Tag: Harriet Harman

Below is the text of the speech made by Harriet Harman, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, on 3rd June 2010 to the UNITE Conference.

It is pleasure to be here at Unite’s first ever policy conference and to address you in my capacity as the Labour Party’s acting leader. Not a caretaker – but Labour’s active acting leader.

We are in opposition but not demoralised.

We meet today with Labour being in opposition.  And I want to start by saying something about the election result.

We knew it was always going to be a massive challenge to win again after already being in government for 3 terms.  That task was made even harder by people’s fears about their jobs and future because of the recession, the scandal of the political expenses, Ashcroft’s millions going to Tory candidates in marginal seats – all of that gave us a mountain to climb.

When the General Election was called Tory MPs told me that – having revised down their expectations – they would be back in government with a majority of 40 seats.

But we campaigned together, determined and united and though we didn’t win, we denied the Tories the overall majority which they thought was theirs by right. And we sent the message to the BNP – there is no place in this country for your racism and division.

And we could not have done that without Unite’s support.  At national level, at regional level, at local level – Unite backed us all the way.

We are bitterly disappointed to be out of government but we are not demoralised we are determined. We didn’t achieve the result we hoped for, but our battling performance did deny the Conservatives the majority they craved and the opportunity to implement their policies in full.

The hard work that you and your Unite members put in – knocking on doors, taking our message into your workplaces and providing vital resources – secured the re-election of many Labour MPs, often in the face of overwhelming odds.

Every one of those MPs  is one more Labour MP committed to defending the jobs and public services that you and your members depend on.  It is also one less Tory MP willing to gamble with the recovery and strip away your hard won rights.

Proud of our legacy. Will not oppose for the sake of it but we will defend jobs and vital public services. Though we are in opposition, we will be an effective opposition. We will not oppose for the sake of it. That’s not what the public wants.  But, we will not pull our punches. Though we are in opposition, we will be powerful in the public interest.

We will be determined – to prevent unfairness.

We will speak up – for the public services that matter.

We will be vigilant – protecting jobs and businesses.

We will fight in Parliament and local government, in Scotland, Wales and the London Assembly, to advance the cause of working people throughout the country.

And, as important, we will reflect on what people were telling us at the last election, not just those who voted for us but those who didn’t, because though they want to be able to look to Labour to understand their lives and be on their side, they felt that we were not.

Rebuilding and reconnecting labour. Rebuilding and renewing Labour is an important task and we must listen and learn.  Our biggest loss of support was from hard-working families who, worried about housing and jobs, felt insecure and concerned about immigration.

Now there is our chance to debate these issues throughout the party and through the contest for the next Labour leader.

Leadership contest. Over the next few months with our labour party members and our trade union supporters, 4 million people will have the chance to help shape Britain’s progressive future by choosing the next leader of the Labour party. This will be the biggest election   – by a mile – in any political party or any organisation in this country.  This is not the block vote – this is about millions of trade union members –  people at work in of thousands of workplaces up and down the country – each one of them having a vote.  There has been a lot of discussion about how we can have the widest possible involvement in this leadership election.  My view is that the votes of our trade union affiliates are just that.

– from bus drivers to builders;

– car workers to care workers

– nuclear workers to nurses

– ship builders to social workers

– and in the food industry – workers who provide our food from plough to plate.

With the extraordinary breadth of our affiliated supporters, as well as our members, this leadership election is crucial opportunity for the Labour party to reflect, renew itself and re-engage with the people of Britain.

The contest will be open engaging and energising. It will be a chance to invite supporters to join the party to have a vote.

This debate will involve Labour party members, supporters in our affiliated trade unions and the wider the public.  This leadership contest is Labour’s opportunity to take forward the rebuilding for our party for the future challenges ahead.

Over the coming months the candidates will meet thousands of people in meetings across the country. I hope you will organise, and invite them to, events in your workplaces. And they will be taking part in innovative on-line discussions. And no doubt they will be tweeting – following your leadership, Derek.

Labour members and supporters will be looking to choose someone who can be our next Prime Minister.  But they will be choosing someone who will be leader of our party – and first off, will be leader of the opposition.  So they will expect to see how our leadership candidates show how they

– Can inspire the activists

– Encourage more people to join as members

– Raise money for the party

– Respect the democracy of the party

– Lead the whole of Labour’s great team – in parliament, in Scotland and Wales, in local government and in our Trade Union affiliates

– They will need to land blows on the Tory/Lib/dem coalition government.

– And our party will look to the new leader to defend the legacy of our Labour government with pride and protect the advances we have made.

Our legacy. Our political opponents will make a determined effort to denigrate everything we did.  We will not let them.

For every child who – instead of being cooped up in a flat – is playing in a brand new children’s centre, that is our legacy.

For every patient who instead of waiting in pain is cared for by doctors and nurses in a brand new hospital – that is our legacy.

For every villager in Africa whose life has been transformed by cancelling third world debt – that is our legacy.

That is Labour’s legacy – that is your legacy and that is Gordon’s legacy too and we should never forget that.

Women out of the shadows

And I hope our leadership candidates will join me in ensuring that Labour women are no longer kept in the shadows.

We have 81 Labour women MPs – more than all the other parties put together. Labour is the only party in parliament which speaks up for women in this country. We have some excellent experienced women and some brilliant new women MPs.  We still do have twice as many men MPs as women.  The labour men are great – but they are not twice as good as the women – so I want the PLP when we revise our rules for shadow cabinet elections to have 50.50 men and women in the shadow. It’s time for Labour women to step out of the shadows.

The new leader will be unveiled at the start of this year’s annual Labour Party conference on Saturday 25th Sept and that will be a major step forward for us.

Derek and Tony. This is Unite’s first policy conference – but it will be Tony and Derek’s last as joint General Secretary. And I want to pay a warm personal tribute to both of you.

Derek, you rose to be elected leader of Amicus – but you started work at only 15 years old as an apprentice engineer in Sheffield.

Tony, you rose to be elected leader of the TGWU – but you too started work at only 15 as a steward for the Ocean Steam ship company.

Together, you represent one and half million working men and women from all parts of the UK and Ireland and just about every sector of industry and the public services:

You represent men and women with all kinds of skills from all over the county. Good men and women who achieve remarkable things, often in very difficult working conditions.

Like the twilight army who clean the bankers’ offices in Canary Wharf who helped highlight the need for a London Living Wage.

Your members are the backbone of our economy and our society, and you both have been stalwarts of the Labour Party.

I thank you for what you have both done over so many years and for what you have achieved on behalf of the working people you serve.

Finally I know that we were all bitterly disappointed that Labour is out of government.  We lost the election but we are not going to lose our determination and our spirit.

I know that people at work fear for their future under the new Government.

But we will stand together.

We will defend hard- working people

We will defend vital public services and together we will pave for the way for a better future.

I’m delighted to be here in Wales with so many friends and wonderful Labour Party people.

And to join you on this important day of debate and discussion and motivation at an important time

Time when because of the global recession, people are afraid for their future

Time when Labour in government and local government has stepped in to take bold action

Time when divide between Labour and the Tories has never been starker and clearer

Time when we face – on June 4th – the European elections. Which are important elections in their own right but are also the curtain raiser for the General Election.

We will face these big challenges with unity and with determination because of our values and because of our principles.

And every part of Labour’s team has a major part to play in facing these big challenges

Our whole team – like the whole Wales Labour team that is here today

Party activists – like Pat Brunker

Our Members of the Welsh Assembly – under the brilliant leadership of Rhodri. Rhodri, everyone in Wales knows you and more importantly feels that you know them. You are their voice

Our MPs and Ministers – and Paul Murphy is a clear and constant advocate for Wales not just in Cabinet but particularly on the National Economic Council. Just as Chris Ruane and our Welsh MPs are in Parliament

Our local councillors. You have had to struggle and I know that you have worked hard to move on from the set-back last May.

Our trade unionists – and I want to thank Andy Richards who co-ordinates our trade union team in Wales. The Trade unions are a vital part of Labour’s team and have always stood with us through thick and thin.

A particularly important part of our team as we go forward to June 4th is our MEPs, Eluned and Glenys and our MEP candidates – and I want to pay tribute to Glenys Kinnock who has blazed a trail, for women, for Wales, for international development, for Labour, who is a dear friend and who is leaving Europe but will continue to make a huge contribution.

It is the whole party – supported by Chris Roberts and our hard-working party staff – that will not only keep us strong in these difficult times but shape our future.

Charting the way forward should never and never could be the preserve of government.

The party is the engine of progress. And the party in Wales before Neil Kinnock and since have played a major part.

I know that as Labour in Wales, you are proud of our achievements in government, your achievements in Wales in the Assembly and in local government. But I hope you will be bold and demanding and insistent for the future.

I know that you will support the party but that you will challenge it too.

When I first joined the party in my twenties I joined because I knew and supported what it stood for – particularly on equality and social justice. But I didn’t think it walked the talk. It needed to change fundamentally – particularly to listen to, and include women alongside men. And working with other young people, young women in the party and in the Trade Union movement, we worked together and changed the party for good.

We must be sure that the next generation is the generation who will be the agents of change for the future and that is what is important about today and about all your work.

This conference comes at a time of unprecedented change. The global banking system is in crisis and its ripples reach all around the world and to Wales.

We believe that when the market fails and people are threatened – that is the time for the public sector, for the government, to act. We believe that – in a recession -when private sector construction freezes – that is the time for public sector construction projects to be brought forward.

We believe that when people’s jobs are threatened the government must intervene to get the banks lending, to give help to threatened industries, to protect those who lose their job from losing their home as well, and to help them get retrained and back into work as soon as possible.

We believe that we need to invest so that when the economy grows we are set to take advantage of it with a green, digital, highly skilled economy.

And we believe that to do this we have to allow public borrowing to rise and that public spending now will help ensure that the recession is as short and shallow as possible.

We believe that fairness and equality is necessary and that when it comes to paying back the public debt those who have most should contribute most – so in his Budget this week, Alasdair Darling announced a new top rate of tax of 50% on income over £150,000 We believe that much of the growth in the future will be generated in the emerging markets and the developing world. On humanitarian grounds we need to protect them – with our Aid budget – from the effect of the recession – but for the sake of the world economy we need to help them grow for the future.

We believe that we need to act here at home – but also to act together internationally. This is a global economic crisis which – particularly on regulation of the banks and financial services – requires global as well as national action. This would be the very worst time to turn inwards, resort to narrow nationalism and put up trade barriers. That’s why Gordon’s leadership of the G20 is so vital.

The Tories would do the opposite

All this is the polar opposite to the Tories.

They would cut public investment They would turn inwards – against Europe and the rest of the world They would cut help to the unemployed They would cut taxes for the richest – with inheritance tax cuts of £200,000 each for the richest 3,000 people They would have let the recession take its course and let the suffering of the unemployed be a price worth paying. Their approach would have been both disastrous and heartless.

And I feel that we can all be proud of Gordon’s leadership on the economy and his championing of fairness and equality. In such contrast the inconsistency and tactical manouevering of Cameron’s Tories.

And as for Cameron’s recent visit to Wales – what he calls “the Principality” – I understand that he left pledging to cut the number of Welsh MPs by 10 and boasted that the Tories now had a Tory councillor in the Rhondda. Chris Bryant – my brilliant deputy as leader of the House of Commons – tells me that the people of the Rhondda have much more sense than that and that Rhondda is a Tory-free zone.

Working together, Labour in Wales, in government, in the European parliament, we have made progress.

We can see that in every neighbourhood, in the schools, hospitals, in people’s living standards. We should be proud of that.

We have a national minimum wage

In my constituency there are now 3 times more young people going into further and higher education than there were in 1997.

Disabled people have legal rights and gay and lesbian partnerships can now be recognised in law.

Maternity pay and leave is doubled and the number of childcare places have doubled.

But there are people saying – now is the time to draw back on our quest for fairness, opportunity and equality. At least “put it on the back burner”.

But I think that when times are hard, fairness is even more important.

And I think when we look for hope for the future – it is a fair society with opportunities for all, that people want.

So we did go ahead – earlier this month – with rights for all parents of children up to 16 to request flexible work to help them balance their work with their very important family responsibilities.

And on Monday we will introduce our new Equality Bill.

The Bill will

Take a step forward on equal pay. Women are half the workforce yet still paid less than men. In the past it’s been left to the woman to complain. But its not about her – its about pay discrimination. It should be left for her to complain it should be for the employer to explain if pay is unequal and that is why we have included in the Bill mandatory pay reporting.

The Bill makes public procurement an important lever for equality. We will use the power of public spending as the public sector contracts with the private sector to widen opportunities and promote equality.

And the Bill also takes a new, bold step, to tackle the great inequality which is based on class, on family background. It sets a new duty on all public authorities when they are making strategic decisions they must ask themselves – “how can we do this so that we narrow the gap between rich and poor?” and I am proud that the Welsh administration has chosed to take powers under this part of the Bill to drive that duty through strategic public authorities in Wales.

This Bill is the work of all those who’ve struggled for equality – women like Julie Morgan and like my committed parliamentary aide, Nia Griffith.

Our argument is that fairness and equality is important not just for the individual but also for the economy and society.

Equality and fairness is necessary for a meritocracy. It is backward looking societies which are characterised by rigid hierarchies, women knowing their place and oppression of gays and lesbians.

When we see unfairness and inequality – we take action.

So this is not turning the clock back – it is looking to the future.

Our Labour team faces a big test on June 4th when everyone will have a vote in the elections for the European parliament. We need every vote out. Every vote will count. This is about electing a key part of Labour’s team – our Euro MPs.

This is about the importance of European funds helping the Welsh Economy. Its about the Welsh jobs that depend on our trade in Europe. It’s about the environment and about cross-border security.

And it is only by working together in Government, in local government, in the Assembly and in Europe that we can deliver for people.

Of course we need to be on the doorstep, on the phone. That’s the way to show that we are on people’s side

Thank you all for your work

I hope that you will continue to be energetic, idealistic and ambitious and confident.

I, for my part, promise that I will

Work side by side with you here in Wales.

Continue my unswerving support for Gordon Brown and

Leave no stone unturned in campaigning to win the next General Election

And I look forward to us working together in the demanding and important time ahead.

Below is the text of the speech which was made by Harriet Harman at the 2008 TUC Conference, 10th September 2008.

 It is a great honour and a real privilege for me to be here with you this morning and to take part in your debate.

We all know that the background to this conference is very important indeed and that whilst we have made big steps forward on the things that we care about, we face difficult economic times. We know that whilst these economic problems are not homegrown, they are certainly hitting home and they have hit hardest at those who can least afford it. That is why the job of the Government and the determination of the Government is to see the economy in this country through the difficult times, make the right decisions to do that and also to protect those who are hardest hit and most vulnerable to the economic difficulties.

There are some people who step forward quickly and say, “Because the economy is seeing difficult times, you will have to put issues of tackling inequality on the back burner, that it is a luxury that we cannot afford when the economy is hard pressed, that we will just have to take a raincheck on that and revisit it later”.

However, we are not going to do that and I want to say why. If you are discriminated against, treated unfairly, subjected to prejudice because you are a woman or because you are black and Asian or because your face does not fit or they say you are too old, that is unacceptable at any time, but it is even more objectionable when you feel times are hard for you and you feel that your back is against the wall. So we are not going to step back in our quest for equality. Quite the opposite. Just as Gordon Brown led the economy to strengthen it with more jobs and our quest for fairness, investing more in public services and helping people better off, so Gordon Brown, as our Prime Minister, will lead the country as we take the economy through these difficult times and we step up our determination to have more fairness and social justice.

These are shared values between the trade union Movement and the Labour Party. It was the trade union Movement and the Labour Party that together worked to deliver the National Minimum Wage; it was the trade union Movement and the Labour Party which introduced new rights for working parents and protected older people against discrimination and it was the trade union Movement and the Labour Party which together have worked to set up the really powerful now Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Together we have worked to make a lot of progress and together we have worked to see that even more progress will be made. So, having already increased maternity pay and leave, we are going to see maternity leave increase to a full 12 months. Having extended rights to working mothers, we are now going to ensure that fathers can take more time off when their children are young. We are going to bring in a tough new Equality Bill and we are going to make all of our work more effective by strengthening the work of trade union equality reps in the workplace.

But we all know that inequality is not just a matter of unfairness between black and white or men and women or people with disabilities. It is also a question of the gap between rich and poor and the gap between the north and south. Although we do know we have made a lot of progress, let me just give you two examples of how inequality can be stubborn and can be persistent. It used to be the case that women could expect to live longer than men. Now a rich man can expect to live longer than a poor woman. We all expect children to be able to achieve their full potential in school, but it is the case that by the time they reach the age of six, a less able child from a wealthy family will have overtaken a more able child from a poor family. These are inequalities that we must tackle and we must root out.

That is why I am announcing to conference this morning that I am setting up the National Equality Panel which will chart where we have made progress during the past 10 years and where we need to make much more progress. We could not have anybody better to chair it than Professor John Hills. I know that he is already working with the TUC and will expect the trade unions to be playing an important part in his work. He will report to Government after 12 months and then that will be able to lay the basis for even stepping further forward on the important work to tackle inequality and to bring forward social justice.

Whilst I am talking about inequality and social justice, of course, I have to mention the Conservatives who are now posing as the new friends of equality. On all the causes of Labour and the trade union Movement that we have campaigned for and worked so hard on during the last decade and that they have attacked so viciously and persistently, they have now whipped round and said: “Oh, we are in favour of it all; we are the new friends of equality”. However, they are the false friends of equality and fairness because, although they are now sidling up to trade unionists, fawning over equality campaigns and lurking around women’s organisations, they are still false friends of fairness because the Tory Party which bought this country back to basics now says it recognises that families come in all shapes and sizes. But look at their policies, their tax policies, the so-called tax break for married couples which would penalise couples who have separated or lone mothers. It would actually make their life harder. The Tory Party, the party that decried our concern for more childcare as the ‘nanny state’, now say they too want to see more nurseries, oh, but they would cut back on Sure Start. The party that decried our quest for more women Members of Parliament as political correctness gone made now say that they want to increase the number of Tory women MPs they have. By the way, we have 96 Labour women MPs and they have only 17 Tory women MPs. They say they now want to increase the number, but they would never take the positive action and the steps that we actually did to make that a reality. I always say about David Cameron that he wants women for one thing and one thing only, and that is their votes.

It is no surprise, if you look at the pattern of equality legislation, with Labour Governments in the 1960s and 1970s pioneering new legislation to tackle race discrimination, unfairness in pay for women and sex discrimination, then the Labour Government again coming in 1997 extending our equality laws for people with disabilities, older people on grounds of sexual orientation. So Labour Governments have always championed equality. And what did the Tories do when they were in power for 18 years? Can anybody remember the equality laws they brought in? Not one. Not one during 18 years unless, of course, you count clause 28.

So the Tories have always been against tackling inequality and Labour has always been for tackling inequality and so it remains. We have made progress. We do face difficulties. We will get through those difficulties and we will make further progress. But, remember, Congress, that though we have made progress, we all know there is further work to be done. That is why we need to work together to win a fourth term for a Labour Government. Thank you.