we are discussing today, as well – from detecting and moderating harmful content to proactively mitigating potential risks like the generation and dissemination of deep fakes.

    FOSI’s new report, published today – does provide important insights on the early use of generative AI tools by parents and teens, and how it will impact children’s safety and privacy online.I will be taking these findings back to my officials in London and ensuring that we deepen the already close relationship between our two countries when it comes to protecting our children.

    Now, while I hope my speech today has been somewhat of a soft-sell if you like for the online safety framework that we have created in the UK, I actually don’t think our approach really requires salesmanship to the rest of the world. Because even before our Online Safety Act became law, companies began implementing key parts of its provisions and adapting their behaviour.

    Many social media platforms now allow keyword filtering, some have started exploring and piloting age assurance methods, and many are proactively cleaning up illegal content through new innovative techniques.

    So, if there is one thing I want to say to American policymakers who want to make a real difference for children and adults online, it’s be ambitious, put children first, front and centre, and above all, defend the values that you would expect to see on the streets as ferociously online as you would in person.

    As the online world and the offline world merge ever closer together, now is the time to stand firm and uphold the values that we share, and the values that got us here in the first place.

    Thank you.

  • Jeremy Hunt – 2023 Autumn Statement

    Jeremy Hunt – 2023 Autumn Statement

    The speech made by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 22 November 2023.

    Mr Speaker. After a global pandemic and energy crisis, we have taken difficult decisions to put our economy back on track. We have supported families with rising bills, cut borrowing and halved inflation.

    Rather than a recession, the economy has grown. Rather than falling as predicted, real incomes have risen. Our plan for the British economy is working. But the work is not done. Under this Prime Minister we take decisions for the long term.

    In today’s Autumn Statement for Growth our choice is not big government, high spending and high tax because we know that leads to less growth, not more. Instead we reduce debt, cut taxes and reward work. We deliver world class education. We build domestic sustainable energy.

    And we back British business with 110 growth measures – don’t worry, I’m not going to go through them all – but in summary they…

    …remove planning red tape

    …speed up access to the national grid

    …support entrepreneurs raising capital

    …get behind our fastest growing industries

    …unlock foreign direct investment

    …boost productivity

    …reform welfare

    …level up opportunity to every corner of the country

    …and cut business taxes.

    The Office for Budget Responsibility say that the combined impact of these measures will raise business investment, get more people into work, reduce inflation next year and increase GDP. A dynamic economy depends on the energy and enterprise of people more than any diktats or decisions by ministers.

    So, today’s measures do not just remove barriers to investment, they reward effort and work.  I will go through the measures in three parts.

    In the first, I will use updated OBR forecasts to show the progress we are making against the Prime Minister’s economic priorities.

    The second part sets out growth measures to back British business.

    Finally, I conclude with measures to make work pay.

    Progress on the Prime Minster’s priorities

    Before I start with the forecasts, I want to express my horror at the murderous attack on Israeli citizens on October 7th and the subsequent loss of life on both sides. I will remember for the rest of my life – as I know many other hon members will – being taken to Auschwitz by the Rabbi Barry Marcus and the remarkable Holocaust Educational Trust. But I am deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism in our country. So, I am announcing up to £7m over the next three years for organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust to tackle antisemitism in schools and universities. I will also repeat the £3m uplift to the Community Security Trust.

    When it comes to anti-Semitism and all forms of racism, we must never allow the clock to be turned back.

    I now move on to the OBR’s economic and fiscal forecasts, and I thank Richard Hughes and his team for their sterling work in preparing them. Three of my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister’s five pledges at the start of the year were economic: to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt. Today I can report to the House that we are delivering on all three.

    Inflation

    Let’s start with inflation. When the Prime Minister and I took office, inflation was at 11.1%. Last week, it fell to 4.6%. We promised to halve inflation and we have halved it. Core inflation is now lower than in nearly half of the economies in the EU.  And the OBR say headline inflation will fall to 2.8% by the end of 2024, before falling to the 2% target in 2025.

    I will not take risks with inflation, and the OBR confirm that the measures I take today make inflation lower next year than it would otherwise have been. I thank the Independent Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee for their crucial role in bringing down inflation.  We will continue to back them to do whatever it takes until the job is done. But as we do, we will continue to support families in difficulty.

    Today I add four further measures to help with the cost of living. Firstly, for those on the lowest incomes. I understand the concerns some have about the effect on work incentives of matching benefit increases to inflation.

    I know there has been some speculation that we would increase benefits next year by the lower October figure for inflation. But cost of living pressures remain at their most acute for the poorest families. So instead, the government has decided to increase Universal Credit and other benefits from next April by 6.7% in line with September’s inflation figure, an average increase of £470 for 5.5m households next year.  Vital support to those on the very lowest incomes.

    Second, because rent can constitute more than half the living costs of private renters on the lowest incomes, I have listened closely to many colleagues as well as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Resolution Foundation, Citizens Advice UK and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation who said unfreezing the Local Housing Allowance was an ‘urgent priority’.

    I will therefore increase the Local Housing Allowance rate to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This will give 1.6 million households an average of £800 of support next year.

    Third, although I am going to increase duty on hand-rolling tobacco by an additional 10% above the tobacco duty escalator, I know that for many people going to the pub has become more expensive. I have listened closely to the persuasive arguments on alcohol duties from my Honourable Friend for Moray and my Rt Hon Friend for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, fierce champions of the Scotch whisky industry. I’ve also listened to defenders of the great British pint such as my Rt Honourable Friends for the Vale of Glamorgan and Buckingham; in my constituency to Councillor Jane Austin who is a big supporter of the Jolly Farmer pub in Bramley; and indeed to The Sun newspaper. So, as well as confirming our Brexit Pubs Guarantee, which means duty on a pint is always lower than in the shops, I have decided to freeze all alcohol duty until August 1st next year. That means no increase in duty on beer, cider, wine or spirits.

    Finally, pensioners. The triple lock has helped lift 250,000 older people out of poverty since it was instituted in 2011 and been a lifeline for many during a period of high inflation.  There have been reports that we would uprate it by a lower amount to smooth out the effect of high public sector bonuses in July, but that would have been particularly difficult for one million pensioners whose only income is from the state.

    So instead, today we honour our commitment to the triple lock in full. From April 2024, we will increase the full new state pension by 8.5% to £221.20 a week, worth up to £900 more a year. That is one of the largest ever cash increases to the state pension – showing this government will always back our pensioners.

    Including today’s measures, our total commitment to easing cost of living pressures has risen to £104 billion. That includes paying around half the cost of the average energy bill since last October and amounts to an average of £3700 per household.

    We are able to do that only because we reduced the deficit by 80% ahead of the pandemic.

    Borrowing and debt

    Next, I turn to my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister’s pledge to reduce debt.  Before I took difficult decisions at last year’s Autumn Statement, debt was predicted to rise to almost 100% of GDP by the end of the forecast. Since then, the economy has outperformed expectations and I have taken difficult decisions to reduce borrowing. As a result, headline debt is now predicted to be 94% of GDP by the end of the forecast. The OBR today forecast underlying debt will be 91.6% of GDP next year, 92.7% in 2024-25, 93.2% in 2026-27, before declining in the final two years of the forecast to 92.8% in 2028-29. That is lower in every year compared to forecasts in the Spring. We therefore meet our fiscal rule to have underlying debt falling as a percentage of GDP in the final year of the forecast, with double the headroom compared to the OBR’s March forecast.

    And we continue to have the second lowest government debt in the G7 – lower than the United States, Canada, France, Italy or Japan.

    I turn to borrowing. According to the OBR, borrowing is lower this year and next, and on average across the forecast by £0.7 billion every year compared to the Spring Budget forecasts.  It falls from 4.5% of GDP in 2023-24, to 3.0%, 2.7%, 2.3%, 1.6% and 1.1% in 2028-29. That means we also meet our second fiscal rule – that public sector borrowing must be below 3% of GDP – not just by the final year, but in almost every year of the forecast. Some of this improvement is from higher tax receipts from a stronger economy, but we also maintain a disciplined approach to public spending.

    As I set out in the Spring Budget, resource spending will increase by 1% a year from 2025-26 in real terms and we are sustaining the record 2020 increase in capital spending in cash terms until the end of the forecast. Within this, we will meet our NATO commitment to spend 2% of our GDP on defence, critical at a time of global threats to the international order most notably from Putin’s evil war in Ukraine. We also support a group of people to whom we owe our freedom: our brave veterans. I will extend National Insurance relief for employers of eligible veterans for a further year and provide £10m to support the Veterans’ Places, Pathways and People programme. We have shown that we are prepared to increase funding for vital public services, with record numbers of police officers, doctors, nurses and teachers. We are nearly doubling the numbers of doctors and nurses we train, having given the NHS its first ever long-term workforce plan, as I promised to do a year ago. We are also tackling the greatest single preventable cause of mortality the NHS has to deal with by bringing forward plans for a smokefree generation. But alongside extra funding and support, we need to see reform. We need a more productive state not a bigger one.

    That is why I want the public sector to increase productivity growth by at least half a percent a year, the level at which the size of our state starts to reduce as a proportion of GDP. I have already announced plans to cap and reduce the size of the Civil Service to pre-pandemic levels. Today I pay tribute to the excellent former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt Hon Member for Salisbury, who started our Public Sector Productivity Programme.  It will now be pursued by his formidable successor, the Rt Hon Member for Sevenoaks who has already been with me to meet police, fire and ambulance personnel to understand where bureaucracy is holding them back. Through this vital work we will ensure that over time the growth in public spending is lower than the growth in the economy whilst always protecting the services the public value. I will also provide HMRC with the resources they need to ensure everyone pays the tax they owe, raising an additional £5 billion across the forecast period.

    Growth

    My Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister also promised to grow the economy. Since 2010, we have presided over faster growth than many of our major competitors including Spain, Italy, France, Germany or Japan. But all of us have faced a pandemic and energy shock. As a result, last autumn the OBR forecast a recession in which the economy was expected to shrink by 1.4% in 2023.  Instead, it grew – in fact it has grown faster than the Euro area. Revised numbers from the ONS now say the economy is 1.8% larger than pre-pandemic.

    And looking ahead, the OBR expects the economy to grow by 0.6% this year and 0.7% next year. After that, growth rises to 1.4% in 2025, then 1.9% in 2026, 2% in 2027 and 1.7% in 2028. If we want those numbers to be higher, we need higher productivity.  The private sector is more productive in countries like the United States, Germany and France because it invests more – on average 2 percentage points more of GDP every year. The 110 measures I take today help close that gap by boosting business investment by £20 billion a year. They unlock investment with supply side reforms that back British business in the following areas.

    Growth measures

    Skills

    First, skills. No economy can prosper without investing in the potential of its people.  Despite strong opposition, we took the difficult decisions to reform our schools. England’s 9-10-year-olds are now the 4th best readers in the world and since 2015 our 15–16-year-olds have risen 7 places in the OECD rankings for maths, thanks not least to the efforts of the brilliant Rt Hon Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton. But 9 million adults in England still have low basic literacy or numeracy skills. Last month the Prime Minister set out the new Advanced British Standard to ensure all school leavers reach minimum standards in maths and English.

    So following engagement with Make UK and others, I am announcing funding of £50m over the next two years to pilot ways to increase the number of apprentices in engineering and other key growth sectors.

    Infrastructure, housing and planning

    Next, planning. It takes too long to approve infrastructure projects and business planning applications. Many businesses say they would be willing to pay more if they knew their application would be approved faster. So, from next year, working with the Communities Secretary, I will reform the system to allow local authorities to recover the full costs of major business planning applications in return for being required to meet guaranteed faster timelines. If they fail, fees will be refunded automatically with the application being processed free of charge.

    A prompt service or your money back – just as would be the case in the private sector.

    Many planning applications are for housebuilding so today we take further decisions to unlock the building of more homes. We will invest £110m over this year and next to deliver high quality nutrient mitigation schemes, unlocking 40,000 homes. We will invest £32m to bust the planning backlog and develop fantastic new housing quarters in Cambridge, London and Leeds which will lead to many thousands of additional dwellings. We will allocate £450m to the Local Authority Housing Fund to deliver 2400 new homes. And we will consult on a new Permitted Development Right to allow any house to be converted into two flats provided the exterior remains unaffected.

    It is also taking too long for clean energy businesses to access the electricity grid. So, after talking to businesses such as National Grid, Octopus Energy and SSE, we today publish our full response to the Winser review and Connections Action Plan. These measures will cut grid access delays by 90% and offer up to £10,000 off electricity bills over 10 years for those living closest to new transmission infrastructure. Taken together these planning and grid reforms are estimated to accelerate around £90 billion of additional business investment over the next 10 years.

    FDI

    Next, foreign direct investment. I am extremely grateful to Lord Harrington for his excellent report on how to increase foreign direct investment. We accept all his headline recommendations. In particular, we will put in place a concierge service for large international investors modelled on the best such services offered by our competitors and will increase funding for the Office for Investment to deliver it.

    Pension fund reforms

    I now turn to pension fund reforms that will increase the flow of capital going to our most promising growth companies in a way that also improves outcomes for savers. I will take forward my Mansion House reforms starting with measures to consolidate the industry. By 2030, the majority of workplace DC savers will have their pension pots managed in schemes of over £30 billion and by 2040 all local government pension funds will be invested in pools of £200 billion or more.

    I will support the establishment of investment vehicles for pension funds to use including through the LIFTS competition, a new Growth Fund run by the British Business Bank and opening the PPF as an investment vehicle for smaller DB pension schemes.

    I will also consult on giving savers a legal right to require a new employer to pay pension contributions into their existing pension pot if they choose, meaning people can move to having one pension pot for life. These reforms could help unlock an extra £75 billion of financing for high growth companies by 2030 and provide an extra £1000 a year in retirement for an average earner saving from 18.

    Alongside this, I am also progressing further capital market reforms to boost the attractiveness of our markets, and the UK one of the most attractive places to start, grow and list a company. As part of this I will explore options for a Natwest retail share offer in the next 12 months subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money. It’s time to get Sid investing again.

    Innovation industries

    Next, I move on to measures to support our most innovative industries. In the last decade we have grown to become…

    …the third largest technology sector in the world, double the size of Germany and three times the size of France

    …the biggest life sciences industry in Europe

    …Europe’s third largest generator of renewable electricity after Germany or Norway

    … and the eighth largest manufacturer in the world

    When it comes to tech, we know that AI will be at the heart of any future growth. I want to make sure our universities, scientists and start-ups can access the compute power they need.

    So, building on the success of the supercomputing centres in Edinburgh and Bristol, I will invest a further £500m over the next two years to fund further innovation centres to help make us an AI powerhouse. Our creative industries already support Europe’s largest film and TV sector. This year’s all-Californian blockbuster Barbie was filmed in the constituency of the Hon Member for Watford, where the sun always shines. I know that even more could be invested in visual effects if we increased the generosity of the film and high-end TV tax credits, so I will today launch a call for evidence on how to make that happen. British-discovered vaccines and treatments saved more lives across the world during the pandemic than those from any other country and I’m incredibly proud of our Life Sciences industry. To further support research and development, I am creating a new simplified R&D tax relief, combining the existing R&D Expenditure Credit and SME schemes.

    I will also reduce the rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged scheme from 25% to 19% and lower the threshold for the additional support for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs that I announced in Spring, to 30%, benefiting a further 5,000 SMEs.  And because 2028 marks the centenary of the invention of penicillin by Alexander Fleming I am giving £5m to Imperial College and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to set up a Fleming Centre to inspire the next generation of world-changing innovations.

    For our advanced manufacturing and green energy sectors, international investors say the biggest thing we can do is to announce a longer-term strategy for their industries.

    So, with the Secretaries of State for Business and Trade and Energy Security and Net Zero, I am today publishing those plans. I confirm that we will make available £4.5 billion of support over the 5 years to 2030 to attract investment into strategic manufacturing sectors.

    That includes support of £2 billion for zero emission investments in the automotive sector, something that has been warmly welcomed by Nissan and Toyota; £975m for aerospace, building on decades of success from firms like Airbus and Rolls Royce; and £520m for life sciences to build on the strength of world-class British pharma companies like AstraZeneca and GSK.  We will also provide £960m for the new Green Industries Growth Accelerator focused on offshore wind, electricity networks, nuclear, CCUS and hydrogen. These targeted investments will ensure the UK remains competitive in sectors where we are already leaders and innovative in areas where we are not. Taken together across our fastest-growing innovation sectors, this support alone will attract an estimated £2 billion of additional investment every year over the next decade.

    Levelling up

    One of the reasons we support our manufacturing and clean energy sectors is they help to level up growth across the United Kingdom, so I now turn to further levelling up measures.  In the Spring, I announced that we would deliver 12 new Investment Zones – 12 mini-Canary Wharfs – where government, industry and research institutes collaborate across the UK.  Since then, the Exchequer Secretary – the Hon Member for Grantham and Stamford – has done outstanding work across government to bring this vision to fruition. Following tenacious representations by the Hon Member for Ynys Mon and the unstoppable Mayor of Tees Valley, I have today decided to extend the financial incentives for Investment Zones and tax reliefs for Freeports from 5 years to 10 years. I will also set up a new £150m Investment Opportunity Fund to catalyse investment into the programme.

    On Monday, I confirmed a new Investment Zone in West Yorkshire. Today having listened to representations from the West Midlands salesman-in-Chief, Andy Street, as well as the Hon Member for Mansfield and the Hon Member for Bury North I am also announcing three further Investment Zones focused on advanced manufacturing in the West Midlands, East Midlands and Greater Manchester. Together, local partners expect these will help catalyse over £3.4 billion of private investment and 65,000 new jobs.

    And having listened to the Hon Member for Wrexham and the Hon Member for Clwyd South, I can announce a second Investment Zone in Wales in the fantastic region of Wrexham and Flintshire, which I will visit tomorrow. We are publishing new devolution deals with four areas including Hull and East Yorkshire and offering devolved powers to even more county areas.

    On Monday we saw the announcement of £1 billion of funding through Round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund, supporting projects following the campaigning efforts of the Members for Keighley, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Scunthorpe …and of course, Mr Speaker, Chorley.

    I can also confirm we will proceed with over £50m of funding for high-quality regeneration projects in communities such as Bolsover, Monmouthshire, Warrington, and Eden Valley all of which have particularly effective local MPs as their champions.

    And I’m announcing £80m for new Levelling Up Partnerships in Scotland, £500,000 to support the Hay Festival in Wales and £3m of additional funding to support the successful Tackling Paramilitarism programme in Northern Ireland.

    Small businesses

    Next small business. I ran my own one for 14 years and have always known that every big business was a small business once. The Federation of Small Businesses say that the biggest thing I could do to help their members is end the scourge of late payments. The Procurement Act we have passed means that the 30-day payment terms which are already set for public sector contracts will automatically apply throughout the sub-contract supply chain.

    But from April 2024 I will also introduce a condition that any company bidding for large government contracts should demonstrate they pay their own invoices within an average of 55 days, which will reduce progressively to 30 days. Any small business will also tell you the biggest frustration is the tax you pay before making a penny of profit – not least business rates. This government has already taken a third of properties out of rates completely through Small Business Rates Relief. We have frozen the tax rate for the last three years at a cost of £14.5 billion. We have removed downwards caps from Transitional Relief.

    And for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses we have introduced a one year 75% discount on business rates up to £110,000. These measures have saved the average independent shop over £20,000. It is not possible to continue with temporary support measures forever. But whilst the standard multiplier, which applies to high-value properties, will rise in line with inflation, I have today decided that we will freeze the small business multiplier for a further year. And following extensive discussions with the FSB and many colleagues in the House, I have also decided to extend the 75% business rates discount for Retail Hospitality and Leisure businesses for another year. This will save the average independent pub over £12,800 next year and at a cost of £4.3 billion, it is a large tax cut which recognises the role of pubs and high street shops in our communities. I thank the Members for Stockton South, Barrow and Furness and East Devon for their tenacious campaigning on this issue.

    Finally, I turn to the smallest of all businesses – those run by the self-employed. These are the people who literally kept our country running during the pandemic. The plumbers who fixed our boilers in lockdowns. The delivery drivers who brought us our shopping. The farmers who kept food on our plates. As part of our plans to grow the economy I want to reform and simplify the taxes paid by the self-employed. So today I am announcing a major reform of one of those taxes. It is one most people haven’t heard of, but it is a big deal for those who have to pay it. Class 2 National Insurance is a flat rate compulsory charge, currently £3.45 a week, paid by self-employed people earning more than £12,570 which gives state pension entitlement. Today, after careful consideration and in recognition of the contribution made by self-employed people to our country, I can announce we are abolishing Class 2 National Insurance altogether, saving the average self-employed person £192 a year.

    Access to entitlements and credits will be maintained in full and those who choose to pay voluntarily will still be able to do so.  But this change simplifies and cuts tax for nearly 2 million self-employed people whilst protecting the interests of those on the lowest pay. Because we value their work, I’m also taking one further step for the self-employed. They also pay Class 4 National Insurance at 9% on all earnings between £12,570 and £50,270. Today, I have decided to cut that tax by 1 percentage point to 8% from April. Taken together with the abolition of the compulsory Class 2 Charge, these reforms will save around 2 million self-employed people an average of £350 a year from April.

    Mr Speaker, we are backing small business by freezing their business rates, extending retail, hospitality and leisure relief, abolishing compulsory Class 2 National Insurance payments and reducing Class 4 National Insurance by one percentage point in today’s Autumn Statement for growth. Small businesses work so hard for us, so tis government is working hard for them.

    Full expensing

    I turn now to my final measure to back British business, Mr Speaker. Since 2010, we have seen the second highest growth in investment of any G7 country.  However, if we are to raise productivity, we need to increase business investment further. In 2021, my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister introduced the super-deduction for large businesses to further stimulate business investment, and this Spring, I introduced “full expensing” for three years.

    This means that for every million pounds a company invests, they get £250,000 off their tax bill in the very same year.

    The CBI, Make UK, Energy UK and 200 other business leaders from companies including BT Open Reach, Siemens and Bosch have said making this measure permanent would the “single most transformational” thing I could do for business investment and growth. The Centre for Policy Studies say it would ‘maximise business investment, boost productivity and deliver higher levels of GDP.’ But because it costs £11 billion a year, I made clear that I would only do so when it was affordable. Well, with inflation halved… borrowing down… and debt falling, today I deliver on that promise. I will today make full expensing permanent. That is the largest business tax cut in modern British history. It means we have not just the lowest headline corporation tax rate in the G7 but its most generous capital allowances.

    The OBR say it will increase annual investment by around £3 billion a year and a total of £14 billion over the forecast period. The way to back British business is to increase the incentives to invest.  We do that today by introducing one of the most generous tax reliefs anywhere in the world, a huge boost to British competitiveness in an Autumn Statement for Growth. Skills, planning and infrastructure reform, pension fund reform, support for innovation industries, levelling up, backing small business and full expensing… Taken together, the overall impact of today’s growth measures will be to increase business investment in the UK economy by around £20 billion a year within a decade, nearly 1% of GDP at today’s level. That is the biggest ever boost for business investment in modern times, a decisive step towards closing the productivity gap with other major economies and the most effective way we can raise wages and living standards for every family in the country.

    Work

    As well as backing business, you need to back the people without whose effort no businesses can succeed. The entrepreneur taking risks. The builder working weekends. The nurse working nights. And the jobseeker leaving benefits behind. I therefore conclude with three further supply-side reforms designed to improve the incentives to work in a modern, dynamic economy.

    Welfare

    I begin with welfare, and I start by thanking the outstanding Work and Pensions Secretary for his help in developing these reforms. He builds on the work of my Rt Hon Friend for Chingford and Woodford Green who introduced Universal Credit. Those reforms helped to reduce unemployment, which has fallen by over one million.  But post-pandemic we still have over seven million adults of working age, excluding students, who are not working despite nearly one million vacancies in the economy. Many can and want to work – but our system makes that too hard.

    In the Spring Budget I introduced 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of 1- & 2-year-olds. That plan, still opposed by the party opposite, starts rolling out in April. It will help tens of thousands of parents return to work without having to worry about damaging their career prospects.

    Today we focus on helping those with sickness or disability and the long term unemployed. Every year we sign off over 100,000 people onto benefits with no requirement to look for work because of sickness or disability. That waste of potential is wrong economically and wrong morally. So, with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, last week I announced our Back to Work Plan. We will reform the Fit Note process so that treatment rather than time off work becomes the default. We will reform the Work Capability Assessment to reflect greater flexibility and availability of home working after the pandemic. And we will spend £1.3 billion over the next five years to help nearly 700,000 people with health conditions find jobs. Over 180,000 more people will be helped through the Universal Support Programme and nearly 500,000 more people will be offered treatment for mental health conditions and employment support.

    Over the forecast period, the OBR judge these measures will more than halve the net flow of people who are signed off work with no work search requirements. At the same time, we will provide a further £1.3 billion of funding to offer extra help to the 300,000 people who have been unemployed for over a year without having sickness or a disability.

    But we will ask for something in return. If after 18 months of intensive support jobseekers have not found a job, we will roll out a programme requiring them to take part in a mandatory work placement to increase their skills and improve their employability. And if they choose not to engage with the work search process for six months, we will close their case and stop their benefits. Taken together with the labour supply measures I announced in the Spring, the OBR say we will increase the number of people in work by around 200,000 at the end of the forecast period, permanently increasing the size of the economy. We should unlock the potential we have right here at home, which we do with the biggest set of welfare reforms in a decade in today’s Autumn Statement for Growth.

    Ending low pay

    Mr Speaker, if we are to incentivise work, we must also tackle low pay. People who get up early, put in the hours and work hard for their families deserve to be paid fairly. Since 2010, those on the minimum wage – now the National Living Wage – have seen their hourly wage go up from £5.80/hour to £10.42/hour. That’s a real terms increase of more than 20%. Because we’ve also doubled the threshold at which you pay tax or national insurance, their after-tax income has gone up not by 20% but by 25% – more than any other income group.

    Today, I confirm we will go further and accept the Low Pay Commission recommendation to increase the National Living Wage by 9.8% to £11.44 an hour.

    That is the largest ever cash increase in the National Living Wage, worth up to £1800 for a full-time worker. Since the National Living Wage has been introduced, the proportion of people on low pay, defined as earning less than two thirds of national median hourly income, has halved. But at the new rate of £11.44 an hour it delivers our manifesto commitment to eliminate low pay altogether. That means by next year someone working full time on the National Living Wage will see their real take-home after-tax pay go up not by 25% but by 30% compared to 2010. The best way to tackle poverty is through work. By reforming the welfare system, reducing workless households and tackling low pay we have helped lift 1.7 million people out of absolute poverty since 2010 because a central part of our plan for growth is to make work pay.

    Tax

    And so I move to the final supply side measure in today’s Autumn Statement for Growth. Because of the difficult decisions we have taken in the last year, today’s OBR forecast shows that…

    …borrowing will be lower than forecast in the Spring …

    … debt as a proportion of GDP will be lower than forecast in the Spring…

    … inflation will continue to fall…

    …and our fiscal headroom has doubled.

    I said we would cut taxes when we could – but only responsibly and only in a way that did not fuel inflation. The OBR today confirm I can deliver a package which does just that. For businesses, I have today delivered the biggest business tax cut in modern British history with the most competitive investment allowances of any large economy.

    For the self-employed, I have simplified and reformed their taxes by abolishing the compulsory Class 2 charge and cutting Class 4 National Insurance. But high employment taxes on 27 million people working in the public and private sectors also disincentivise the hard work we should be encouraging. On top of income tax at 20%, they pay 12% National Insurance on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 – that’s a 32% marginal tax rate. If we want people to get up early in the morning, if we want people to work nights, if we want an economy where people go the extra mile and work hard then we need to recognise that their hard work benefits all of us. So today, Mr Speaker, I am going to cut the main 12% rate of employee National Insurance.

    If I cut it by 1 percentage point to 11%, that would be an extra £225 in the pockets of the average worker every year. But instead, I’m going to go further and cut the main rate of Employee National insurance by 2 percentage points from 12% to 10%. This change will help 27 million people. It means someone on the average salary of £35,000 will save over £450. For the average nurse, it is a saving of over £520 and for the typical police officer it is a saving of over £630 every single year. Mr Speaker, I would normally bring in a measure like this for the start of the new tax year in April, but instead tomorrow I’m introducing urgent legislation to bring it in from January 6th, so that people can see the benefit in their payslips at the start of the new year.

    The OBR say reducing a tax on work means more people in work – and today’s measures ON JUDT National Insurance will lead to the equivalent of 94,000 more full-time employees in our economy. Because lower tax means higher growth.

    We cut taxes to help bigger businesses invest. We cut taxes to help smaller businesses grow. We cut taxes for the self-employed who keep our country running.

    And from January, we cut taxes for 27 million working people whose hard work drives our economy forward.

    Conclusion

    Mr Speaker, the best universities, the cleverest scientists and the smartest entrepreneurs have given us Europe’s most innovative economy. We can be the most prosperous too.

    In the face of global challenges, we have halved inflation, reduced our debt and grown our economy. As a country we are sticking to a plan that is working. This Autumn Statement for Growth will attract £20 billion additional business investment a year in the next decade…

    … bring tens of thousands more people into work

    … and support our fastest growing industries.

    In a package which leaves borrowing lower…

    … debt lower…

    … and keeps inflation falling…

    We are delivering…

    … the biggest business tax cut in modern British history…

    … the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed National Insurance…

    … and the biggest package of tax cuts to be implemented since the 1980s.

    An Autumn Statement for a country that has turned a corner.

    An Autumn Statement for Growth, which I commend to the House.

  • Rishi Sunak – 2023 Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet

    Rishi Sunak – 2023 Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet

    The speech made by Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, at the Guildhall in London on 13 November 2023.

    My Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    These are deeply challenging times for our world.

    Events far beyond our shores echo here at home with implications for our security, our economy, and our very social fabric.

    It falls to us to do everything we can to shape these events.

    And so, we’ve delivered one of the most significant years for British foreign policy in recent times.

    That’s due in no small part to James Cleverly.

    I know he’ll bring the same vigour to the equally vital job of Home Secretary.

    And I’m pleased to have appointed a new Foreign Secretary who will build on everything we’ve achieved in the last year…

    A year in which we’ve gone further than ever to support Ukraine as the first G7 nation to move on sending tanks first to send long-range weapons and first to step up on training pilots.

    In the last few weeks, I’ve travelled to Cyprus, Jerusalem, Riyadh and Cairo, to respond to the crisis in the Middle East and I’m in constant contact with leaders across the region.

    Since we last gathered here a year ago, we’ve secured the Windsor Framework with the EU launched AUKUS with the US and Australia, building one of the most advanced submarines the world has ever known…

    …signed the Hiroshima Accord with Japan, and the Atlantic Declaration with the US…

    …secured membership of the CPTPP, which will drive global growth…

    …delivered returns agreements to tackle illegal migration – an approach now being followed by many others…

    …and brokered the first international statement on the risks of Artificial Intelligence – including the US and China, something many thought impossible.

    But these treaties and alliances speak to something deeper:

    Our willingness to act…

    to shape the world, not be shaped by it…

    …wherever there’s a challenge, wherever there’s a threat, wherever we can promote peace and security.

    That’s why we’ve deployed troops to Kosovo, supporting stability in the Balkans.

    20,000 servicemen and women are on their way to protect NATO’s eastern flank and the high north.

    Royal Navy vessels are in the Middle East to deter further escalation.

    And vital humanitarian aid is reaching civilians in Gaza, and across the Horn of Africa – funded by the British people.

    This is who we are.

    The difference we make, every single day, across the world, should make each and every one of us here tonight enormously proud.

    We’re hard-headed about our interests and our security.

    But Britain’s realism has always had values, and this is a moment for moral clarity.

    My Lord Mayor,

    The past is trying to stop the future being born.

    What motivated Hamas to launch their horrific attack on Israel?

    It wasn’t just hatred – it was also their fear that a new Middle East was being born…

    …one that would see Israel normalising relations with its neighbours, and which gave hope for a better, more secure, more prosperous way forward.

    Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

    Because Putin feared the emergence of a modern, reforming, thriving democracy on his doorstep – and wanted to pull it back into some imperialist fantasy of the past.

    So, we must keep alive the promise of a better future, bolster those striving for it and stand up for the innocents who Russia see as targets and Hamas see as human shields.

    I recall those lines from Yeats:

    “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere, the ceremony of innocence is drowned… the best lack all conviction, while the worst, are full of passionate intensity.”

    That’s what our adversaries believe.

    So, we will outmatch them with our conviction and intensity.

    We must and we will prove them wrong.

    Let me set out what that means – in Ukraine, in how we help the most vulnerable around the world and in the Middle East – a region whose tragedy and heartbreak hang heavy on us all.

    In Israel, I met the families of British victims.

    I sat with them, held their hands, and saw the profound pain in their eyes.

    I heard the existential fear that Israelis are feeling.

    Their country was founded to ensure that what happened in the Holocaust could never happen again.

    Hamas poses a fundamental challenge to that idea.

    Hamas have stated clearly: “We will repeat the October 7 attack time and time again until Israel is annihilated.”

    Last week was the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

    And as we see hatred rising, we all have a responsibility to meet the promise of the words that in recent days have lit up the Brandenburg Gate:

    “Never again is now.”

    So, Israel must be able to defend itself against terror, restore its security and bring the hostages home.

    But there are things that Israel must do as part of its response.

    We’ve been clear they must act within international law.

    They must take all possible measures to protect innocent civilians, including at hospitals, stop extremist violence in the West Bank and allow more aid into Gaza.

    Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, described to me the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people.

    Too many civilians are losing their lives.

    That’s why I’ve doubled our aid to Gaza and why we continue to press – both at the UN and directly with Israel – for unhindered humanitarian access and urgent and substantive humanitarian pauses.

    We want aid coming in by land, air and sea – and we’re ready to use our bases in Cyprus as a staging post.

    Alleviating the suffering is our foremost priority.

    But we need to do more – to create a new political horizon.

    We must unite around the only answer that can come close to creating peace in those troubled lands.

    The only answer that can acknowledge the history and hurt of both peoples.

    The only answer that can allow a new future to be born and that is a two-state solution.

    The UK wrote the original UN resolutions setting this out.

    We’ve argued the case for decades.

    But now we must help make it a reality.

    So, to the UK’s friends across the region, like Jordan, Egypt, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, who support normalisation and peaceful co-existence and to our communities at home…

    …I pledge to redouble efforts to this end.

    That means providing the serious, practical and enduring support needed to bolster the Palestinian Authority because they are the best route to sweep away the terrible scourge of Hamas and all it has wrought.

    As hard as it may be, no matter the obstacles, we must put the region on the path to a genuine peace.

    We’re also supporting a better future for Ukraine.

    And let me tell you this: the last year has shown that Russia cannot win.

    They tried to blockade Ukrainian shipping routes – and they failed.

    Ukraine has pushed back the Black Sea Fleet and made Crimea a vulnerability for Putin rather than a strength.

    Russia is mounting its third wave of attacks on Avdiivka – and again they continue to fail, at horrendous cost.

    Since their invasion, Russia has suffered over a quarter of a million casualties…

    Half of the territory they seized has been taken back…

    And Putin has faced a more united response than he ever imagined.

    He’s ensured defence spending is rising across Europe, led by the UK…

    He’s fast-tracked Finland into NATO, with Sweden close behind…

    And he’s seen an armed rebellion marching on Moscow.

    It’s a self-inflicted strategic calamity.

    Putin’s vain hope is that we lose patience but, friends, we never will.

    Instead, we’re providing more air defence to protect Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure, more help for the long, hard winter and we’re going further.

    In February at the Munich Security Conference, I argued Ukraine needs long-term security assurances.

    And in July, allies delivered.

    Following the NATO summit, over 30 other leaders joined us in agreeing to put assurances in place.

    Together we’ll strengthen Ukraine’s defence and boost their economy so they can thrive even while they fight to regain their territory.

    And, to do so, Ukraine needs the City of London.

    It needs all of you, it needs expertise and capital – and war risk insurance to support trade and investment and keep the ships moving.

    I know you’ll deliver.

    And so will the government – building Ukraine’s navy, training their pilots, and training their soldiers.

    We’ve now trained over 50,000 Ukrainian troops.

    President Zelenskyy and I went to meet some of them earlier this year.

    I recall sitting together on a Chinook flying to the south coast.

    Over the din of the rotors, we chatted and shared family photos.

    It was a moment of normality in an abnormal setting – and a reminder of what unites us.

    In the face of aggression, we will always protect our values and all we hold dear.

    We will stand with Ukraine until they prevail.

    Finally, to deliver a better future, we must lead not just with strength, but with compassion, helping the poorest and tackling global problems.

    So, while Russia seeks to starve the world by choking off food supplies – we’re helping Ukraine get their food to those who need it most.

    And next week we’re hosting an international conference on alleviating global hunger.

    While some load the poorest nations with unsustainable debt, the UK is driving fundamental reforms of development finance, including a capital increase for the World Bank.

    While some talk down our record on climate, we’re actually a world leader, cutting emissions faster than any other G7 country…

    …and with $2 billion recently announced for the Green Climate Fund, I’ve delivered the biggest single international climate pledge the UK has ever made.

    We’re also a leading donor to global health initiatives, helping vaccinate over a billion children, saving millions of lives.

    But we bring more to the table than funding – we also bring our expertise.

    Right now, the world’s first ever malaria vaccine is being rolled out across Africa – with the second one following soon.

    It has dramatically cut early child mortality.

    And where were both of those vaccines developed?

    Right here in the UK.

    We don’t talk about it enough, but every day Britain is out there helping the poorest and most vulnerable, saving and transforming lives.

    So, I say it again – this is who we are, and it should make us proud.

    My Lord Mayor,

    When conflicts overseas create division at home, it’s more important than ever that we preserve the values we hold dear – tolerance, free speech, the rule of law, respect for our history.

    We’ll protect all communities from violence and intimidation.

    And prevent people being drawn into radicalisation.

    In these dangerous times, we’re not just defending a better vision of the future against those who would destroy it, we’re marshalling our expertise, our people, and our alliances to bring that future into being.

    We’ll continue to stand up for what is right.

    We’ll stand with our allies and with the most vulnerable, wherever they may be.

    We’ll show that the best is full of conviction and that our values will prevail.

    Thank you.

  • Therese Coffey – 2023 Letter of Resignation sent to Rishi Sunak

    Therese Coffey – 2023 Letter of Resignation sent to Rishi Sunak

    The letter of resignation sent by Therese Coffey to Rishi Sunak on 13 November 2023.

    Resignation Letter (in .pdf format)

  • Rishi Sunak – 2023 Statement on Armistice Day protests

    Rishi Sunak – 2023 Statement on Armistice Day protests

    The statement made by Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, on 11 November 2023.

    I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine. The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.

    Remembrance weekend is a time for us to come together as a nation and remember those who fought and died for our freedoms. What we have seen today does not defend the honour of our Armed Forces, but utterly disrespects them.

    That is true for EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today’s protest. The fear and intimidation the Jewish Community have experienced over the weekend is deplorable.

    All criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law. That is what I told the Met Police Commissioner on Wednesday, that is what they are accountable for and that is what I expect.

    I will be meeting the Met Police Commissioner in the coming days.