Our policy ideas are ambitious – but practical too
3 min read
This week’s Labour Party Conference meets at a critical juncture for our country.
We have just spent a period in national mourning for the monarch who has served our nation for 70 years. We are in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, huge numbers of people are unable to do the basics like see a GP, or get the passport they need, while our hospitals, schools and criminal justice system are at breaking point. Working people have been left counting the cost of 12 years of Tory government.
Labour will change this. We will show how our economy can grow and how we can ensure that people across the country feel the benefit. We will end the short termism that sees us lurch from crisis to crisis. We will deliver a fairer, greener future for our country. This week in Liverpool, we will show that we are ready for government, with the new ideas needed to take our country forward and deliver from day one.
Over the last year, in my role leading our policy review, I’ve engaged with people across our movement, including our affiliated trade unions and hundreds of Labour Party members, to set out our roadmap to develop key policies ahead of the next general election. That process has shown, time and again, how our country is stronger when we act together – and how in government Labour would change lives and change communities for the better. This week, we will set out that bold vision to our country.
On wages and work, our New Deal for Working People will deliver fundamental employment rights from day one in the job, stronger family-friendly policies and new fair pay agreements.
On public services, we'd recruit the 6,500 new teachers needed to give every child an excellent education, paying for our programme by ending charitable status for private schools. We will ensure older people receive the care they need, tackling staffing shortages by ensuring care workers receive full rights at work, decent standards, fair pay and proper training, as the first step to building a National Care Service.
This week in Liverpool, we will show that we are ready for government
And on the economy, our commitment to make and manufacture more in Britain will ensure that we grow our economy, creating new green jobs and decarbonising existing ones through a step change in climate investment.
Our ideas are ambitious – to meet the scale of the task at hand – but, importantly, they are also practical to deliver. All of our proposals meet the fiscal rules we set ourselves at last year’s party conference: ensuring a strong and sustainable economy under Labour as we build a better Britain.
This week, people will see that Keir Starmer is the only political leader in Britain who understands what the country is going through and has a plan to sort it out. Over the summer, he has already demonstrated he can take decisive action to make people’s lives better immediately and tackle the energy crisis. This week he will show he can also deliver a better long-term future for Britain. He is ready to address the insecurity people face in their daily lives, to build public services that are equipped for the challenges of the next decade, to tackle the climate crisis and to give every child the best start in life.
Nobody can be in doubt that Labour is the party of sustainable economic growth, the party of fairness and the party of ideas in British politics today. That is why I am so looking forward to our Conference, where we will show the country what a fairer, greener future with Labour will look like.
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