Tom
Watson, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, commenting on the 21^st
Century Fox formal notification of its bid for full control of Sky, said:

“The Government should have referred this bid to
Ofcom immediately and without equivocation.

“It is clear that Fox’s bid to take full control of
Sky will significantly increase the size of the biggest media organisation in
the UK and further concentrate power in the hands of a dominant industry
player.

“It is therefore clearly in the
public interest that the bid is referred to the regulator on media plurality
and broadcasting grounds.

“In light of the Government’s decision not to immediately
refer the bid and the effect the proposed merger is likely to have on the UK
media sector, the Culture Secretary must now ensure MPs are given an
opportunity to debate the deal before a decision is taken on whether to approve
it.”

Ends

           -CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY-

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health speaking to the Nuffield Trust today said:

“It is a pleasure to join you this morning, especially to share the platform with you Nick. When I was appointed – unexpectedly – to this role in October one of the books I reached for was my old copy of The Five Giants.  

When I listened to Simon Stevens at the Public Accounts Committee this week announcing the end of the Purchaser-Provider split it occurred to me how your magnificent biography of the welfare state Nick stands as a timely reminder of the cyclical nature of the debates in NHS policy.

It’s a daunting prospect to come to the Nuffield Trust, 6 months into a new role, most likely three years or so from a general election and to be asked to sketch out a Labour vision for the future.

Daunting, not just because of the combined expertise in this audience but also because I’m acutely aware of the awesome responsibility on my shoulders given the Labour Party’s historic association with the NHS.

Much of the debate at events such as this is about what has changed since the creation of the NHS.

How services would not be designed today in the same way as they were in 1948.

And what needs to be done to bring health and social care closer together.

All of those points are valid.

But it’s always worth reminding ourselves that the creation of a health service free at the point of use with equal access for all was genuinely visionary.

It’s a vision that has stood the test of time.

That vision remains so compelling that every major aspect of political decision making swings around it. Look at political debate in recent years. Referendums on Scottish independence, and of course Brexit, all revolved around the NHS.

The principle of a health service available to all and free at the point of use is understood and supported by the vast majority of our country.

The challenge for all of us – and particularly those of us in positions of power – is about shaping a reality which not only works within that principle but makes that principle work every day in practice.

Because whilst the principle of the NHS is clear, the practice of equal access for all isn’t.

Class and locality are all too often determinants of the type of health care people get.

The number of people per GP is not the same all over the country. Access to the best hospitals is not the same all over the country.

The number of healthy years of life you can look forward to from the age of 40 varies in different parts of our country.

And at the same time, these variations in access are widening as demand for NHS services is growing and becoming more complex.

In the past decade the number of over 65s in England has risen by a fifth and the number of 85s by a third.

The world of disease the service has to tackle has changed dramatically and now challenges every day the structure of the NHS and social care sector.

Fewer than 20 per cent of people with dementia only have dementia; fewer than 20 per cent of people with diabetes only have diabetes.

And demographic challenges will become sharper.

By 2030 the working age population will increase by only 3 per cent while the 65+ age group will grow by 33 per cent.

The IPPR have said one in three babies born in 2016 are expected to live to 100 or more. By contrast, a baby born in 1916 had only a 1 per cent chance of still being alive 100 years later.

And just as demography brings challenges, so the advances in technology and innovation bring opportunities.

Just yesterday I was privileged to visit the mechano-chemical cell biology department at Warwick Medical School.

Recently I met students at Leicester University Physics Department developing the next wave of nanoparticles to defeat cancer.

The UK has of course also long been a world-leader in the life sciences.

The first vaccine was developed here by Edward Jenner in the 18th Century, antiseptic surgical technique was pioneered here by Joseph Lister in the 19th Century, and the structure of DNA was solved here by Watson and Crick in the 20th Century.

Now in the 21st Century, we have the opportunity to build on these advances to provide better health outcomes for people in Britain, improving health system performance by using new technology effectively to support better delivery of health care, whilst also generating jobs across the UK and growing the economy.

This strength in the life sciences gives us a real opportunity to lead the world in new industries such as advanced therapy manufacturing – highly specialised production techniques that allow us to use cells and genes to treat a wide range of diseases, from cancer to dementia.

Supporting sectors like these requires a holistic approach – addressing fiscal, regulatory and skills challenges – something the last Labour government did very well, with leadership from David Sainsbury, Alan Milburn and Paul Drayson.

It also requires Government, NHS and industry to work together.

In the context of Brexit that means a tax regime that incentivises investment in R&D and manufacturing, a long-term regulatory strategy for the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority to lead in global standards, and a plan to secure and nurture the relevant skills for emerging manufacturing technologies.

So, we should stop looking at the NHS just through the silo of health policy. We should look at it as an engine of economic, social and technological growth

Understandably our point of collective focus across the sector has been the Five Year Forward View, and we all eagerly anticipate its update later this month but there are just 156 weeks left of the Forward View.

While there are a number of aspects of the Forward View Labour supports, too much of its early implementation has been bogged down in public spats between NHS England and Number 10 about spending commitments.

And given the demographic shifts I’ve referred to and the implications of fast developing technology, I would argue we need a twenty year forward view as well so we can properly plan a health system around the needs of the population, rather than the parliamentary cycle.

That means planning for the health needs of today, and of tomorrow, beyond the next five years.

Let me give an example. A person’s health during childhood can have knock on effects for everything from their education and family relationships to their long-term chances throughout their lives.

Nearly one in five children in the UK live in poverty, with children from the most deprived backgrounds experiencing much worse health compared with the most affluent.

The UK ranks 15th out of 19 Western European countries for infant mortality rates, with infant mortality more than twice as high in the lowest compared with the highest socio-economic groups.

Labour in the past decade made defeating child poverty a central driving mission. I believe it’s time to put just as much energy behind improving children’s health. Over the coming weeks I will begin to outline how Labour’s ambition for better children’s health will be a central policy priority of mine.

Let me say a word or two about the finances both now and in the future.

It’s time we had a national debate in this country about the long term financing of the NHS and social care system.

My Party under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown led that debate at the start of the century and increased National Insurance to fund record levels of investment. When it comes to the investment needs of the NHS we need to be just as ambitious again over the long term.

But with the Chancellor’s Budget just around the corner there is no doubt we need an urgent change of direction in the short term.

The NHS is going through the biggest financial squeeze in its history.

Spending per capita is set to fall in 2018/19.

Hospital deficits are at record levels.

Capital budgets are being raided year-on-year to plug the black hole in hospital budgets.

Workforce planning has been woeful resulting in 26,000 fewer nurses than we need, 3,500 fewer midwives and a 26 per cent growth in agency spending over the three years to 2016. Brexit is likely to only compound the workforce problems we face.

But of course one of the biggest drivers of problems for the NHS is the crippling cuts to social care over the past seven years. You simply cannot take £4.6 billion from social care provision and not expect it to impact the frontline. Delayed transfers of care are up 68 per cent on 2010.

Patients are waiting longer to be seen in A&E. And waiting lists are growing as hospitals struggle to move patients through the system

This government must act in the budget next week. There is general consensus that social care now requires an immediate £2bn funding boost – as outlined by the Nuffield Trust in the Autumn and reinforced by the Health Foundation today.

This is a crisis that cannot be ignored any longer. That is why I am calling on the Government to act in next week’s Budget.

At the very least the Government must bring forward this £2 billion of funding so that social care providers can increase capacity and take some of the pressure off hospitals.

But while I totally accept and understand the collective lobbying for social care we must not lose sight of the wider problems across the NHS too.

Too many hospitals are operating at unacceptable capacity levels.

Almost every week a new warning about the front line.
Some say it’s a ‘humanitarian crisis’ others say the NHS is on a ‘burning platform.’ Sir Robert Francis says there’s an ‘existential crisis’ that could make another mid-Staffs “inevitable”.

Ministers may not like the rhetoric of these statements. But they can’t carry on ignoring the realities.

Trolley waits rose 58 per cent last year, and 2.5 million people waited over 4 hours in A&E.

The 4 hour target hasn’t been met since July 2015.

The 62 day cancer target hasn’t been met since December 2015.

3.7 million people are now on the waiting list for treatments.

Figures this morning show Trusts continuing to declare OPEL 3 and 4 alerts.

And yet, it is said the Prime Minister simply dismisses calls for NHS funding by letting it be known she cut policing budgets by 25 per cent. Offensive and crass.

Let’s be clear – she can’t accuse the NHS of “crying wolf” over a funding squeeze that has driven a dramatic decline in the standard of services.

The Prime Minister might have no sympathy for the NHS but she would be negligent in her responsibilities to the public if in the Budget next week she doesn’t also bring forward urgent plans to give the NHS the funding it needs.

Indeed every year the Prime Minister puts off this decision and cuts back on investment in the health service, the gap in the service becomes wider, the population becomes sicker, and the sacrifices which she will ask of patients and taxpayers in the long term become more severe.

I believe the NHS needs the sort of investment necessary to stabilize and then rebuild health care around the changing demands of the population.

That means a shift to community services and care closer to home; an NHS centred around public health interventions; and a renewed focus on child health to protect the health of our country in ten, twenty, thirty years down the line.

But this transformation is impossible while the Government push the funding so tight that every penny is needed just to keep the service running.

If STPs are about greater collaboration, a more strategic hand regionally in the delivery of services, genuine planning, moving away from unnecessary market forces – then that is a principle Labour supports.

If the funding crisis means the process becomes about filling financial gaps rather than transformation in the interests of patients we won’t support them.

That means Labour will look carefully at each STP plan and judge them on their merits.

When they are working for patients, we will say so. When they are working against patients, we will say so too.

Many of my remarks today have focused on the difficulties facing the NHS.

It’s my job as shadow health secretary to say when and where I think the government is going wrong.

But it is also my job to set out what an alternative policy agenda looks like.

I want to work with you over the weeks and months to come to shape a Labour vision of health care which prepares our nation for the decades to come.

Labour will give the NHS every support that it needs.

A long term funding settlement, which supports staff and patients. Services designed with quality and safety at the forefront.

Access to technology and innovation so that the NHS can benefit from the frontiers of science and medical research,

And above all Labour will focus on a forward facing, preventative health strategy which aims to keep our whole population well, not just five or ten years in the future but 30, 40 or 50 years too.

A health service which cares better for the young and cares more effectively for the old.

There are huge challenges ahead but I’m confident we can face them.”

Debbie Abrahams MP,
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commented on the Resolution Foundation’s
analysis of zero hours contracts saying;

“This analysis showing
nearly one million workers on zero hours contracts confirms unprecedented
levels of insecurity among working people.

“With real wages set to
be lower in 2021 than they were in 2008, deep Tory cuts to Universal Credit and
a punitive sanctions regime, it is increasingly difficult for families to make
ends meet.

“The next Labour
government will implement a real Living Wage, ban exploitative zero hours
contracts and reverse pernicious cuts to working people.”

Ends

Angela
Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on
reports that the Government is set to accept Labour amendments on the Children
and Social Work Bill, said:

“With the
Bill back in the Commons next Tuesday, the Government must urgently clarify its
position. If ministers are giving in to Labour’s demands to abandon this
dangerous proposal and accept our amendments, then that is good news for
vulnerable children across the country.

“We need to
learn the lessons from the terrible tragedies of the past. The protections that
were recommended after the appalling cases of Victoria Climbie and Baby P need
to be enforced, not weakened. There is nothing ‘innovative’ about allowing
councils to ‘opt out’ of such basic requirements.

“These
proposals should never have been made in the first place, and we will fight
until they are removed.”  

John
McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, speaking at the South Bank Centre ahead
of next week’s Budget, said:

 ***CHECK
AGAINST DELIVERY***

Next
week, the Chancellor will stand up in Parliament to deliver his first – and
last – spring Budget.

He
will no doubt want to paint a rosy picture of progress since the Autumn
Statement, just a few months ago.

But
if progress has been so significant, and all is going so well – why is the
government continuing to pursue spending cuts?

From
the NHS to social care, from prisons to education, our public services are in
crisis.

Brexit
will present challenges to this whole country.

Labour
is prepared to meet them.

Yet
instead of rising to the challenge I fear the approach from this government on
the economy is to continue the failures of the past.

Look
behind the headline figures and the real story is apparent.

The
essential facts on our economy remain as follows.

Low
investment over many decades has led to a low productivity, low wage economy.

Insecure
and poorly-paid work dominates new job creation.

That,
in turn, means that the tax base needed to secure our public services is less
stable.

Deliberate
decisions by this government to privilege tax giveaways to the super-rich and
giant corporations have further undermined the tax base.

The
model is not sustainable.

The
failure at a national level is palpable.

The
Conservatives will soon have added three quarters of a trillion pounds to the
national debt since they arrived in office.

At
the same time, they will have imposed the first spending cuts on schools for
forty years.

An
NHS in a state of profound crisis.

Those
who work in and manage our public services have done their best under the
austerity onslaught.

Local
authorities in particular have had to cope with the most extraordinarily sharp
funding cuts.

They
will not sustain a further round of spending cuts.

So
when the Treasury casually announces that it is looking for a further 6% of
funding cuts to some government departments, as they did this week, it is an
act of gross irresponsibility.

And
the comments today from the head of the Care Quality Commission that the NHS
“stands on a burning platform” have driven home the scale of the crisis.

Cuts
to social care, amounting to £4.5bn since 2010, have brought the system to the
brink of collapse.

Over
1m vulnerable elderly people, including many who are very frail, now lack
access to the care they need.

This
is one of the richest countries in the world, and yet Tory austerity has
brought our public services to the brink.

Social
care has a £1.9bn deficit in funding for this year.

This
needs to be filled immediately to stabilise the system.

Based
on estimates by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the
NHS and social care face a funding gap of between £8.5 and £15bn by 2020.

Published
figures indicate that tax receipts are currently higher than anticipated.

Given
that we’re facing an immediate crisis in the NHS and social care, I’m calling
on the Chancellor to use that money to address this NHS and social care
emergency.

Any
measure less than this is likely to be inadequate.

It
is not just those who rely on our public services who have suffered under this
government.

 

The
slump in living standards overseen by this Tory government is the worst this
country has experienced since the Industrial Revolution.

The
Chancellor may try and boast about rising GDP.

But
that hasn’t turned into real improvements in people’s lives.

The
reality of our economy is that average real hourly pay remains over 10% below
its level before the crash.

And
that cuts to public services have now placed them, as the independent Institute
for Government has said, close to outright collapse.

The
record on living standards is the worst of any leading economy.

Only
Greece has seen a bigger fall in real pay.

Britain
has the distinction of being the only large developed economy in which wages
fell even as economic growth returned after the crash.

And
now rising inflation as the government mishandles Brexit is devaluing people’s
wages further.

Yet
the government has reneged on its promised National Living Wage level, and is
continuing to pursue cuts in in-work benefits.

Analysis
out this morning by the Institute of Fiscal Studies shows that low-income
working families with children will suffer most.

The
average household will be £5,000 worse off by the end of this Parliament than
they might have expected.

If
the economy is growing, the benefits must be shared fairly.

The
Chancellor must reverse the £70bn giveaway to the super-rich and giant
corporations between now and 2021.

And
the cruel £3.7bn cut to Personal Independence Payment for disabled people must
be halted.

Labour
will bring in a £10 an hour Real Living Wage to make sure work always pays
fairly.

Our
public services, from education to local councils to prison services and social
care are in deepening crisis and the burden is falling disproportionately on
women.

It
is women who are bearing the brunt of low pay, cuts to in-work benefits, and
the public sector pay cap.

Put
together, this government has created a toxic mix.

Independent
estimates by the Women’s Budget Group suggest that 86% of cuts in public spending
since 2010 have fallen on women.

The
Chancellor must take action in the Budget next week to fund our public services
and end this discrimination.

In
the place of austerity, Labour want a Budget that
works for women, that invests in jobs for women, funds the services that women
depend on and advances women’s equality and economic independence.

It
is the National Health Service and our social care services that tell us the
most about this government’s failures.

It
is essential that the government uses this Budget to give the NHS and social
care the funding they urgently need.

The
present Conservative government has been condemned for its fast-and-loose
approach to NHS spending.

The
Chief Executive of NHS England has dismissed government claims that current
funding is adequate – let alone more than was asked for.

The
Public Accounts Committee has rebuked this government for raiding the NHS
capital budget to meet NHS spending.

The
Health Select Committee has dismissed the government’s claims on increased
funding.

The
reality is that this government has consistently failed to provide the funding
that the NHS needs, and that it will continue to need into the future.

Yet
the rhetoric from the Prime Minister downwards has suggested anything but.

There
is an air of unreality about her claims that more and more patients are being
seen by more and more doctors.

The
experience on the ground of patients, doctors, and nurses is of a treasured
institution already drifting into the greatest crisis in its history.

The
reality is that the Tories are imposing a real-terms cut per head in healthcare
spending.

Current
plans from the government do not come anywhere close to addressing the scale of
the crisis.

It
is essential that they now bring forward plans to close the funding gap if we
do not want to lose our NHS.

Labour
will never break from the fundamental principle that our National Health
Service should be free at the point of use.

And
we will reverse Tory privatisation, by renationalising the NHS.

It
will require bolder steps to secure NHS funding where demand pressures are
rising, confidence in government is low, but retaining the NHS’ historic
mission of healthcare, free at the point of delivery is a national priority.

Public
trust and confidence must be restored.

Not
only in the government of the day.

But
in governments for the rest of this century and beyond.

Recent
discussions around the long-term future of the NHS have helped clarify some
important issues.

I
want to lay out some of the framework on how Labour will be looking to develop
its thinking in the future.

 

The
financing of the NHS has become excessively politicised to the point where even
supposedly official figures are subject to dispute.

There
needs to be an independent adjudication of both needs, and actual provision, to
restore public trust and confidence.

The
Office for Budget Responsibility has already taken steps to assess the levels
of funding needed for the NHS in the longer term.

I
have written to Robert Chote to ask about the ability of the OBR to continue to
provide these assessments, as part of its overall brief to monitor the
government’s fiscal position.

To
change the OBR’s responsibilities and bring in permanent oversight on
healthcare funding would require primary legislation from government.

Fair
and objective assessments of long-term need are required, along with close
monitoring of actual spend being made.

That’s
a bigger task than Ministers can provide.

We
need a political neutral body, modelled on the Office for Budget
Responsibility, that can remove the question of long-term funding from the
political squabbling.

Only
in this way can public confidence in the figures be restored – and essential
spending correctly made.

 

Second,
we have to place funding for the NHS on a longer-term basis.

As
Lord Macpherson and others have suggested, placing the NHS on a stable
five-year financing basis means that certainty of funding can be assured.

But
we need to do more than tie funding down for the length of a Parliament and
look to ten-year budgets.

The
pressures that we know of today will continue to build up over decades.

We
need NHS budgets that can assure funding on those timescales.

Third,
we must show those expected to pay for the NHS that their tax money is
well-spent.

The
simple truth is that after the financial crash and years of failed austerity,
governments are not trusted.

Creative
accounting and stealth taxes have helped chew away public trust in the system.

The
fact that the wealthy can seemingly dodge their taxes at will has further
undermined public confidence in the tax system.

And
politicians, thinking only about the electoral cycle, have too many incentives
to game the system.

People
need to know that the contribution they make will be spent properly.

Hypothecation,
allocating taxes raised to specific purposes, can make absolutely clear where
tax money is being spent.

It
can help restore the trust and confidence in taxation and government spending
that has otherwise started to break down.

But
hypothecation for the NHS has to be more than a commitment from a politician or
a political party to spend a given amount, however firm that promise.

It
needs a clear commitment, over the long term, that specific taxes will be used
for specific purposes, and that this spending will be properly monitored.

The
government’s rhetoric on the economy has changed profoundly over the last year.

They’re
catching up with some of positions we’ve staked out.

The
Chancellor claims he now accepts the need for government to invest, rather than
to slash investment.

He
just won’t deliver properly on it.

And
the Prime Minister has offered fine words about the “good that government can
do”.

And
yet her government actively pursues NHS spending cuts that have contributed to
30,000 excess deaths in a year.

These
are not my figures, but those of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The
disconnect between what Ministers say, and what they do, has reached dramatic
proportions.

The
reason for the disconnect is clear.

The
Tory Party know that after years of austerity and sliding living standards, the
sentiment against political elites out there in the country is palpable.

That
mood was a critical factor in driving the vote to Leave the European Union last
year.

This
government have sensed the mood and adapted to circumstances.

They’ve
borrowed the rhetoric of protest and now pose as champions of the workers.

Only
five months ago, the Prime Minister and her Chancellor were giving the
impression that austerity was coming to an end.

But
much of the austerity is yet to come.

In
the end, the Tory leadership are the elite.

So
they can make all the grand promises they wish.

But
they can’t deliver the transformation our economy now needs.

They
don’t have the political will to do it.

Labour
has already begun to lay out its alternative.

We
want a break with the past – not a continuation of its mistakes.

 

So
the fundamental task of any reforming government in the future will be to
rebuild and reconstruct our economy.

Our
Fiscal Credibility Rule and commitment to invest means the next Labour
government will break with the failures of the past.

We
will bring down the deficit whilst committing real government resources to
increase investment.

By
the end of the next Labour government, the national debt, relative to trend
GDP, will be lower than what we will inherit.

We’ll
reverse years of underinvestment across the whole country.

Not
just in the few existing centres for growth and prosperity.

But
delivering the funding needed so that our smaller towns and communities can
share in the prosperity.

The
great divide between London and the rest has to be overcome.

We’ll
introduce legislation to correct the bias in investment funding for the
regions.

We’ll
commit the funding needed for specific infrastructure investments, like the
£10bn Crossrail for the North or new tidal lagoons.

Labour
is committed to delivering one million new houses, and building a new
generation of council housing.

And
we need a government prepared to give back control to our localities.

So
alongside the National Investment Bank, the next Labour government will create
a network of regional development banks that will supply the funding needed on
the ground for local businesses to flourish.

We
can allow workers and those wishing to set up and run their own businesses the
opportunity to take control back away from the boardrooms where short-term
decision-making has dominated.

The
railways will be renationalised by Labour.

But
we’ll also introduce a “Right to Own” for workers, giving them first refusal on
taking control of companies undergoing a change of ownership.

And
we’ll use the regional development banks to support a new generation of
co-operative businesses, at least doubling the size of our co-operative sector.

Small
and new businesses will be properly supported with reforms to business rates,
financing from the regional development banks, and support for business hubs in
every major town and city, allowing new businesses to work together and
collaborate.

We’ll
support investment by manufacturing firms by removing plant and machinery from
business rates.

And
we’ll reform corporate governance laws to block raiders trashing profitable
companies and bankrupting pension funds.

We
want our large corporations to work for the public good – not against it.

So
we’ll also introduce a fair pay ratio to stop top bosses paying themselves
excessively.

But
to reverse the slide in living standards, we’ll need to do more.

Labour’s
Real Living Wage will be a £10/hour minimum, meaning work will always pay
properly.

The
public sector pay cap will be lifted.

We’ll
repeal the Trade Union Act.

And
we’ve fought to defend the rights of EU migrants here, who contribute so much
to our public services and our economy.

The
Lords have passed Labour’s amendment and we urge the government to immediately
bring forward a guarantee to protect the rights of all EU nationals resident
here.

We’ll
be working with our European colleagues to protect the rights of EU citizens
here and UK citizens in the EU.

And
of course we’ll halt the austerity cuts to in-work benefits and payments to
people with disabilities.

We
need a clear plan for government to intervene on a major scale, supporting
essential industries, fostering new sectors and above all creating decent,
secure jobs across the whole country.

We’ll
use the power of government procurement, backed up by the National Investment
Bank, to deliver a massive expansion of industries like renewables where the
global potential is enormous and our natural resources so significant.

The
next Labour government will break the cartel of the Big 6 energy suppliers,
creating the conditions for local, decentralised, low-carbon energy by
supporting local authorities and co-operatives.

We’ll
target 3% of GDP spent on scientific research, from all sources, to deliver on
the huge potential of our scientific research base.

From
a laggard in research spending, we’ll move to being a leader.

We
can’t run first rate public services on a second or third rate economy.

But
we can’t pay for first rate public services unless the tax system works fairly
and effectively.

There’ll
be no place to hide for tax avoiders under Labour.

Our
Tax Transparency and Enforcement Programme will clamp down on the worst
avoiders.

And
building on the successful Nordic model, we’ll introduce legislation to make
public the tax returns of those earning over £1m.

Transparency
and fairness is at the heart of building a decent, open society.

This
will help restore public trust in the tax system – and help clamp down on any
avoidance.

This
programme of structural reform should all be taken as fundamental.

This
is, in outline so far, the economic programme of the next Labour government.

It
represents nothing less than the transformation of this country.

We
don’t have to settle for the steady management of decline under the Tories.

And
we don’t have to accept the failings of an elite that have lead us into a
decade of falling living standards, insecurity, and failing public services.

There
is an enormous potential here, in every part of the country.

We
can build a radically fairer, more democratic, and more prosperous society.

We
can, together, turn this whole country round.