Starmer refers to his father again. (See 12.20pm.)
That is what this party is for. That’s the object of the exercise and as the leader of this party I will always have that eye-on-the-object look. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-object look.
Starmer says Labour can win next time.
So, let’s get totally serious about this – we can win the next election.
This government can’t keep the fuel flowing, it can’t keep the shelves stocked and you’ve seen what happens when Boris Johnson wants more money – he goes straight for the wallets of working people.
Labour is the party that is on the side of working people.
So imagine waking up the morning after the next election in the knowledge that you could start to write the next chapter in our nation’s history, bending it towards the values that bring us, year after year to this conference hall to seek a better way.
Proud in the knowledge that you were part of it.
I have loved my first full conference as leader but I don’t want to go through the same routine every year.
In a few short years from now I want to be here with you talking about the difference we are making, the problems we are fixing as a Labour government.
Starmer is close to winding up, and he turns back to the question of the election.
I can see the ways in which we can remake this nation and that’s what we get to do when we win.
Yet, in a way the more we expose the inadequacy of this government the more it presses the question back on us. If they are so bad, what does it say about us? Because after all in 2019 we lost to them, and we lost badly. I know that hurts each and every one of you.
So, let’s get totally serious about this – we can win the next election.
Starmer praises the armed forces.
Let me say a word too about another band of great British men and women.
Our military put themselves in harm’s way to protect our security. I am proud of them and proud of the work they did for us in Afghanistan.
It grieves me to see Britain isolated and irrelevant. Labour is the party of Nato, the party of international alliances.
Under Labour we will rebuild our alliances, we will mend broken relationships and we will do right by the great Britons who serve in our armed forces.
Starmer attacks the Conservatives for their record on culture wars.
I know Gordon [Brown] believes that if you look past the Tories’ pathetic attempts to divide us in a culture war you can glimpse a tolerant, progressive nation of which we can be proud.
I believe that our diversity is one of the things that makes this country great.
As this country continues to change, as we slowly liberate the talents of more people, as we name and tackle discrimination, as we make a better place for people with disabilities I believe we grow as a country.
When the government ignored Marcus Rashford’s campaign on school meals I was shocked.
But I couldn’t believe it when Rashford and the England team took the knee to highlight and condemn the racism they have had to endure, the home secretary encouraged people to boo.
Well, here in this conference hall we are patriots. When we discuss the fine young men and women who represent all our nations we don’t boo. We get to our feet and cheer.
Starmer says Gordon Brown is leading a commission on the future of the union.
As Gordon Brown said recently: “When a Welsh or a Scottish woman gives blood … she doesn’t demand an assurance it must not go to an English patient.”
I am delighted that Gordon will lead our commission to settle the future of the union.
Starmer praises Mark Drakeford’s record as first minister in Wales, and he turns to the importance of the union.
I believe in the union of the nations on these islands but we have a cavalier government that is placing it in peril.
Scotland is in the unfortunate position of having two bad governments – the Tories at Westminster and the SNP at Holyrood.
When Nicola Sturgeon took office she said she wanted to be judged on her record. These days, with the poorest in society less well-educated and less healthy, and the tragedy of so many drug-related deaths, we hear rather less about the SNP’s record.
The SNP and the Tories walk in lock step. They both exploit the constitutional divide for their own ends.
Labour is the party that wants to bring our nations together.
Starmer turns to levelling up.
After a decade of Tory government, how we need that change. Under the Tories, wages have fallen in every English region.
Local government has been cut to the bone, more than half a million more children live in poverty and so do half a million more pensioners. For the first time in decades, life expectancy has stalled.
And, after all that, the Tories expect us to believe that levelling up is more than a slogan. Well, let me offer the Conservative party a lesson in levelling up.
If they want to know how to do it, I suggest they take a look at our record the last time we were in government – hospital waits down, GCSE results up, 44,000 more doctors, 89,000 new nurses, child poverty down 1 million, pensioner poverty down 1 million, rough sleepers down 75%, a national minimum wage, and the OECD said that no nation had a bigger rise in social mobility than Britain.
You want levelling up? That’s levelling up.
This gets loud cheering.
Starmer says Labour is committed to a green new deal.
This urgency is why Labour will bring forward a green new deal. Our green new deal will include a climate investment pledge to put us back on track to cut the substantial majority of emissions this decade.
If we are serious about climate change we will need to upgrade our homes. The Tories inherited plans from Labour to make every new home zero-carbon.
They scrapped them and now we have a crisis in energy prices emissions from homes have increased and we have the least energy-efficient housing in Europe.
So it will be Labour’s national mission over the next decade to fit out every home that needs it, to make sure it is warm, well-insulated and costs less to heat and we will create thousands of jobs in the process.
The reference to a green new deal gets a loud cheer. Labour activists passed a motion on a green new deal at conference that in some respects served as a proxy for the 2019 manifesto, which is partly why it was backed by groups like Momentum. It included the repeal of anti trade union laws and nationalising energy companies. Starmer’s version of a green new deal may turn out to be not quite as bold.
Starmer is now talking about the transition to a green economy.
Every time I enter a high-tech factory, I wonder what my dad would make of it.
Not so long ago we shaped metal by drilling it, milling it and turning it. I remember my dad working with a spark eroder submerging metal in liquid and using an electrical charge to shape it.
We thought it was revolutionary at the time.
But at Airbus recently, where they are developing the world’s first hydrogen wing I saw them working with 3D engineering, literally shaping components by bringing together particles and matter in a way unimaginable in the factory my dad used to work in.
I saw young apprentices, in a fully unionised factory proud of the skilled work they were doing. Their pride came from knowing they were at the heart of a revolution, building the next generation of hydrogen and battery planes.
They felt like the pioneers of flight, perched on the edge of the cliff taking the risk, knowing that success for one of them would change the world.
But the UK should not be importing wind turbines, he says.
In Scotland, I saw the great potential of wind power at Whitelee Windfarm. Yet, of the 250 wind turbines at Whitelee, not one was made in Britain.
From their manufacturing base in Fife the workforce can see the turbines literally being towed in from places such as Indonesia.
The next generation of deep-sea wind turbines could be our opportunity. Skilled engineering, offshore work, sectors where we could lead the world, if only we had a government willing to lead.
Starmer stresses his commitment to spending money carefully.
I take the responsibility of spending your money very seriously.
That’s why our approach to taxation will be governed by three principles.
The greater part of the burden should not fall on working people.
The balance between smaller and larger businesses should be fair.
And we will chase down every penny to ensure that people working people, paying their taxes always get value for money.
Starmer says the UK needs a plan to make Brexit work.
A botched Brexit followed by Covid has left a big hole.
The government is learning that it is not enough to Get Brexit Done.
You need a plan to Make Brexit Work.
I do see a way forward after Brexit if we invest in our people and our places, if we deploy our technology cleverly and if we build the affordable homes we so desperately need.
Source: Guardian
