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  • Peter Kyle – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Peter Kyle – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, on 23 September 2024.

    Let me start by introducing the team: Chris Bryant, Maggie Jones, Feryal Clark, Callum Anderson, and for his first Labour Party Conference – Patrick Vallance.

    For 14 years, our country paid the price of a ConservativeGovernment.

    Growth stalled; opportunities shrank; public services atrophied; inequalities deepened.

    Of course, the Tories talked a good game about growth, but it was all mouth and no trousers.

    Well, it was in Boris’s case – in Rishi’s it was all mouth and shorttrousers!

    All across government we are clearing up their mess – in my department I’ve found projects worth millions announced by my predecessors, without a single penny put behind them.

    Talk is cheap. And it was a cheap Tory trick.

    But empty promises cost – they waste everyone’s time and effort, sap people’s energy and enthusiasm, and squander the opportunities for Britain to get ahead.

    The Conservatives liked to wrap themselves up in our country’s flag, but time and time again, one failed Prime Minister after another, they never lived up to the values it represents.

    That’s why Britain was crying out for change.

    Once again, it falls to Labour in government, to repair the damage done under the Conservatives.

    Just like Attlee and Wilson, Blair and Brown before them, Keir, Angela and Rachel are tasked with putting our divided, damaged, disunited Kingdom back together.

    So, change begins.

    Change requires us to put wealth creation and economic growth, at the core of our national endeavour.

    Because growing the economy is the route to better lives and life chances for working people.

    My predecessor, when she wasn’t libelling people and passing on the legal bills to the taxpayer, said that her number one priority was driving woke out of science.

    Well, conference, our number one mission is to be the partner scientists need to tackle disease, climate change and economic growth.

    It’s a massive task:

    From Artificial Intelligence to human life sciences;

    From addressing digital exclusion to widening full fibre internet connectivity;

    From promoting the employment opportunities, from new data-driven technologies to protecting children against potential online harms;

    From creating the digital centre of government, to spreading digital technologies across the NHS and public services.

    We have even got responsibility for Britain’s space programme – so for us it really is to infinity and beyond!

    But the scope of these responsibilities is dwarfed by the pace of technological change.

    Think about it, a little girl born today in Liverpool Women’s Hospital will live longer and healthier because of medicines discovered and developed, using Artificial Intelligence.

    Her life story will be told through a new generation of smartphone technology.

    Her memories will be made and recorded on new platforms, as she grows from teenager to adulthood.

    She is part of the new digital generation, and this latest revolution began before she was even born and will continue throughout and beyond her life.

    Her education and career prospects, her life’s journey, will be created and curated by a series of discoveries, as yet unknown.

    But there is nothing inevitable about her story; about who benefits, how, and by how much, from this revolution.

    That is a choice.

    For progressives, our choice is to drive this change, whilst harnessing its immense power for the good of all.

    Failing to prepare for this change, is simply preparing to fail.

    Britain’s businesses and British workers cannot be left to sink or swim in the technological tsunami that is engulfing the world.

    I totally understand the concerns people have about the impact of these changes on their jobs, children, communities, and the whole of society.

    Our task is to recognise these concerns: mitigate where possible; upskill where necessary; reskill where appropriate; and regulate when essential.

    Every Industrial Revolution challenges the traditional structures of the society it impacts.

    In the 1860s and 70s, MPs’ concerns about the speed of locomotives, meant they introduced a 2 mile an hour speed limit, and someone to walk in front waving a red flag;

    In 1896 the National Anti-Vaccination League opposed the introduction of vaccines for public health;

    In the early 20th Century, the Horse Association of America opposed the introduction of the tractor.

    Some opposed the development of nuclear energy in the 1960s, as they do with solar and wind power today.

    Some of these concerns might seem silly now but, they were real and substantial then.

    If those generations had decided that the price of progress was too high, society would have remained poorer, slower, dirtier and sicker.

    Today we need to harness these opportunities, they need not be a threat, any more than the train or the tractor.

    From vaccines to clean power, resisting the opportunity cost of conservatism is the real price of progress.

    The challenge is to harness technology for good, to make change work for the good of all. That’s why we are fully implementing the Online Safety Act, to improve online safety for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

    It’s why we are making the AI Safety Institute a statutory body, alongside identifying and realising the massive opportunities of AI for pupils and teachers, workers and students, scientists and researchers, NHS staff and patients too.

    It’s why we are working to make Britain the most attractive place to invest, start-up and grow businesses in science and technology.

    Because that’s the most sustainable route to wealth creation, opportunity generation, secure employment and economic growth.

    And it’s why we are determined to tackle digital exclusion.

    The opportunities of this technological revolution must be available to everyone.

    It must be more fairly shared between men and women, regardless of age, ethnicity, ability and social class, and across all regions and nations of our country.

    Securing these advances for all, is a modern progressive project that can, over time, make our communities cleaner, greener, safer and fairer too.

    Our task is to lay the foundations for the security, prosperity and opportunity of the digital generation.

    To make Britain the best place to live and work, for people to build their homes and families, the very best that Britain can be;

    Where no-one goes to bed hungry because our economy grows too slowly;

    Where no-one is denied the treatment and care they need, because the technology they rely on is outdated or inadequate;

    Where our country’s reputation is no longer shaped by the shame of food banks, but by the potential of state-of-the-art databanks, AI and supercomputer technologies.

    That is the modern Britain of hope and optimism, of ambition and fulfilment, of discovery and diversity, of opportunity and security that we seek to build.

    For that little girl in that Liverpool maternity unit, and for all of Britain’s digital generation, that change starts right now, right here, with this Labour government.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Jonathan Reynolds, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on 23 September 2024.

    Conference,

    I stand here before you today,

    proud to be your Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

    Proud to be a part of the most working class Cabinet in British history.

    And proud of the pro-business, pro worker platform that was fundamental to our success at the election but which will be even more fundamental to our success in Government.

    No-one should be in any doubt, we campaigned as a pro-business party and we will govern as a pro-business party.

    Because we know that we cannot deliver for the British people, unless we turn around the low investment, low productivity, low growth economy which we have inherited.

    And we cannot do that, unless we work in partnership with business to bring about the change we need.

    And my ask of all of you, is not just to support that agenda, but to actively stand with me and this Labour Government, as we work day and night, to again give people the work, and the wages and the prosperity, and the living standards that everyone in Britain needs, and everyone in Britain deserves.

    Because Conference, the task is urgent.

    What I found, when I walked through the door of my Department on the 5 July was a mess left by Conservative ministers – who had simply ceased to govern.

    Just like the Downing Street parties they threw, they expected someone else to come in and clear up after them

    The Conservative overspending – that £22bn black hole in the Treasury reserve – put at risk things that could not be more important to the British people: money for the steel industry, compensation for postmasters.

    And vital decisions, on everything from shipbuilding to automotive, simply not taken.

    They were deferred, they were left for us to deal with.

    If people ask me for an example, of what a pro-worker, and pro-business agenda looks like:

    I point out to them that over the last decade the unions in this room have actually fought harder for British industry, than the Conservative Party did!

    Nowhere have we seen that more, than in steel.

    I’d like to thank Community, and GMB, and Unite, for working with me to improve the deal for the workforce at Port Talbot.

    I’ll always be the first to say, I wish we could have done even more.

    But I can tell you working together with the unions we have done more for steel in two months, than the Conservative Party did in 14 years.

    I am always aware, of just how consequential the decisions I make are,

    That they touch the lives of a great many people.

    And understanding that, is what being a Government of service is all about.

    And we have already begun the work to deliver that change.

    Implementing our plan for small business: where previous governments talked about ending late payments – we have taken the action needed to ensure companies pay on time

    And we aren’t just tackling issues like business rates, but removing the wider barriers that speak to the heart of local economies.

    Making our high streets safe and vibrant once again including new measures to stop violence against shop workers and turning around derelict town centres.

    It means delivering on our Industrial Strategy, so we win a great share of investment in the UK of the industries that will contribute the most to our future growth.

    It means having a trade strategy, that resets our relationship with the EU whilst also building new trade opportunities around the world.

    And conference, alongside those things, we cannot deliver change without delivering our New Deal for Working People.

    Now Conference, you may have seen, the Conservative Party, they don’t like our plan to make work pay.

    And while it is ironic to hear the same people who have been asleep on the job for the last 14 years complain about other people’s working patterns.

    Didn’t we hear the same arguments against the Minimum Wage?

    So when they stand up in a few years’ time trying to claim credit for the work the Labour movement did to advance the rights of working people: don’t you let them forget what side of history they were on.

    Because we know when it comes to the Conservative Party the British public have already availed themselves of the right to switch off.

    Conference, I will always make the case that many businesses in Britain model fantastic best practice, and they invest in their workforce, whether it’s offering shared parental leave, or support for carers.

    And we are going to make Britain more competitive and more investible.

    But our mission is not just for growth, but for growth that everybody benefits from.

    So Conference, I put it to you:

    Where a person has worked, a regular number of hours for some time, they should have the right to a contract that reflects those hours.

    And where a person has worked somewhere for two years, they do deserve protection from being unfairly dismissed.

    And that most of all, where a person goes out to work, not only do they deserve to be fairly paid for that work. But what every business also needs, are customers who have some money in their pocket, some spending power, and that means, over time, moving towards a Britain where everyone earns a real living wage.

    Conference, the task ahead of us is a big one.

    It will be difficult at times.

    No one else can change this country.

    So I say let’s accept the challenge and get on with the job.

    And if you feel, the same drive, the same passion, the same energy, and most of all, the same hope, that I feel, everyday, as your Secretary of State I am telling you we can build a Britain, not just of good work and good wages, but of dignity, respect, and opportunity.

    The Britain that we have always believed in, the Britain we have always strived to build,

    Conference, together, for the first time in years, our pro-business, pro worker government gives us the chance to do exactly that.

    And I promise, as your Secretary of State, I will work every single moment I have.

    to make that happen.

    Thank you Conference.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Rachel Reeves – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 23 September 2024.

    Conference, thank you.

    This time last year, I stood on this stage and I made a commitment.

    I promised that we would get Britain building again.

    Repair our NHS.

    And power growth in every part of Britain.

    Today, after fourteen wasted years, I stand here as your Chancellor of the Exchequer, ready to deliver on that commitment.

    At this conference, we welcome more than 200 new Labour MPs – members of the most diverse Parliament in our country’s history.

    Labour winning for the very first time, in sears like South-East Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, Aldershot, Banbury and Basingstoke; in Hexham, Altrincham, and the Ribble Valley.

    And Labour is back, in the service of communities that we never should have lost.

    In our port, coal, steel and mill towns. From Bolsover, Bassetlaw and Grimsby to Hartlepool, Rother Valley, Newton Aycliffe, and Bridgend.

    And Conference, in Edinburgh, in Glasgow, across the central belt and out in the Western Isles, Labour is back in Scotland too.

    So let me pay tribute to the people in this hall who made that difference.

    Those who stayed and fought through the hard years.

    Those who came back to our party under Keir’s leadership.

    And those who joined us for the first time.

    You helped change our party and you gave us this priceless chance to change our country for the better.

    To all of you – a huge thank you.

    In this hall one year ago, I stated my intention.

    That the next time I addressed you, I would do so as the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer.

    Today, Conference, you can consider that a promise fulfilled.

    Eight hundred years of the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer has existed.

    Every one, a man.

    On the fifth of July this year, we made history.

    Every woman watching this will know no matter how high you climb, how hard you work, how qualified you are, there will always be moments when you are reminded some people still do not believe a woman can get the job done.

    But millions of women in our party, in our trade unions and in every walk of life, beat back those doubts.

    I’m here today because I worked hard, yes.

    But most of all, I’m here because of the efforts of those who went before me.

    Trailblazing women like Jennie Lee, Barbara Castle, and our friend, our inspiration, Harriet Harman.

    And I’m here because of thousands of women, many of you in the hall today, who broke down barriers and defeated low expectations to pave the way for the rest of us.

    I am a Labour Chancellor because of that collective endeavour.

    I am the first woman Chancellor because of that collective endeavour.

    And that collective endeavour does not stop here.

    It falls to me, and to our generation of Labour women, to follow in the footsteps of those who went before us. To write the work of all women back into our economic story. To show to our daughters and our granddaughters that they need place no ceiling on their ambitions.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    But Conference, why is it that the British people put their trust in us for the first time in five general elections?

    It is because, thanks to Keir’s leadership, we left no stone unturned to show that Labour is the party of economic responsibility and the party of working people.

    We were elected because, for the first time in almost two decades, people looked at us – looked at me – and decided that Labour could be trusted with their money.

    That is more than a political choice, or a single line in any manifesto.

    It is about our values.

    Because we saw what happened two years ago what happens when governments play fast and loose with the public finances: when the prices of food, energy and housing soar, it is working people with mortgages, rent and bills to pay who suffer the consequences.

    I will not take that risk.

    I will repay the trust that people put in us.

    Trust is hard earned – and is easily squandered.

    Just ask the Conservatives.

    They paid the price for their incompetence, their dishonesty, their rule breaking.

    We’ve had years of division and decline that left working people worse off, not just in the heaviest defeat in their party’s history, but the heaviest defeat for any governing party in British history.

    And Conference I can tell you – today I am so proud that our women’s Parliamentary Labour Party is bigger than the entire Conservative parliamentary party.

    And so, where will the Conservative Party go next?

    What a clash of the titans their leadership contest has become.

    The former Home Secretary who called the Rwanda scheme “batshit” and, of course, is now pledging to bring it back.

    The former Immigration Minister, who found himself too right-wing to work with Suella Braverman.

    The “moderate” candidate, the former Security Minister, who says he “acts on his principles” – previously demonstrated by backing Liz Truss to be Prime Minister.

    And then there’s the former Business Secretary who claims she “became working class” at the age of sixteen.

    But Conference, the Tories’ failure was not just because they were incompetent or deluded.

    Not just because they put party before country – though, of course, both of those are true.

    It is because they do not understand the world as it is today.

    They do not understand the premium on economic stability, in an uncertain world.

    They do not understand that, in our new age of insecurity, government cannot just get out of the way and leave markets to their own devices.

    Instead, the Tories cling to the discredited trickle-down and trickle-out dogma that a strong economy can be built through the contribution of just a few people, a few parts of the country, or a few industries.

    Their ideas choked off investment, opened wide gaps between different parts of the country, and it suffocated growth and living standards.

    We will not make those mistakes.

    Yet, when their ideas were found wanting, what did they do? They doubled down.

    Never forget what the Conservatives did: two years ago today, in their clamour to cut taxes for the richest, they crashed the economy, sent mortgages spiraling, and put pensions in peril.

    You will hear many things at their conference next week.

    But you won’t hear an apology.

    No apology for the cost of your mortgage.

    No apology for crumbling classrooms and rising waiting lists.

    No apology for mismanaging our public finances, degrading our institutions, and crashing our global standing.

    They do not care.

    And they have learned nothing.

    So be in no doubt, given the chance, they will try and do it all over again.

    Only we, only the Labour Party, can stop them.

    So we must have no complacency.

    A relentless focus on the priorities of the British people.

    And iron discipline.

    We cannot give them that chance.

    So let’s resolve together today that we will not give them that chance.

    Now, I know that you are impatient for change. I am too.

    But Conference, because of that legacy left by the Conservatives, the road ahead is steeper and harder than we expected.

    You don’t need to take my word for it.

    Figures released only on Friday showed another month of record borrowing.

    Debt at one hundred percent of GDP.

    That is the inheritance that they left, in black and white.

    In my first weeks at the Treasury, the true extent of the Tories’ irresponsibility was revealed to me: £22 billion of spending plans, this year, that the previous government did not disclose.

    Which they had no plan to pay for and which they had covered up from Parliament and from the British people.

    Departments had been allocated money which they were spending, but which did not exist.

    The money was not there.

    A £22 billion black hole – which, if not tackled now, will pose risks for years to come.

    That included more than £6 billion overspend on the asylum system – including their failed Rwanda policy.

    Almost £3 billion on rail projects.

    The nation’s reserve – intended for genuine emergencies – set to be spent three times over only three months into the financial year.

    They were reckless.

    They were irresponsible.

    And they acted in that way, not because they believed it was right for our country – but because they believed it might rescue their party from defeat.

    They promised solutions that they knew could never be paid for.

    Roads that would never be built.

    Public transport that would never arrive.

    And hospitals that would never treat a single patient.

    They showed no regard for ordinary, working people.

    And they did not care about the consequences.

    It was made clear to me that failure to act swiftly could undermine the UK’s fiscal position – with implications for public debt, mortgages and prices.

    And so, I took action to make the in-year savings necessary.

    We are reviewing plans for new hospitals, promised by the Conservatives, but which they did not budget for.

    We cancelled road and rail projects, promised by the Conservatives, but which they did not budget for.

    And I made the choice to means test the winter fuel payment, so that it is only targetted at those most in need.

    I know that not everyone – in this hall, or in the country – will agree with every decision I make.

    But I will not duck those decisions. Not for political expediency. Not for personal advantage.

    Faced with that £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left this year and with the triple lock ensuring that the state pension will rise by an estimated £1,700 over the course of this Parliament, I judged it the right decision in the circumstances we inherited.

    I did not take those decisions lightly.

    I will never take the responsibilities of this office lightly.

    And I will never take lightly the trust of voters who have been burned too often by politicians who put ideology, party and self-interest over the interests of the British people.

    And so, we must deal with another Tory legacy.

    Conference, I know how hard people work for their money.

    Taxpayers’ money should be spent with the same care with which working people spend their own money.

    And so, one year ago, I promised you that this Labour government would wage a war on Tory waste.

    It has begun.

    I pledged that we would aim to halve government consultancy spend – and we have already announced savings this year.

    I pledged that we would cut down on the excesses of Tory ministers’ private air travel – and we have already cancelled the £40m contract for Rishi Sunak’s VIP helicopter.

    And I pledged that we would act on the carnival of waste and fraud that took place during the COVID pandemic.

    Billions of pounds of public money handed out to friends and donors of the Conservative Party.

    Billions more defrauded from the taxpayer.

    More than a billion pounds spent on PPE that either did not arrive or was not fit for purpose.

    All under the cover of the greatest crisis of my lifetime.

    On entering government, we found £674 million of contracts in dispute, where we inherited a recommendation from the previous government that any attempt to reclaim that money should be abandoned.

    The Tories simply did not care.

    But Labour will not stand for it.

    I will not stand for it.

    So: as I promised, we are appointing a Covid Corruption Commissioner.

    It could not be more urgent.

    And I have put a block on any contract being abandoned or waived until it has been independently assessed by that Commissioner.

    I won’t turn a blind eye to rip-off artists and fraudsters.

    I won’t turn a blind eye to those who used a national emergency to line their own pockets.

    I won’t let them get away with it.

    That money belongs in our police, it belongs in our health service, and it belongs in our schools.

    And Conference, we want that money back.

    Next month, I will deliver the first budget of this Labour government.

    The first Labour budget in fourteen years.

    And because I know how much damage has been done in those fourteen years, let me say one thing straight up: there will be no return to austerity.

    Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too.

    Yes, we must deal with the Tory legacy – and that means tough decisions.

    But I won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain.

    So, it will be a budget with real ambition.

    A budget to fix the foundations.

    A budget to deliver the change that we promised.

    A budget to rebuild Britain.

    And my budget will keep our manifesto commitments.

    Every choice we make will be within a framework of economic and fiscal stability.  You’d expect nothing less.

    We said we would not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, national insurance, or VAT.

    And we will cap corporation tax at its current level for the duration of this Parliament.

    Conference, as promised, we will extend the Energy and Profits Levy on oil and gas producers to invest in homegrown energy here in Britain.

    We will end the non-dom tax loopholes.

    And we will crack down on tax avoidance and tax evasion.

    That is the difference that a Labour government will make.

    We are already delivering on that last promise to cut down on tax avoidance and tax evasion.

    Strengthening the powers of HMRC, under the leadership of the Exchequer Secretary James Murray and recruiting 5,000 new tax compliance officers.

    Because this government will not sit back and indulge the minority who avoid paying the taxes that they owe.

    And Conference, we will enact another manifesto commitment.

    Because I know every parent has aspiration for their children. And I know the strain that our state schools have been under.

    This government will introduce VAT on private school fees, to invest in our state schools.

    It is the fair choice, the responsible choice, the Labour choice, to support the 94 percent of children in state schools.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    This budget will be a budget for economic growth.

    It will be a budget for investment.

    Because today we find ourselves at the very bottom of the G7 league table for economy-wide investment as a share of our GDP.

    And we must change that.

    Conference, I believe in a better Britain.

    A Britain of opportunity, fairness, and enterprise.

    I know that country has sometimes felt far off in recent years.

    As our growth, our productivity and family finances fall behind.

    But it doesn’t have to be that way.

    The British capacity for inventiveness, enterprise and old-fashioned hard work has not gone away.

    So believe me when I say – my optimism for Britain burns brighter than ever.

    My ambition knows no limits.

    Because I can see the prize on offer, if we make the right choices now.

    Stability is the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built.

    The essential precondition for business to invest with confidence and for families to plan for the future.

    The Liz Truss experiment showed us that any plan for growth without stability leads to ruin.

    So we will make the choices necessary to secure our public finances and fix the foundations for lasting growth.

    Stability, paired with reform, will forge the conditions for businesses to invest and for consumers to spend with confidence.

    Growth is the challenge.

    And investment is the solution.

    Investment in new industries, new technologies, and new infrastructure.

    Let me put what we are doing into some perspective.

    If the UK economy had grown at just the average rate of other OECD economies under the Tories, our economy would be £140 billion larger today.

    That would have provided an extra £58 billion to invest in our public services without raising a single tax rate by a single penny.

    Revenue to invest in our schools, our hospitals, our police, and all our public services.

    And that’s not the limit of my ambitions.

    Because, with growth, we will create jobs that pay enough to raise a family on – for you and your children.

    Put real money in the pockets of working people.

    And wealth in all of our communities, that flows into vibrant high streets.

    This is how we’ll make Britain the best place to start and grow a business – whatever background you come from, wherever you grew up.

    Things built to last, and exported around the world are made here in Britain.

    This is how we’ll achieve what we promised – the five missions that will comprise a decade of national renewal.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    During the election campaign, I visited businesses all over Britain.

    From historic brands seizing the opportunities of the future, to innovative start-ups at the cutting edge, to high street businesses breathing new life into their local communities.

    Our world-leading universities, creative industries, life sciences, tech companies and professional services.

    I see immense potential, everywhere I go.

    But for every success story, there is potential held back.

    Entrepreneurs struggling to access finance.

    High street businesses punished by our outdated system of business rates.

    Builders frustrated by a planning system which hands power to the blockers.

    Exporters tied up in red tape by a failed Brexit deal.

    Too many people out of work through chronic illness, waiting for treatment, or without the skills, training and security they need to fulfil their potential.

    And a welfare state that does not always incentivise work.

    Brilliant young people shut out of the opportunities they deserve.

    And whole industries held back by underinvestment or the lack of a real strategy for their future.

    So we must learn the lesson from the Tories’ failure.

    We must build for growth, in a changed world.

    In this age of insecurity, growth requires stability but not stability alone.

    It requires active government.

    And it requires the contribution of people in every part of Britain, not just a few.

    Where there are vested interests, outdated practices or institutional barriers obstructing productive investment – we will confront them head on.

    Where active government is called for, this government will act.

    And Conference, it is time that the Treasury moved on from just counting the costs of investments, to recognising the benefits too.

    So we are calling time on the ideas of the past.

    Calling time on the days when government stood back, left crucial sectors to fend for themselves, and turned a blind eye to where things are made and who makes them.

    The era of trickle-down, trickle-out economics is over.

    And so, I can announce that next month, alongside the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, we will publish our plans for a new industrial strategy for Britain.

    A strategy for driving and shaping long-term growth in our manufacturing and service sectors.

    A strategy to unlock investment, create jobs and deliver prosperity.

    A strategy to help break down barriers to regional growth, speed ahead to net zero and clean power by 2030, and build prosperity on strong and secure foundations.

    Because when I said that this Labour Party is proudly pro-business and proudly pro-worker – I meant it.

    This mission – for investment, for growth, for jobs – is why in a few weeks’ time, this government will be hosting a major international investment summit bringing together hundreds of business leaders, to send a simple message.

    That after years of instability and uncertainty, Britain is open for business once again.

    And this mission is why we will reform our pensions system; overhaul business rates; give power to our mayors and regional leaders; deliver a plan to get waiting lists down and people back to work; and forge a closer relationship with our neighbours in the European Union, while pursuing trade deals to open up new markets too.

    It’s why we launched a new National Wealth Fund, to invest in new and growing industries right across Britain.

    And it is why Angela Rayner and I have wasted no time in ripping out the blockages in our planning system so we can get Britain building again.

    You know, within 72 hours of taking office, we did more to unblock the planning system than the Conservatives did in fourteen years – including an end to the senseless Tory ban on onshore wind.

    And conference, we won’t stop there.

    Onshore wind to bring down your energy bills.

    New data centres, for good jobs in the industries of the future.

    And housing – for the decent home that every family deserves.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    If you want to start or grow a business.

    If you want to export overseas.

    If you want to build in Britain but fear local opposition and delay.

    If you have felt the quiet desperation of jobs, opportunity and investment slipping away.

    Then be assured: your ambitions, your hopes, your future will not be held back any longer.

    I have promised this hall before that what you will see, in your town, in your city, is a sight we have not seen often enough in our country.

    Shovels in the ground.

    Cranes in the sky.

    The sounds and the sights of the future arriving.

    We will make that a reality.

    Jobs in the automotive industry of the future in the industrial heartland of the West Midlands.

    Jobs in life sciences, across the North West.

    Clean technology across South Yorkshire.

    A thriving gaming industry in Dundee.

    And jobs in carbon capture and storage, on Teesside, Humberside, and right here on Merseyside too.

    Wealth created, and wealth shared, in every part of Britain.

    That is the prize.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    And Conference, because growth must be built by the many, its proceeds must be felt by the many too.

    And because of the indignity and insecurity that stems from the broken link between hard work and fair reward, we will deliver on another promise: a new deal for working people.

    With a ban on exploitative zero hour contracts; an end to fire and rehire; and a minimum wage which takes into account the real cost of living.

    So, at last, we will have a genuine living wage in our country.

    For dignity. For security. For growth.

    This Labour government will make work pay.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    Within weeks of entering office, we faced another choice.

    We could accept the independent pay review bodies’ recommendations and give public sector workers their first above inflation pay rise in fourteen years.

    Or we could allow further industrial disruption to wreak havoc on our public services.

    Patients having hospital appointments cancelled.

    Parents unable to send their children to school.

    Key workers – the men and women who kept us safe during the pandemic – forced to pay the price for a crisis that they did not create.

    The Conservatives gave no guidance to the pay review bodies on affordability, nor did they budget for the recommendations they offered.

    And the Conservatives will deny that this was a choice that had to be made at all.

    They will claim that it was a viable strategy to let industrial action continue, to let a crisis in recruitment and retention spiral and let public services deteriorate yet further.

    That was not a choice I was willing to make.

    And it was not a choice that was in the national interest either.

    So, I am proud. I am proud to stand here as the first Chancellor in fourteen years to have delivered a meaningful, real pay rise to millions of public sector workers.

    We made that choice. We made that choice not just because public sector workers needed that pay rise.

    But because it was the right choice for parents, patients and for the British public.

    The right choice for recruitment and retention.

    And it was the right choice for our country.

    If the Conservative Party, if they want a fight about this.

    If they want to argue we should have ignored the independent pay review bodies.

    That public sector workers’ pay should fall further behind the cost of living.

    That ordinary families should pay the price of industrial action.

    If the Conservatives Party want a fight about who can be trusted to make the right choices for our public services and those who use them.

    Then I say bring it on.

    Public services that we can be proud of, once again with a Labour government.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    And that is the Britain that I believe in.

    Let me tell you where I’m coming from.

    My mum and dad were primary school teachers.

    And I’m really proud of that.

    My mum was a special needs teacher at my school.

    And my dad was a headteacher at another local primary.

    I know how hard my parents worked.

    How dedicated they were.

    The long hours they both put in – my sister Ellie and I playing in my dad’s office while he worked late.

    And they had to do so in the face of a Conservative government that, in its every action, showed it didn’t care about kids in schools like theirs.

    Ordinary, comprehensive schools like the one I went to and the kids I grew up with.

    My mum and dad lived their values and they taught me the value of public service.

    Of hard work.

    Of giving something back to the community.

    I joined this party because of three words spoken in a conference hall in Blackpool twenty eight years ago: education, education, education.

    I joined this party because I believe that strong public services are the backbone of any decent society.

    Because I believe that people should rise and fall on their own merit, not on the circumstances of their birth.

    And because I believe that we do not have to choose between a fair society and a strong economy.

    I don’t want kids to succeed ‘against all odds’.

    I want them to succeed because they deserve it.

    Because the odds aren’t stacked against them.

    That’s the Britain that I want to live in – just like every other parent who wants the best for their kids.

    So I will judge my time in office a success if I know that at the end of it there are working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds who lead richer lives, their horizons expanded, and able to achieve and thrive in Britain today.

    That starts by taking the first steps to delivering on another manifesto commitment: our promise, led by the work of our Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, to introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school across England.

    Today I can announce that that will start in hundreds of schools for primary school-aged pupils from this April, ahead of the national rollout.

    An investment in our young people.

    An investment in reducing child poverty.

    An investment in our economy.

    And an investment so that, in years to come, we can proudly say that we left behind a Britain where the next generation has a chance to do better than those who came before it.

    Conference – that is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain that I believe in.

    The work of change is only just beginning.

    And the stakes are high.

    Trust is a fragile thing.

    And we’ve seen the consequences when mainstream politics comes up short.

    It falls to us to show that politics can be a force for positive change.

    Not through words, but through action.

    Through progress towards that Britain of opportunity, fairness and enterprise.

    That is our task.

    That is my task.

    It comes with a great weight of responsibility.

    I embrace it.

    It will mean hard work.

    I am ready for it.

    The British people put their trust in us.

    And we will repay it.

    And when someone asks you – does this government represent me?

    When they ask – whose side are they on?

    You can tell them: when you work hard, Labour will make sure you get your fair reward.

    When barriers obstruct opportunity and investment is constricted, Labour will tear down those barriers.

    When working people have paid the price for the Tory chaos, while waste spirals and tax is avoided, Labour will act.

    And when the national interest demands hard choices, Labour will not duck them.

    We will make fair choices.

    For decent public services and the people who rely on them.

    For investment and opportunity in every part of Britain.

    For an end to the naysaying, the division, the defeatism.

    An end to the low investment that feeds decline.

    And an end to easy answers, the empty promises, and the Tory stagnation.

    Conference, you can tell them that we stand – that we will always stand – with working people.

    We changed our party.

    Let us now change our country.

    This is our moment.

    Our chance to show that politics can make a difference.

    That Britain’s best days lie ahead.

    That our families, our communities, our country need not look on while the future is built somewhere else.

    That we can, and we will, make our own future here.

    A Britain trading, competing, and leading in a changed world.

    A Britain founded on the talent and the effort of working people.

    That is the Britain we’re building.

    That is the Britain I believe in.

    Together, let’s go and build it.

    Thank you.

  • Louise Haigh – 2024 Speech on Maritime Policy

    Louise Haigh – 2024 Speech on Maritime Policy

    The speech made by Louise Haigh, the Secretary of State for Transport, in London on 17 September 2024.

    Thank you very much, it’s fantastic to be here at the launch of London International Shipping Week. Where better to deliver my first maritime address as Secretary of State than at the IMO.

    Not only the global seat of maritime governance where shipping has been made safer, our seas cleaner, this industry more secure. But an enduring symbol, 75 years on from its creation, of this city’s role in maritime’s past, present and future.

    It’s why London hosts the premier event in the shipping calendar, with 30,000 visitors attending over 300 events for London International Shipping Week last year. Although being a girl from Yorkshire, I should say this is about the whole UK maritime sector as well. Last year we celebrated progress made, confronted challenges ahead and continued the vital work of future-proofing this historic sector.

    With like-minded states and dynamic businesses, we turned partnership into progress – accelerating work on green corridors, signing memorandums of understanding to explore the opportunities of AI, and showcasing new fully electric vehicles on the Thames.

    All positive steps, which, next year, we absolutely must work together to turn into giant leaps. Because this sector faces more change in the next 30 years than it’s seen in the past 3,000 and all of us, government and industry, must be ready.

    Take new technology, which will transform how maritime is powered. It will end the sector’s reliance on dirty energy. A reliance that has seen domestic shipping emissions outpace those of buses, coaches and rail combined.

    Already, in this very building, the global community has agreed decarbonisation targets by around 2050. And over the coming years, Britain will continue to take the lead. Not only delivering our mission to make this country a clean energy superpower, but rallying the world to ensure those targets don’t slip from view. And we’ll explore the possibilities of autonomous shipping, never to replace human passion and experience, but to achieve levels of productivity and safety currently beyond our capabilities.

    So, whether it’s hydrogen or battery power, green corridors or smart shipping, I will build on what’s come before and go further, much further, move faster – and match the ambition that’s already being displayed in our world leading sector – setting this industry on course towards a future of cleaner growth.

    Steering us towards that future will be maritime’s workforce – over 200,000 strong, touching every part of the country. They are the lifeblood of this sector.

    I know that working at sea isn’t just a job. My uncle left home at 16 – he ran away from home – to join the Merchant Navy. My grandma didn’t even know where he’d gone – but it changed his life forever. It gave him ambitions and opportunities that he couldn’t have otherwise achieved.

    Because a maritime career represents the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself. We have all seen that on display, when maritime workers were tasked with getting this island nation through a pandemic, while much of the economy ground to a halt. They facilitated our global trade, almost all of which flows through our ports, before lining supermarket shelves, filling hospital stock rooms and landing on our doorsteps.

    Maritime’s future depends on that workforce and on growing the pool of talent that it draws from. It means we can create a more resilient and innovative sector, proudly diverse in gender, background and skills.

    It’s a future where coders and data analysts rub shoulders with engineers and seafarers – all choosing maritime as the place to launch and sustain a career. But that requires progress, real progress, on making the sector a more attractive place to work and stay.

    It has now been over 2 years since the P&O Ferries scandal shook this country and the maritime sector. Clearly, not enough has been done since. I know many of you in this room will have been equally as shocked by those events. And this government is determined to start to put injustices like these right with our plan to ‘Make Work Pay’.

    We’ll end the worst fire and rehire practices that undercut the rights and protections of workers, and undermine confidence in our economy. Because we know that the way to grow our economy, and to make maritime a more attractive home for a new generation of seafarers, is through a partnership between business and working people, which can be a rising tide that lifts all of us, in every corner of the country.

    Today you have my assurance that I will place this sector at the heart of this government’s plan for a decade of national renewal. Economic growth. A clean energy superpower. Breaking barriers to opportunity. Whatever this government’s mission – maritime is at the heart of it.

    We’ll harness London’s world leading strengths in maritime law and insurance. We’ll support exciting green projects up and down the country. And we’ll breathe new economic life into our vital coastal communities and ports.

    Friends, I believe maritime’s best days aren’t confined to history but lie ahead. So, tonight, let’s fire the starting gun – or break the champagne – for London International Shipping Week 2025, making it the biggest and most impactful to date.

    I know that many of you feel that maritime’s outsized contribution to our economy sails under the radar and that many of you don’t always get the recognition you deserve. But as Transport Secretary, I will champion you and this sector at every opportunity. And work with you, day in day out, not simply to secure maritime’s future, but the future of our economy and our country too.

  • Alison McGovern – 2024 Speech on Britain’s Labour Market

    Alison McGovern – 2024 Speech on Britain’s Labour Market

    The speech made by Alison McGovern, the Minister for Employment, on 18 September 2024.

    INTRODUCTION

    I want to thank everybody at the Institute and all the Commissioners for this important report today. It’s quite long and represents a very serious endeavour and brings evidence from every part of our country.

    And I think it’s such an important contribution to a moment in which I hope, and I will say this morning, we’ll see a page turned from the policy of the past to a new future for the Department that I proudly serve in Government.

    In July, the Secretary of State gave a speech in Barnsley setting out our plans to refocus the Department for Work and Pensions from being the department for welfare to a department of work.

    We’re going to change the Department for Work and Pensions fundamentally. Because if you go around Jobcentres they still have paper listings on the wall as if it’s 1985. Meanwhile, the rest of the economy is galloping to our AI future. Which is why Liz and I want to be clear we are making an employment service fit for the future, not stuck in the past.

    However, updating the Department for Work and Pensions is not just about technology. Today, I want to set out the failure at the heart of past thinking, and where our new policies will be led not just by new opportunities, but by fundamentally different principles.

    UNEMPLOYMENT IS A PROBLEM OF THE ECONOMY, NOT OF THE INDIVIDUAL

    The report published today describes the UK’s employment service as “the least well-used in Europe” – and I would add least well-loved – “often acting as an extension of the benefit system”. The report highlights the need for far-reaching reforms, including a “clearer separation between employment support and social security delivery”.

    And I agree, that point is at the heart of my speech today.

    I want to spell out fundamental flaws in thinking that have held us back.

    For too long, the question of how to increase employment in the UK has been reduced simply to a question of the individuals out of work. The only question has been whether the social security system undermines a person’s will to work.

    Because for too long, that narrow focus has dominated all thinking. We’ve lost sight of the labour market as a whole.

    For far too long in politics, we’ve asked whether this change or that change to social security will result in more people working, instead of looking at the options that people have in the labour market and asking ourselves whether those options and choices are good enough.

    This was always doomed to fail.  To know that, all you need to do is understand our past.

    William Beveridge called it out in 1909. He said: “The first question must be “not what is to be done with the unemployed individual, but why is he thus unemployed”.

    The truth is, for any individual, you can look at the ups and downs of life and describe why they aren’t working: they got sick, they had kids, there was a bus that could get them there but it was cancelled.  But when there are over 7.2 million people like that who are out of work, that is no longer an individual problem – it’s a failure of our whole economy. As Beveridge described it, it’s a problem of industry and a failure of organisation.

    Look at the evidence:

    • We’ve got millions stuck on waiting lists and 2.8 million out of work sick. Is that social security? Or the people in charge of the health service who were supposed to keep our country well?
    • We’ve got almost 1 in 8 of all young people on the scrapheap – is that the fault of social security– or was it the failure to help the lockdown generation?
    • We’ve got too many insecure jobs, with unpredictable working patterns. And that has nothing to do with social security.
    • And the welfare state is not to blame for the lack of buses after 6pm in northern towns. It is ridiculous.

    What people call ‘welfare’ has been the current obsession.

    HOW TO FIX OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM AND DELIVER A THRIVING LABOUR MARKET

    But this was not a trap that the author of our social security system fell into.

    In his 1942 report, Beveridge wrote that his plan assumed “the establishment of comprehensive health and rehabilitation services, and maintenance of employment, that is to say avoidance of mass unemployment as necessary conditions of success in social insurance.”

    Beveridge did not think social security was a cure-all. He knew its success was conditional – that his system would not work without these two other post-war reforms: the goal of full employment, and the goal of a national health service at the disposal of all workers.

    Social security is there to smooth people’s incomes over time and to take account of life events we all have a strong chance of experiencing – old age, the birth of a baby, sickness or redundancy. Run well, it should be a counterweight to poverty and a stabilising force at a time of distress. But only if we acknowledge that tinkering with its edges will never solve the problems of the broader economy.

    Instead, we need to give people the good choices and chances that they need.

    Because markets can be a force for opportunity and prosperity. But we should also mould them, and shape them, and spread power widely within them. A market for labour that has businesses crying out for staff, and a queue at the foodbank door is failing this country.

    You’ll know that the Commissioners join Beveridge in prescribing the UK Government an objective to move towards full employment. And it’s why Liz and I also join the Commissioners – having announced our bold, long-term ambition to get to an 80% employment rate – the kind of clear objective that our hosts here at the Institute for Employment Studies say will help change the fortunes of our country.

    LEARNING FROM HISTORY: ECONOMIC CRISES AND ACTIVE LABOUR MARKET POLICIES

    The central point I want to make today is that’s right and we’ve forgotten our own history on this point. Particularly, the major turning point after the Second World War whereby the issue that caused the collapse of Ramsey McDonald’s second Labour Government – unemployment – was resolved. Post-war, it was accepted that the economy, and the labour market in particular, ought to keep people (men at least) in work and off the streets.

    The generation that experienced dreadful conflict and mass destitution decided they would put an end to it. They created a department for employment to train and rehabilitate people, industry full of apprenticeships, and of course the Employment Exchanges – what we now call Jobcentres – to connect the unemployed with jobs. The Commission’s report, in my opinion, reestablishes this lesson for the 2020s.

    Beveridge was not perfect, but he was definitely a man who made a difference.

    But it is the story of two women on either side of the Atlantic that I think can help us see even more forcefully why we need a rebirth of active labour market policy today.

    On one side of the Atlantic, Frances Perkins – first woman in the US cabinet, creator of the New Deal and author of the plan for prosperity in response to the destitution of the Great Depression.

    On the other side of the Atlantic, four years earlier, Margaret Bondfield. We all know who that is, right? The first woman in the UK Cabinet, dealing with ever rising unemployment and an unsustainable unemployment insurance bill.

    With active labour market policy for Bondfield not yet invented, the Labour Government collapsed and her political career was all but forgotten.

    Now if you read Bondfield’s memos from the time, and you can see her frustration, repeatedly making the case for increasing the national insurance fund to prevent hardship but with no answer to the cause of the problem. And the populists of the 1930s were at the gate, making the most of the economic distress.

    Caught in the middle, she was desperate for the answer that came just a few years later in the United States with Frances Perkins’ creation of the New Deal.

    Why do I tell her story?

    Because unlike Margaret Bondfield we can’t say we don’t know what the answer is because since then we’ve learnt from nearly 80 years of public policy in response to economic failure.

    We’ve learnt from that failure of the 1930s.

    We’ve learnt from the near full employment that came from the post war consensus.

    We’ve learnt from when the consensus broke down in the 1970s and other crises took over. Inflation became the big challenge that economic policy turned to face down – and the cost of that was a return to high unemployment.

    We’ve learnt from industrial collapse, which saw a move away from the mass employment provided by heavy industries like manufacturing and coal mining towards services and finance.

    We learnt what this would mean for towns and cities across Britain. When women joining the workforce concealed an even worse outcome for men.

    And we’ve learnt that this saw regional disparities deepen – in whole parts of the country, economies simply failed – and many are still yet to properly recover.

    Despite attempts to manage this, the number of people out of work due to sickness grew rapidly, with incapacity caseloads broadly doubling to 2.7m by the time we entered the 2000s.

    So we had to learn through the actions of the last Labour government in 1997, that in response to this horrendous situation, there had to be an explicit rebirth of active labour market policy, with the United Kingdom’s very own New Deal.

    A radical series of reforms designed to provide people with active tailored support to help get them back into work as unemployment fell and the economy grew.

    With a big focus on young people.

    The global financial crash in 2008 saw unemployment rise again and the Department for Work and Pensions then, in response, scaled up its active labour market policy operations.

    And as a result, the global crash did not have a long-term impact on the trend rate of employment. That is not to say everything was perfect, but it’s worth learning from.

    And I’ve certainly learnt from what happened in 2010.

    [Please note political content redacted here]

    Active labour market policy was shrunk back to a preoccupation with social security rules.

    And the results of the past 14 years show what’s been happening with our labour market.

    A quarter of working age people are not in work, with 2.8 million people out of the workforce due to long-term health problems.

    Over 4 million people in work and with work-limiting health conditions which may put them at risk of not fulfilling their potential or falling completely out of the labour market.

    And I want to say to you all this morning – now is the time to turn the page on that failure.

    Because just as in 1930, Margaret Bondfield said of the Unemployment Insurance Scheme that it “is being asked to meet situations for which it was never designed.

    The same is true of our social security system today.  We cannot load every economic problem we face onto minor tweaks in the social security rules.

    Which is why, as part of our Get Britain Working White Paper, we are bringing forward fundamental reforms to employment support.

    That includes changing the outcomes against which we measure its success – for example, not focusing alone on getting people into work but on achieving higher engagement with everyone, much higher employment in the short-term, and higher earnings too.

    We will overhaul Jobcentres in this country and we will get people into work long-term.

    We will have a new youth guarantee so not a single person will be left on the scrapheap when they’re young.

    And because Liz and I know the country doing well is no compensation if your town or city is being abandoned, we will make sure – as the Prime Minister says – that those with skin in the game – our mayors and regional leaders –have the levers they need to make change.

    As the Commissioners have laid out in their report, our highly centralised system needs to move towards a model more in line with those used in other high-performing countries – with more control at the local level.

    This big reform will be matched by the action we’re taking across the UK Government to support jobs and growth.

    We’ll soon be introducing legislation into Parliament so people’s work is better paid and more secure.

    Skills England will change the place of learning in this country to give everyone a chance of success.

    And we will create new Local Growth Plans powering towns and cities up and down the country.

    I know change won’t happen overnight, but I am determined to fix the foundations in the Department for Work and Pensions so that more families can benefit from the security, dignity and prosperity of good work.

    CONCLUSION

    The point I’m making here, I know is not a new or innovative one. As I’ve said, it’s the founding principle of our social security system –

    You cannot have well-functioning social security without full employment.

    Beveridge knew that.

    But let me conclude with a few small points that we could help Beveridge understand.

    Because whilst his principle remains the same, the circumstances we make these reforms in are very different.

    So it is for us to apply that principle to the society we have now – more than 80 years later.

    Where the health system – still as vital as ever – must address a very different set of challenges. Not infectious disease, but chronic poor mental health.

    Where women’s role in the workforce makes the need for a proper childcare system as pressing as Beveridge believed the need for a reformed health system was in the 1940s.

    Now Beveridge also didn’t give any evidence that he foresaw the rise of the motor vehicle, which – combined with inadequate investment in public transport – forces those who can’t afford a car to face limits on their ambitions – especially if they live in an area with fewer opportunities and chronically bad transport.

    Changing that will be part of better organisation for our economy and I hope that Beveridge might have thought was a good idea.

    Our desire for an 80% employment rate comes from a serious understanding of our country’s history, and also from facing the reality of the economy today. We have a serious understanding of the challenges and opportunities before us, and who they apply to.

    That is why what is not needed now is a sticking plaster, or a tweak or an amendment, but a change in principle, in policy and in practice. Leading to a better organised economy – and a market that works – spreading opportunity and prosperity to every corner of our country.

    Back in the 1930s, the New Deal provided Americans with a springboard and a safety net. And a recognition that you don’t get one without the other.

    What unites these moments in history that I’ve talked about is an ambitious idea about what can happen if you put a platform under people and see what they could do and what they could achieve.

    The report that the Commissioners have written – published today – I think is very ambitious. But I hope I have made the case, in my remarks, that it ought to be ambitious.

    Because for too long, our economic policy has shrunk the people of this country. Our new economic approach will see people for all they could be and all the opportunities they deserve.

  • David Lammy – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    David Lammy – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 22 September 2024.

    Conference, everyone in this room has their own story.

    My story starts in place called Dongola Road, in the shadow of Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm Estate.

    Life was not always easy. My mum struggling to put food on our table.

    Skinheads shouting abuse as we walked by.

    My father leaving when I was 12.

    He didn’t leave me very much.

    But he did leave me a map, an atlas of the world which I put on my bedroom wall. And from this map, I learned about the countries my ancestors had come from. Transported from West Africa to Guyana as part of the Transatlantic slave trade. Long before my parents moved from Guyana to Britain to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War.

    Conference, I can’t tell you how it feels to stand here today. A Black working-class man from Tottenham; a child of the great Windrush Generation.

    Now back on this stage as the Foreign Secretary in a Labour Government.

    My job is to tell a new story about the United Kingdom abroad.

    A story of openness. A story of the future. A story of hope that will reconnect Britain with the world once more.

    Conference, when I stood in this room last year, I said we had a once in a generation chance to get Britain’s future back.

    The chance to win back the public’s trust. To turn the page on 14 years of Tory decline.

    Well Conference, we did it.

    And when I say we did it – I mean you did it.

    Every party member who walked dozens of miles knocking on doors.

    Every activist who convinced a young person to register to vote.

    Every supporter who endured the failing private train networks to campaign in an unfamiliar town.

    Every single one of you who supported our leader – our Prime Minister – Keir Starmer.

    You are the greatest advocates of our values, our missions, and our purpose.

    We are forever grateful to you for the greatest electoral turnaround in our party’s history.

    From electoral oblivion less than five years ago, to a Labour majority today.

    Thank you, thank you.

    Of course, you, the party members in this room, did not just change the fate of our party. You changed the fate of our country.

    Now, together, let’s work to change the fate of our world.

    Conference, for 14 long years, the Conservative Party misused the British state.

    Handing out crony contracts to their mates. Crashing the economy with their delusional ideology.

    For 14 long years, the Conservative Party damaged our reputation abroad, threatening to break international law.

    Threatening our European friends and treating them as our as foes.

    For 14 long years, the Conservative Party abandoned our values.

    Tearing up climate commitments.

    Threatening to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

    On my first weekend as Foreign Secretary – when I travelled to Germany, to Poland, to Sweden in less than 48 hours – I was proud to say: Britain is back.

    When Keir Starmer, and my dear friend John Healey and I flew to Washington DC a few days later to meet with world leaders and commit unshakeably to NATO, we were proud to say: Britain is back.

    When the Labour government hosted 45 European leaders at Blenheim Palace, to reset our relationship with Europe, we said: Britain is back.

    When we restored funding to UNRWA for their work in Gaza, what did we say Conference? Britain is back.

    When we stood up for international law when it was not easy: what did we say? Britain is back.

    In my first four months, I visited 10 countries, engaged over 20 world leaders and 40 foreign ministers and what did I tell them? Britain is back.

    And when, unlike Rishi Sunak last year, the Prime Minister and I travel later this week to the UN General Assembly later, what will I say?

    Britain is back. Britain is back. My friends, Britain is back.

    Conference, unlike the Tories, We understand Britain needs to work with its neighbours to flourish.

    We know that Britain’s strength is founded on its alliances.

    That is why we are resetting our relationship with Europe. Since July, we have launched negotiations on a wide-ranging bilateral treaty with Germany. I have been on a joint visit with the French Foreign Minister, the first of its kind for more than a decade. I have welcomed the Spanish and Polish Foreign Ministers to London.

    We will reduce trade barriers to help boost business, jobs and economic growth, and we will seek a new broad, ambitious new UK-EU security pact to strengthen cooperation on shared threats that we face, enshrining a new geo-political partnership.

    Because Britain is back. A leading nation in Europe once again.

    Earlier this month I was in Kyiv – the frontline of the defence of European democracy – meeting with President Zelenskyy, two and a half years into Putin’s full-scale invasion.

    I took an overnight train with Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, to send a clear message. If the West does not demonstrate it can outlast Putin, it does not only threaten Ukraine’s democracy, it threatens us all.

    We need to show Putin that Britain and its allies are not going anywhere.

    Which is why this government has increased support to Ukraine and we have committed £3 billion per year in military aid for as long as it takes. And it is why I told Zelenskyy; this Labour government will always stand with his courageous people.

    We need to send another message to Vladimir Putin: your interference in our democracy; promoting disinformation and encourage disorder on our streets; encouraging kleptocrats to store their ill-gotten gains in our property market must end.

    And that is why I am proud to tell Conference, together with two of our closest allies – the United States and Canada – and the rest of the G7, we are taking action against Russian disinformation. Exposing their agents, building joint capability and working with the Global South to take on Putin’s lies.

    Conference, last year, as we boarded trains up to Liverpool, we read the horrific news that Hamas terrorists had murdered around 1200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 others.

    What has followed those atrocities is a horrific war. Tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children killed and injured. Their homes turned to rubble, leaving Gaza a vision of hell on earth.

    Meanwhile dozens of Israelis remain cruelly held captive and Israel faces threats from all angles with Iran and its proxies seeking to wipe Israel off the map.

    Conference, I know, like me, you are desperate to see the conflict in the Middle East come to an end. And this Labour government has already made clear Britain’s principles.

    In my first weeks of government, I went to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to call for an immediate ceasefire. Words no previous Foreign Secretary had even used.

    We have used the full weight of Britain’s diplomacy to push to protect civilians, now. Get all the hostages out, now. And unrestricted aid into Gaza, now.

    We have provided millions to fund field hospitals in Gaza. We brought the Security Council together to demand polio vaccinations for Palestinian children.

    We have respected the independence of the international courts and we have made the right decisions to stand up for international law.

    We have called out the violent settlers in the West Bank. We have continued to fight for the hostages and to support their families.

    We have never lost sight of the end goal: an irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.

    I believe in the right of Israel to be safe and secure. I also believe in the justness of the Palestinian cause.

    And it is only once Palestinians and Israelis have the same fundamental rights – sovereignty, security and dignity in their own independent, recognised states – that we can achieve a just and lasting peace for all.

    In recent days, we have seen a worrying escalation between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah.

    This is in nobody’s interest.

    Our message to all parties is clear: we need an immediate ceasefire from both sides so that we can get to a political settlement.

    So that Israelis and Lebanese civilians can return to their homes and live in peace and security.

    And to British nationals still in Lebanon, let me say clearly: for your own safety, leave now.

    Iran is not only destabilising the Middle East but providing support to Putin’s barbaric war through exporting ballistic missiles.

    That is why we put new restrictions on Iran Air that will stop it entering the UK and new sanctions against the IRGC.

    Conference, in a world filled with conflict it is easy to take our eyes off the most fundamental threat that our world faces. The climate emergency.

    Treated by the last government with a cynical disdain that we cannot afford.

    With Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband, I will help restore Britain’s climate leadership, for British jobs, opportunity and growth. And because climate matters.

    The climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Labour Foreign Office does. Because climate matters.

    With Labour, Britain will lead a new Global Clean Power Alliance. Because climate matters.

    With Labour, Britain has founded Great British Energy. Because climate matters.

    We will accelerate onshore wind. Why? Because climate matters.

    We will appoint new climate and new nature envoys. Because climate matters.

    We have pledged to end new oil and gas licences while guaranteeing a fair transition in the North Sea. Why? Because climate matters

    And Conference, the Conservatives abandoned our leadership on international development too.

    With my dear friend Anneliese Dodds, we will strengthen development leadership, capability and expertise, and support faster reform to the global financial system.

    Our goal is nothing less than a world free from poverty on a liveable planet. That’s what a Labour government will achieve.

    Conference, the world we face is filled with disorder. Conflict in Europe, Africa and the Middle East; great power competition, an increasingly assertive China and a climate emergency.

    But together we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the change we want to see.

    Not just in Britain, but in Europe and in the world.

    Just as Clem Attlee’s 1945 government rebuilt the country after the second world war; just as Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s seized the white heat of technology to face the future; and just as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s government transformed our public services, we in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, have the opportunity to make history.

    With a decade of national renewal. Our Prime Minister has laid out five missions for this purpose.

    Five missions that will give our country the growth it needs and the security it deserves.

    Five missions that will allow Britain to return to the top table of international diplomacy.

    A Britain Reconnected.

    Britain back where it belongs.

    Conference, thank you. Thank you very much.

  • Lucy Powell – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Lucy Powell – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Lucy Powell, the Leader of the House of Commons, on 22 September 2024.

    I’m thrilled to be here speaking as the first Labour Leader of the House of Commons in 15 years.

    But what on earth does the Leader actually do apart from carrying swords in Coronations?

    My job is two-fold: restore trust and respect in politics, and ensure we deliver our bold and ambitious legislative agenda.

    Both are vital and connected and much needed.

    Populism and extremism feeds from a belief that nothing ever changes, and that all politicians are the same.

    The easy answers, lies and conspiracy theories too readily sought when the status quo fails to change and improve ordinary lives.

    Progressive politics needs and must show the opposite.

    That politics is a force for good.

    That it can bring about change.

    That it does work in the interest of the many, not the few.

    That democracy, not hate and fear, can deliver change.

    And after an era of false promises, misspent hope, money wasted, long-running injustices, denied, broken public services, economic folly which cost us all, a country which doesn’t work, it’s no wonder people have lost hope.

    That’s why our drive to a government of service is so important.

    Rebuilding trust and delivering what we said we would.

    And let’s be honest, Conference, some want to paint a picture that nothing will change, that we are just the same.

    I totally refute that.

    First, conduct matters.

    That’s why one of the first things I did as Leader was to pass a motion to limit MP’s second jobs.

    And we will go further.

    I’ve set up the House Modernisation Committee to drive up standards, tackle bad culture and make Parliament more effective.

    Transparency matters too and it’s not always easy.

    But the question is ‘are we delivering on our promises, without fear or favour?’

    And judge us by our actions. We are on the side of fans, passengers, consumers, and workers.

    This couldn’t be more different from the recent past.

    Instead of strengthening the rules for MPs, when one of theirs was found in serious breach for lobbying Tory MPs voted to get him off the hook.

    And what about their fast lane for mates, billions of tax-payers cash spent on crony COVID contracts?

    And let’s never forget they changed the law so we couldn’t socialise, while secretly partying themselves and then lying to Parliament about it for months.

    So, don’t let anyone tell you we are all the same, Conference, because we are not.

    The most important thing to rebuild trust, is doing what we said we would, bringing about the real change people voted for.

    It sounds basic, but it is the bedrock.

    In Parliament that change has begun. I was so proud to be at the heart of shaping our first legislative programme for government in 15 years – a Kings Speech that is bold, big and it’s Labour.

    It’s the most ambitious of any new incoming Government for a very long time.

    And look what we’ve done already.

    The Fiscal Responsibility Act – our first new law – so that Liz Truss can never happen again.

    A first Bill to take our railways back into public ownership.

    Legislation to set up Great British Energy.

    A Bill that puts water bosses on notice to clean up our rivers.

    We’ve introduced the renters rights Bill, finally ending no fault evictions.

    House of Lords reform.

    And conference, we are working at pace to meet our manifesto commitment, to introduce the Employment Rights Bill within 100 days.

    All this in a short time, using the Parliamentary majority we all fought so hard for.

    That’s what change looks like.

    We’ve done more to improve lives in 14 weeks than the Conservatives did in 14 years.

    But that’s not all.

    Some of the promises we made go deeper. To those who’ve faced injustices and been let down before.

    We are determined to show we are different.

    It’s why we’ve moved so quickly on the Infected Blood Compensation and Post Office Redress schemes.

    And it’s why we’ve introduced Martyn’s Law. A promise we made to Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett, to help keep venues safe.

    And Conference, I am so proud that it is our Labour Government that will finally enact Hillsborough Law.

    That’s the change a Labour Government brings.

    And there’s lots more to come, I can tell you.

    That’s what a government of service means.

    Power with a purpose, in service of the many, not the few.

    Restoring a belief that politics really can change people’s lives.

    It’s the only antidote we have to cynicism and populism.

    We have a chance now to prove it.

    It’s a big responsibility, so let’s get on with it.

  • Darren Jones – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Darren Jones – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 22 September 2024.

    Conference, I want to start by saying thank you.

    Thank you to Keir Starmer, our Leader, the seventh Labour Prime Minister of our country, for leading us to victory in an election so many thought was impossible for us to win.

    Thank you to you, our members, for all that you did to give this great party of ours the chance to serve once again.

    For giving me the chance to serve in the cabinet of a Labour government.

    Conference, for generations, my family worked at the Bristol docks.

    Ernie Bevin, that great trades union general secretary and Labour statesman, who started life organising workers in my constituency gave them power at work through collectivism.

    Bevin said to my forefathers: change begins.

    My grandparents grew up in the council flats that the Atlee Labour government built in the 1940s, the same council flats that I grew up in as a child. Homes that gave families like mine the security of a roof over our heads.

    Attlee said to my grandparents: change begins.

    And the Blair Labour government, with the National Minimum Wage and its mantra of education, education, education, lifted me and my family out of poverty.

    Blair said to my family: change begins.

    Each generation. A new Labour government giving power, housing, education, the National Health Service to the National Minimum Wage.

    Generational opportunities for working people like you and me.

    And now, with a new generation, and a new Labour government, Conference, we will deliver generational change for Britain once again.

    But conference, we should want more than that.

    More than a once in a generation chance to serve.

    I want our Labour Party to become the natural party of government.

    A title the Conservative Party claimed for years, but we can take it from them.

    We have the chance to prove that we are the changemakers. That our changed Labour Party can be trusted to govern.

    Not just for one or two terms, but three, four and five.

    That together, as a united Labour Party, we can deliver for Britain.

    Now, conference, I see my job as Chief Secretary to the Treasury – other than the Chancellor – as one of the hardest jobs in government.

    The person responsible for every pound and every penny.

    The person who wants to say yes, but often has to say no.

    The person who follows the money and asks: does it add up? How will it be paid for? Can we afford it? How do you know it will be spent well? How do we really fix this problem?

    But underneath these questions is a serious point.

    When the Conservatives crashed the economy, working people paid the price.

    When they left no money public services and ran away, working people paid the price.

    When the Tories lied to the public, we all paid the price.

    These problems that we are dealing with, they are not inevitable problems, they were problems created by the Conservative Party.

    So, conference, let us be clear: never again.

    Never again will we let the Conservatives wreck the economy.

    Never again will we go back to the chaos of the Conservative Party.

    Conference, never again should we let the Tories get their hands on the keys to Downing Street.

    But Conference, I have a secret to tell you about Downing Street.

    There is no magic wand behind those black doors. It’s just us, people making decisions with Labour values in our hearts.

    To fix the foundations and rebuild Britain requires difficult decisions every day.

    But these difficult decision give us the opportunity to invest in change.

    To deliver a more productive, future facing economy – delivering a better future for families across the country.

    A more modern, effective government to get Britain building again.

    High performing, personalised public services, not least to transform our National Health Service.

    A new Britain, fit for the 21st century.

    Conference, that’s why I’m so proud to be working with Britain’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, my friend and boss, the woman who’s going to put rocket boosters under the British economy: Rachel Reeves.

    With Wes Streeting, who will fix our broken NHS.

    With Bridget Philipson, who will give kids from backgrounds like hers and mine that precious thing: opportunity.

    With Ed Miliband who will be bold in tackling climate change, and Yvette Cooper will halve violence against women and girls.

    Why, with our mission leads and all of us around the cabinet table and in Parliament, we will prove once again that Labour governments deliver real change for Britain.

    Conference, progress is always founded on hope.

    Hope that better days lie ahead.

    Let us remember that this is our moment, because it is our Labour movement that gives people like you and me, families like mine and yours, that great opportunity to achieve more together than we do alone.

    Let us together take forward the power of our Labour movement.

    The power that won us this General Election, to win us the next election and the one after that.

    To power the change this country needs.

    Conference: change begins.

  • Angela Rayner – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    Angela Rayner – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, on 22 September 2024.

    Thank you for that introduction Paul and thank you for what you and your members do to support people across this region.

    Conference, 12 months ago, I stood here and said I hoped never again to open conference as Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

    So, it an absolute great honour to stand here today as your Deputy Prime Minister and it is an honour to open the first Conference of a Labour Government.

    And Conference I want to start off with a thanks to the British people.

    You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it.

    You kept faith with us and we will keep faith with you.

    And let me thank all of you in this room too and my brilliant ministerial team. Every member, activist, councillor, community leader, trade unionist and I saw so many of you on my battle bus during the campaign.

    You have been our voices in our communities for the last 14 years. Voices that spoke up when the Tories’ told us to shut up.

    They thought our Party was history. But this year Conference we made history. Together.

    Not just a victory for our party but a victory of our values. A victory not of politicians but of people.

    We won because we had the courage to change our party. The discipline to make hard decisions and the determination to remain united.

    And now, change begins.

    Even now – especially now – there will be no complacency.

    We’ve seen where that leads.

    Don’t forget what they did: partygate, Covid contracts, the lies, division, scapegoating, and the unfunded tax cuts for the richest that crashed our economy. Don’t forget any of it.

    The Tories failed Britain and they tried to cover it up.

    A crater in the heart of Britain’s economy. A puncture in the pocket of every working family. And a £22 billion black hole.

    And not so much as an apology, let alone an acceptance, from the Tories.

    Instead, next week they will gather in the wreckage of their defeat. Reduced to 10-minute auditions for wannabee leaders, beating each other to different shades of blue. On a show that no-one is watching.

    Perhaps that’s why Kemi launched her leadership campaign with an attack on Doctor Who.

    It was bad enough when they wanted to deal with Farage. Now she’s doing sidedeals with the Daleks.

    But Conference, at least after three months as shadow housing secretary, she finally expressed concern about a tenant. It’s just a pity it was David Tennant.

    And Conference, It’s easy to forget they had five leadership candidates. Not exactly the famous five.

    They have left us to clear up their mess and I’m not just talking about the wallpaper in number ten.

    The Tories have left us facing tough choices. And even tougher ones face families across Britain, struggling to make ends meet.

    Look, I get it – balancing my own department’s budgets brought me back to the old days when I had 60 quid to get me and my son through the week.

    I know more than most that every pound counts.

    So let me be blunt. We can’t wish our problems away. We have to face them.

    That’s the difference between opposition and government.

    But Conference things can get better, if we make the right choices.

    Sustained economic growth is the only way to improve the lives of working people.

    And we are fixing the foundations to put Britain back on the path to growth.

    No more talking, but doing. 80 days in government and we’ve been busy.

    A devolution revolution. A bill to deliver new rights and protections for renters. Planning reform to get Britain building. A landmark review to fix our NHS. A child poverty taskforce. 100 new specialist officers to tackle criminals. An end to one-word Oftsted inspections. Ending the ban on onshore wind, and fines for bosses who pollute our waters.

    Bills to kickstart GB energy and prevent another Liz Truss disastrous mini budget, put buses back in local hands, and bring rail into public ownership.

    Conference, change has begun.

    And Conference many of you know, for me that means: good jobs, secure homes, and strong communities. Fixing the foundations of a good life.

    I know it only too well because they were the foundations on which I built a life for my own family.

    The foundations of what made Britain great – and will do so again.

    When I had my son as a single mum I wanted to work and had to figure out a way to do it.

    My Nana said that as long as I put him to bed she’d have him in the evening and that was after she finished working hard all day herself, so that I could work nights as a home help.

    I got the job. I loved it and loved the people I cared for, but it was tough at times.

    I started on casual terms, and I wasn’t paid for travel. Insecurity at work is the daily reality for so many.

    Far too many people across our country know the world of work isn’t working for them.

    Now, you may have heard me mention that I was a trade unionist.

    If you don’t know that, I should probably tell you that Keir’s dad was a toolmaker. And if you didn’t know Keir’s dad was a toolmaker, I probably need to tell you he’s the Prime Minister.

    But neither of us make any apology for where we came from or how we’ve ended up here.

    So when I took on this job, I promised the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation – nothing less than a New Deal for Working People.

    And I can confirm today that the Employment Rights Bill will be tabled in Parliament next month.

    They said we couldn’t do it. Some tried to stop it in its tracks.

    But after years of opposition we are on the verge of historic legislation.

    To make work more secure and more family friendly. Go further and faster to close the gender pay gap. Ensure rights are enforced and trade unions strengthened.

    That means repealing the Tories’ anti-worker laws and new rights for union reps too.

    A genuine living wage and sick pay for the lowest earners.

    Banning exploitative zero hour contracts and unpaid internships.

    Ending fire and rehire and we will bring in basic rights from day one on the job.

    Conference, this is our Plan to Make Work Pay – coming to a workplace near you.

    But 14 years of Tory chaos has not just left its mark on people’s jobs, but on homes too.

    Not enough are being built. The Tories failed to meet their targets year, after year, after year.

    Michael Gove handed back nearly £2 billion to the Treasury in unspent housing funds. Mortgages have soared. Leaseholders are left at the mercy of eye-watering charges. Renters face crippling rent hikes in damp and mouldy homes. Homelessness is all around us.

    The simple aspiration of a safe, secure and affordable home is further out of reach than ever and we can’t go on like this. So change must begin at home.

    We are tackling the Tories’ housing emergency.

    We will get Britain building and building decent homes for working people.

    A new planning framework will unlock the door to affordable homes and provide the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.

    And Conference, our renters’ bill will rebalance the relationship between tenant and landlord and end no fault evictions – for good.

    Our long-term plan will free leaseholders from the tyranny of a mediaeval system.

    And a cross-government taskforce will put Britain back on track to ending homelessness.

    Whether you’re a leaseholder, a tenant, a home-buyer or without somewhere to live – this government is on your side.

    But my mission is not just to build houses, it is to build homes.

    Because we cannot build at any cost. These new homes must be warm, secure and most importantly safe.

    We will give families the security they need to have the best start in life.

    I know first-hand the difference a decent home can make.

    When I was growing up we didn’t have a lot. But we had a safe and secure home. Today, not everyone does.

    Working with the Prime Minister on the Grenfell Inquiry was the most sobering moment of my career: 72 lives lost, 18 children, all avoidable. A fatal failure of market and state. A tragedy that must never happen again.

    It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of buildings still wrapped in unsafe cladding seven years after Grenfell.

    And that’s why we will bring forward a new remediation action plan this Autumn to speed up the process and we’ll pursue those responsible – without fear or favour.

    This must lead to new, safer social housing for the future.

    Under the Tories, new social housing plummeted.

    We will reverse that tide – with an ambition to be build more social homes than we lose, within the first financial year of this Labour Government.

    In my first weeks in office, I set out how we will start this council housing revolution.

    But Conference, with Government support must come more responsibility.

    This is why today I want to give you my promise that this Labour Government will take action to ensure all homes are decent and safe, and residents are treated with the respect they deserve.

    And Conference, of course, many Housing Associations, councils and landlords do good by their tenants and I know how hard they’ve had it after 14 years under the Tories.

    Which is why I will work in partnership with the sector to deliver the change.

    I will clamp down on damp and mouldy homes by bringing in Awaab’s Law in the social rented sector this autumn and we’ll extend it to the private rented sector too.

    We will consult and implement a new Decent Homes Standard for social and privately rented homes, to end the scandal of homes being unfit to live in.

    We will also ensure social housing staff have the right skills and experience. And I will ensure 2.5 million housing association tenants in this country can hold their landlord to account for their high quality services and homes. So that repairs and complaints are handled faster, but more importantly, so social housing tenants are treated fairly.

    I am under no illusion about the mountain we have to climb.

    We all saw that this summer: violent extremists preyed on our communities and local councils were left picking up the pieces.

    Local leadership is the foundation of strong communities.

    That’s why I have put local government back where it belongs, at the heart of my department’s name and mission.

    Because the best decisions are made by those with skin in the game.

    When I worked in care, me and the home-helps joined the union because we knew we had a part to play in improving things.

    We came together to work with management to deliver a service from 7am -10pm, seven days a week ,and provide flexibility for the predominantly female workforce.

    We proved we could boost productivity and provide an improved service to those we cared for as well as manage our own caring responsibilities outside of work.

    And Keir and I are determined to end this ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach and trust those with skin in the game.

    The last Labour government created the London Mayor, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

    We will seize this moment and finally complete that irreversible shift in opportunity, power and wealth across our whole country.

    It’s how we can deliver real, sustained change for every region and Labour mayors have already proven it.

    Buses under local control in Greater Manchester, £2 fares in West Yorkshire, Oxford Street regeneration in London, publicly-owned battery trains in Liverpool and opportunities for unemployed young people in the West Midlands.

    Labour mayors have shown what is possible when Labour is in power.

    And that’s why I am giving mayors more powers over house building and planning, as well as transport and skills.

    A new White Paper will map out how we will move power out of Whitehall.

    I am delighted to announce today that we will move forward with two Investment Zones – creating high quality jobs in advanced manufacturing in the West Midlands and life sciences in West Yorkshire.

    Just this week, I agreed eight devolution deals, all four corners of Yorkshire will now have a local champion.

    New Mayors for Hull & East Yorkshire and Greater Lincolnshire.

    Warwickshire, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, and Cornwall will get new powers over skills.

    And today I am proud to announce the next step in our devolution revolution.

    This government will change the future of the North of England, so Northerners will no longer be dictated to from Whitehall.

    Conference, we will be the government to complete devolution in the North.

    The change will be irreversible and I will get it done.

    As a proud Northerner this milestone is personal for me!

    And Conference, it was the foundation of a decent home, secure work and a strong community that nurtured me.

    The youth club on a Friday afternoon gave me somewhere to go, with a youth worker I could trust.

    A sure start centre is where I met other mums and learned how to look after my new baby.

    Conference, a community raised me. None of those people cast me aside or gave up on me.

    And when I became a home help, suddenly it was my job to look after the people who had once looked after me – retired professors, teachers, nurses, police officers. They needed my care in the last years and days of their life. Care that they deserved. Care that it was my honour to provide.

    I find myself once again with the opportunity to serve those people who never gave up on me.

    On 4 July, the people entrusted us with the task of change. And Hope won.

    Now is our moment, not just to say but to do.

    Labour Governments of the past took on this same challenge, at a time when Britain desperately needed change.

    They delivered a better Britain when the odds were stacked against them.

    And that is exactly what this Labour government must deliver once again.

    So Conference, let’s get on with it. Thank you.

  • 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.