Welcome to Conference - Keir Starmer
4 min read
There’s always an excited buzz when you step off the train in Liverpool ahead of Labour Party Conference. But 12 months ago there was another emotion in the mix, too.
As we arrived in Liverpool, a cloud of uncertainty hung over Britain. Liz Truss and the Conservatives were crashing the economy and the pound was in freefall.
One year on, British people are still paying the price. Families are facing a hat-trick of hardship: higher taxes, higher mortgages and higher food and energy bills.
They may have changed leaders since last year, but the Conservatives remain chaotic and distracted. Their conference was a circus of U-turns, capitulations and leadership speculation. Rishi Sunak is too weak to stand up to his own ministers, let alone Liz Truss. Meanwhile, families are worse off and our public services are crumbling.
Right now, there aren’t many people who would dispute the statement that Britain is going backwards.
So as the Labour Party convenes in Liverpool today, there is no doubt that this is a historic moment – and a historic opportunity.
This is probably the last conference before a general election which will define this decade. It will be the opportunity to pull our country out of Conservative decline. The opportunity to fix Britain and give our nation its future back.
That’s why in the coming days the Labour Party will be ruthlessly focused on answering the question: if not them, why us?
The Tories have lost the trust of the British people. But that alone is not enough. Trust is earned, not inherited.
This conference will show that Labour is ready for government and deadly serious about what that means. Everything we offer will be built on a bedrock of economic stability and a plan for growth. Responsible plans, fuelled by bold ambition. That is how we win trust.
Over recent months we have set out our ambition for a mission-driven government. No more sticking plaster politics. No more lurching from crisis to crisis.
This is probably the last conference before a general election which will define this decade.
In the coming days, you’ll hear more about Labour’s missions to deliver the fastest sustained growth in the G7 and build an NHS fit for the future.
You’ll hear more on how we can smash the class ceiling and about our plans for safer streets. And you’ll hear more about how we will make the UK a clean energy superpower, for cheaper bills, more jobs and energy security.
We have changed the Labour Party. And our mission-driven government will change Britain for the better.
My test for anything a future Labour government does will be simple: does this make working people better off? Does it fix a problem, rather than walk around it?
It starts with fixing the immediate crisis left by the Tories: addressing the cost of living and putting money back in working people’s pockets. But it also means transforming our economic potential to deliver real, long-term growth.
Investment alone isn’t enough – we also need a relentless focus on modernising our economy. In Liverpool we’ll set out how we can modernise our labour market, create the jobs of the future and make work pay.
This is personal. I know the importance of respect for a day’s graft. The dignity in a day’s work. I saw the hard graft my Dad put in as a toolmaker. It’s a work ethic I took into my own career and it’s a work ethic I see in families across the country.
After 13 years of stagnating wages and low growth, the Chancellor’s attempt to own this issue last Monday barely registered. The Conservatives won’t make work pay – they’ll just make the British people pay.
Labour is a changed party. We are ready to serve the British people and this week we will speak to the British people. This week we will build belief across our nation that a mission driven, Labour government can give Britain its future back.
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