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Tag: 2022 Labour Party Conference

  • Jo Stevens – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Jo Stevens – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Jo Stevens on 26 September 2022.

    Chair, Conference, thank you.

    It’s wonderful to be back in Liverpool. A great city with a great heart and on a clear day, great views of Wales too.

    It’s a real honour to address conference, as Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Wales.

    Firstly, I want to thank our Welsh Labour staff who always go above and beyond for our Party.

    And our wonderful Shadow Wales team in Parliament – Gerald Jones, Jessica Morden and, in the House of Lords, Debbie Wilcox.

    But I particularly want to thank all of our Welsh Labour MPs.

    There are 22 of us, all working hard every single day for people in Wales, as part of our strong, united and determined team of Welsh Labour representatives across our Councils, Senedd and Parliament.

    From Mark Tami in the North to Tonia Antoniazzi in the Southwest – every single one of our Welsh Labour MPs makes a difference for the people we represent.

    And talking about making a difference, who better to exemplify that than our brilliant Deputy Leader of Welsh Labour, Carolyn Harris.

    A campaigning machine.

    Through her children’s funeral fund campaign Carolyn achieved something remarkable for bereaved families in the worst possible circumstances of their lives.

    Not just in Wales, but in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland too. And she didn’t stop there.

    Now, both women and men, for the first time in my life, are talking at home, in workplaces and across the media about the menopause.

    About its impact on women and the need to improve healthcare, medical training and employment practices.

    Carolyn has helped to change women’s lives because of this.

    Carolyn – from all of us – thank you. We are very lucky to have you.

    Conference – this year marks 100 years of Labour winning the majority of seats in Wales in every single general election.

    It is a remarkable achievement and reflects Wales’s central role in the history of our Party and across our Labour and Trade Union movement.

    We also celebrate 23 years of devolution in Wales.

    Devolution delivered by a Labour government to the people of Wales who have put their trust in us at every Senedd election since and know that we are on their side.

    But we never take a single vote for granted. We have to earn every vote.

    None of those election successes could have been achieved without your help and support.

    To everyone across our Labour and Trade Union movement who has given their time and effort campaigning all year round to help win elections – and persuaded others to do the same – thank you. You are brilliant. And I know you will continue being brilliant.

    Whether it’s in a general election, Senedd or our hugely successful Council elections earlier this year – following which the Tories don’t run a single Council in Wales – people in Wales see that Labour is working for them.

    We listen, we share values and aspirations, we earn trust, and we deliver for Wales as a team.
    And in the most difficult of times – during the pandemic and now during the Conservative cost of living crisis – people across the UK can look to Wales to see the difference that a Labour government makes.

    No reckless Tory borrowing billions instead of taxing the £170bn excess profits of the oil and gas producers, or scrapping the cap on investment bankers’ bonuses – our Labour government in Wales is using every lever it has, to put money back in the pockets of people who need it most.

    • Extending free school meals and providing free breakfasts
    • A real living wage for social care workers
    • Help with council tax bills
    • Giving students the best deal anywhere in the UK
    • Extending our childcare offer to parents in training and education

    Labour is building our stronger, fairer, greener Wales.

    And there’ll be no Tory fracking in Wales, Conference.

    Wales will play its part in powering the UK economy with renewable energy creating the stronger, fairer, greener Britain that Rachel Reeves spoke so brilliantly about this morning.

    But our job, Conference, our job, is to make sure that we get Keir into 10 Downing Street leading a UK Labour government working hand in hand with our Welsh Labour government.

    So Conference, it gives me such pleasure to welcome my friend and Cardiff neighbour – our brilliant Welsh Labour leader and First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Rachel Reeves – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 26 September 2022.

    Thank you, Conference.

    It is a privilege to stand here as your Shadow Chancellor, under Keir Starmer’s leadership. But I know what a responsibility this is too. We are facing a national emergency.

    Energy prices, up. The cost of the weekly food shop, up.

    People’s wages not keeping up.

    On Friday, the Chancellor had an opportunity to set out a serious response to the cost-of-living crisis.

    And he failed.

    What did we get instead? A tax cut for the wealthiest one percent. Increased bankers’ bonuses.

    And more than £50 billion piled onto the national debt every single year, because of their reckless decision to put all the costs onto borrowing.

    They didn’t just break their own fiscal rules for the tenth time in twelve years. In one go, they borrowed more than in any budget since 1972, with inflation already high, and interest rates already rising.

    The message from financial markets was clear on Friday and this morning that message is even more stark: Sterling is down. That means higher prices as the costs of imports rise.

    The cost of government borrowing is up, that means more taxpayers’ money will go into paying the interest on government debt.

    And in turn, that means the cost of borrowing for working people will now go up too, with higher mortgage repayments for families.

    And all for what?

    Not to invest in the industries of the future. Not for our NHS. Not for our schools. But for tax cuts for the wealthiest. A return to a trickle-down idea that has been tried, has been tested, and has failed.

    Why should my constituents in Leeds West pay for tax cuts for those who are already the wealthiest? It’s not what anyone voted for. It’s putting our economy in danger.

    And Labour will fight it every step of the way.

    Let me tell you what I believe: I believe that hard work should be met with fair reward. I believe that strong public services are the backbone of any decent society. I believe that inequality divides and holds us back as a country. I believe that the task of building a fairer society is a moral responsibility.

    And more than that: it is the route to a stronger economy. That truth is at the heart of Labour’s plans for growth.

    Today, I want to tell you why.

     

    Last April, on a cold spring evening, I knocked on the door of a pensioner in my constituency.

    When I reached out to shake her hand, it was purple and freezing cold.

    Already back then, she was afraid to put the heating on, struggling to get by on the small pension that she had built up through a lifetime of work.

    As energy bills and inflation rise even higher, I often think of her.

    That is the stark reality facing people all around our country today.

    While the Prime Minister spent months denying the need for action on energy prices, Labour was calling for a freeze on the energy price cap. Labour was calling for an end to the indefensible premium paid by families with pre-payment meters. And crucially, Labour was calling for a windfall tax on the unimaginable profits being made by oil and gas companies, so that working people didn’t have to foot the bill.

    But the Prime Minister is content to let energy giants pocket the cash, and leave your children and your grandchildren to pick up the tab.

    Under these Tories, those with the broadest shoulders carry the lightest load. And not by accident, but by choice.

    It is time for a government that is on your side, and that government is a Labour government.

     

    The effects of Putin’s war have reverberated around the world, and we will not waver in our support for Ukraine.

    The causes of this crisis are global. But our unique exposure to rising energy prices is a result of the choices of Conservative governments.

    Inaction on insulating homes. Inaction on nuclear and renewable energy. And the sheer irresponsibility of closing our gas storage facilities.

    We are feeling the consequences of a twelve-year Tory experiment, in unilateral energy disarmament. And what’s their answer?

    Lifting the ban on fracking.

    Fracking is dangerous. It is bad for the planet. It won’t even reduce our bills.

    And with Labour it will not happen.

    Here is our alternative. Our Green Prosperity Plan, to provide the only sustainable solution to the energy crisis. To free ourselves from dependence on Russia. To invest in solar, in wind, in tidal, in hydrogen, and in nuclear power. And to pass onto our children a fairer and a greener country.

    This is a moral responsibility. And it’s an economic necessity.

    On climate change, the costs of inaction today will mean far greater costs tomorrow. I refuse to leave our children to pick up the pieces of our failure.

    I will be a responsible Chancellor. I will be Britain’s first green Chancellor.

    Ed Miliband has just set out how the next Labour government will cut energy bills for good by generating all of our electricity from clean sources by 2030.

    But our Green Prosperity Plan is about something else too: it is about economic growth. Because British businesses are falling behind in a global race for new industries.

    And that matters.

    It matters that the largest offshore wind farm in Scotland has its blades made not in Scotland but thousands of miles away.

    It matters that the rest of Europe is powering ahead with electric battery factories, and we are stuck in the slow lane.

    It matters that Germany, France, and the US are making the running with green hydrogen but we are not.

    We have the ability. But we want the jobs here. We want the factories here. And we want British businesses to take the lead.

    Here is the deal:

    The next Labour Government will create a National Wealth Fund, so that when we invest in new industries.

    In partnership with business, the British people will own a share of that wealth, and the taxpayer will get a return on that investment.

    Wealth flowing from jobs in electric battery factories, in the West Midlands, the North East, the North West, and the South West.

    Offshore wind driving investment in our ports: from the Humber to Southampton, East Anglia to Belfast.

    Clean steel with jobs in Rotherham, Sheffield, Scunthorpe, Cardiff, and Port Talbot.

    And carbon capture and storage in our industrial heartlands, in Grangemouth and in South Wales, in Humber and in Teesside, and here in Merseyside too.

    Because when I say I want to buy, make, and sell more in Britain, I mean it.

    What you will see in your town, in your city, with Labour is a sight we have not seen often enough in our country.

    Cranes going up, shovels in the ground. The sounds and the sights of the future arriving.

    Secure, skilled jobs, for plumbers, electricians, and joiners, for designers, scientists, and engineers.

    Wealth that will flow back into your community and onto your high street. Wealth that the British people will own a stake in.

    Wealth that is invested in our country’s future. That is a real plan for the climate. That is a real plan for growth.

    And that is a real plan for levelling up. A zero-carbon economy – made right here. Made in Britain.

    It is time for a government that is on your side, and that government is a Labour government.

     

    And what about the Tories? Six different plans for growth in twelve years, each announced to great fanfare. Each making no difference.

    A library of failure. They’ve had twelve years.

    Have they got growth up? No.

    Have they got inflation down? No.

    Have they got child poverty down? No.

    Have they got NHS waiting lists down? No.

    Have they even got the debt and deficit down? No.

    It’s twelve years of failure.

    And now?

    They have replaced ‘levelling up’ with ‘trickle down’. An economic philosophy inadequate to a modern world, and a moral philosophy inadequate to a decent society.

    Trickle-down economics is a very simple idea. That if we just slash taxes and regulation, we will ‘unleash’ business investment and growth. That how wealth is shared doesn’t matter.

    That vast gaps between people and places are of no importance. That workers’ rights, consumer protections and strong public services are all worth sacrificing.

    That wealth is only created by a few people and a few businesses. It is why at the same time that ministers lecture low-paid workers about showing restraint, they can’t restrain themselves from removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses.

    I dare any Tory MP to tell a nurse or a care worker to their face, that what our country really needs right now is bigger bonuses for bankers.

    Trickle down is a very simple idea – and a very wrong one. Not just wrong because it isn’t fair. Wrong too because it doesn’t work.

    Trickle down is wrong because how wealth is shared does matter to growth. High inequality strangles the spending power of working people, it piles its social costs onto our public services, and it suffocates potential.

    Trickle down is wrong because, in a turbulent world, businesses need government as a partner. Trickle down is wrong because strong institutions and robust public finances provide the foundations for a strong economy.

    And trickle down is wrong, because a strong economy needs strong public services.

    We will defeat the failed ideas of the past, with the focus, the ambition, and the ideas for the future.

     

    Here’s the truth:

    Wealth doesn’t trickle from the top down. It comes from the bottom up, and the middle out.

    From the talent and the effort of tens of millions of ordinary people, and from thousands of businesses. Our economy needs the most productive, most high-tech businesses to thrive in Britain.

    And we all rely on what I call the everyday economy, on transport workers and delivery drivers, our supermarket and retail workers, our NHS and care workers. Don’t let anyone tell you that they are not wealth creators too.

    They are key to our security as a society. And yet too many of them are among the most insecure.

    Overworked. Underpaid. Undervalued.

    The Tories’ trickle-down ideology has nothing to offer them, beyond longer hours, lower pay, and less respect.

    Earlier this year, I met a young family in Worthing. A mum and dad, working five jobs between them, struggling to make ends meet, constantly juggling work and childcare.

    As a family, they only get half a day a week together. They felt that any hope of buying their own home had evaporated. Good people, working hard.

    And do you know what the mum said to me? She said: ‘you just wonder if you’re doing something wrong.’

    Something is profoundly wrong.

    And let’s be clear, Liz Truss: we’ve not fallen behind our neighbours, on growth, on productivity, and on pay, because British workers lack ‘graft’.

    It’s not working people that are the problem. It’s this government that is the problem.

    I’ll tell you what a growing economy needs. Rising wages, so that money flows back into vibrant high streets.

    Parents with the time to thrive at work and spend time with their children.

    Families with enough savings to weather a storm.

    And people feeling the confidence to take risks, to change career, to learn new skills, or to start a business.

    So, with Labour, there will be no bonfire of workers’ rights as the Tories intend. As Angela Rayner announced, we will introduce a new deal for working people, with strengthened rights fit for the times we are in.

    And that’s not all.

    On day one as Chancellor, I will write to the Low Pay Commission, with a simple instruction:

    that the minimum wage will be set at a level that reflects the real cost of living.

    The last Labour government delivered Britain’s first national minimum wage.

    The next Labour government will introduce a genuine Living Wage. That’s how we will give working people respect. That’s how we will give working people security.

    And that’s how we will grow our economy too. It is time for a government that is on your side. And that government is a Labour government.

     

    Here’s another thing about growing a 21st century economy:

    It is no longer enough – if it ever was – for government to simply get out of the way. The challenges of global instability, of pandemics, wars and climate crisis, demand that government works in partnership with business.

    If I were Chancellor right now, I would bring together a National Economic Council that will bring together industry and trade unions, so working people and businesses were at the heart of economic decision-making.

    I have been privileged to visit businesses across our country. From Rolls Royce in Derby – pioneering research into carbon neutral aviation, to Oxford Nanopore – leading work on DNA and RNA sequencing.

    Right through to local businesses, like Castleton Mill – once a key part of West Yorkshire’s textiles industry, and now a collaborative space for freelancers, remote workers and start-ups.

    The world is changing fast but the British capacity for enterprise, for innovation, and for hard work remains undimmed. When I talk to businesses, they don’t tell me that their priority is corporation tax.

    They tell me about the need for properly targeted investment allowances, the need for workers equipped with the right skills, the need for certainty and a sense of direction from government, and yes – the need for a sensible working relationship with our European neighbours.

    So we will take those issues head on. Starting with the biggest tax problem facing British businesses. Our unfair, outdated system of business rates punishes high street businesses to the advantage of online giants.

    So Labour will level the playing field. We will abolish business rates, and replace them with a fairer system fit for the 21st century.

    That new system will mean that businesses would get revaluation discounts straight away, rather than waiting years for their money back.

    And here’s more.

    Today, Jonathan Reynolds launched our modern industrial strategy, that recognises the importance of businesses at the high-tech frontier and of our everyday economy.

    It sets out a mission to make our economy more secure. We will use all powers at government’s disposal to buy, make and sell more here in Britain.

    We will make Britain the best place to start and to grow a business, guided by the work of our start-up review, headed by Lord Jim O’Neill.

    And we will give our nations and regions, mayors and local leaders, right across Britain, the tools to shape their own future.

    In Labour-run Wales, under Mark Drakeford, in our city regions, and all around the country, we are seeing the difference that Labour can make in power.

    And Steve Rotheram thank you for the leadership you show here in Merseyside.

    If you are remotely serious about growth, then you have got to make Brexit work. Our agriculture and our food industries rely on trade right across Europe, but we have a deal which doesn’t even include a veterinary agreement.

    We are pioneers in creative industries, but we have a deal which ties them in knots over visas. We are the second largest exporter of services in the world, but we have a deal that doesn’t include the mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

    So we will fix the holes in the government’s patchwork Brexit deal. And instead of picking needless fights with our largest trading partner, we will work together with our neighbours and allies, in our national interest.

    That is Labour’s approach: proudly pro-worker and proudly pro-business.

    Supporting innovation. Sharing opportunity. Reviving our high streets.

    It is time for a government that is on your side, and that government is a Labour government.

     

    I am proud to have started my career as an economist at the Bank of England.

    Its operational independence is an enduring contribution by the last Labour government to Britain’s financial stability.

    Growth and social justice must be built on the firmest of foundations. Yet this government has undermined the Bank’s independence, sacked the respected Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, and gagged the Office for Budget Responsibility.

    The Chancellor and the Prime Minister, meanwhile, resemble two desperate gamblers in a casino, chasing a losing run. But they’re not gambling with their money, they’re gambling with yours.

    They’ve lost credibility they’re losing confidence, they’re out of control.

    I have said this before, and be in no doubt: there can be no return to austerity.

    It has left our country poorer, our public services at breaking point, and our public finances in tatters.

    I make this promise to you: Labour will not waver in our commitment to fiscal responsibility.

    That is why I set out the fiscal rules for the next Labour government a year ago. Every policy that Labour announces – and every line in our manifesto – will be carefully costed and fully funded.

    Last year, I told this conference that I was more than happy to take on the Tories on economic competence, because I know we can win.

    I’m now wondering if they even plan to turn up for the fight. It is becoming clearer by the day that Labour is the party of economic responsibility and the party of social justice.

    It is time for a government that is on your side, and that government is a Labour government.

     

    We need a growing economy to pay for modern, sustainable public services.

    But a growing economy needs strong public services too. This is personal to me.

    My mum and dad were primary school teachers. I’m really proud of that.

    My sister Ellie and I used to play for hours in my dad’s classroom, while he worked late into the evening, because he wanted to give the kids he taught the best start in life.

    All in the face of Conservative governments hostile to the very idea of public service. I went to school under those governments. I remember what that was like.

    It is why I joined this party. And it is why I am here today. Strong public services are the foundation of a strong society.

    And we owe everything to those who work in our NHS. But we also know, that our health service today is on its knees.

    It is a social priority. And it is an economic priority.

    In the last three years, half a million people have left the labour market, more than half of those due to long-term illness.

    So – as Keir Starmer announced a year ago, we will guarantee access to mental health treatment within a month to anyone who needs it.

    Here’s more. We need strong, sustainable public finances alongside strong, sustainable public services, so our priority is not tax cuts for the wealthiest few.

    It is securing our public finances and investing in public services.

    I can tell you: with a Labour government, those at the top will pay their fair share. The 45p top rate of income tax is coming back. Here’s what we will do with that money.

    The next Labour government will double the number of district nurses qualifying every year, train more than 5,000 new health visitors, and create an additional 10,000 nursing and midwife placements every year.

    More than that we will implement the biggest expansion of medical school places in British history, doubling the number of medical students, so our NHS has the doctors it needs.

    It will fall to us to fix the damage the Tories have done. We have done it before, we will do it again.

     

    Know that these are Labour’s priorities. Strong public services, to support people, and grow our economy.

    A greener, fairer Britain, with jobs for people in Britain, industries owned by the people of Britain, profits shared by the people of Britain.

    Pro-business and pro-worker for a stronger economy, where you do well. Because when you do well, Britain does well.

    Hope and opportunity, whoever you are, wherever you live. That is Labour’s vision for Britain. That is what we are fighting for.

    It’s time for a government that is on your side.

    That government is a Labour government.

    And be in no doubt, that government is on its way.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Jonathan Reynolds on 26 September 2022.

    Conference, thank you for the chance to address you today.

    We meet at a time when the challenges facing our country feel very grave indeed. When you’re worried about how your communities and your families will get through the months ahead.

    I know it is hard to feel optimistic when things are so tough. But serving in this role has given me cause for hope.

    I believe a fresh start with Labour can rebuild this country.

    I’m thinking of the steelworkers I met in Port Talbot who are ready to make the green steel customers want.

    The automotive workers in my hometown of Sunderland who have the skills to make the electric cars we need.

    The scientists I met at Imperial College who have the ideas to solve some of our greatest challenges.

    We’ve got some brilliant people in this country. But what we don’t have is a government committed to a domestic steel sector or to building the battery factories we need.

    We don’t have a government who values the collaboration of scientists across Europe.

    We simply don’t have a government on people’s side.

    That is what we must change.

    There was a time when the Tories believed they were ‘the party of business’. Now they are just in the business of parties.

    After twelve years of misrule, they have failed British business. On their watch business investment is the lowest in the G7, economic growth is set to be the lowest in the G7. We’ve had the worst squeeze to real wages of any country in the G7.

    Don’t just take make my word for it. Ask them. They admit it.

    The new Chancellor said they have presided over a ‘vicious circle of stagnation’. The new Prime Minister said our public services are in a state.

    Frankly, when the Tories find out whose been running this country for the last 12 years, they are going to be furious!

    This is now the big choice in British politics. Everyone agrees the last 12 years have been awful.
    The difference is we choose to look to the future while the Conservatives are dusting off the failed policies of the past.

    In the face of an energy crisis, a business investment crisis, a climate crisis who do they pick to meet these challenges? Jacob Rees-Mogg!

    One newspaper said he was better suited to running a museum than the business department. Frankly, museums are far too important for that.

    Now the Tories want to claim they’ve got the answer to the problems they created – higher bankers bonuses, cuts to corporation tax, ‘deregulation’, picking fights and divisive politics. It won’t work.

    George Osbourne’s cuts to corporation tax didn’t increase business investment and we all know what ‘deregulation’ is code for. Cuts to working people’s rights, cuts to environmental standards so more sewage ends up in our rivers and a race to the bottom which good businesses and working people never win.

    Now I agree with the Tories on one thing – the last 12 years have been a disaster. But while they want to double down on their mistakes we’ve got a real plan to make it better.

    Conference I am pleased to announce today that we are launching Labour’s industrial strategy and it’s a real industrial strategy – with ambition and the means to achieve it.

    Our Industrial Strategy will deliver clean power by 2030, taking the action needed on the climate emergency and keeping good jobs in Britain for decades to come.

    We will harness data for the public good ensuring it isn’t just held by corporate gatekeepers but used to benefit us all.

    We will bolster our national resilience ensuring our supply chains and working people are never again left so exposed to global shocks.

    Finally we will value the care sector for what it is – an essential part of our economy, ending the job insecurity too often associated with this vital work.

    Policies like fair pay agreements will be to the next Labour government what the National Minimum Wage was to the last one.

    And Conference I pledge to you now, there will never, ever be a scandal like P&O Ferries, under a Labour Government.

    Because a proper Industrial strategy, our new deal for working people, our reform of business rates, our targets for greater spending on research and science. These provide the real alternative the country needs.

    Labour knows that is how you grow the economy. Not on the backs of working people or rewarding bad practice. But through vision, leadership and real partnership to make economic success a reality.

    No-one can deny Britain faces significant challenges. But rather than shrink from these challenges, the role of government is to meet them head on.

    Many of you lived through the 80s when Tory Governments left people on their own in the face of massive industrial change.

    We cannot – and we must not – allow this generation of Tories to do the same in response to the challenges we face today.

    Good work, good wages, a fairer, greener future. That is what we can deliver.

    And I ask for your support, to make it happen.

    Thank you, Conference.

  • Ed Miliband – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Ed Miliband – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Ed Miliband on 26 September 2022.

    Friends, I want to start by thanking my ministerial team Kerry McCarthy and Alan Whitehead and I congratulate all the delegates who have spoken in this economic debate.

    What we have heard is one guiding idea – Labour’s mission of an economy built by the many for the many.

    What a contrast with that extreme, trickle-down Tory Budget last week – for bankers and millionaires, a vision of an economy built by the few for the few.

    We owe it to the country to defeat this lot at the next general election.
    Now we meet here amidst three emergencies.

    A cost of living and energy bills crisis affecting millions of families and businesses.

    An energy security crisis borne of a decade of Tory neglect and exposed by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    And the climate crisis which came to Britain this summer with our first ever 40-degree day.

    These emergencies demand the boldest of leadership.

    These emergencies demand an energy policy for the people and the planet.

    I say these emergencies demand a Labour government.

    Let’s start with energy bills.

    Labour led the way in January with the call for a windfall tax.

    Labour led the way in August with the call for an energy price freeze.

    Now Liz Truss said she won’t have a windfall tax because she says it is a “Labour idea”.

    For the first time in recorded history, Liz Truss has got something exactly right.

    The windfall tax is a Labour idea.

    Standing up to the big vested interests, the rich and powerful, so we can help the people of Britain in their moment of need.

    An energy policy for the people and the planet, not the oil and gas companies.

    Labour ideas, Labour values, Labour principles.

    Now the crises we face might seem very different but they all come from one source:
    The climate and nature crisis is caused by our burning of fossil fuels.

    The energy bills crisis is caused by the fact we are exposed to the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices wherever we get our gas from.

    And the crisis of energy security comes from the scramble for gas triggered by global events.

    So all these crises have the same ultimate cause: our dependence on fossil fuels.

    And all of them have the same solution.

    Low-cost, homegrown zero carbon power.

    The price of solar and wind energy is nine times less than that of gas.

    This is the defining truth of our age.

    This is the undeniable truth of our age.

    It is cheaper to save the planet than destroy it.

    That’s why for bills, for security and for climate, I am proud to announce a Labour government will make Britain the first major country in the world to set and achieve the target of zero-carbon power by 2030.

    The essential foundation of the drive to net zero.

    Britain a clean energy superpower.

    Saving £93 billion off bills.

    And we will do it by sweeping away Tory dogma that is holding our country back. It is within our grasp. Isn’t it? Let’s hear it for doubling onshore wind, trebling solar power, quadrupling offshore wind, tidal power, nuclear, hydrogen power and all underpinned by the best investment we can make – £60 billion over a decade to insulate 19 million cold, draughty homes, saving £1000 off bills, cutting carbon emissions, and led by our brilliant Labour local authorities.

    That is what I mean by an energy policy for the people and the planet.

    Now can the Tories deliver it? Of course not.

    They tell us that after 12 years in power, after all their promises, after all their hot air, after four Tory Prime Ministers.

    They say and I’m not making this up “the energy system is broken”.

    Friends, who broke the energy system?
    They did.
    Who banned onshore wind in England leading to higher gas imports and more expensive energy?
    They did.
    Who said cut the green crap and drove up bills?
    They did.
    Who cut home insulation to twenty times less than under Labour?
    They did.
    Who deregulated the energy market leaving 32 companies to go bust?
    They did.

    If you want to mend the broken energy system, I’ve got an idea: let’s start by getting rid of the Tories who broke it.

    And it gets worse.

    Under Liz Truss, fracking is back.

    The Tories banned fracking in 2019 because they said it was dangerous.

    Now they’ve moved the goalposts: moderate earthquakes are just fine.

    Let every Tory MP and candidate be asked: where do you stand on dangerous, expensive fracking?
    On breaking your manifesto promise?
    On the safety of your constituents?

    Let them try and sell their charter for earthquakes to the people of Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands, and communities across our country.

    We will hold them to account on behalf of the people of Britain.

    And who do they solemnly say should be entrusted to look after the future of our planet, entrusted with the fates of your children and grandchildren?
    Jacob Rees-Mogg
    19th Century Mogg.

    A man who says we must extract “every last drop” of oil and gas, even though it would mean 3 degrees of global warming.

    A man who says, “Trying to forecast the climate is unrealistic. The cost is probably unaffordable.”

    Let’s say it like it is: this is dangerous, climate denial.

    If you want an energy policy for the 1820s, Jacob Rees-Mogg sure is your man.

    If you want one for the 2020s, we need a Labour government.

    And I tell you this, our plans are not just about transforming our energy system, they’re about transforming our economy too.

    There is a global race for the jobs of the future and Britain under the Tories is losing it.
    Let me tell you about ITM Power in Sheffield.

    It is one of the world leaders in the hydrogen industry.

    They have plans to build a new factory.

    They were looking at the UK, but seeing the lack of support from this government, they now plan to go overseas.

    I say it must and it will be different under a Labour government.

    It’s time to invest and build the wealth of this country.

    Invest and ensure good jobs at good wages with strong trade unions.

    It’s time to invest in Britain again.

    That’s why Rachel Reeves and I are today announcing a new institution that will take back control of Britain’s economic destiny.

    Working with business, government as partner, investor and, yes shareholder.

    A new National Wealth Fund for Britain to lead the world in hydrogen.
    Lead the world in the EV revolution from the North East to the West Midlands.
    Lead the world in green steel from Port Talbot to Scunthorpe.
    Lead the world in decarbonising industry from here on Merseyside to Grangemouth.
    Lead the world in jobs in wind energy from the South West to Scotland.

    That’s what I mean by the green industrial revolution.
    That’s what I mean by a green new deal.
    That’s what I mean by an energy policy for the people and the planet.

    And it cuts to a deeper truth: the goal of the next Labour government won’t just be to tinker round the edges.

    The hour is too late, the moment is too serious.

    The next Labour government will deliver fundamental reform to the institutions of our economy.

    An economy built by the working people for working people.

    As it says on the party card: wealth, power and opportunity in the hands of the many not the few.

    So here is the election choice.

    Lower energy bills with Labour, higher bills under the Tories.

    Energy security with Labour, energy insecurity under the Tories.

    Millions of green jobs with Labour, the opportunities squandered under the Tories.

    Leading the world again in tackling the climate crisis with Labour, climate delay, denial and destruction under the Tories.

    These are the stakes.

    So don’t let anyone tell you all parties are the same.

    Don’t let anyone tell you politics doesn’t matter.

    Don’t let anyone tell you nothing will change whoever you vote for.

    This is our mission.

    This is our chance.

    Let’s protect the people and the planet.

    Let’s rise to this moment, let’s lead and together transform our country.

  • Louise Haigh – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Louise Haigh – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Louise Haigh, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, on 26 September 2022.

    Thank you, Conference  .

    It’s great to be together again and I have to say, it’s little short of a miracle so many of you managed to get here over the weekend given the current state of our public transport.

    Record delays, overcrowding, routes and services slashed week on week.

    We have a system where the public have come last for too long.

    And we know there is too much at stake for the country and the climate to carry on with this shambles.

    Where broken promises on public transport hold our country back.

    Where services connecting our major cities are slashed without warning by unaccountable private operators.

    And where the public pay ever more for less.

    Because if many millions - let down by services they can no longer rely on – cannot or will not use public transport then – quite simply – there is no path to net zero.

    And we will never build the fairer, greener future our country demands.

    That’s why my number one priority as your Secretary of State will be ending this spiral of decline on our public transport system.

    When the Victorians laid the foundations for our modern railway, it was a vote of confidence in Britain’s future.

    Today there are new challenges that demand the same ambition.

    No less than sixty times the Conservatives promised to connect our great Northern towns and cities and deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail.

    A once-in-a-century chance to invest in public transport - to transform opportunity across the whole country, rebalance our economy, and take millions of cars off the roads.

    And they flunked it.

    But while the Tories fail our country, Labour will seize this opportunity, and lay the foundations for the century to come.

    We will build an Elizabeth Line for the North and deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 in full.

    But we know – we can only build a fairer, greener future by taking power from failing private operators and putting it back in the hands of the public.

    Avanti West Coast has become just the latest poster boy of the failing status quo.

    The worst performing operator in the country – half of all trains late, 60,000 complaints, and what have the Tories done in response?

    They handed them £19m including – and you couldn’t make this up – £4m in performance bonuses.

    Out of the pockets of the public, and directly into the hands of shareholders.

    Instead of holding those responsible to account for this fiasco – the Tories played their tired, old tune.

    They blamed the workers who keep our rail network going.

    But we know the truth conference.

    The workers aren’t failing the British public – the Tories and their disastrous rail system have catastrophically failed us all.

    Under the Conservatives, British railways have become a cash machine for companies and foreign governments.

    No matter the performance, failure will always be rewarded.

    The truth is, the Conservatives still worship the dogma that has let this country down.

    They will always give the operators one more chance.

    And shareholders one more pay-day.

    They will do whatever it takes to prop up a failed system.

    Because to do anything else would be to admit their ideology is wrong.

    Right across our transport system, we see the same failed dogma.

    No other country in the developed world allows private bus operators the power they enjoy here – to pick what routes they want and charge passengers whatever they wish.

    Entire communities cut off by decisions taken far away from the people they affect.

    5,000 bus services slashed nationwide since the Conservatives came to power.

    Fares have risen twice as fast as wages.

    And who relies on buses more than anyone else – the poorest in society.

    This cannot go on, things must change.

    And Labour in government will make sure they will.

    We will put the public back in control of the essential public transport they depend upon.

    We will give those communities that want it the power to set bus routes and fares, following the path set by our brilliant Mayors in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and here in Liverpool City Region.

    And we will end the ideological ban on communities establishing their own municipal bus companies.

    Conference, the days of tinkering around the edges of a system that has so clearly failed the public are over.

    That’s why an incoming Labour government will end this farce.

    We will end this failed experiment.

    We will cast aside the tired dogma that has failed passengers.

    We will improve services and lower fares.

    And yes conference, Labour in power will bring our railways back into public ownership as contracts expire.

    Because we believe in a public transport system where power is in the hands of the public.

    A system that serves– above all else – the public interest.

    Where lower fares, and more reliable services help reverse the spiral of decline.

    A system that can deliver economic, social and climate justice.

    Together, we can build it.

    So, now, let’s get out there, win power and make it happen!

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Jonathan Ashworth, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on 26 September 2022.

    Last Friday’s Tory budget was the most unfair, the most unjust, the most unequal and the most divisive budget we’ve seen in our lifetimes.

    I ask you, what kind of a government is it who, when pensioners shiver in the cold, hands tax breaks to the wealthy that no ordinary person could ever dream of?

    What type of government is it, who when parents queue at foodbanks, tells mothers there is no help to feed their hungry children but there’s money to lavish tax cuts on bankers and billionaires?

    That budget was proof, if ever it was needed, that we speak for Britain in saying a new government is needed and we need a Labour government now.

    When workers see their pay packets cut, disabled people live in fear, when women working part time face sanctions, these Tories protect the gas and oil profits, instead of protecting the poor.

    I tell you we speak for Britain in saying we need Keir Starmer as Prime Minister now.

    These Tories tell us that after 12 years of their own stagnation they now have a plan for growth but all they’ve given us is a plan to grow more poverty, hunger and despair.

    They tell us they are ripping up the orthodoxy but it’s the same old Tory orthodoxy back – that wealth will trickle down and a rising tide lifts all.

    We’ve seen that story before. It means more sinking beneath the waves. It sees pay and conditions worsen. It leads to the offensive, grotesque fiction of Ministers telling us that to make bankers work harder, pay them more but to make working people work harder, pay them less.

    Friends, doesn’t that tell you it’s time for change, time for fairness. Friedns, it’s time for Labour.

    And it renders social security so threadbare, that food banks are now the safety net and churches turn their halls into ‘warm banks’.

    I thank those running them. But we seek government to create a society where foodbanks are no longer needed. Because we shouldn’t have to rely on charities to feed children and keep pensioners warm.

    This isn’t the way, as Rachel Reeves says, to secure growth in our economy. Because you can’t build sustainable growth when so many are left behind.

    What we need is an economy of all talents with full and fulfilling employment. Worklessness is such a waste.

    I remember queuing with my dad at the dole in the 80s, I remember the desperate look on faces.

    So for young people not in work or training and the thousands of over 50s now not in jobs but want one, we will reform Jobcentres and employment services to help more people into work as we target our ambition of the highest employment in the G7.

    We’ll do it, not through Tory threats or sanctions. But through active help with training, coaching and support for those who need it.

    We’ll do it not by wasting money on big outsourcing corporations but instead delivered on the ground, in partnership with community groups, local authorities and services like the NHS.

    And we’ll insist these jobs adhere to a very simple principle that when people work for a living, they should be paid a decent living wage as we tackle in-work poverty too.

    And we’ll reform, overhaul and replace the Tory Universal Credit system. We’ll treat people with dignity, not burden them with impossible debts, support children not punish them and we’ll reinstate a principle Labour has championed since the days of Barbara Castle but ditched by the Tories, the financial independence of women should be protected in our social security system too.

    A few weeks ago, I received this letter from a mother:

    “Sorry, it took so long to post after writing: I struggled to justify the price of the stamp.

    “My babies are sound asleep but I cannot sleep: I sit awake terrified for their future.

    “I am stressing about what to feed my kids tomorrow.

    “What is going to be done, Mr Ashworth?”

    What is to be done, Mr Ashworth?

    What sort of a government ignores pleas like that? I’ve known hardship and how it seeps through every aspect of your being. Consumes every decision.

    How it excludes from the necessaries, comforts and pleasures of society and haunts for the rest of your life. Children never forget going to school hungry and ill clad.

    We’re one the biggest economies in the world yet 4 million children live in poverty and tonight, thousands of children hungry, cold and have no bed to sleep in at all. It doesn’t have to be like this.

    Social inequality need not be etched into the landscape of this nation. Defeating child poverty is the obligation our generation owes to the next.

    Never forget Labour in government lifted millions of children out of poverty before and that’s the change we can make again.

    So, friends, this is our mission:

    Full employment and decent pay;

    Security in retirement;

    A better world for our children;

    Because as Nelson Mandela said:

    “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity but an act of justice.”

    Let us rise to that cause and build a future of opportunity, fairness and justice for all.

  • Keir Starmer – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II at Labour Party Conference

    Keir Starmer – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II at Labour Party Conference

    The tribute made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 25 September 2022.

    Conference, the Late Queen Elizabeth II was this great country’s greatest monarch. She created a special, personal relationship with all of us. A relationship based on service and devotion to our country. Even now, after the mourning period has passed it still feels impossible to imagine a Britain without her.

    Hardly any of us have ever known anything else. For us, the Late Queen has always been simply the Queen, the only Queen. Above all else, our Queen. And I am proud to lead our party’s tribute to her today.

    Because our Queen’s devotion to Britain was underpinned by one crucial understanding – she knew that the country she came to symbolise is bigger than any one individual or institution.

    Between the history we cherish and the present we own she was the thread. A reminder that our generational battle against the evil of fascism and the emergence of a new Britain out of the rubble of the Second World War don’t belong only to the past but are the inheritance of each and every one of us.

    An example that taught us that whatever challenges we face, the value of service endures. And a reminder that the creativity, the hard work, the enterprise that defines this nation is as abundant now as it ever was.

    That the prospect of a better future still burns brightly. That’s why the people came in their droves to pay their respects.

    So conference, as we enter a new era, lets commit to honouring the late Queen’s memory. Let’s turn our collar up and face the storm, keep alive the spirit of public service she embodied and let it drive us towards a better future.

    For seventy years, Queen Elizabeth II stood as head of our country. But, in spirit, she stood amongst us.

    So please join me in paying tribute to the Late Queen.

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Shabana Mahmood – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Shabana Mahmood, the National Labour Campaign Co-ordinator, on 25 September 2022.

    Good afternoon, Conference.

    As your National Campaign Coordinator, it is my great pleasure to report that, after a decade of defeat, decline and embarrassment at the ballot box – the Labour Party is back on its feet.

    Keir appointed me over a year ago and I know how lucky I am to have this fantastic job. It has taken me all over the country – from Scotland to the south coast, from Wales to Wakefield.

    But I have to let you into a little secret Conference. No matter where I go there are always two constants.

    The first is that this job is completely incompatible with any kind of diet! It’s been catastrophic for my waistline, something I’m sure my predecessors will attest to! You’ll all be familiar with the campaign diet, which is now my daily reality. The long days, late nights and trips around the country mean that healthy eating is now basically out of the window.

    The problems with food don’t end there. I had lunch recently with a very senior Labour figure and we were discussing the massive electoral challenges facing our party. Our debate was punctuated with his offering of food from the prepared spread – different breads and cheeses, all very nice.

    The stumbling block was his repeated offer of the ham that he’d bought which, as a Muslim, is obviously a total no go! It was all very embarrassing and I was desperate not to cause any offence.

    Conference, I am willing to sacrifice my waistline for the general election but not so much my place in heaven.

    Second, and I want to say this as delicately as I can, anyone who wants a seat in Parliament seems rather adept at tracking me down to lobby me. No matter where I go, in every part of the country they seem to have a special GPS and beat a path to my door. In fact, I’ve been lobbied for various seats three times in the ladies’ loo already this morning.

    So anyone planning to grab five minutes with me over the next few days be warned: I have no shame in taking the credit for anyone’s future success wherever I can but I have to level with you, I actually have no power over who gets selected.

    But Conference, those are small prices to pay for such an important role.

    And in this role my priority is getting the party ready for a general election. This has mostly been about the organisation, our party machine. And I want to say a special word of thanks to my deputy, Conor McGinn, for the work he’s done and the difference he’s made over the last year

    Winning in May’s local elections was a key milestone. Our machine has been fine-tuned. This was evident both in May and in the by-elections we have contested over the last year.

    We have seen significant progress, not least in those so called Red Wall seats. Based on this year’s results we’d be winning back seats we lost in 2019 and more besides. We’re competitive in seats we thought were out of reach, certainly in the short term.

    And the significance of Labour’s victory in the Wakefield by-election cannot be downplayed. We exceeded expectations in a seat that illustrated the crushing move away from Labour in 2019. Winning back a seat like Wakefield is a huge deal.

    Our majority was the highest we have ever had in that seat. So a massive well done to the whole team and in particular Simon Lightwood – our newest MP.

    Voters in Wakefield backed a confident, renewed Labour Party that proved it had the ideas and drive to appeal to working people. We were side by side with local people in Wakefield, taking on the issues that mattered to them.

    And we offered a clear choice between a failing government and a Labour Party that has listened since the 2019 general election and changed itself to acknowledge the bruising lessons we were taught.

    I am very pleased that we are winning and you should be too. You – and our activists across the party and across the country – are winning. The work you do matters; you are the beating heart of our party. You secured our results in May.

    And you delivered over 2 million conversations with voters – the most in any election campaign since our records began! I applaud the time and effort you give and I thank you for it. You have set a high standard and I want to maintain it.

    My hope is that one year from now I will stand here and report to you on how we won a general election.

    May’s results have us winning in Copeland, Great Grimsby, Hartlepool, Plymouth Moor View, Stevenage, Thurrock, West Bromwich East, West Bromwich West, Workington and Worcester.

    Fantastic. An absolutely fantastic position to be in. But conference, do you know what? That isn’t good enough.

    Those results would only give us 291 seats in Parliament. We would be the biggest party, sure. But that’s not good enough for me – and I know that is not good enough for you. It certainly isn’t good enough for the British people.

    I want a majority Labour government. We want a majority Labour government. Conference, Britain needs a majority Labour government.

    After our defeat in 2019 that looked impossible. But it is possible. We have done it before and we can do it again. And all over the world, centre-left parties are winning.

    Now, we’re going to talk about Labour’s road to Downing Street. To do that, I’m delighted to have with us, all the way from a stunning general election victory in May, Paul Erickson – National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party.

    But, before I talk to Paul, we’re going play a little video about the last time we came into government from opposition with a stunning Labour landslide.

    Conference, we can do this. We have done it before and we can do it again.

    The road to Downing Street runs through all those seats I mentioned earlier but if we want a Labour majority then we must also pass through Dudley, Blackpool and Uxbridge. And there’s no Labour majority without wins in Scotland and in Wales.

    We are selecting the candidates for each of these contests – and we have some of those fantastic candidates here with us today.

    They’re in the front row, so I’d like them to stand up, turn around so you can see them all – and conference please show your support for our brilliant candidates and future MPs. Thank you all of you and to all the candidates who couldn’t be here today.

    Conference, these are the people who we need to get elected to deliver a Labour government. They are the people we need to get behind if we are going to reach Downing Street.

    The road we must travel is long and there are many obstacles. No matter how finely tuned our party machine is, the organisation can’t outrun the politics. The politics has to set the pace.

    It is the politics that will win us the next election. Our organisation will not be found wanting but only the politics can build the coalition we need to win.

    And this impacts on all of you because I need you to get uncomfortable.

    If we are going to build that coalition then we have to talk and listen to the voters who aren’t with us yet. There is no ideological one size fits all. We must have uncomfortable conversations.

    We won’t build that coalition without talking, without discomfort and we won’t build it without compromise. That is a dynamic process. Every conversation teaches us something about where we are going, and how far we still have to go.

    But I know you can do it. When the general election comes, we will be ready.

    Now, you met our new army of trainee organisers earlier – they will reinforce our superb staff team providing a solid foundation for our campaign. Not just for the election before us but for many elections to come. You’ve met our candidates, the standard bearers in every seat. And we have you – the party’s most important asset. The people who deliver the leaflets, slog the streets and notch up millions of conversations with voters!

    The Tories can fool themselves as much as they want and they can bask in the false light of their latest leader. They need to know this – we are coming for them.

    The public is not fooled. Whether that’s in Ashfield, in South Thanet, in Carmarthen, or in Inverclyde. The Labour Party is on the road to Downing Street.

    Thank you Conference. See you on that road!

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Anneliese Dodds – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Anneliese Dodds, the Chair of the Labour Party and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, on 25 September 2022.

    I want to start with some words of tribute to our late Queen, Elizabeth II. For seventy years, she devoted herself to our nation, the Commonwealth and the British people. She did so much to bring Britain together, through the good times and the bad.

    Our country made great strides for women’s equality during the Elizabethan era – from measures for equal pay to the legalisation of abortion to the passing of the Sex Discrimination and Equality Acts.

    Those changes only happened because of Labour Governments.

    What a contrast with the appalling inequality laid bare after twelve years of Tory-led governments.

    Conservative Governments have left women brutally exposed to the cost of living crisis and the current epidemic of violent crime.

    They have slashed support for disabled people and refused to uprate legacy benefits.

    They saw how Black, Asian and ethnic minority people were overexposed to the pandemic – only to patronise with claims that structural racism doesn’t even exist.

    And they binned their LGBT Action Plan, disbanded their LGBT Advisory Panel, and broke their promise to ban conversion therapy.

    Who owns this dreadful record?

    You probably missed it – she didn’t seem to notice herself – but the Minister for Women and Equalities for the last three years was… Liz Truss.

    A minister so dedicated to women that one of her first acts as Prime Minister was to scrap the dedicated role for women in Cabinet.

    A minister so steeped in Conservative failure that she sat on the Tory frontbench for ten long years.

    A minister who said nothing about all those Tory scandals – from the golden wallpaper squirrelled into Boris Johnson’s flat, to the suitcases of booze wheeled into Number 10, to the X-rated tractors beamed into the Commons chamber.

    We can’t expect change from a continuity Conservative leader.

    We can’t expect delivery from someone who’s failed to deliver.

    And we can’t expect fairness from someone who’s governed so unfairly.

    We can expect all those things from Labour.

    To women grafting day and night on incomes £200 less on average today than in 2010, I say: Labour will deliver a fairer future.

    To the half a million women waiting for gynaecological treatment, I say: Labour will deliver a fairer future.

    To female victims of the Tory epidemic of violence, misogyny and discrimination: Labour will deliver a fairer future.

    To the millions of disabled people facing fuel poverty, to the majority of Black children growing up in poverty, to LGBT+ people faced with the surge in homophobic and transphobic hate crime: Labour will deliver a fairer future.

    The last Labour Government did more to advance equality than any other in British history. The next will match that record – and we will start with the economy.

    We will act to eradicate gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

    We will bring in strong family-friendly rights.

    We will measure what we do and be accountable for it – equality impact assessing every budget.

    And we’ll always – always – treat the British people with dignity and respect.

    Respect. A concept this Tory Government will never understand. But one that I will put at the heart of Government as Labour’s first ever Secretary of State for Women and Equalities.

    Respect means equalising the law so that all forms of hate crime are treated as aggravated offences.

    Respect means modernising the Gender Recognition Act and upholding the Equality Act, including its provision for single-sex exemptions.

    Respect means banning all forms of conversion therapy outright while making sure that doesn’t cover psychological support and treatment. Because unlike the Tories, we will never hide behind strawman arguments to avoid doing what’s right.

    Respect means working with disabled people, not against them – ending cruel disability assessments and supporting disabled people to live the lives they want and deserve.

    And respect means tackling the epidemic of violence against women and girls – with specialist rape units in every police force area, minimum sentences for rape and stalking, and making misogyny a hate crime.

    Labour won’t dismiss structural racism – we’ll tackle it head on, with a landmark, new Race Equality Act, by implementing all the Lammy Review recommendations, and with a curriculum that reflects our country’s diverse history and society.

    We will never pit communities against each other for cheap political points like the Conservative Party. And unlike the Tories, we will always tackle issues around inequality or prejudice in our own ranks.

    The Forde Report made difficult reading for anyone who cherishes our Party and its values. It’s unacceptable that members of our party and party staff, were subject to sexism, misogyny and racism. As Chair of the Labour Party, I want to reiterate the apology that David Evans and Keir Starmer have made.

    Over the last two years we’ve acted to change our party:

    A new Independent Complaints Process – passed at conference last year – and now in operation as the most robust complaints process of any political party.

    New Codes of Conduct against Islamophobia and Afrophobia and Anti-Black Racism. Mandatory training against bias, for staff.

    And radical reforms to recruitment.

    But that job of work will never be finished – as Chair, I will always act to ensure the Party we love is a safe place for everyone who shares our values.

    That is how we prepare our Party for the responsibility of government.

    This year was a turning point. This year, we were the only party to win councils in Scotland, England and Wales. We won in the North West, the South East, and Tory-run bastions like Wandsworth and Westminster. After twelve long years in opposition, we are assembling excellent candidates to take the fight to the Tories at every single contest between now and whenever Liz Truss dares to go to the country.

    Let’s hope it’s soon, because the country can’t take much more chaos from the Conservative Party. I’ve now seen off four different Tory Party Chairs over the last year. But no matter how much the Conservatives rearrange their Party Chairs, their ship of state is sinking fast.

    They’re clapped out. Checked out. It’s high time they cleared out.

    Whenever that election is called, I say – bring it on. Because Labour will be ready with the policies we need to change lives.

    Over the last year, I’ve learned from brilliant examples of Labour in power – from West Dunbartonshire to Worthing to Wales. They show that Labour works in government – and you can read all about the difference our Labour councillors, MSPs, Senedd members, metro mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners are already making on the Labour Works website – released to conference and the public, today.

    As Chair of the Stronger Together policy review, I’ve also worked with Keir, the Shadow Cabinet, our affiliated trade unions and hundreds of you – our members – to develop the ambitious policy agenda that’s in this year’s Stronger Together report, which I am delighted to present to conference today.

    No-one who reads this report can doubt that Labour is the party of ideas in British politics. From tackling the cost of living and climate crises to building a stronger, more secure economy to delivering a New Deal for Working People – it shows that Labour is ready to take on the challenges our country faces.

    Only Labour can unite our country, clean up our politics, and build a fairer, greener future for Britain. That future is in our grasp. I look forward to joining you on the campaign trail to make it a reality.

    Thank you.

  • David Evans – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    David Evans – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by David Evans, the General Secretary of the Labour Party, on 25 September 2022.

    Conference, it is so great to be here in Liverpool.

    This year we have the largest exhibition for a decade and our biggest ever fringe. We will all leave more motivated, more committed and more inspired.

    I was certainly inspired last time I was here as a member. In a small room, at the back of this conference centre, I had the privilege to hear Jack Dromey. He told the story of the struggle that was the Grunwick dispute, honestly, openly and with absolute conviction. He spoke of the Asian workforce denied union recognition. Of the passion and resolve of Jayaben Desai and the other strikers and the power of a movement standing by those in need. He represented the very best of our movement. We miss you Jack and we carry on the fight.

    From this conference floor to the fringe, there will be moments just like that this week. Moments that give complete clarity to our mission. To gain power, political power. Not for itself but so we can give it to those who don’t have it. Root out injustice, and set our country on a fairer course. To do this we need to win and keep winning.

    When I was appointed in 2020, some confided that they had doubted we would ever win again. They looked at the electoral map – an endless ocean of blue. They saw a party at sea, in danger of being washed away altogether. And be in no doubt, 163 seats behind the Tories, 2019 was a near death experience.

    But because of Keir and Angela’s leadership, because of your hard work, your belief, your dedication, we have a real chance to do something never done before and turn a defeat of that scale into victory in a single term. We are tackling everything that stands in the way. Not measuring ourselves against 2019 but against the best campaigns in the world. Focused on the voters we need to persuade in the seats we need to win.

    We’ve made hard financial decision so today we have no debt, no deficit, now able to invest in a winning campaign. We’re also making sure our Party lives up to its values. So that anyone who walks into a CLP meeting is welcomed, supported, and included in our Labour family, just as I was 43 years ago when I first walked in.

    That’s why I have apologised on behalf of this Party for the unacceptable behaviour set out in Martin Forde’s report. And why we will act on the report, without fear or favour. And why we must never forget the contents of the EHRC’s investigation into us for anti-Semitism.

    It showed we had not just fallen short of our values, we had fallen short of the law, a law the Labour Government created. That is why, because of your votes last year, we set up an independent complaints process for all forms of discrimination. The strongest of any political party in the world. That is why, at this podium last year, I said I would not accept prejudice directed at anybody in the party or by anybody in the party. I have not and I will not.

    Conference, to win, we start with the voters. I’d like talk about Sarah, who I canvassed in Wakefield in July. She was in her back kitchen where she ran a hairdressing business. She left us at the last election, she voted Conservative. She made an honest choice based on what she thought was best for her, her family and her business. She’d lost faith in politics. Lost trust in us. We need to earn her trust, because only then can we persuade her.

    Think about who you trust? People you know well, who share your values, who you can depend on when you need them. It is the same for our Party.

    Sarah needs to see and hear a Labour Party that listens, is authentic, rooted in everyday life that has genuine answers to the problems she faces. And in the next General Election she will. She will see this on the TV and hear it on the radio. From our incredible frontbench team right through to our equally incredible councillors. She will hear it from our campaigners and candidates, online and on her doorstep, who will take the time to understand her concerns. She will see it in the posters in shopfronts and in her neighbour’s windows. Leaflets through her letterbox. And she will feel through the leadership of Keir Starmer. On her side. A prime minister in waiting. Ready to change Britain.

    We are starting to earn that trust back. In the local elections, we had a clear offer about energy prices, the cost of living, the need to have a windfall tax.

    What were the Tories talking about? Their repugnant Rwanda policy and a curry house in Durham. The same old Tory playbook. Using the defenceless as political pawns, creating division and distrust.

    Our message cut through by going directly to voters. Earning trust, one voter at a time. Over two and a half million conversations on the doorstep, the highest ever recorded in a local election campaign. And we got our best results for a decade. Our vote up six per cent. Dominant in Wales. Back as the main opposition in Scotland. Winning councils for the first time from Worthing, to Westminster to Cumberland. That was in May.

    In June, we got our best by-election win for a decade. And by the way, Sarah did vote Labour in that by-election in Wakefield. But we need to keep her with us. By July, Boris Johnson was forced out. Was that inevitable? No. These wins did that, we did that, you did that, Sarah did that.

    This is what political activism means. This is what it can achieve. And these wins were also the work of our staff. All our successes are built on small acts of empathy, creativity and graft, that taken together amount to something awe-inspiring. This is what I see every day from our Labour staff. You are brilliant. Thank you.

    But conference, be in no doubt about the scale of the challenge. Public services hang by a thread. Poverty rising. Living standards falling. Under this government, every shock we’ve seen austerity, Covid, energy prices. It has been the poorest who have paid the price. That’s why our job is not just to win the next general election. For deeper, more fundamental change, so this never happens again.

    We need to win, win and win again. This means building a Party that sustains Labour in government that gets ahead of the Conservatives and stays ahead. We all have a role in this.

    I was working for the Party last time we went into government. And winning isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning of change. Look being in opposition is retched. But being in government is tough, it’s easy for the Tories, they are in it for themselves, but we want to transform our country, change the world. Our goal now is to forge a closer relationship between our Party that will be in government and our Party in the country. A more honest, open, modern politics.

    We need a Labour government listening, engaging, drawing on the full strength of our movement. Our Party in the country, acting as a direct line to the people. That’s why I’m determined that our Party grows deeper roots into every community. It’s how we win and it’s also how we achieve lasting change.

    That’s why I’m so pleased we’ve just hired 31 trainee organisers to join our brilliant team in every region and nation of this country. They are here today. And by 2024 we’ll have 30 more. They will work in the seats that will decide this election and the next.

    It is also why I’m so thrilled about our newly selected candidates. A new generation of Labour representatives, with the life experience, dedication and values we need to win and to govern.

    Conference, this is the future of the Party we’re building together. A party that will get Keir Starmer into Downing Street and Labour into Government. A party that will end this 12 year nightmare. A party united in our common mission.

    So let’s get out there and show we are ready. Let’s keep organising. Let’s keep listening. Let’s win.

    And let’s keep winning.