Emily
Thornberry MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

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Chair, Conference – It’s a pleasure to be back here in Brighton
and Hove.

A city which we can say – once again – has no Tory MPs. And it’s a
pleasure to be taking part in a debate where our delegates have such a strong
voice,

And we should all thank Kate Osamor and Nia Griffith who have
allowed me to speak on their behalf today so our delegates could have more
time. And let me say as well – it’s an honour to be on this stage with our
leader, my friend, this country’s next Prime Minister – Jeremy Corbyn.

You know, some people might remember a certain viral video from
election night of a bit of high-fiving gone wrong. But that’s not how I’ll
remember that evening. I’ll just remember seeing a friend of mine who had
defied all the pundits, all the doubters

and all the expectations. Someone who had proved during the
election, who has proved throughout his leadership, who has proved all his
life, that nothing is stronger, nothing on earth than a person of principle.

And it is that strength and those principles, those unshakeable
values that are going to take Jeremy into Downing Street and put Labour back
into power. After all, it was on this very stage two years ago that Jeremy
declared his mission:

“To put Labour values – the people’s values – back – into –
politics.”

And he has achieved that. But thanks to Jeremy’s inspirational
leadership, thanks to the brilliant efforts of everyone in this room, we can
now set our sights even higher.

It is time to put Labour values, the people’s values back into
Government.

Because if June’s election taught us one thing, it’s that if we
stand behind Jeremy’s principled leadership, if we stand united as a Party, and
if we stand on a radical manifesto, there is absolutely no seat that we can’t
win.  And no Tory that we can’t bin.

So next time, we’ve got to take the fight into their backyard.
Let’s go round the coast to Hastings. And end the ambitions of Amber Rudd.
Let’s go to Chingford. And send Iain Duncan Smith to the Job Centre. Then let’s
go to Uxbridge. And make sure Boris Johnson never, ever gets into No.10.

But Conference, please let’s just take a second to sympathise with
poor old Boris. Oh come on, just a second. He’s not been happy lately.
Apparently he’s sick of being blamed for the way Brexit is going and all the broken
promises of the Leave campaign.

 

I’m sorry, Conference? I’m sorry? Who does he think made all those
promises? Who does he think was in charge  of the Leave Campaign?

I know Boris doesn’t like paternity tests, but we might need one
for Brexit. We need to get him in a studio with Jeremy Kyle.

“Yes, I’m sorry, Mr Johnson…

“We’ve got the results back…

“It looks like this one is yours…

“It must have been that wild night out you had with Michael Gove.

“I’ve calculated your maintenance payments…

“That’ll be 350 million a week.”

But Conference, what a contrast. Here on this stage, you’ve got
Labour’s Brexit team – myself, Keir and Barry working every day in harness with
Jeremy, John and Diane. All pulling in the same direction.  All focused on
the same three priorities. The three priorities we’ve had since Day One after
the Referendum – Jobs, Jobs and Jobs.

While next week in Manchester, we’re going to see six Tory rats,
fighting in a sack, not worried about protecting the jobs of the British
people. Just every one of them looking out for their own.

Last Friday, Theresa May said we need to be “creative and
imaginative” to get a good outcome from Brexit. Well I’ve got a creative idea
for her step aside, end your shambles of a Government, and let the grown-ups on
this stage take charge.

And talking of grown-ups I’m proud to be here representing our
great Shadow Foreign Office team: Liz McInnes; Fabian Hamilton; Khalid Mahmood;
Helen Goodman and Ray Collins. And I’m proud as well to be speaking on behalf
of my friends, Kate Osamor and Nia Griffith. Kate, our Shadow Secretary of
State For International Development, facing a world in now constant
humanitarian crisis,

not least as a result of climate change.

As Kate would say, in that world, we’ve got a decision to make.
Either tackle head on the root causes of these crises or spend more and more
every year dealing with the consequences.  And, under a Labour government.
That is a decision we will not duck.

And Nia, our Shadow Defence Secretary, who has shown that Britain
under Labour

will be a strong leader within NATO, committed to spend 2 per cent
of our national income on defence. And committed to ensure that those who put
their lives on the line for this country the real-terms pay rises and the
decent living conditions that their service and their sacrifice deserves.

In dark, dangerous times for our world Britain must be equally
strong and equally committed to defence, development and diplomacy. That is
what we offer on this stage. And that is what Labour in government will
guarantee. 

But Conference, make no mistake. These are indeed dark and
dangerous times for the world. And too many times, the problems we face come
down to people abusing their power and ignoring the rules and values that
should govern our world.

From Venezuela to The Philippines we see the rule of law ignored
and originally democratic governments turning into increasingly autocratic
regimes. From Myanmar to Yemen we see human rights ignored and flagrant attacks
against ordinary civilians qll too often using British-made weapons.

From Kashmir to Israel and Palestine we see efforts at diplomacy
ignored and actions taken on both sides which will make peace harder to
achieve.

From Syria to Sudan, we see the Geneva Conventions ignored and
despots committing war crimes with total freedom and impunity. 

All across Europe we see the basic rules of humanity and the basic
lessons of history ignored as cowardly terrorists stalk our city streets and
vicious extremist parties rise in the polls.

And of course, in North Korea  we see the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty ignored with all the terrifying consequences the world
is now facing today.

Taken altogether what we are seeing today is the biggest challenge
to the world order since the 1930s and the collapse of the League of
Nations.  And if you believe as I do in what Jeremy has called…“A world
based on rules and laws” then this is the time, more than ever, when we need
our leaders to stand up for that world order. To stand up for human rights and
international treaties. And to insist on working through the United Nations for
peace.

But instead, Conference we now have a President of the United
States who believes that none of these rules and laws apply to him.

– Imposing a travel ban on Muslims;

– Equivocating over illegal settlements;

– Reneging on the Paris climate treaty;

– Imperilling the nuclear deal with Iran;

– And threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea. A country of
20 million men and women. And 5 million children.

This is not what we need from the leader of the free world.

To be honest, Conference it’s more like what we would expect from
a rogue dictator. And what makes it even worse is to see this Tory government
and this Tory Prime Minister pathetically going along with it all walking
hand-in-hand with Trump at the White House, supine, sycophantic and spineless.

And why? All in the vain hope that Trump will ride to the rescue
after Brexit with some fantasy free trade deal. Because, for this Tory
government that’s what their foreign policy has come down to no values or
ethics, no rules or principles just a simple case of what works best for the
bottom line. How else do they explain why – last week – Theresa May was in New
York, finally announcing the suspension of cooperation with the military in
Myanmar because of their actions in Rakhine.

While on the very same day, Michael Fallon was in Jeddah, signing
a deal to increase our cooperation with the military in Saudi Arabia wantonly
ignoring their actions in Yemen. It is rank hypocrisy. But it also illustrates
a basic fact that the world we want to see – a world governed by ethics and
values, a world based on rules and laws will never truly exist as long as
governments and world leaders get to decide for themselves when it suits them
to play by the rules and when the rules can be safely ignored.

The world we want will never exist when governments like Theresa
May’s think it’s perfectly OK to loudly condemn those they regard as enemies
but then fall utterly silent when it is their friends in Bahrain rounding up,
torturing and executing civilian protestors or their friends in Saudi Arabia
dropping cluster bombs on innocent children in Yemen.

In fact, if they were just silent that would be an improvement.
Instead, we have to listen to Michael Fallon saying that the thousands of
children killed and injured by air strikes in Yemen are just a consequence of
Saudi Arabia “defending itself”…

…“Defending itself”.

But Conference, it does not have to be this way. Labour can and
will do things differently when we are back in power.

And there is one concrete step we can commit to today.

For too long successive governments in this country have taken
decisions on granting arms export licences behind closed doors and shrouded in
secrecy.

Just two months ago we had the ludicrous situation where the
campaigners trying to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen had
their Judicial Review rejected on the basis of government evidence presented in
closed court a secret court so they were not even allowed to hear the evidence
let alone challenge it.

The fact is that arms export decisions made by Tory Ministers are
entirely subjective assessments taken without proper Parliamentary scrutiny
without listening to independent, expert advice, but listening far too much to
lobbyists for the arms trade and repressive foreign regimes.  A process
that leads to nonsensical double-standards, where the Government can decide too
late that selling arms to Myanmar is wrong but immediately increase its sales
to Saudi. It is an arms control regime that was already outdated. but which the
Tories have systematically abused, undermined and left fatally discredited.

And as the four shadow ministers responsible, Barry, Nia, Kate and
I have agreed that it must change. So just as the new Labour Governments
elected in 1997 and 2001 Immediately reformed the way decisions were made on
monetary policy and competition policy, the next Labour Government will
immediately reform the way decisions are made on the export of arms.

A wholesale reform of the legal and regulatory framework fully
implementing the International Arms Trade Treaty with clear rules, tests and
criteria for decision-making, based on independent, expert advice and the
objective assessment of evidence. A new system, that will prevent the misuse or
abuse of licences and adhere to the principles of transparency, true
Parliamentary accountability and freedom from undue influence.

Because Conference, it is not enough for us just to be better than
the Tories, we must set an entirely new standard for Britain and a shining example
to the world.

And if that sounds like setting our ambitions high, well you’re
damn right it is and we should not apologise for that.

You know, I heard Chuka say yesterday:

“Overpromising and under-delivering…

“…Is one of the reasons…

“…there was such fury with the Blair government.”

And when it comes to foreign policy, I totally agree with that
statement. But the way we avoid that mistake next time round isn’t to water
down the promises we make, it’s to keep the promises we make and make sure we deliver
them.

We will be a Government that will never put the interest of the
rich and powerful above human Rights, The Rule of Law, and the lives of
innocent children in Yemen…

A Government that will never put our principles up for auction.

And if we are going to be the kind of government we could be, we
do not just need what Robin Cook called for, twenty years ago, when he set out
his Mission Statement for the Foreign Office.

We do not just need an “ethical dimension” to our foreign policy,
we need to go much further than that.

We need what Martin Luther King called for 50 years ago, when he
set out his case against the Vietnam War.

– We need “a revolution of values”.

– “A genuine revolution of values”.

– “A radical revolution of values”.

Because if our mission back when Jeremy was elected, was to put
Labour values back into politics and our mission today is to put those values
back into Government, then our mission for the years to come must be equally
ambitious and equally radical. It must be to put Labour values at the heart of
the world order, to be a beacon in every corner of the globe for the values we
believe in here at home.

We have the leader in Jeremy to do it. We have the team on this
stage to do it. We have the members in this hall, and all across the country,
who will hold us to it.

So let us make that our mission. And this time – this time – let
us make it our record.

Keir Starmer MP,  Shadow
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

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Thank you conference.  Thank you to everyone who has taken part this
morning. Thank you also to Labour’s fantastic Shadow Brexit team: Jenny
Chapman; Paul Blomfield; Matt Pennycook; Dianne Hayter; Karin Smyth; Emma
Hardy; and Jess Morden. ardBelieve you me, they could all have chosen easier
jobs in the last year.

What a year it has been. Article 50
triggered. A snap election. It was meant to be a coronation, but it left us
with a broken Government. Too weak to govern. Too divided to negotiate Brexit. Constructive
ambiguity is now official government policy.

It would be funny, if it wasn’t so
tragic.

Britain’s
place in the world is at stake. People’s jobs are at stake. People’s mortgages
are at stake. People’s futures are at stake. And who are the authors of this
Tory tragedy? 

First,
David Cameron, who gambled his country, because he couldn’t hold his party
together. Then, Boris Johnson, standing in front of his red bus, with a lie on
the side – a false promise of £350m a week for the NHS. Ruthless about his own
ambitions, but reckless about our country.

Now
Theresa May, robotically marching towards an extreme Brexit – focussed on her
own survival not the national interest.
Maybe the Tories can afford this disastrous approach to Brexit. Maybe
the Tories would benefit from a Brexit of deregulation, where rights are put at
risk.

But
you know, and I know, that millions of working people cannot. Whether
you’re in the front seat with Theresa May, or in the backseat with Boris
Johnson, there’s nothing patriotic about joy-riding our country’s economy off a
cliff.

This
has to stop. It’s time for a different approach. So let me share with you
Labour’s approach. An approach that is both democratically legitimate and
economically sensible. That respects the referendum result and puts jobs
and the economy first. An
approach rooted in our core values.  Values that bind us together. Labour
values.

Values of
internationalism: we have always been an internationalist party; reaching out
to Europe and the rest of the world rather than turning inwards.  Values of co-operation, solidarity, and a
simple belief that we achieve more together than we do alone. An unflinching commitment to human rights, the rule of law, rights at
work and the protection of our environment. Fairness,
equality and social justice in our economy and in our society.

As we exit the EU, we should not abandon these values. On the
contrary, these values should drive everything we do in these uncertain times. That is why, over
the summer, Labour reached an agreed position that transitional arrangements on
the same basic terms that we currently have with the EU are in the national
interest. For Labour that means that during the transitional phase, we would
remain in a customs union with the EU and within the Single Market.

The
Government on the other hand spent their summer squabbling in public. So
dysfunctional had it all become, that the Prime Minister had to fly to Florence
on Friday, only to accept Labour’s position on transitional arrangements. Let’s
see if that survives contact with Tory party conference.

But
let’s not be fooled by what the Prime Minister said in Florence. All she has
done is to delay the cliff edge. All her ideological red-lines remain. She
still prioritises arbitrary immigration targets over jobs and the economy.  She has no answer to fundamental questions in
Northern Ireland. And she still insists – in spite of all the warnings – that
no deal is a viable option.

The
Labour Party rejects that approach. If we were in Government, we would build a
new progressive partnership with the EU. We would negotiate a final deal that
ensured continued co-operation and collaboration with our EU partners in all
fields. And a final deal, that retained the benefits of the Customs Union and
the Single Market. Options for achieving this should not be swept off the
table.

Subject,
of course to negotiations, remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is
a possible end destination for Labour.

We
are also flexible as to whether the benefits of the Single Market are best
retained by negotiating a new Single Market relationship or by working up from
a bespoke trade deal. No rash, ideological red lines preventing a sensible
deal. No fantastical, ‘blue sky’ proposals.
A pragmatic approach. Labour are now the grown-ups in the room. We stand
ready to take charge of the negotiations. Not acting for narrow political gain.
But in the national interest.

Conference,
the way the Tories are handling Brexit tells you a lot about their competence –
or should I say incompetence.  But it
also tells you about their character. About their dogmatic disregard of the
national interest; about their sheer sense of entitlement; about their
post-imperial delusions; about their willingness to put other people’s jobs at
risk.

Our
country today is so much better than our Government. This is a country yearning
for change. Theresa
May – and whichever Brexiteer replaces her – cannot deliver that change. The old
politics and the Tory old guard have had their day.

We need a transformative Labour Government. Not just
to break the impasse in Brexit negotiations and to deliver a progressive new
partnership with the EU – vital though that is.
But to
tackle the wider injustices and inequalities we see all around us. To give
hope that our society, our public services and our economy don’t have to be
like this. That we can build a better, fairer and more
inclusive Britain.

That’s why I came into politics. That is why you
are in this hall. It’s why Jeremy has been able to mobilise 600,000
members …and inspire the support of over 12 million people. It’s why the
clock is ticking for this Prime Minister and this Government.

We
have come a long way in the last year. Now is the time for us to lead. To bring
a divided country back together. To mend our broken politics. This is Labour’s
opportunity. This is Labour’s responsibility. And, working together, this
can be Labour’s achievement.

Delivering
a Government for the many, not the few.

Ends

Glenis
Willmott MEP, Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, speaking at the
Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

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Conference,
this is my final speech as Labour’s Leader in the European Parliament. Next week
I will be retiring as an MEP. And while I must sadly, inevitably, talk about
Brexit, perhaps you can indulge me for a minute in a little nostalgia.

Look
back with me to a simpler time. Before the Tories’ EU referendum divided our
country. When Britain was known around the world for its values of tolerance
and fairness at home and for its international leadership on the global stage.

It
was a time when if Britain’s negotiations went badly in Brussels, all we had to
fear – if you believed the papers – was quieter hoovers and slightly straighter
bananas.

It
is not that long ago, but it feels like a different world to today. And while
you can still find bendy bananas on the shelves of our supermarkets, a lot of
changes did come through our membership of the EU, that have made Britain a
better place.

Now,
we might not have not solved all the problems facing our country. but I am
proud of the work of Labour’s MEPs who have, working through the EU, helped in
the fight to overcome them:

·        
Better
workers’ rights, such as equal pay for part-time workers and guaranteed paid
holiday;

·        
Investment
in poorer parts of the country at a time when the Tory government was unashamed
in its disregard for our industrial communities;

·        
Environmental
standards making the products we buy safer and helping to clean up our beaches
and the toxic air in our cities;

·        
Improved
financial regulation, to tame the casino capitalism that led to the last global
financial crisis.

Conference,
I never claimed the EU was perfect, but as we now prepare to leave, we need to
remember the victories we have won. Because let us be in no doubt: many of the
politicians who are leading our country through the EU exit door want to leave
those rights and protections behind.

It
is one of the things they always hated about the EU – their desire for a
free-market free-for-all has been tempered by European values of social justice
and equality, by a belief in government stepping in to help the most
vulnerable.

And
as our country enters its most important negotiations in my lifetime, there is
a real danger that Britain will plummet out of the European Union with no deal
in 18 months.

And
no deal is not better than a bad deal: our country will become poorer; jobs
will be lost; whole sectors of the economy will grind to a halt.

It
is more than a year since the EU referendum. Six months since the triggering of
Article 50. So it is a good moment to take stock of those Brexit promises.

Remember?
International trade deals ready to go; British trade with Europe to be
guaranteed. Nobody, be they EU citizens in Britain or Brits abroad need worry
about their status.

Conference,
the government is no nearer to moving forward on these issues than it was when
Theresa May first entered Downing Street.

Now,
the government will claim the problems lie with the EU. Theresa May has called
on EU leaders to be creative and to show more imagination.

But
our colleagues in Europe simply see a government stuck in a world of its own
imagination: an expectation that we be released from the rules of European
trade, but then just continue to trade like we used to; the idea of putting up
a new customs border that both exists and doesn’t exist at the same time.

Conference,
it’s not creative, it’s science fiction. And I’ll tell you something else
that’s science fiction: the outrageous claim that our NHS will get an extra
£350 million a week because of Brexit. It isn’t true. It was never true. Shame
on you Boris Johnson.

Conference,
I raise these examples because there is a danger that the prime minister leads
the country into Brexit in the same failed way she led her party into the
General Election.

Back
in May and June, Theresa May kept proclaiming herself to be a strong and stable
leader, when all around her could plainly see she was anything but. She was the
only person left believing her own propaganda. And once again her strategy is
failing.

She
chose to start negotiations on a note of confrontation putting her party before
the country. She tried to regain lost trust with her speech in Florence, yet
all can see that her government policy is still just broad aspiration at best.

From
manufacturing to medicine, financial services to food processing, sector after
sector of our economy is facing uncertainty. Investment decisions are delayed.

So
let’s be clear: the government’s fly-by-night negotiating strategy is a threat
to jobs, it is a threat to tax revenues, and, in undermining the economy of our
country, it is a threat to the future of our public services as well.

Conference,
I’m not going to stand up on this stage and tell you that I think Brexit is the
answer to our country’s problems. I don’t. I put my heart and soul into
campaigning in the referendum for Britain to stay in the European Union, to
maintain our alliances, to protect our trade and the jobs that depend on it. It
is what I think would have been best for the country. But, and it really does
pain me to say this, we lost.

And
just like after any electoral defeat, we need to pick ourselves up, look at the
challenges facing our country, and begin the next campaign.

So
now Labour MEPs are looking ahead to what will probably be their final vote:
sometime in the next 18 months the European Parliament will have to decide
whether to approve – or not – the final Brexit deal.

And
on behalf of my Labour colleagues, and on behalf of our sister party colleagues
across Europe, I can tell you:

·        
There
will be no backing for a deal that undermines the peace process in Northern
Ireland;

·        
There
will be no backing for a deal that fails to give peace of mind to EU citizens
in Britain and Brits who have made their home abroad;

·        
And
there will be no backing for a deal that opens the door to attacks on workers’
rights and safety standards.

So
conference, as the Brexit talks continue, let’s stand united in holding the
Tories’ feet to the fire. In challenging the heartlessness of the right-wing
vision for Brexit Britain. And let’s stand united as Labour campaigns as the
true voice of our country.

Ian Lavery MP, Chair of the Labour Party, speaking at the Labour
Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

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Conference, colleagues, brothers and sisters. We
nearly did it! Who would have
thought this time last year that we would be here, having been a hair’s breadth
away from having the keys to Downing Street?

The snap general election, that Mrs May said
wouldn’t happen. saw us do something that political pundits said was impossible.

·        
Winning the support of nearly 13 million people –
our best vote for 20 years. 

·        
Achieving the biggest increase in Labour’s share of
the vote since 1945.

·        
Denying the Tories an overall majority.

·        
Turning the tide in Scotland and gaining six seats

·        
Achieving our best share of the vote in Wales for
20 years

·        
Achieving our highest share of the vote in England
since 1966. And winning some seats we have never won, and only imagined
winning in our wildest dreams.

Conference,
we achieved something special with an unashamed message of hope

Just over a year ago Theresa May was swept to the
leadership of the Tories and the country without being elected – even by Tory
Party members. So emboldened was Mrs May, that the architect of Tory austerity,
George Osborne, was kicked out of cabinet like a dog in the night.

What a contrast to now – denied a mandate by the great British public. So embattled
is Mrs May that she is being led a merry dance by bungling Boris. And so chaotic is the Tory Party that
its members believe the best choice to replace Mrs May is Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Can you imagine Jacob Rees-Mogg leading this
country? It would be funny if it
was not so serious. But the
danger is the people of these countries will pay for the Tory chaos with their
jobs, and we can’t let it happen. And
that’s why it’s so important that we build on the achievements of our election
campaign.

And
that’s why we must continue to campaign – so when the next election is called.
We are in pole position in the race to Downing Street. This is no pipe dream; this is political reality

In April, the Tories and most of the media expected
Labour majorities to crumble and for the Party to be destroyed as an electoral
force. On election night, Andrew Marr said “no one
expected Corbyn to be such a good campaigner.”  Really
Andrew? No one? Where have you been? But Jeremy would be the first to say the campaign
was not a one-person show.

What a great campaign Labour waged. From
the members who went out knocking doors and handing out leaflets, to the staff
and volunteers who came together as one team at Southside. From the trade
unions who mobilised their members, to the teams in our offices in Wales and
Scotland and every region. Everyone deserves to give themselves a pat on the
back.  And a special thanks to those who came along to our rallies, across
the UK.

Who made politics exciting again and contributed to
an atmosphere of change? The statistics speak for themselves. They’re
in the report. But I’ll mention just a few.

Huge increases in our social media reach – for
example, Labour’s Facebook ‘likes’ increased 44% to nearly a million and
Jeremy’s rose 31% to 1.2 million. We came of age digitally in this election. A fantastic voter registration
campaign that saw more than two million visit the electoral commission’s voter
registration site. Four million
visitors to Labour’s website. Eight
million people watching our Party-political broadcast on the NHS on TV – that’s
two million more viewers than the Great British Bake off!

And none of this could have been done without cash
to match the Tories. In just six weeks, our supporters gave nearly £5m in
donations, averaging £19 – that’s more than a quarter of a million donations. And
that’s on top of £4m donated by our trade union affiliates. It was a truly
amazing campaign. Positive, hopeful, funded by the many.

And what a contrast with the Tories. Theirs
was a campaign funded by a handful of super-rich donors. With a
leader who was hiding from the voters. And a manifesto that failed even to give the
electorate the courtesy of some costings. And, as the polls narrowed, the bankruptcy of the
Tories was plain to see – all they could do was escalate their scurrilous
personal attacks – above all, on Jeremy, on John, and on Diane.

Diane – let’s take a moment to consider what you
had to put up with. According to Amnesty International, you were the target of
45% of all the twitter abuse directed at female MPs. The Tories have questions
to answer – they deliberately targeted you and spent a fortune smearing you. But you
responded with dignity and discipline and your own constituents in Hackney
North and Stoke Newington rewarded you – with a thumping 35 thousand-plus majority.

Conference, the Labour Party has had a massive
impact since the election. Two weeks after the election, on the back foot, the
Tories’ Queen’s Speech made no mention of:

·        
Scrapping the winter fuel allowance for millions of
pensioners.

·        
Of ditching the triple lock protecting the value of
pensions.

·        
Of a dementia tax on social care.

·        
Of taking free meals away from younger primary
school children.

·        
Of new grammar schools.

·        
Or of unbanning fox hunting.

If this is what we can achieve in opposition,
imagine what we could achieve if we had the keys to Downing Street

We
would start building a Britain for the many not the few, by:

• Introducing
      a £10 living wage by 2020.
• Banning
      zero hours contracts.
• Introducing
      free schools means for all primary school children.
• Scrapping
      tuition fees and reinstating maintenance awards.
• Giving
      the NHS the money it needs.
• Tackling
      the crisis in social care.
• Scrapping public sector pay
      cap.
• And putting trade union rights
      at the heart of our agenda.

 

Unlike the Tories, everything we promised in our
manifesto was fully costed. And, unlike the Tories, we also had a plan for
rebuilding the economy,  a plan for investing in sustainable growth, for
investing to create the wealth and decent jobs that would underpin a fairer
society.

The Tories have been – and continue to – giving
away tens of billions of pounds through cuts in corporation tax, capital gains
tax and other tax breaks for big business and the very wealthy. They
say it’s to incentivise investment. But
that hasn’t happened. In every single year of the last seven years under
the Tories, capital investment as a percentage of GDP has been lower than the
average under the last Labour Government. So, the Tory tax breaks for the rich are not only
unfair. They are also not working.

Conference, this is why we cannot afford to rest on
our laurels. Denying the Tories a majority was a great
achievement, but it’s no substitute for winning power. 13 million people voted for a message
of hope in June. Millions more can be won over to our cause.

It doesn’t
have to be like this, there is always an alternative. By stepping up our campaigning and mobilising our
membership. We can take our
message of hope to every city, every town and every village across this
country. A united Party, living
our own values of solidarity to transform society. It is high time we invested in people and began to instil
hope and aspiration.

Conference, together we will build an
economy that works for all, a country where no one is held back.

A society for the many, not the few

Iain McNicol, General
Secretary of the Labour Party, speaking at Labour Party Conference,
said:

 

***CHECK AGAINST
DELIVERY***

 

Thank you, conference and
it’s great to be back in Brighton.

That’s Labour-run,
Tory-free Brighton & Hove.

Being back in Brighton
reminds me of so many Labour movement conferences: TUC, the Labour Party, my
union the GMB.

BUT there’s someone on my
mind this week.

Someone we’re missing.

That’s Mary Turner.

Mary was the very best of the
Labour movement.

Passionate about social
justice.

Driven by her values.

We miss her. I miss her.

We honour her memory.

Like Mary, I’ve always
believed there is power in a union.

When I was an organiser for
the GMB, I saw first-hand that without trade unions, the lives of working
people can be hell.

Without trade unions:

no limits on working hours,

no rest breaks,

no paid holidays,

no safety on the building
site or factory floor.

But there’s something more.

Mary Turner knew it:

trade unionism can take you
so far, but only Labour Governments can transform the lives of the many.

Our founders in 1900 knew it.

That’s why they started the
Labour Party in the first place.

To form governments and
deliver policies.

The welfare state.

The United Nations.

Comprehensive schools.

The Open University.

A national minimum wage.  Sure Starts for the children.

And the greatest achievement
of any government:

the National Health Service.

So this week in Brighton let
us focus on what the next Labour Government, led by Jeremy, will achieve.

How our generation will leave
a lasting legacy like the generation of ’45, or ’64, and ’97.

Let us start with the results
of the last general election.

Despite losing the election,
Labour outperformed expectations, and secured 41% of the vote, an increase of
nearly 9 points since 2015.

And whilst we should not
forget the six Labour seats we lost, we can be proud of the net gain of 30
seats, mostly from the Tories, in seats such as…..

Battersea,

Bedford,

Plymouth,

Cardiff North,

and Portsmouth South.

We won in Canterbury, where
Labour took the seat held continuously by the Tories and their like since
1295.  

And Labour is back in
Scotland.

Winning seven seats, with six
gains from the SNP.

 

Isn’t it marvellous to see so
many more Labour women elected, the highest proportion of the Parliamentary
Labour Party in our history?

More Labour MPs from Black
and Minority Ethnic backgrounds,

More Labour MPs with
disabilities,

More LGBT Labour MPs.

A Parliamentary Labour Party
that looks like the UK: modern, diverse, grounded in reality.

This was an election where
our online campaigning came into its own.

Labour had more than 1.2
million shares on Facebook.

We reached over 29 million
unique Facebook users.

In the last two days of the
campaign alone, 7.3 million individuals viewed our Get Out the Vote message on
Snapchat.

We used professional,
targeted, high-quality digital communications to support local campaigns, to
register people to vote, to guide activists to key seats, and to get out the
vote.

It was a brilliant campaign,
and we should applaud all those involved.

Victory next time is in
sight.

The campaign to win started
within hours of the election result.

Over the summer, Jeremy
completed his 50 Seat Tour, campaigning in

Bournemouth, Blackpool and
Bolton

Crawley, Carlisle and
Copeland

From Hastings to Harrow…

From Southampton to
Southport…

Aberconwy to Arfon…

Glasgow,

Rutherglen,  

The Western Isles,

Kirkcaldy,

Edinburgh and all points in
between.

Thousands of members have
been out on the doorsteps of Britain.

New members joining with
veterans.

Young with old.

That’s what I call real progress.

That’s what I call real momentum.

A united party, on the road
to victory.

Let me turn to the Labour
Party staff.

It is a daily privilege and
honour to work with the dedicated and talented party staff.

They are the best in the
business.

In the smoke and heat of an
election campaign, there is no-one better to have on your side.

In every one of the speeches
I’ve delivered as General Secretary, I have talked about the vital role of
party members.

Not just cogs in an election
machine, but as year-round advocates, developing policy, changing communities.

This conference thanks you,
for everything you do.

Today, I am proud to announce
we have 570,000 members, making the British Labour Party the largest political
party in Europe.

We’re picking up council
seats in places such as….

North Somerset,

Thanet,

Suffolk…

and Airdrie.

In Worthing, up the coast
from here, our candidate Becky Cooper won a council seat for Labour for the
first time in 30 years.

 

And next year we have local
elections across England, with millions going to the polls.

We are working hard to get
our parliamentary candidates in the places we need to win.

We will continue the work of
the Jo Cox Women In Leadership Programme, which has already seen two of its
alumni elected to Parliament.

And while I am happy to
debate it,

I will not give an inch,

nor make an apology,

for using All-Women
Shortlists to get even-more Labour women into Parliament.

In every one of my reports to
this conference, I’ve talked about the steady improvement in the party’s
finances.

It has taken a decade of hard
work, but we are today mortgage-free, debt-free, loan-free.

So this is today’s Labour.

Growing in size and
confidence.

Financially secure.

Reaching into the Tory
heartlands.

In contention to be the next
Government.

Labour has the leadership in
Jeremy, and the manifesto, the country is crying out for, on

education,

on health,

on social care,

on crime,

on transport,

on the environment,

on housing, and especially

on Brexit.

 

And on Europe, let me say how
much we value the work of our colleagues in the European Parliament, and the
leadership of Glenis Willmott.

Glenis: thank you for your
service to our movement, party and country.

The Tories may be in office,
but they have no mandate,

no majority,

no unity,

no authority.

But that doesn’t stop them.

They think they’re born to
rule.

So who is going to stop them?

Not the Lib Dems.

Not UKIP.

Not the SNP.

And definitely not the DUP.

Who is going to stop them?

We are.

Since the election, thanks to
the surge in our support, we have prevented the Tories from….

legalising fox hunting….

building more grammar
schools….

Scrapping free school
meals…

Ending the winter fuel
payment….

And imposing a Dementia Tax.

Labour has dumped the Tory
election manifesto in the shredder, and left Theresa May with nothing to say.

I said at the start how much
I value the trade unions, and value the advances we have made for British
workers.

But imagine if all of these
hard-won gains are flushed down the drain in a Tory Brexit.

Imagine the Britain our
children and grandchildren would inherit.

Only Labour can deliver a
Brexit which looks after the many.

Finally, conference I hope
you enjoy your time in Brighton & Hove.

A shining, diverse, European
city, everything the Tories hate.

I propose only one
improvement.

It’s a small thing.

It’s not much to ask.

Let’s make the trains safer,
more secure, more reliable

and run on time;

Let’s nationalise Southern
Rail!

Enjoy conference, and thank
you.

Ends

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