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  • David Lammy – 2024 Kew Lecture on Climate Change

    David Lammy – 2024 Kew Lecture on Climate Change

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    First, we will build a Global Clean Power Alliance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Stewardship of the natural world.

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

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

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

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

  • Ed Miliband – 2024 Speech at the Energy UK Conference

    Ed Miliband – 2024 Speech at the Energy UK Conference

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Inflation soared and growth sputtered.

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

    And the crisis isn’t over.

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

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

    We must learn the lessons.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This is the fundamental point not understood in policy debates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The price of offshore wind has halved.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Indeed the prospects are truly frightening.

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

    Since 2019, it’s been net zero.

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

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

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

    And we have huge strengths to draw on.

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

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

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

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

    And significant opportunities in hydrogen, tidal and other technologies.

    These are exciting possibilities.

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

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

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

    We need to face facts, however.

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

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

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

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

    Sweden almost 3 times as many.

    Denmark almost 4 times as many.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Their expert advice will inform our 2030 plan.

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

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

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

    You might indeed laugh.

    We intend to try and shatter your disillusion.

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

    Consented nearly 2GW of nationally significant solar.

    And delivered the most successful renewables auction in British history.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    And I passionately believe we can.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Our National Wealth Fund will strengthen our supply chains.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Let me end my remarks where I began.

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

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

    We know the stakes of action versus inaction.

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

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

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

    The people in this room are what he means.

    Working together with government for:

    Energy independence.

    Lower bills.

    Good jobs.

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

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

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

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

  • Keir Starmer – 2024 Speech at the Holocaust Educational Trust

    Keir Starmer – 2024 Speech at the Holocaust Educational Trust

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

    Ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, Chief Rabbi…

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

    It is important to be with you this evening.

    Thank you, Craig for that kind introduction.

    And of course a huge thank you…

    On behalf of everyone here tonight…

    To Karen Pollock…

    And all the team at the Holocaust Educational Trust.

    For over 35 years,

    This world-leading charity…

    Has been supporting hundreds of survivors…

    Training thousands of teachers…

    And educating tens of thousands of our young people.

    And you do it with an energy and an urgency…

    That is both inspiring…

    And sadly, needed now more than ever.

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

    And earlier this year at one of your events…

    I met Manfred Goldberg…

    Reliving the sheer horror of his experience…

    …including losing his brother Herman.

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

    But like so many survivors…

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

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

    And they started speaking.

    Nobody said to the boys shh.

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

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

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

    In fact, all survivors that are with us tonight…

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

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

    I want you to know…

    We have heard you.

    We feel very deeply…

    …the responsibility of defending the truth of history.

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

    Because as Manfred has said so powerfully –

    He never thought he’d see this antisemitism again.

    Just last week…

    …I sat with Ayelet Svatitzky…

    One of her brothers was murdered on October 7th.

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

    Her mother was eventually released…

    But Nadav died in captivity.

    She described in heartbreaking detail…

    The utter devastation she felt.

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

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

    To help bring those remaining hostages home.

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

    This resurgence of antisemitism.

    You know, every year we say never again.

    Yet on October 7th…

    Over a thousand people were massacred by Hamas…

    For the very same reason: because they were Jewish.

    We say never again…

    And yet in the last year…

    We’ve seen record levels of antisemitism…

    Right here in Britain…

    Hatred marching on our streets.

    The pulse of fear beating in this community.

    Children afraid to wear their school uniforms…

    Students targeted on university campuses…

    All again, because they are Jewish.

    We say never again…

    And yet right now online

    Our children are swamped with misinformation…

    Disinformation…

    As Karen touched on…

    Holocaust denial…

    Conspiracy theories…

    Contorted versions of history.

    Pure hatred and prejudice.

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

    We will not be silent…

    We will not look the other way…

    We will call out Antisemitism for what it is:

    …Hatred pure and simple.

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

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

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

    And build it next to Parliament.

    Boldly, Proudly, Unapologetically.

    Not as a Jewish community initiative….

    But as a national initiative.

    A national statement of the truth of the Holocaust…

    And its place in our national consciousness.

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

    And yes, we will proudly support this remarkable charity…

    The Holocaust Educational Trust.

    You know, it was Gordon Brown…

    Who pioneered government funding of your world-leading programme…

    Lessons from Auschwitz.

    And over the last twenty years…

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

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

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

    … utterly, utterly horrific.

    But it’s a truth we have remember.

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

    My wife Vic has been, I must go.

    So I will join the Holocaust Educational Trust…

    …for one of these visits.

    This government will continue funding Lessons from Auschwitz…

    And I can confirm that tonight we are providing at least

    £2.2 million next year to do that.

    But look, we cannot stop there.

    It’s too important.

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

    We can’t sit back and accept that.

    We’ve got to be bolder and more defiant…

    …about the national importance of Holocaust education.

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

    And there is currently a review of our national curriculum.

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

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

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

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

    For the first time, studying the Holocaust….

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

    And not just studying it…learning from it too.

    And above all, acting on its lessons.

    Because this is not just about rules and requirements.

    It’s also about the quality of that teaching.

    The support that schools and teachers have.

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

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

    It’s an incredible programme.

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

    It uses advanced technologies to allow students…

    Not just to hear Manfred’s testimony…

    But to ask him questions.

    To interact with him.

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

    …as meeting a survivor in person.

    But what a way to preserve survivor testimony.

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

    And I think this captures the essence…

    …of what we need to do right now.

    To extend the reach of Holocaust education…

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

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

    That as part of their education,

    Every student in the country should have the opportunity…

    To hear a recorded survivor testimony.

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

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

    As you all know, in the coming months…

    We’ll mark the 80th anniversaries…

    Of the liberation of Auschwitz in January…

    …and the British liberation of Bergen Belsen in April.

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

    Who were rehabilitated in Windermere…

    And went on to make extraordinary contributions to our country.

    As we mark each one….

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

    In sharing their message….

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

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

    Will echo eternally across the generations…

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

    And finally, one more thing…

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

    So to each and every one of you…

    May I say…

    Shana Tova.

  • Stephanie Peacock – 2024 Speech at ParalympicsGB Homecoming

    Stephanie Peacock – 2024 Speech at ParalympicsGB Homecoming

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

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

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

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

    What you achieved out there was absolutely phenomenal.

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

    Unbelievable displays of stamina, skill and strength.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Chris Bryant – 2024 Speech at Connected Britain 2024

    Chris Bryant – 2024 Speech at Connected Britain 2024

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

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

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

    People are desperate to turn the corner.

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

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

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

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

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

    Let me be specific about what that looks like.

    First, the basics of infrastructure rollout.

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

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

    Second, opportunities for better government.

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

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

    So help us build better, more productive public services.

    Thirdly, opportunities for better lives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Lisa Nandy – 2024 Statement at Bradford City of Culture’s Programme Launch

    Lisa Nandy – 2024 Statement at Bradford City of Culture’s Programme Launch

    The statement made by Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 12 September 2024.

    I just wanted to say what an absolute pleasure it is to be here tonight.

    In my first couple of weeks in the job, I held a reception for a lot of our biggest stakeholders in the culture world, and I met Shanaz at an event, who left me in absolutely no doubt about how amazing this was going to be, not just for Bradford, but for the whole country.

    And standing here tonight, feeling the energy in this room, walking down the street earlier, feeling a city that is buzzing with its sense of self, it is just such an enormous privilege to be part of it.

    It takes a bit of getting used to this, because I’m used to coming up here and saying things like: the government should get behind this.

    What you’re doing here is really, really special. And I want other people to see what you’re doing here, not just what you’ve done already, but how you’ve gone about it, involving the whole city and every single community, with all people, especially young people, driving and shaping not just this coming year, but the legacy that it will leave for a very long time.

    You know, a reflection on the last few months is that I’ve had two groups of people through my door. One set of people say, there’s a lot of problems, and there are, and you need to fix them. And the other group of people, people like Tracy and Susan, come through the door and say: we’re solving this country’s problems, and we need your help. And I can’t tell you how exciting it is when that happens.

    To be here in this young, vibrant, diverse city with its proud, rich cultural inheritance, from the South Asian community to David Hockney, who proudly hangs on my wall as a symbol of what Bradford has always contributed to this country and to the world and will do again.

    And that’s what’s so special about next year, is that for the first time, some people in our country are going to know what Bradford has to offer, having never known that before.

    And more than that, it’s our ambition as a new government that for far too long, too many people in our country haven’t seen themselves reflected in our national story, and it’s our ambition and our determination that that is going to change. So that when we turn to face the country again in five years time, we face a country that is far more self-confident, knows that it isn’t just comfortable in its diversity, but knows that it is far, far richer for it.

    A self-confident country at ease with itself, where people in every part of our country, no matter where you’re from or the background that you come from, knows that your contribution is seen and is valued and sees you reflected in the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves as a nation again.

    And what you’re building here will really put rocket boosters under that. It will be a model for others to follow in the future. But it isn’t just that. Tracy talked about the economic legacy that this will lead. Susan talked about the economic investment that it’s already brought.

    But the creative industries are amongst the fastest growing industries in the country, whether it’s film or TV, arts and culture, heritage, video games. These are the sorts of well-paid, good jobs in every part of the country.

    And you know what? For far too long, the assets and the potential in places like Bradford and Wigan, where I live, have been scandalously ignored by too many decision makers.

    But there’s a reason why the film industry wants to invest in Sunderland, because of those amazing backdrops that you see right up across our coastline. You only have to walk around this city to see the beautiful buildings and the open landscapes and how much potential there is here, if we could only see it.

    And if you don’t think Bradford has that to offer, if you don’t think Sunderland has that to offer, if you don’t think the Welsh valleys have that to offer, then you’ve never been to them, and you have no business making decisions about where our funding is going.

    I just want to say thank you particularly to Susan and Tracy, who I’ve known a long time, who are absolute powerhouses, forces to be reckoned with. They’re the most difficult people to deal with. They never take no for an answer, and they always do it with smiles on their faces.

    But our government is determined not to come in and tell you what you need as a community, but to walk alongside you, to help you realise your own ambitions for your city, for your region, and for the whole of the north of England.

    Finally, I just want to say to the young people that I’ve met tonight, who are the most incredible group of young people, there are moments in these jobs that stay with you forever, and those conversations I’ve just had over there will stay with me forever.

    Whether you’re a member of a youth board, whether you’re on an apprenticeship, whether you’re here on a work placement, or whether you’ve come to volunteer because you just want to be part of something really special, I wanted to say to you all that Bradford holds a very special place in my heart, because it’s where my stepdad, who went on to become a leading investigative journalist, a working class lad from Bury, first in his family to go on to grammar school and then make it to university. It’s where he started his career on the Bradford Telegraph and Argus.

    Until the day he died, he said to me: it would never have happened if that pipeline and those opportunities hadn’t been there. Well, what you’re doing as a generation is creating opportunities and richer, larger lives for children who you will never meet, who will never know your names, but their lives will be changed forever because of what you’ve done here and what you’ll continue to do over the coming year.

    I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it, I’m right behind you, the whole power of government is right behind you. What is it? Be brave. Be bold. Be Bradford.

  • Keir Starmer – 2024 Keynote Speech on the NHS

    Keir Starmer – 2024 Keynote Speech on the NHS

    The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, at the King’s Fund on 12 September 2024.

    [NB, this is the redacted speech issued by 10 Downing Street with political comment removed]

    As you have heard today, Lord Darzi has published his independent report on the state of our NHS.

    It is an incredibly comprehensive analysis. Some of you will have seen it, there are copies available, please read it.

    A raw and honest assessment. That is what we asked for.

    And that is why I wanted to come here to the King’s Fund.

    Home to many of our country’s leading healthcare experts.

    Because your contributions are going to be vital.

    As we get this precious institution back on its feet,

    And build an NHS that is truly fit for the future.

    And look, our starting point couldn’t be further from that goal.

    Public satisfaction in the NHS has fallen…

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    To an all-time low today.

    Think of the impact that has on staff who are putting in so much day in day out, knowing that confidence is at an all-time low.

    And that is because, as everybody in the country knows, the last government broke the NHS.

    But until this morning, we didn’t know the full scale of the damage, which is laid bare in the report.

    Even Lord Darzi, with all his years of experience.

    Is shocked by what he discovered.

    It is unforgiveable.

    And people have every right to be angry.

    It’s not just because the NHS is so personal to all of us.

    Or because when people can’t get the care they need…

    They’re off work sick, with huge costs for our economy.

    It’s because some of these failings are literally life and death.

    Take the waiting times in A&E…

    More than 100,000 infants waited more than 6 hours last year…

    And nearly a tenth of all patients are now waiting for 12 hours or more…

    That’s not just a source of fear and anxiety…

    It’s leading to thousands of avoidable deaths….

    And that phrase avoidable deaths should always be chilling.

    That’s people’s loved ones who could have been saved.

    Doctors and nurses whose whole vocation is to save them…

    Hampered from doing so.

    It’s devastating. Heartbreaking. Infuriating…

    And that’s just scratching the surface.

    High-risk heart attack patients waiting too long for urgent treatment.

    Cancer diagnosis patients waiting too long….

    With cancer death rates higher than other countries

    And when it comes to getting help for mental health …

    …. 345,000 are waiting over a year.

    That’s roughly the entire population of Leicester.

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    Covid hit our NHS harder than healthcare systems in other countries.

    The NHS delayed, cancelled, or postponed far more routine care during the pandemic than any comparable health system.

    And why?

    Because our NHS went into the pandemic in a much more fragile state.

    Fewer doctor, fewer nurses and fewer beds than most other high income health systems

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    What Lord Darzi describes as a “calamity without international precedent”.

    A “scorched earth” approach to health reform, the effects of which are still felt to this day.

    And at the same time, they inflicted what the report describes as:

    “the most austere decade since the NHS was founded”

    Crumbling buildings.

    Decrepit portacabins.

    Mental health patients in Victorian-era cells infested with vermin.

    When we say they broke the NHS…

    That’s not performative politics.

    Just look at it.

    The 2010s were a lost decade for our NHS.

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    And it’s not just the state of our National Health Service in crisis.

    It’s also the state of our national health.

    We’re becoming a sicker society.

    Spending more of our lives in ill-health than ten years ago.

    There are 2.8 million people economically inactive because of long-term sickness.

    As today’s report makes clear –

    “The NHS is not contributing to national prosperity as it could.”

    But perhaps Lord Darzi’s most damning finding is about the declining physical and mental health of our children.

    Fewer children getting vaccinated…

    While those from the most deprived backgrounds…

    Are twice as likely to be obese by reception age.

    And much of this is a direct result of wider social injustices..

    Poor quality housing

    Lower incomes,

    Insecure employment.

    All of it, not just damaging the health of our nation…

    It’s piling up the pressures on our NHS.

    That’s the report.

    But look, I haven’t come here just to set out this appalling inheritance. Though it is really important that we know it and properly understand it in detail.

    Getting people back to health and work would not only reduce the costs on the NHS.

    It would help drive economic growth – and fund public services.

    My government was elected on a mandate for change so I’m also here to talk about how together we fix it.

    I feel very deeply the profound responsibility for this.

    And indeed, the opportunity of this moment.

    The NHS may be broken, but it’s not beaten.

    As the report says, the NHS may be in a “critical condition”.

    But “its vital signs are strong”.

    And we need is the courage to deliver long-term reform.

    Major surgery not sticking plasters.

    We’ve got to face up to the challenges….

    Look at our ageing society.

    And the higher burden of disease.

    Look, the NHS is at a fork in the road.

    And we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands.

    Don’t act and leave it to die.

    Raise taxes on working people.

    Or reform to secure its future.

    Working people can’t afford to pay more.

    So it’s reform or die.

    So let me be clear from the outset, what reform does not mean.

    First, it does not mean abandoning those founding ideals.

    Of a public service, publicly funded, free at the point of use.

    That basic principle of dignity.

    Inspired of course by Bevan,

    That when you fall ill,

    You should never have to worry about the bill.

    That is as true today as when the NHS was founded 76 years ago.

    And I believe that so deeply.

    As some of you will know, my mum and my sister both worked for the NHS.

    My wife works for the NHS.

    The NHS cared for my Mum throughout what was a very

    But “its vital signs are strong”.

    long illness…

    The NHS runs through my family like a stick of rock.

    And you know, this isn’t just about emotion.

    It’s about hard facts too.

    The NHS is uniquely placed for the opportunities of big data and predictive and preventative medicine.

    So the problem isn’t that the NHS is the wrong model.

    It’s the right model.

    It’s just not taking advantage of the opportunities in front of it.

    And that’s what needs to change.

    Second, reform does not mean just putting more money in.

    Of course, even in difficult financial circumstances.

    My government will always make the investments in our NHS that are needed.  Always.

    But we have to fix the plumbing before turning on the taps.

    So hear me when I say this.

    No more money without reform.

    I am not prepared to see even more of your money spent

    On agency staff who cost £5,000 a shift

    On appointment letters, which arrive after the appointment,

    Or on paying for people to be stuck in hospital

    Just because they can’t get the care they need in the community.

    Tonight, there will be 12,000 patients in that very position.

    That’s enough to fill 28 hospitals.

    So we can’t go on like this.

    As Lord Darzi has said –

    NHS staff are “working harder than ever”

    But “productivity has fallen.”

    Because patients can’t be discharged,

    And clinicians are spending their time trying to find more beds.

    Rather than treating more patients.

    That isn’t just solved by more money – it’s solved by reform.

    And third, reform does not mean trying to fix everything from Whitehall. It really doesn’t.

    When Lord Darzi says the vital signs of the NHS are strong.

    He’s talking about the talents and passion of our NHS workforce.  That’s what he’s talking about.

    The breadth and depth of clinical talent.

    The extraordinary compassion and care of our NHS staff.

    If we are going to build an NHS that is fit for the future…

    Then I tell you, we are going to do it with our NHS staff.

    And indeed, with our patients too.

    We are going to change it together.

    Now, that starts with the first steps,

    40,000 extra appointments every week.

    But we’ve got to do the hard yards of long-term reform.

    So this government is working at pace

    To build a Ten-Year Plan.

    Something so different from anything that has gone before.

    This plan will be framed around three big shifts,

    Three fundamental reforms,

    Which are rooted in what Lord Darzi has set out today.

    First, moving from an analogue to a digital NHS.

    Already we can see glimpses of the extraordinary potential of technology,

    Like the world’s first ever non-invasive, knifeless surgery for Kidney cancer… Just imagine that.

    Pioneered by Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

    Or the precision cancer scanners…

    I saw just yesterday.

    Or simply for transforming how we manage a condition.

    We went to Kingsmill Hospital earlier this year and met a 12-year old called Molly.

    She used a smartphone to monitor her glucose levels…

    Instead of being forced to repeatedly prick her fingers.

    It made such a difference to her daily life and gave great reassurance to her mum who could remotely check on the settings and the findings.

    We’ve got to make these opportunities available to everyone.

    We’ve got to use technology to empower patients and give them much greater control over their healthcare.

    Take an innovation like the NHS app.

    This could be a whole digital front door to the NHS.

    Appointments, self-referral, reminders for check-ups and screenings.

    Patients in control of their own data,

    Healthcare so much more transparent,

    So you always know your options,

    And the standards that you should expect.

    And you know, earlier this year I went to Alder Hey Hospital. Many of you will know it, it’s a fantastic hospital, where they carry out heart surgery on infants, which is really humbling to see.

    I met the parents of a two-year old who had extremely complicated heart surgery. A tiny infant, an incredible surgery.

    I asked them about their child’s history and condition, how did he come to be here, what’s the story behind it,

    And as they told me, I could see them welling up as they went through the history, conditions, all the background through all of that over and over again.

    They really struggled to tell the story and they have to do this every single time.

    Because the records weren’t held electronically.

    We’ve got to have fully digital patient records.

    So that crucial information is there for you.

    Wherever you go in our NHS.

    And while I’m on technology

    We’re also going to throw the full weight of the British Government behind our world leading life sciences.

    Second, we’ve got to shift more care from hospitals to communities.

    Now The King’s Fund has long called for this.

    Successive governments have repeatedly promised it.

    But what’s happened?

    The opposite.

    The share of the NHS budget spent on hospitals has actuallyincreased.

    Now this Ten-Year plan has to be the moment we change this.

    The moment we begin to turn our National Health Service

    into a Neighbourhood Health Service.

    That means more tests, scans, healthcare offered on high streets and town centres.

    Improved GP access.

    Bringing back the family doctor.

    Offering digital consultations for those who want them,

    Then they told me that every time they went to a different hospital, they had to go virtual wards.

    And more patients can be safely looked after in their own homes.

    Where we can deal with problems early,

    Before people are off work sick and before they need to go to hospital.

    And we’ve got to make good on the integration of health and social care.

    So we can discharge those 28 hospitals worth of patients.

    Saving money.

    Reducing the strain on our NHS,

    And giving people better treatment.

    And third in terms of the shifts, we’ve got to be much bolder in moving from sickness to prevention.

    Now we’ve already announced NHS health checks in workplaces.

    Blood pressure checks at dentists and opticians.

    And that is just the beginning.

    Planning for ten years means we can make long-term investments in new technologies

    That will help catch and prevent problems earlier.

    And there are some areas in particular

    Where we’ve just got to be more ambitious.

    Like children’s mental health.

    Or children’s dentistry.

    You know, one of the most shocking things that I saw, I’ve ever seen…

    This was actually when I was at was at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital again.

    As I mentioned earlier, I went to the ward where they do heart operations.

    The single biggest cause of children going into that hospital…

    Between the ages of 6 and 10…

    Was to have their rotting teeth taken out. I couldn’t believe it. I was genuinely shocked.

    All politicians say they are shocked too often, but I was honestly shocked, the single biggest cause of going into hospital of children between 6 and 10 is having their teeth taken out.

    Can you think of anything more soul-destroying?

    For those children what a price to pay.

    And for that brilliant NHS team who want to use their talents to save lives.

    Instead spending their time taking out rotting teeth.

    Something that could be so easily prevented.

    And look, I know some prevention measures will be controversial.

    I’m prepared to be bold even in the face of loud opposition.

    So no, some of our changes won’t be universally popular.  We know that.

    But I will do the right thing – for our NHS, our economy, and our children.

    Now, the task before us is the work of our generation.

    We’ve already hit the ground running.

    Negotiating an offer to end the strikes

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    Strikes that were costing us all a fortune.

    And we inherited 1,000 trainee GPs who were set to graduate into unemployment…

    Instead we hired them.

    But only fundamental reform and a plan for the long-term can turn around the NHS and build a healthy society.

    It won’t be easy, it won’t be or quick.

    It will take a ten-year plan.

    Not the work of just one Parliament.

    But I know we can do it.

    Because we’ve done reform before.

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    To deliver better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers.

    [Please note political content redacted here.]

    My Government has a huge mandate for change.

    We are mission-driven.

    And I think the themes of this conference today are fitting for this moment.

    Challenge. Change. And hope.

    Because the challenge is clear before us.

    The change could amount to the biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth.

    And the hope, well that’s what’s really exciting and galvanising about this moment.

    Because if we get this right,

    People can look back and say –

    This was the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history.

    Got it back on its feet and made it fit for the future.

  • Peter Kyle – 2024 Speech at the Science and Engineering Conference

    Peter Kyle – 2024 Speech at the Science and Engineering Conference

    The speech made by Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on 11 September 2024.

    Good afternoon.

    It’s a real pleasure to be here.

    Thank you for having me along. It really does mean the world to connect with people on the front line of R&D.

    Something you notice quite quickly when you get appointed to this job, is you do feel quite distant from the front line of some of things you’re making big decisions about, so it’s great to be here to connect with as many people as possible.

    Since I’ve got this job, people have constantly been asking me how it connects to people’s lives and is science really relevant to the daily lives and lived experiences of people.

    It is quite surprising for me to hear that question put in so many different ways.

    But the answer for me has never changed because anyone who has stepped foot into a secondary school classroom can see in a heartbeat how important science is to energising and inspiring young people.

    Anyone who has felt the sheer excitement of students setting up an experiment for the first time can see how important science is to inspiring young people.

    And they’ll tell you: not connecting with people’s lives just isn’t true.

    Because if you accept the idea that the only people interested in science are the professionals.

    The people with PhDs and post-docs.

    Then you’ve lost the argument about science before it has even started.

    Our challenge is not about persuading people to care about science.

    It is about what happens to science if you are forced to make difficult decisions.

    If you inherited – for example – a state with broken public finances and broken public services.

    How many of those young people would say that science should be first priority?

    And that’s the challenge we’ve got to overcome.

    We can’t just tell them that it is interesting or important.

    They already know that.

    We must show them why it matters so much for the things that they care about most.

    That is what our missions collectively is to achieve.

    They set out a clear plan for tackling the country’s greatest challenges together.

    A plan with R&D at its foundation.

    We know that the young people in that classroom want to live fulfilling and happy lives.

    So we must show them we can use science to build an NHS fit for the future.

    An NHS where doctors can use quantum scanners to detect diseases invisible to the human eye, giving them back precious years with their grandparents.

    Those young people care about achieving their own potential.

    So we must show them that technology such as AI can break down the barriers to opportunity.

    Helping teachers use AI to plan lessons that help every pupil go as far as their talents will take them.

    They care about the future of their planet, too.

    So we must show them that innovation can transform the way we generate clean energy and combat climate change.

    The success of our missions will be measured by the meaningful difference we make to everyday people’s lives.

    And every one of them will depend on growth.

    Because, more than anything else, it is growth that will shape those young people’s future.

    It is growth that determines whether they can get a good job in the place they grow up.

    Whether we can fix our hospitals and schools.

    Today, a decade of lost growth means that British people are earning less than a tenner more each week than they did in 2008.

    Taxes are at a seventy-year high.

    National debt is the highest its been since the 1960s.

    Stagnant growth and productivity has come at a profound cost to our country, our communities and individuals.

    A cost that is felt in our public services and in working people’s pockets.

    We are faced with a systemic problem and challenge.

    A problem the same old sticking plasters cannot fix.

    So we have got to do things differently.

    And science, it must be part of the solution as it has done every single time our country has moved forward.

    Because long-term, sustainable economic growth is impossible without innovation.

    You simply cannot make people better off without investment in R&D.

    A couple of months ago, I went to Glasgow to see what success could look like.

    There, I met some of the extraordinary people working in the city’s space sector.

    Some of them will have grown up as the children of shipbuilders, in a place that once built a fifth of the world’s ships.

    Now, they are building more satellites than anywhere else in Europe.

    Satellites that could transform the way we understand climate change.

    Or provide Internet access to some of our most remote communities.

    Later this year, I am heading to South Wales.

    The collapse of heavy industry there hollowed out cities, towns, and villages.

    Hundreds of thousands were left unemployed.

    Unable to do the only job they – or their parents – had ever done, many of them never worked again.

    Now, the region is home to the world’s first compound semiconductor cluster.

    And those same cities, towns and villages are once again at the beating heart of the global economy.

    Home to people who are designing and making the chips that are powering the digital revolution and driving forward our net zero ambitions.

    Their children might one day do the same.

    If I wanted to show people why science matters, I would point to places like that across our country.

    Places where R&D is providing good jobs in industries built to last.

    And giving communities their future back.

    The success of Glasgow and South Wales is testament to the power of partnership.

    Between the public and the private.

    World-leading universities working with bold, dynamic businesses.

    Too often, though, government has been missing in action.

    Some of the people I spoke to in Glasgow told me that the relationship with the state has felt less like a partnership – and more like a one-way street.

    Ever-shifting funding settlements have made it impossible to plan into the future and give the stability they need.

    A maze of unwieldy regulation has held business back, preventing them from developing products that could change people’s lives for the better.

    Universities have been treated like political footballs, rather than celebrated as a public good that they are.

    That is bad for innovation. It is bad for growth. And it is bad for working people.

    So it’s time to turn the page.

    In our national missions, I see an opportunity to build a long-term, strategic partnership in which we can both invest.

    A partnership anchored in stability – and in a belief that science and technology can benefit every single one of us, wherever we live in the country.

    It begins in the places where research happens: in labs and lecture halls across the country.

    Sometimes, life-changing discoveries can take decades to develop.

    Earlier this week, I spoke at the Terrence Higgins Trust.

    In 1982, Terrence Higgins became of the first people in the UK to die of an AIDS-related illness.

    It was almost thirty years before the treatment now used to prevent HIV infection became available to the public.

    For thirty years, scientists worked tirelessly to find a cure, often without the support they deserved – or, worse – in the face of outright opposition to even working on those solutions.

    If we want to see more breakthroughs like this.

    Breakthroughs that can bring back hope to millions.

    Then we need a coherent, clear-sighted approach.

    An approach grounded not in short-term decisions, but in a realistic, hopeful vision of a future where science makes life in Britain better.

    That is why we are introducing 10-year budgets for certain R&D activities.

    By giving researchers the long-term funding, they need to remain right at the heart of the cutting edge, we will end the uncertainty that undermines innovation.

    We will restore strength and stability to the relationship between industry and our research institutions.

    And we will give businesses in Britain the confidence to invest wholesomely in R&D.

    Above all, our approach will be determined by a relentless focus on delivery.

    We have already commissioned our AI Action Plan which will set out how we can make the very best use of artificial intelligence to grow the economy and improve public services, and the relationship between citizens and the public services that they depend on.

    And we have unlocked new investment in essential R&D infrastructure like the UK Biobank, the world’s leading biomedical database.

    That funding that will supporting scientists who are trying to find cures to devastating diseases like Parkinson’s, dementia and cancer.

    We know that discoveries this could take decades.

    But once they happen, it shouldn’t take decades for people to benefit.

    Because every day of dither or delay is another day that someone misses out.

    On the job that could change their life.

    Or the treatment that could save their life.

    The Regulatory Innovation Office will cut the time it takes for businesses to bring new ideas onto the market and into our lives.

    And Skills England will give them access to a home-grown workforce with the talent to take on the challenges of tomorrow.

    By fixing the foundations of our broken skills system, it will give every young person – no matter where they live – the opportunity to get on life.

    This week, hundreds of thousands of those young people will step into a science lab for the very first time.

    Each of them will have come home full of stories, of what they have done that day.

    The excitement of that first experiment.

    Or the disaster of an attempting a discovery gone wrong.

    As they get older, many of them will hold onto that kernel of inspiration.

    But they will begin to wonder – what does science do for me?

    When I can’t get a good job in my town.

    And my parents have been waiting weeks to see the doctor.

    Science means something different to all of us.

    Whether we are investing in new products in the lab.

    Or putting them to use on the factory floor.

    Our challenge remains the same.

    Not simply to tell people about the power of innovation.

    But to show them, by putting that power to use for the public good.

    In our missions, we have the promise of a partnership with a purpose.

    A partnership with people at its heart.

    Now, we must get on with the job and deliver for them.

    Thank you very much.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2024 Speech on the Government’s Vision for the Future of UK Capital Markets

    Tulip Siddiq – 2024 Speech on the Government’s Vision for the Future of UK Capital Markets

    The speech made by Tulip Siddiq, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, at the London Stock Exchange on 6 September 2024.

    Good morning and thanks for the invitation. It’s so lovely to be here today, and it’s one of my first addresses in my new role as City minister.

    And it’s a very deliberate decision that I’ve taken, because growth is the defining mission of this government, which you’ve probably heard us say over and over again. From the top down to the centre out, we recognise the importance of capital markets to delivering this growth mission that we’ve consistently talked about for the last few years. And As the Chancellor herself said – many of you will have heard at Barclays CEO forum recently – “when the City succeeds, Britain succeeds”. Nothing demonstrates that better than our capital markets.

    It’s not just that when our markets do well, our economy does well. Already this year, more than £20 billion worth of equity capital has been raised in London alone, more than three times what has been raised in the next three European exchanges combined – to support businesses to invest, to innovate and to grow.

    And according to a New Financial report from 2020, 90% of large UK companies regularly use capital markets, supporting some 5.5 million jobs. It’s not just large companies which benefit from our markets. Over the last five years combined, more than half of all capital raised in European growth markets was raised in London. And although these facts speak for themselves, I’ll spell out what they say: that UK capital markets will underpin our mission of sustained and meaningful economic growth.

    But I also know that for our capital markets, stability and just the right amount of risk is the formula for economic growth. Whilst too much political change can unbalance that formula by moderating the market’s ability to signal opportunities for profit and risks of loss.

    So let me be clear to everyone who has raised this with me. We will not pursue change for its own sake. The economist Adam Smith once wrote about an invisible hand, a metaphor for the forces that guide decision-making in the market. Well, I want you to be in no doubt – because in the marketplace of ideas, evidence will be the hand that guides our decision making in policy making generally and capital markets policy specifically. You can describe our approach to the existing program of capital markets reform with this timeless saying, which is ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. I hope that reassures some of the people who’ve raised this with me about continuity.

    And while reviewing the existing plans for reform to a capital markets there’s three things that I was struck by. Firstly, the proposals are technically rigorous. Secondly, they have the support of our financial services industry and its regulators. But lastly, and this is most importantly, I know they will support our mission of sustained and meaningful economic growth. And so I, and this government, will support them.

    And I’ll begin that support by highlighting some of the most exciting policy initiatives. Some of which Julia and I were discussing when we came in. For example, the FCA’s changes to our listing rules will revolutionise our markets. By making changes to rules on dual-class share structures, related party transactions and introducing a new international secondary listing category, we will directly align our markets with leading international counterparts and provide greater flexibility to firms and founders raising capital.

    The impact of some of these changes are already being felt, and I’m delighted that some firms are already taking advantage of them.

    The government will also continue to collaborate with a number of industry driven initiatives. Working closely with our Industry Technical group led by Andrew Douglas, and building momentum towards faster settlement of securities trades. And I look forward to the final report of the Task Force led by Sir Douglas Flint on improving the current system of share ownership and eliminating the use of paper share certificates.

    And we remain fully committed, as I just said before we came on, to take forward the new Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System – or PISCES – a world-first bespoke regulated market for private company shares. This will help investors to invest in exciting private companies and support innovative companies to grow – and ultimately to an IPO.

    To my mind, government works best when it’s underpinned by honest and open conversation. And that’s why it’s very important to me to thoroughly examine the feedback from the consultation earlier this year, and to ensure that all of your opinions are properly reflected in our decision-making process.

    And while it’s clear to me that there is huge support for the PISCES project, it is also clear that on the issues of disclosure and market abuse we need to tailor our thinking further. So please be assured that my officials and I will continue working with you. And in that spirit, my officials will be in attendance at the roundtable on PISCES later today, and I’ll ensure that all the conclusions from this roundtable are considered in our final proposal to ensure that PISCES does deliver on its promise.

    But I know that we can go even further to restore competitiveness to our capital markets.

    And of course, a lot of you will be looking forward to the Mansion House speech and the Budget later on, which will set out the plans for our sector in more detail. But I would urge you, if you haven’t already, to look at the report “Financing Growth” – that I published earlier this year – which unapologetically puts really reinvigorating our capital markets at the heart of this government’s growth mission. It’s what we campaigned on, and it’s what we intend to deliver in government.

    They include proposals to encourage the investment of capital freed by Solvency II reforms into UK infrastructure and green industries. To empower the British Business Bank with a more ambitious remit, for example, providing match funding to spin out seed funds. And a landmark review of the UK’s pensions and retirement saving landscape to explicitly consider the role of pension funds in capital and financial markets to boost both their returns and broader economic growth.

    Confirming this review was one of the first announcements made by the Chancellor, and this phase will be led by my colleague Emma Reynolds, who is the Minister for Pensions. She will be speaking here later today. And I encourage you to join this, which is the session on the UK pensions landscape, because Emma will outline the exciting plans that we’ve undertaken as a government.

    So, I do recognise that these proposals are challenging. I’m not naive about it.

    But I am confident looking around this room today and seeing the expertise here, that if we work together, we will be delivering this, because sustained and meaningful economic growth is not just the government’s mission, it’s a mission that we share with everyone in this room.

    So now let’s go out and deliver it.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2024 Speech on Fixing the Foundations of Opportunity

    Bridget Phillipson – 2024 Speech on Fixing the Foundations of Opportunity

    The speech made by Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State of Education, at the Carlton House Terrace in London on 10 September 2024.

    Thank you so much. I’m so pleased to be here with you today at the launch of such an important report.

    And the temptation with reports like these, the ones that deal in international comparisons, is to try and score cheap political points by doing each other down.

    But I think that’s a mistake. They are a chance for collaboration, not competition. Partnership, not rivalry.

    Educational standards, opportunity itself, is a shared global endeavour. I want countries to come together to educate our children to form, not just the citizens, but the society of tomorrow.

    And so I’d like to thank the OECD for this excellent report. And I’d also like to thank the Sutton Trust for hosting us today.

    And I know that Sir Peter Lampl – you are stepping down as chair soon.

    And I know that you’ve spent the last quarter of a century campaigning tirelessly to level the playing field where it comes to access to education and career opportunities, so that no young person is held back by their background.

    So thank you for all that you have done, Peter. I was going to wish you a happy retirement from your role, but it sounds like you’ve got lots of plans lined up and lots that you intend to achieve in the months and years to come.

    I’m an optimist. So I want to be positive, but I do have to be honest about the inheritance of a new government.

    And as data published today shows, around a third of children leaving primary school do not meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths following assessment.

    There are pockets across our country where only every other child is leaving primary school meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

    Lurking beneath all of these separate challenges is a common denominator of distress: child poverty – the stain on our society that has seeped into the fabric of far too many families.

    One in 10 pupils in this country miss at least a meal a month because their parents can’t afford to buy food.

    Back in August I visited a sixth form college in Manchester for level 3 results day.

    And during that visit I sat down with teachers to listen to their reflections on what it is to be a teacher today.

    One told me that he had been a teacher for over a decade. But in that time his job had changed beyond all recognition.

    With more and more kids bringing out of school issues into the classroom, his role had expanded.

    The children’s need for pastoral support took up so much more of his time.

    More and more children were prevented from learning in his lessons because they were hungry, or because of other problems at home.

    Despite that teacher’s best efforts, going far beyond his job description, the life chances of those children were shrinking.

    As politicians we like to talk about our own story.

    But proud as we may be of that, too often the story of why some of us make it to stand on platforms like this today, while others never get that chance, is not one of hard work and talent.

    It’s one of luck, and all too often of bad luck.

    That’s the story for those children in that teacher’s classroom in Manchester, and thousands of other classrooms across the country.

    The ones arriving too hungry to learn.

    The ones arriving too tired to concentrate.

    The ones arriving not having done their homework because they don’t have a quiet space at home.

    Whereas others arrive ready and raring to go – and in the evenings they go back to homes where they are encouraged to continue learning, where their education is prized.

    Nowhere is the stickiness of these disparities clearer than in the persistence of poverty, infecting generation after generation.

    It takes five full generations for families in poverty just to reach average pay in the UK.

    And in today’s Britain, it’s the luck of your background, rather than how hard you work, that all too often delivers success.

    And the British people know it: three in four of adults agree that a person’s background influences their outcomes in life.

    The foundations of opportunity in Britain may be rotten.

    But aspiration – that desire to achieve and to succeed – is in rude health.

    It isn’t just the reserve of the wealthy, even if the opportunity to fulfil those aspirations remains rationed to a lucky minority.

    Working people want to know that success belongs to them, to look into the eyes of their children and grandchildren and tell them that if they work hard, they’ll be able to get on and have a good life.

    So this government is on an urgent mission to make that a reality once more…

    … an urgent mission to fix the foundations of opportunity

    … to restore the heritage of hope passed from generation to generation.

    It can be done.

    But to do it we must eradicate child poverty from our society.

    That’s why I came into politics, that’s why I’m proud to be leading the new government’s child poverty taskforce as co-chair, together with the Work and Pensions Secretary.

    Work has already begun, we held our first meeting of the taskforce last month, and we’ll publish our strategy in the spring.

    I’m glad to see that the theme of today’s report is equity in education.

    Tackling child poverty is one piece of the puzzle – and it’s a top priority for this parliament. But fixing the foundations of opportunity demands equity in education too.

    For this new government, it means high and rising standards across the length and breadth of education:

    Not for some of our children, but for all of our children

    Not in some of our schools, but in all of our schools

    Not just in London and the south east, but right across our nation

    Every village, every town, every city on the map. Every child, every young person, every adult in this country.

    And to do that we need great teachers – the ones who inspire, who guide, who shape the futures of all of their students.

    They are vital to our opportunity mission, so we’re restoring teaching as the profession of choice for the very best graduates and recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers.

    That’s why we’re giving teachers and school leaders a 5.5% pay award, starting this academic year.

    Great teachers in every classroom – that’s one way we’re fixing the foundations of opportunity.

    But our opportunity is about parents as well as children – it’s about families.

    We need to get early education and childcare right – so that all children get the very best start in life and all parents get the power to pursue their careers.

    But, as your report shows, the gap in enrolment in childcare between rich families and poor families in the UK is one of the biggest in the OECD.

    So how can we spread opportunity more widely?

    Part of the answer does lie in the childcare rollout.

    And I’m delighted that last week hundreds of thousands of working parents started receiving 15 funded hours for their young children for the first time.

    And I was pleased to confirm that the 2025 childcare commitment to increase this to 30 funded hours will go ahead.

    We have worked tirelessly this summer alongside childcare providers to deliver the promises government made, because trust in government is vital.

    That of course means being open about the scale of the challenge to roll out this commitment in full.

    It won’t be simple. It won’t be easy.

    But I will work with our parents and workforce to see it through.

    All of early years education is vital for our mission, not just childcare.

    Those first steps into education are so important for a child’s life chances.

    And the sad truth is that a significant part of the attainment gap is already baked in by the age of 5.

    But what happens next in a child’s life, what they are taught in the classroom, is vital too.

    So we are bringing together expert education leaders and staff in an expert-led review to help us deliver a cutting-edge curriculum fit for the future.

    True equity in education requires breadth and depth, and ours has been thin and shallow for too long.

    A foundation in reading, writing and maths, yes.

    Of course.

    But let’s go further. I want every child in our country to benefit from the wonders of music, sport, art and drama.

    A curriculum that reflects the issues and diversities of our society, ensuring that every child is represented.

    Never compromising on standards in the basics.

    Quite the opposite.

    That’ll be the strength with which we drive high and rising standards for all of our children.

    Those standards must be for each and every child.

    When they slip, it’s not middle-class parents who miss out – they can pay for tutors to pick up the slack.

    It’s the children without support at home who fall further behind.

    To deliver those standards in all our schools we need an accountability system that is fit for purpose.

    A system built on support, and focused on driving improvement at the earliest point.

    High standards, not high stakes.

    Broad and rich, not narrow and reductive.

    And last week I took the first steps to reform accountability. I announced the end of single headline Ofsted grades for state-funded schools, with immediate effect.

    Instead, a clearer, broader, more transparent report card approach, in place by September ‘25.

    Equity in education, from early years up to university and beyond, is the seed for opportunity in our society.

    We can’t focus just on one part of the system, one area of the country, one group of people.

    We can’t let excellence in education be the reserve of a lucky few.

    It has to be for all, for everyone, forever.

    Now I said before that I’m an optimistic person. And even given the challenge ahead, I am optimistic.

    I believe that this country’s best days lie ahead of us; that our country with its proud history can have a brighter future yet.

    September signals the end of summer, but a new beginning for education.

    The work to fix the foundations, to build a new nation of opportunity, has now begun.

    Thank you.