Tag: Speeches

Layla Moran – 2022 Speech on Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre

The speech made by Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, in the House of Commons on 23 September 2022.

I am grateful to the House for allowing me another chance to raise the proposed reopening of Campsfield House immigration removal centre, after business was so mournfully changed two weeks ago.

I start by thanking the Minister for engaging with me and my office on this issue and answering my questions today. However, I am deeply disappointed that we have to debate this issue again at all. One of my first campaigns as a parliamentary candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon was the campaign to close Campsfield House. At the time, Campsfield was a detention centre for over 200 adult men facing deportation. My community fought tirelessly for over two decades to close the centre, and make no mistake: we are ready to fight again.

The Government are now planning to reopen the centre, with an expanded capacity of 400 beds at a cost of £227 million to the taxpayer. Our opposition comes primarily from concern over the welfare of the detainees, the impact that has on everyone in the community and also the cost efficiency of this plan in the immigration detention estate. It is expensive and does not achieve its aims. But most of all, it is cruel.

I want to start with detainees’ own descriptions of Campsfield. One man detained at the centre said:

“Some of us have been here for over 3 years with no prospect of removal or any evidence of future release. There is no justification whatsoever for detaining us for such a period of time. Our lives have been stalled without any hope of living a life, having a family or any future.”

Another former detainee talked about finding solace in music:

“I tried to create a kind of musical environment around me in Campsfield. It genuinely helped me so I didn’t get too depressed. It saved me from self-harm and suicide, which I saw many people try. It made me feel like I was reaching out beyond the fences. Sometimes I think it’s ok to escape reality in that kind of a place because the reality there can feel like you are living in a nightmare.”

The nightmare of immigration detention was made much worse by failures in processes and procedures. In 2013, I uncovered that a child was being held at Campsfield. A boy was held there for between two and three months. He would have been the only child in an adult-dominated, guarded facility with barbed wire fences. He would not have been allowed to go to school and he would have been unable to interact with other children or lead any sort of normal childhood. We know very little about him other than that he was between 12 and 16. I hope that all hon. Members will agree that that was and is totally unacceptable—but he was not the only one. Another boy was incorrectly identified by social services as being an adult and was held at Campsfield for 62 days. He was 16. The chief inspector of prisons said that he

“was held by mistake and should never have been detained”.

That is fine, but there is only one way to ensure that such an atrocity does not happen again at Campsfield, and that is simply not to reopen it.

Accidental child detention is not the only concern. As detainees faced unacceptable conditions, tensions often boiled over into aggression and protest. There were riots, fires and escapes. Detainees completed suicide. One asylum seeker completed suicide at Campsfield after being detained for six months and denied bail three times. He was only 18 years old.

As hon. Members might imagine, all that causes enormous distress to the local community. It is important to note that detention has an enormous effect far beyond the fences. A volunteer visitor service was set up by local people and became the wonderful organisation Asylum Welcome, which does fantastic work to support asylum seekers across Oxfordshire and plays a pivotal role in welcoming Ukrainian refugees.

One former visitor said:

“The men detained at Campsfield House were representative of a broad range of humanity—not all were angels, although most that I spoke to were very decent people. But they were all human and therefore deserving of their human rights, and none deserved to be locked away without having committed a crime”.

That is critical: most of the detainees who passed through Campsfield were true asylum seekers—they were not criminals. The Home Office claims that Campsfield is necessary to hold foreign national offenders, yet in 2017 an average of only 98 were held at Campsfield at any one time. Why do we need a 400-bed centre away from the main airports?

Immigration detention is described by the Home Office as having a “limited, but crucial role” in helping to control our borders. There are a stringent set of circumstances in which the Government have the power to detain an individual: to enable removal from the country; to establish the basis of someone’s identity or claim; and when the Home Office suspects that someone will not comply with immigration bail. The Home Office’s own guidance states:

“Detention must be used sparingly, and for the shortest period necessary.”

On the face of it, that is sensible. I make it clear to the Minister that I can see the need for a small number of detention places, very close to airports, for people to be held for an extremely short time. That is not in question. But what is happening now, with the expansion of the detention estate, starting with Campsfield, shows that there is a failure in that system.

When the chief inspector of prisons carried out a final inspection before Campsfield closed, the average length of detention was 55 days, but some men were held for “excessive periods”. The longest detention in that year was one year and five months, but we have heard from detainees who were held for more than three years. Many detainees are not held in one centre but are deported, released, or moved around the system. They are passed from one centre to another and not allowed to form relationships. An MP might advocate for them, but then they move and the MP cannot do so anymore. They do not have consistent caseworkers. That is cruel, but it is also incredibly costly.

The cost element needs to be explored. When Campsfield was open, it cost £86 a day to detain someone there, but costs have increased. In the first quarter of 2022, the average cost of holding someone in detention was £107 per day. The more individuals we detain, and the longer we keep them behind bars, the more costly it is. As the Minister may well remember, we are in a cost of living crisis. Families are struggling to afford food; pensioners cannot afford to turn their heating on. We heard this morning the Chancellor’s grand plan to tackle the economic crisis—I am sorry, but the way to solve this is not to keep detaining people at enormous cost, it is instead to invest that money in a system to improve processing times.

Taxpayers deserve a Home Office that does its job properly. Figures from the House of Commons Library reveal that the same amount of money that the Government will be spending on re-opening Campsfield could be used to fund more than 1,000 asylum caseworkers, who are desperately needed to process that backlog. Why are we not investing that money in staff? How many new caseworkers do the Government intend to bring into the system, or are they just accepting failure?

We raised concerns at the time about the welfare of those in Campsfield, but we must also understand why there has been this shift in policy. That is why this debate is so important. Campsfield was shut in 2017 off the back of the Stephen Shaw review, which concluded that the “direction of travel” for the detention estate in the UK should be “downwards”, both for reasons of welfare and for better use of public money. The Home Office agreed with that recommendation and made the decision to reduce the immigration detention estate, aiming to reduce it by almost 40%. As part of that Campsfield closed, but the Government have now changed direction and numbers are climbing to the same levels that we saw before 2019. Not only are they re-opening Campsfield, but there is another detention centre at Haslar in Hampshire, both with more beds than they had before. That is a clear, active change of policy, and we have not had an explanation for what has changed. Which recommendations in the Shaw review does the Minister now not accept?

How does that change of policy fulfil the Government’s legal obligations? There have been legal challenges on human rights grounds for those held on the detention estate, but most of those people—and this is where we must end—are not criminals. Most of those people are true asylum seekers, and 80% of those who try to claim asylum in the UK are granted asylum. When we combine the fact that there are a small number of foreign prisoners who should be detained and supported, and that 80% of those who try to claim asylum are granted asylum, I simply ask the Minister why the Government are doing this, and whether they will reverse the decision to reopen Campsfield House.

26/09/2022
Rachel Reeves – 2022 Response to the Chancellor’s Fiscal Statement

The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 23 September 2022.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I would like to welcome the Rt Hon Gentleman to his place and I thank him for his statement.

He is the third Conservative Chancellor this year – and it’s still only September.

The Chancellor has confirmed that the costs of the energy price cap will be funded by borrowing, leaving the eye-watering windfall profits of the energy giants untaxed.

The oil and gas producers will be toasting the Chancellor in the boardrooms as we speak – while working people are left to pick up the bill.

Borrowing higher than it needs to be, just as interest rates rise.

And yet the Chancellor refuses to allow independent economic forecasts to be published which would show the impact of this borrowing on our public finances on growth and inflation.

It is a budget without figures.

A menu without prices.

What, Mr Speaker, has he got to hide?

This statement is an admission of 12 years of economic failure.

And now here we are – one last throw of the dice, one last claim that these ministers will be different.

For all the chopping and changing and chaos and confusion there has been one person here throughout.

The Prime Minister.

She’s been a minister for a decade, out defending every single economic decision.

When the Prime Minister says she wants to break free from the past, what she really means is she wants to break free from her own record.

Because where have the last 12 years left us?

Lower growth, lower investment, lower productivity.

And today, we learn we have the lowest consumer confidence since records began.

The only things that are going up are inflation, interest rates and bankers’ bonuses.

As the Tories become more and more detached from reality millions of people are lying awake at night worrying about how they’ll make ends meet.

Labour won the argument that action on energy bills was necessary.

But the question is: who pays?

The energy producers who have profited so much from the rise in prices should make a contribution.

But when the country asked who should foot the bill for their energy rescue
package the Conservatives responded: “you”, the British people.

Instead of standing up for working people, the Conservatives chose to shield the gigantic windfall profits of the energy giants leaving tens of billions of pounds on the table and pushing all the costs onto borrowing to be paid for by current and future taxpayers.

This Prime Minister and Chancellor have no regard for taxpayers’ interests or the concerns of working people.

It’s not just that this Conservative government is not working for ordinary families – it’s actively working against them.

Mr Speaker, we have had six so-called growth plans from the Conservatives since 2010.

A litany of failure.

I do at least commend the Chancellor on having the ambition of achieving two and a half percent growth a year – the last Labour government’s rate of growth.

But to achieve that sort of growth and for that growth to be sustainable, you need a credible plan.

And the truth is that this government does not have one.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor are like two desperate gamblers in a casino, chasing a losing run.

The argument peddled by the Chancellor today isn’t a great new idea as much as he’d like us to think so.

What this plan adds up to is to keep corporation tax where it is today and to take national insurance, which they voted to increase, back to where it was last March.

Some new plan!

And it’s based on an outdated ideology that says if we simply reward those who are already wealthy, the whole of society will benefit.

They’ve decided to replace levelling up with trickle down.

As President Biden said this week, he is “sick and tired of trickle-down economics.”

And he is right to be.

It is discredited, it is inadequate and it will not unleash the wave of investment that we need.

Mr Speaker, it’s not just this side of the House with concerns.

The Rt Hon Member for Surrey Heath, described the Prime Minister’s economic plans as ‘taking a holiday from reality’.

The Rt Hon Member for Richmond, two Chancellors ago, was perhaps too honest with his party when he told them:

“We tried having a … low corporation tax … as a means of getting businesses to invest.”

But that “It has not worked.”

The new Chancellor and Prime Minister used to agree with that.

They voted for the corporation tax rise, and Labour supported it too.

Members opposite might have changed their minds, but we have not.

Because the evidence shows that low rates of Corporation Tax are not the best way to boost investment and productivity and the Tories’ own record shows that.

Britain has the lowest headline rate of corporation tax in the G7 but we also have the lowest rate of private investment.

That’s why Labour would do what businesses are actually asking for:

Using targeted investment allowances to boost productivity and growth.

And scrapping outdated and unfair Business Rates, that harm our small businesses and high streets replacing them with a system that’s fit for the 21st Century.

What about their other policies?

Let’s take these so-called ‘investment zones’.

Again, these are nothing new.

Every time they were tried, all they have achieved was moving growth around
the country, not creating growth.

The best way out of this high tax, low growth spiral that the Tories have created is to get the economy firing on all cylinders in all parts of the country.

It’s going to take much more than a stamp duty cut to get our economy back on track and home ownership back to the levels last seen under the Labour government.

These stamp duty changes have been tried before.

Last time they did it, a third of the people who benefited were buying a second or third home, or a buy to let property.

Is that really the best use of taxpayers money when borrowing and debt are already so high?

And can the Chancellor confirm today how much of his stamp duty cut will go to those purchasing multiple properties?

Instead of a stamp duty rates going up and down like a yo-yo, we’ve got to get building.

We need to target support at first time buyers and tackle the issue of homes being sold to overseas investors.

The Chancellor has made clear today who his priorities are. Not a plan for growth, a plan to reward the already wealthy.

A return to the trickle down of the past, back to the past, not a brave new future.

This Chancellor and Prime Minister proclaimed in Britannia Unchained that ‘the British are amongst the worst idlers in the world’.

And to prove they mean it, instead of supporting working people this government is cutting their rights at work.

Working people are the backbone of Britain and should be respected not sneered at.

Labour will always stand up for their rights.

The Chancellor has in effect today admitted he has broken his fiscal rules.

This is the 10th time the Tories have broken their own rules, something that I’m sure the Office for Budget Responsibility would have confirmed if they had been allowed to publish their forecasts today.

Mr Speaker, it is unprecedented to have a fiscal statement of this scale with no independent forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Never has a government borrowed so much and explained so little.

Economic institutions matter.

Yet this government has undermined the Bank of England, sacked the respected Permanent Secretary at the Treasury and silenced the Office for Budget Responsibility.

That is no way to build confidence.

This is no way to build growth.

Mr Speaker, Labour believes in wealth creation.

We will always support enterprise, creativity and hard work.

We want British businesses to grow, to be successful and contribute to our wider prosperity.

We don’t believe – as the Chancellor and Prime Minister do – that British workers are idlers.

We understand that it is the workers who turn up every day to make the great product at a factory or deliver a great service in the store who generate growth.

It is the teachers giving the young people the skills they need.

It is the doctors and nurses keeping people well.

It is the entrepreneur taking a personal risk to start a new business.

These are the people who generate growth – and they all deserve to share in it too.

Mr Speaker this statement is more than a clash of policies.

It is a clash of ideas – two different ideas of how our country prospers.

If you’re a pensioner worried about the cost of living, a working family seeing your mortgage costs going up or a small business owner whose costs are spiralling, the government’s announcements today do little to reassure you.

Bigger bonuses for the bankers and huge profits for energy giants, shamelessly shielded by Downing Street.

And all the while, ministers pile the crushing weight of all these costs onto the backs of taxpayers.

The Conservatives can’t solve the cost of living crisis.

The Conservatives are the cost of living crisis.

And our country cannot afford them anymore.

26/09/2022
Suella Braverman – 2022 Statement on the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

The statement made by Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

The Government are today introducing the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, as committed to in the Queen’s Speech at the start of this parliamentary Session. Building on the recently enacted Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, the measures in this new, significant Bill enable us to bear down further on kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists who abuse our open economy, strengthening the UK’s reputation as a place where legitimate business can thrive while driving dirty money out of the UK.

The UK is at the forefront of global efforts to tackle illicit finance and economic crime. There have already been a number of important strides forward in the effort to confront and address economic crime in recent years, including:

being the first G20 country to establish a public register of domestic company beneficial ownership in 2016 (the “people with significant control” register);

the introduction of new powers in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 to include unexplained wealth orders and account freezing orders;

allocating £400 million through the spending review and new economic crime levy to support law enforcement over the next three years, as well as a £63 million spending review settlement over the next three years for implementation of Companies House’s transformation programme;

the publication of the economic crime plan in 2019 and the progress made against it by both the public and private sector;

establishing the national economic crime centre to co-ordinate the law enforcement response to economic crime and the combatting kleptocracy cell in the National Crime Agency to focus on targeting corrupt elites and their assets in the UK; and

most recently, passing the expedited Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act.

The economic crime landscape is constantly evolving, and we cannot be complacent about the threat. That is why we are bringing forward this further legislation to help tackle these problems and transform our fight against illicit finance.

The key elements of the Bill include:

broadening the registrar’s powers so that the registrar becomes a more active gatekeeper over company creation and custodian of more reliable data, including new powers to check, remove or decline information submitted to, or already on, the companies register;

introducing identity verification requirements for all new and existing registered company directors, people with significant control, and those delivering documents to the registrar;

providing Companies House with more effective investigation and enforcement powers and introducing better cross-checking of data with other public and private sector bodies;

tackling the abuse of limited partnerships (including Scottish limited partnerships) by strengthening transparency requirements and enabling them to be deregistered;

creating powers to more quickly and easily seize and recover cryptoassets;

creating new exemptions from the principal money laundering offences to reduce unnecessary reporting by businesses carrying out transactions on behalf of their customers;

enabling businesses in certain sectors to share information more effectively to prevent and detect economic crime; and

providing new intelligence gathering powers for law enforcement.

These new measures will tackle economic crime, including fraud and money laundering, by delivering greater protections for consumers and businesses, boosting the UK’s defences, and allowing legitimate businesses to thrive. They will also protect our national security, by making it harder for kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists to engage in money laundering, corruption, terrorism financing, illegal arms movements and ransomware payments. And they will support enterprise by enabling Companies House to deliver a better service for over four million UK companies, maintaining our swift and low-cost routes for company creation and improving the provision of data to inform business transactions and lending decisions across the economy.

This Bill forms a key part of the wider Government approach to ensure that law enforcement and the private sector have the tools needed to help tackle economic crime, sitting alongside the key provisions in the Online Safety Bill which will tackle online fraud, as well as the upcoming second economic crime plan and fraud action plan.

This Bill has been developed in close partnership with law enforcement agencies, as well as with the financial sector, professional and business groups, and civil society organisations. This reflects the breadth of the measures in the Bill, the nature of the threats posed and the importance of working across sectors to tackle economic crime.

The Government remain committed to tackling economic crime and illicit finance, and to strengthening the business environment across all of the UK. We will continue to work with the devolved Administrations on these measures and the formal legislative consent motion process.

26/09/2022
Richard Fuller – 2022 Statement on the Health and Social Care Levy Repeal Bill

The statement made by Richard Fuller, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

Today the Government have introduced the Health and Social Care Levy (Repeal) Bill.

This Bill delivers the Prime Minister’s promise to reverse the temporary 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance rates from 6 November and will cancel the levy coming in as a separate tax from April 2023.

In cancelling the tax rise for employees, the self-employed and employers, the Government are acting to support individuals with the cost of living by allowing them to keep more of what they earn, as well as to support businesses to pursue growth, innovate and invest.

This will be an average tax cut of around £135 for workers this year and around £330 next year. Taking into account the increase to national insurance contributions thresholds at the spring statement and the levy reversal, almost 30 million people will be better off by an average of over £500 in 2023-24.

Around 60% of businesses with NICs liabilities will see a reduction in their NICs bill, with 20,000 of these businesses being taken out of paying NICs entirely due to the combination of this measure and the employment allowance. The average savings for businesses will be £9,600 for the 2023-24 tax year.

The Government are implementing the change as soon as possible, to maximise the cash benefit for people and businesses this year. Most employees will receive a cut to their national insurance directly via payroll in their November pay.

The self-employed will pay NICs at 9.73% on earnings between £11,909 and £50,270 per annum. The blended figure is equivalent to seven months at the higher rate 10.25% and the remainder at 9%

While the tax rise will be cancelled, funding for health and social care services will be maintained as planned. The additional funding used to replace the expected revenue from the levy will come from general taxation. The Government remain committed to ensuring fiscal discipline over the medium term.

26/09/2022
Graham Stuart – 2022 Statement on the UK’s Updated 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution

The statement made by Graham Stuart, the Minister for Climate, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

The Glasgow climate pact, agreed by almost 200 countries at COP26 in November 2021, recognised the need for accelerated action to limit global warming to 1.5° C above pre-industrial temperatures. It called for all countries to “revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022, taking into account different national circumstances”.

During its COP presidency, the UK has been working with partner countries, non-state actors and civil society to encourage countries, particularly major emitters, to respond to this call. And the UK has shown leadership by revisiting its own NDC to ensure it remains a fair and ambitious contribution to global action on climate change. The latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—IPCC—published earlier this year highlighted the closing window for action to keep 1.5° C in reach and made clear the urgency of delivering on the Glasgow climate pact.

In revisiting the UK NDC, the Government considered a range of factors including the latest available science, expectations in the Paris agreement and the Glasgow climate pact, the UK’s existing 2050 net zero commitment, and energy security, as well as advice and evidence from the Climate Change Committee and other independent commentators.

The UK has strengthened its NDC by making the following updates to the accompanying information to facilitate clarity, transparency and understanding—ICTU—in line with international best practice and the Paris agreement rulebook:

clarified how the target—which remains a commitment to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% by 2030 on 1990 levels—aligns with the Paris Agreement temperature goal;

explained more fully how the UK will deliver the NDC by 2030;

updated on the progress made in expanding the territorial scope of the NDC to include the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories; and included more, detail on levelling up, gender, green skills, public engagement, Just Transition and how the UK is supporting other countries with delivery of their NDCs.

The UK’s NDC requires the fastest rate of reduction in greenhouse gases between 1990 and 2030 of any major economy and is on a trajectory to net zero by 2050. The Government are committed to net zero by 2050 and looks forward to the review led by Chris Skidmore to ensure that it is delivered in a way that is pro-business and pro-growth.

Since submitting the NDC in December 2020, the UK has published a range of sectoral strategies and plans and has signed up to numerous pledges and actions to deliver on the 2030 target. The Prime Minister has also announced an ambitious package of measures to tackle soaring energy prices and ensure the UK’s energy security, following Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

The UK will submit its updated NDC to the UNFCCC in time for the deadline for inputs to the NDC synthesis report, 23 September 2022, and will lay a copy in the House at the same time.

26/09/2022
Jacob Rees-Mogg – 2022 Speech to the IAEA 66th General Conference

The speech made by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to the IAEA 66th General Conference in Vienna on 26 September 2022.

Mr President,

Congratulations on your appointment as President of this Conference.

It is an honour to be here today, and I would like to express His Majesty’s Government’s gratitude for the phenomenal work of the Director General and the Secretariat over the last year. Their commitment, resilience, and professionalism in responding to threats to the security and stability of our world has shown, once again, the value of the Agency to the global community.

Mr President, The United Kingdom firmly believes that the peaceful uses of nuclear technologies are essential to resolving some of the most pressing challenges of our time. First, this means boosting our energy security through safe and secure nuclear power to address climate change and food insecurity.

Yet we cannot ignore those who threaten this vision. The United Kingdom continues to condemn the Russian Federation’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine and its reckless actions against nuclear facilities, including at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant. Russia’s wicked actions threaten the safety of millions and undermine the use of nuclear technology. The United Kingdom supports the IAEA’s work to ensure the safety and security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant. However, we are clear that the only way to resolve the nuclear safety issues in Ukraine is for the Russian Federation to end its unprovoked invasion, and unconditionally withdraw all its troops and personnel from Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and its internationally recognised borders.

While Russia acted alone to block consensus at the recent Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, the United Kingdom will play its part to advance our commitments under the NPT. This includes the Sustained Dialogue on Peaceful Uses, where we – alongside 30 other partners – aim to continue expanding access to nuclear technologies, to allow more countries to benefit from them, through medical, environmental and energy applications.

It is also deeply concerning, Mr President, that Iran has chosen not to seize the critical diplomatic opportunity to restore the JCPoA and instead continues to escalate its nuclear programme. The JCPoA cannot in any way be used to release Iran from its legally binding safeguards obligations that are essential to the non-proliferation regime and international security. The only way the issues can be resolved is through Iran providing technically credible explanations to the Agency’s outstanding questions.

Mr President, despite these threats to the global non-proliferation architecture, we must not lose sight of the opportunities of advanced nuclear technologies. That is why, earlier this year, the British Energy Security Strategy set out our intention to boost deployment of civil nuclear up to 24GW by 2050, including through the development of Small Modular Reactors. Meanwhile, we are improving our plans for decommissioning and developing a geological disposal facility to dispose of our most hazardous radioactive waste safely and securely.

We are also leading global efforts to make Fusion Energy a reality. By investing in the best research, we plan to build a prototype fusion power plant that will put energy on the grid by 2040 – demonstrating Fusion Energy’s commercial viability.

Furthermore, Mr President, it is more important than ever to have resilient international supply chains for uranium and nuclear fuel. The United Kingdom has many decades of experience of making fuel for our own reactors and for export to the rest of the world. We will continue to build on this, ensuring that our supply chains and capabilities are ready to help fuel this energy secure future.

We must also recognise, Mr President, that challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine have highlighted the importance of working together to strengthen our nuclear safety, security and safeguards frameworks.

The Agency can count on His Majesty’s Government’s full support in its efforts to strengthen these systems, including through our cooperation with the US and Australia on AUKUS naval nuclear propulsion. We are working closely with the IAEA to ensure that the precedent set by Australia’s acquisition of submarines strengthens the global non-proliferation regime. As our leaders said in last week’s statement, the AUKUS partners are fully committed to establishing an approach that meets the highest non-proliferation standards. We welcome Director General Grossi’s report to the September IAEA Board of Governors meeting on this issue, in which the Director General reported his satisfaction with our engagement.

We also remain committed to working with Contracting Parties to strengthen IAEA Conventions, particularly through the valuable Peer Review processes, and maintaining robust emergency response arrangements.

An effective and robust safeguards system remains an essential enabler for the peaceful uses of nuclear. We urge those countries that have not yet done so to ratify Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements and Additional Protocols. Only fully implemented and ratified agreements, matched with high security standards for nuclear material and sites will deserve the public’s confidence in nuclear technologies and provide the assurance that they are safe, secure and safeguarded.

I would also like, Mr President, to applaud the IAEA’s significant contribution to science and research and the Director General’s unwavering commitment to nuclear for development. I am happy to pledge £3.4 million to the Technical Cooperation Fund.

The technologies under development today are needed to solve the most pressing global development challenges of our time, and it is our responsibility to deliver these to those who need it most.

Finally, let me emphasise Mr President, the UK will continue to give the Secretariat, and the Director General, our wholehearted support.

Thank you very much.

26/09/2022
Steve Rotheram – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Steve Rotheram on 26 September 2022.

Conference, Steve Rotheram, Liverpool Walton CLP – and the proud Mayor of the Liverpool City Region – the heartland of our Party in Power.

Six Local Authority Leaders.
One Police and Crime Commissioner.
Sixteen out of seventeen MPs.
And one Metro Mayor.
All – Labour.

Conference, this week we will be hearing a lot about strategy; proposals, policies and plans for a Labour Government.

But what will it all mean to ordinary people’s lives?

It has been a long hard 12 years, that’s seen Tory austerity wreak havoc on our communities.

But – despite what some would have you believe, being out of Downing Street doesn’t mean we have been out of power.

That would do a gross disservice to Mark in Wales and Labour administrations up and down the country who are making a tangible difference to people’s lives, demonstrating that there is an alternative – to this bizarre Thatcher tribute act.

Look for instance at the work of our Metro Mayors – who are using devolution to put Labour values into action.

Just imagine – how we could turbo charge things for everyone with a Labour Prime Minister and a Government of the people, for the people, that would show how you can grow an economy – whilst still helping those most in need.

One that would build a country fit for the future.

Take energy – a Labour Government would accelerate plans for the transition to renewables, decarbonising transport and energy intensive industries.

Imagine Ed Miliband and Jonny Reynolds leading the race to net zero and the Green Industrial Revolution.

Whilst creating tens of thousands of well-paid jobs in the process.

Locally they would put rocket boosters on our plans for Hydrogen Production; a mass retrofitting programme for energy inefficient homes and a Mersey Tidal project that would produce enough clean, green predictable energy to power a million homes for over a century.

Or on skills, where Labour would fix the mess the Tories have made of our education and skills system but which would also look to the future.

Just imagine Bridget Phillipson giving hope and opportunity to our ‘next generation’ by rolling out a Young Persons Guarantee, a genuine choice between university, or a proper apprenticeship, funded though the billions of apprenticeship levy underspend.

Locally it would help us train more people for jobs in the industries of tomorrow, as well as more brickies today.

Or on Transport where Labour would put the public back into public transport.

Imagine Louise Haigh rolling out the model of bus re-regulation being led by myself here in the Liverpool City Region and Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, with smart ticketing and capped fares.

Our City Region is also the first in the country to buy our own trains, investing half a billion pounds into new rolling stock.

But that’s not all.

We are buying a fleet of hydrogen buses, building new rail stations and expanding our Active Travel network, demonstrating the difference Labour can make in power.

And – Labour should commit to the renationalisation of the whole rail system.

For the naysayers, for those who’d rather be out of the tent than in, I say – it is our movement that has been the greatest force for social justice in this country’s history.

It’s time to back us, not attack us.

Because winning the next general election is in our grasp.

I can hear the realisation of defeat in Tory voices.

I can sense the inevitability of loss in Tory body language.

I can see Labour victory in Tory eyes.

Conference, imagine a Labour Government.

It’s easy if you try.

26/09/2022
Mark Drakeford – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, on 26 September 2022.

Jo, thank you for that very kind introduction and for everything you and our Welsh Labour MPs do and thank you Chair for this opportunity to address conference.

Whenever I come to Liverpool, I’m always glad to be able to say how great it is to be back in North Wales.

And there is a very special reason for that Welsh celebration this year.

This autumn it will be one hundred years since the Labour Party first won a majority of seats in a General Election in Wales.

And we’ve done it in every election across the whole of the century which has followed.

It’s a remarkable achievement, but the celebration is very powerfully accompanied by a growing sense of disappointment and disillusion.

Because, in the 100 years during which Wales has voted, time and time again, for Labour, only 33 of those years have resulted in a Labour Government at Westminster.

The message I bring is a simple one:
The central reason for our Party’s existence;
The reason why our members do those things we ask of them: knocking those doors, delivering those leaflets, making those phone calls is this:
We exist to seek and to win political power.

Not as an end in itself, but because only in that way can we change for the better the lives of those who rely on the Labour Party to fashion that better future for us all.

And, Conference: we can do better.

Whether that’s through a Welsh Labour Government, or a Labour Mayor, or a Labour council, we show every day the difference that Labour can make.

And when we don’t do it, when we don’t win power on their behalf, let’s be clear: we let those people down.

We can carry on winning our own elections in Wales and doing the things which only we can do.

But without a Labour Government at Westminster, the story can never be complete.

And Conference, using the privilege of power, even in the toughest of times, is an obligation, not a choice.

In our local elections in May of this year, while the Tories lost 44% of all the seats they held, we won councils across the country.

For those of you wondering what to do when this Conference is over, I can now offer you the opportunity to walk from the northern shores of Wales to the southernmost tip, without ever leaving territory where Labour is in power.

What a sense of excitement, of new possibility there is when we, at last, are able to put our priorities into practice.

Whenever we’ve had the chance, it is Labour Governments which have shaped the lives of our citizens for the better.

Without Labour in power there would have been no NHS, no National Minimum Wage, no devolution to Wales and Scotland and no peace in Northern Ireland, either.

And, because in Wales we have had the opportunity, we are able to show what a Labour Government can do.

In this Senedd term we won’t be restarting fracking, because we never allowed it in the first place.

But we are paying all our social care workers the real living wage.

And we’ll provide universal free school meals for every child in our primary schools.

Conference, let me just set all this in the context of two current discussions inside our own Party.

First of all, the Senedd, with its unbroken Labour Governments, has always been elected by proportional representation, a system put on the statute book – twice! – by a Labour Government at Westminster.

And, in a special conference, earlier this summer, over three quarters of the entire Welsh Party voted to strengthen the proportionality of our voting system, to make sure that every Labour vote will count towards creating that next Welsh Labour Government.

And secondly, conference, while Labour has always formed the Government in Wales, we’ve never governed alone.

The fault line in Welsh politics runs right down the middle of the Senedd. On the one side, a reactionary, out-of-touch, deeply unloved Conservative Party.

On the other side, those Parties committed to social and economic progress.

Do the Parties of the centre left agree on everything? Of course not.

But we focus on those areas where progressive parties can agree; a politics which recognises the dominant position of Labour, but which also recognises that no Party has a monopoly on progressive ideas.

And, in the face of the dreadful decisions of last week, the obligation to do everything we can to take and exercise power on behalf of that great mass of decent people, the length and breadth of the UK is more powerful than ever.

How has it come to this?

A country in which the rich are rewarded while a cruel and casual kick is aimed at the family struggling by on bare bones Universal Credit.

Conference, of course we are better than this.

People across our country want what we want as a Party: a country in which the broadest backs bear the greatest burden;

Where we protect, not punish, those made vulnerable by sickness or disability or old age;

Where extraordinary windfall profits are put to work for the benefit of us all;

Where borrowing is used to invest in the skills and infrastructure which really create economic growth, not squandered in pursuit of a dogma which has been disproved time and time again around the world.

Today, a fearful United Kingdom looks on in dismay and disbelief at the wreckage caused by a government which they had no hand in creating.

Towards the end of his too-short life, Nye Bevan’s great friend and agent, Archie Lush said to him, ‘you see, Nye, you could have been Prime Minister if you’d wanted to’. Bevan replied, ‘I never wanted to be anything. I wanted to do something’.

And that, Conference, is the simple difference between the Tories and us.

They scrap like ferrets in a sack, just to become Prime Minister.

We want Keir Starmer to be Prime Minister, because we know that he will want to do the things which only Labour can do.

Britain really can be better.

And that’s why nothing is more important for Wales than making sure that happens.

26/09/2022
Jo Stevens – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Jo Stevens on 26 September 2022.

Chair, Conference, thank you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A campaigning machine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We also celebrate 23 years of devolution in Wales.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labour is building our stronger, fairer, greener Wales.

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

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

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

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

26/09/2022
Rachel Reeves – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

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

Thank you, Conference.

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

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

People’s wages not keeping up.

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

And he failed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And all for what?

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

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

And Labour will fight it every step of the way.

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

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

Today, I want to tell you why.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lifting the ban on fracking.

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

And with Labour it will not happen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that matters.

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

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

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

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

Here is the deal:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have they got growth up? No.

Have they got inflation down? No.

Have they got child poverty down? No.

Have they got NHS waiting lists down? No.

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

It’s twelve years of failure.

And now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s the truth:

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

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

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

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

Overworked. Underpaid. Undervalued.

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

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

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

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

Something is profoundly wrong.

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

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

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

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

Families with enough savings to weather a storm.

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

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

And that’s not all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And here’s more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supporting innovation. Sharing opportunity. Reviving our high streets.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That government is a Labour government.

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

26/09/2022