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A little over forty years ago in a small village in Oxfordshire, I signed up to be a member of the Conservative Party. I did it because it was the party that had the ideas to build a better Britain. It understood the hard work and discipline necessary to see them through.
And it had at its heart a simple promise that spoke to me, my values and my aspirations: that each new generation in our country should be able to build a better future. That each generation should live the British Dream. And that dream is what I believe in.
But what the General Election earlier this year showed is that, forty years later, for too many people in our country that dream feels distant, our party’s ability to deliver it is in question, and the British Dream that has inspired generations of Britons feels increasingly out of reach.
Now I called that election. And I know that all of you in this hall – your friends and your families – worked day and night to secure the right result. Because of your hard work we got 2.3 million more votes and achieved our highest vote share in 34 years. That simply would not have been possible without the long days and late nights, the phone calls, the leaflet drops. The weekends and evenings spent knocking on doors. So for everything that you do, let me say – thank you.
But we did not get the victory we wanted because our national campaign fell short. It was too scripted. Too presidential. And it allowed the Labour Party to paint us as the voice of continuity, when the public wanted to hear a message of change. I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign. And I am sorry.
But the choice before us now is clear: Do we give up, spend our time looking back? Or do we do our duty, look to the future and give the country the government it needs? This country will judge us harshly if we get this decision wrong.
Because all that should ever drive us is the duty we have to Britain and the historic mission of this party – this Conservative Party – to renew the British Dream in each new generation. That dream that says each generation should do better than the one before it. Each era should be better than the last. The dream that, for decades, has inspired people from around the world to come to Britain. To make their home in Britain. To build their lives in Britain. The dream that means the son of a bus driver from Pakistan serves in a Conservative Cabinet alongside the son of a single mother from a council estate in South-West London. And in a way, that dream is my story too.
I know that people think I’m not very emotional. I’m not the kind of person who wears their heart on their sleeve. And I don’t mind being called things like the Ice Maiden – though perhaps George Osborne took the analogy a little far. But let me tell you something. My grandmother was a domestic servant, who worked as a lady’s maid below stairs. She worked hard and made sacrifices, because she believed in a better future for her family. And that servant – that lady’s maid – among her grandchildren boasts three professors and a prime minister.
That is why the British Dream inspires me. Why that dream of progress between the generations spurs me on. And it is why today at this conference, this Conservative Party must pledge to renew the British Dream in this country once again. To renew that dream is my purpose in politics. My reason for being. The thing that drives me on. And it has never wavered through good times and hard times. My belief that this Conservative government can renew it has always remained strong.
For whenever we are tested as a nation, this party steps up to the plate. Seven years ago, our challenge was to repair the damage of Labour’s great recession – and we did it. The deficit is down. Spending is under control. And our economy is growing again. But we didn’t limit ourselves to that ambition. We have achieved so much more.

An income tax cut for over 30 million people. Four million taken out of paying it at all. Employment up to a record high. Unemployment down to a historic low. Income inequality at its lowest for thirty years. More women in work than ever before.
Over 11,000 more doctors in our NHS. Over 11,000 more nurses on our hospital wards. Free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds doubled. 1.8 million more children in good or outstanding schools. 3 million more apprenticeships. Crime down by more than a third.
More young people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university than at any time in the history of our country. Britain leading the world in tackling climate change, eradicating global poverty, and countering terrorism wherever it rears its head. Same sex marriage on the statute book, so that two people who love each other can get married, no matter what their gender…
And a National Living Wage – giving a pay rise to the lowest earners – introduced not by the Labour Party, but by us, the Conservative Party. So let us never allow the Left to pretend they have a monopoly on compassion. This is the good a Conservative Government can do – and we should never let anyone forget it.

But it’s easy when you’ve been in government for a while to fall into the trap of defending your record, and standing for the status quo. Yes, we’re proud of the progress we have made, but the world doesn’t stand still.

Change, as Disraeli taught us, is constant and inevitable. And we must bend it to our will. That means staking out an agenda for Britain – and uniting behind it too. And the agenda that I laid out on day one as prime minister still holds. It burns inside me just the same.

Because at its core, it’s about sweeping away injustice – the barriers that mean for some the British Dream is increasingly out of reach. About saying what matters is not where you are from or who your parents are. The colour of your skin. Whether you’re a man or a woman, rich or poor. From the inner city or an affluent suburb. How far you go in life should depend on you and your hard work.

That is why I have always taken on vested interests when they are working against the interests of the people. Called out those who abuse their positions of power and given a voice to those who have been ignored or silenced for too long.

And when people ask me why I put myself through it – the long hours, the pressure, the criticism and insults that inevitably go with the job – I tell them this: I do it to root out injustice and to give everyone in our country a voice. That’s why when I reflect on my time in politics, the things that make me proud are not the positions I have held, the world leaders I have met, the great global gatherings to which I have been, but knowing that I made a difference. That I helped those who couldn’t be heard.

Like the families of the 96 men, women and children who tragically lost their lives at Hillsborough. For years they saw people in authority closing ranks and acting against them, but now they are on the way to seeing justice served.

That’s what I’m in this for. Like the victims and survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, ignored for years by people in positions of power, now on the long road to the truth. That’s what I’m in this for.

Like Alexander Paul, a young man who came to this conference three years ago to tell his story. The story of a young black boy growing up in modern Britain who without causing any trouble – without doing anything wrong – found himself being stopped and searched by people in authority time and time and time again.

 

Alexander spoke so eloquently about his experience and how he came to mistrust those in positions of power as a result. So inspired by his example, we took action. We shook up the system, and the number of black people being stopped and searched has fallen by over two thirds. I am sad to have to tell you that last year, Alexander – who inspired us all with his passion – was diagnosed with brain cancer. And in June of this year he tragically passed away. He was just 21. Let us today remember the courage he showed in coming to our conference to speak out against injustice, take pride that we gave him a platform – and inspired by his example, redouble our efforts to give a voice to the voiceless at every opportunity. That’s what I’m in this for.

 

And that same commitment is the reason why one of my first acts as Prime Minister was to establish the ground-breaking racial disparity audit – investigating how a person’s race affects their treatment by public services, so that we can take action and respond.

 

We already know, for example, that members of Black and Minority Ethnic communities have a higher risk of illnesses such as high blood pressure that may lead to the need for an organ transplant.

 

But our ability to help people who need transplants is limited by the number of organ donors that come forward. That is why last year 500 people died because a suitable organ was not available. And there are 6,500 on the transplant list today. So to address this challenge that affects all communities in our country, we will change that system. Shifting the balance of presumption in favour of organ donation. Working on behalf of the most vulnerable. That’s what I’m in this for.

It’s why after seeing the unimaginable tragedy unfold at Grenfell Tower, I was determined that we should get to the truth. Because Grenfell should never have happened – and should never be allowed to happen again. So we must learn the lessons: understanding not just what went wrong but why the voice of the people of Grenfell had been ignored over so many years. That’s what the public inquiry will do. And where any individual or organisation is found to have acted negligently, justice must be done. That’s what I’m in this for.

And because in this – as in other disasters before it – bereaved and grieving families do not get the support they need, we will introduce an independent public advocate for major disasters. An advocate to act on behalf of bereaved families to support them at public inquests and inquiries. The strong independent voice that victims need. That’s what I’m in this for.

It’s why tackling the injustice and stigma associated with mental health is a particular priority for me. So we are building on our record of giving mental and physical health parity in law by investing more in mental health than ever before. But there is widespread concern that the existing Mental Health legislation passed more three decades ago is leading to shortfalls in services and is open to misuse. Detention rates under the Mental Health Act are too high. And it is people from black and minority ethnic populations who are affected the most. So today I can announce that I have asked Professor Sir Simon Wessely to undertake an independent review of the Mental Health Act, so that we can tackle the longstanding injustices of discrimination in our mental health system once and for all. That’s what I’m in this for.

 

This is the Conservatism I believe in. A Conservatism of fairness and justice and opportunity for all. A Conservatism that keeps the British Dream alive for a new generation. That’s what I’m in this for. That’s what we must all be in this for.
And we must come together to fight for this mainstream Conservative agenda. To win the battle of ideas in a new generation all over again. For those ideas are being tested. And at stake are the very things we value.

Our precious union of nations – four nations that are stronger as one – threatened by those with their narrow, nationalist agendas that seek to drive us apart. The strength of our society, in which we understand the obligations and responsibilities we have to one another, under attack from militant forces who preach animosity and hate. The free-market economy – for so long the basis of our prosperity and security. An idea that has lifted millions around the world out of poverty – called into question by those who would imperil our future by adopting the failed experiments of the past.

 

That idea of free and open markets, operating under the right rules and regulations, is precious to us. It’s the means by which we generate our prosperity as a nation, and improve the living standards of all our people. It has helped to cement Britain’s influence as a force for good in the world.

 

It has underpinned the rules-based international system that helped rebuild post-war Europe and the world beyond. It has ushered in the fall of the Berlin Wall; the end of communism, and the dark days of the Iron Curtain; securing the advance of freedom across Europe and across the world. It has inspired 70 years of prosperity, raising living standards for hundreds of millions of people right across the globe.

 

So don’t try and tell me that free markets are no longer fit for purpose. That somehow they’re holding people back. Don’t try and tell me that the innovations they have encouraged – the advances they have brought – the mobile phone, the internet, pioneering medical treatments, the ability to travel freely across the world – are worth nothing.

The free market – and the values of freedom, equality, rights, responsibilities, and the rule of law that lie at its heart – remains the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created. So let us win this argument for a new generation and defend free and open markets with all our might. Because there has rarely been a time when the choice of futures for Britain is so stark. The difference between the parties so clear.

 

And it’s the Conservative Party that has a vision of an open, global, self-confident Britain, while our opponents flirt with a foreign policy of neutrality and prepare for a run on the pound. Some people say we’ve spent too much time talking about Jeremy Corbyn’s past. So let’s talk about his present instead.

 

This is a politician who wants to pile on taxes to business just when we need them to invest in our country the most. This is a politician who wants to borrow hundreds of billions of pounds to nationalise industries without the slightest idea of how much it will cost or how he will ever pay it back. This is a politician who wants to strip us of our nuclear deterrent, without being honest with voters about his plans. This is a politician who lets anti-Semitism, misogyny and hatred run free, while he doesn’t do a thing to stop it. This is a politician who thinks we should take the economics of Venezuela as our role-model.

 

No… Jeremy Corbyn.

 

By contrast, when I look around the cabinet table, I have confidence that we have a team full of talent, drive and compassion. A team that is determined that this party – this great Conservative Party – will tackle the challenges of the future together. A team that is determined we will always do our duty by our country.

 

And our first and most important duty is to get Brexit right. The people have decided. We have taken their instruction. Britain is leaving the European Union in March 2019.

 

I know some find the negotiations frustrating. But if we approach them in the right spirit – in a spirit of cooperation and friendship, with our sights set firmly on the future – I am confident we will find a deal that works for Britain and Europe too. And let’s be clear about the agreement we seek. It’s the agreement I set out earlier this year at Lancaster House and again in my speech in Florence ten days ago.

 

It’s a new deep and special partnership between a strong, successful European Union and a sovereign United Kingdom. A partnership that allows us to continue to trade and cooperate with each other, because we see shared challenges and opportunities ahead. But a partnership that ensures the United Kingdom is a sovereign nation once again. A country in which the British people are firmly in control.

 

I believe it is profoundly in all our interests for the negotiations to succeed. But I know that are some are worried whether we are prepared in the event that they do not. It is our responsibility as a government to prepare for every eventuality. And let me reassure everyone in this hall – that is exactly what we are doing. So a deep and special partnership is our ambition and our offer. And I look forward to that offer receiving a positive response.

 

And let me say one more thing – because it cannot be said often enough. If you are a citizen of the EU who has made their life in this country, I know you will feel unsettled and nervous. But let me be clear that we value the contribution you make to the life of our country. You are welcome here. And I urge the negotiating teams to reach agreement on this quickly because we want you to stay.

 

Whatever the outcome of our negotiations, Britain’s long-term future is bright. The British Dream is still within reach. For as we look to that future, we do so with the fundamentals of our country strong.

 

Ten years after Northern Rock, our economy is back on track. The deficit is back to pre-crisis levels, we are firmly on course to get our national debt falling and business investment is growing. The work to get there hasn’t been easy. It’s meant big decisions and huge sacrifices. I know the public sector has had to carry a heavy burden. The private sector has played its part too. But with government, businesses and the public sector working together, we have bounced back – creating record numbers of jobs, and getting more people into work than ever before.

 

So while we will never hesitate to act where businesses aren’t operating as they should, let this party celebrate the wealth creators, the risk takers, the innovators and entrepreneurs – the businesses large and small – who generate jobs and prosperity for our country, and make British business the envy of the world. Because we understand that it is the wealth creators whose taxes fuel our public services. It is their success that funds the things we want to do.

 

And the difference between us and Labour is that we understand that to deliver the things we want, private enterprise is crucial. That you can’t get something for nothing. Prosperity is key. And when politicians offer the earth but have no means of delivering their promises, disillusionment with politics only grows.

 

So over the years ahead this government will adopt a balanced approach to the economy – dealing with our debts, keeping taxes low, but investing in our priorities too. Things like our vital public services, our schools, our police, housing, and our great national achievement, our NHS. Let us not forget that it is this party that has invested in the National Health Service and upheld its founding principles through more years in government than any other.

 

For we understand that the NHS doesn’t just bring us into this world, make us well if we fall ill, and nurse and care for our families through their final hours. It doesn’t just bear witness to moments of joy and to times of intense sorrow. It is the very essence of solidarity in our United Kingdom. An institution we value. A symbol of our commitment to each other, between young and old, those who have and those who do not, the healthy and the sick.

 

Like most people in this hall, it has been there for me when I have needed it. I have early childhood memories of visiting my family GP. More recently, it was the NHS that diagnosed my type 1 diabetes and taught me how to manage it so I could get on with my life. And in recent months, I have seen it at its most brilliant – in the world-class response shown by the doctors, nurses and paramedics when terrorists struck London and Manchester.

 

To them all – and indeed to the public servants everywhere who so often go unsung – let me say this: for your service, your hard work and for your dedication – thank you. So I rely on the NHS. I believe in the NHS. And because we believe in ensuring that a world class NHS will be there for generations to come, we will increase funding per head for every year of this parliament, we will oversee the biggest expansion in training for doctors and nurses, and we will always support the service to deliver safe, high quality care for all – free at the point of use. That’s what our balanced approach to the economy will help us to do.

 

With our economic foundation strong – and economic confidence restored – the time has come to focus on Britain’s next big economic challenge: to foster growth that works for everyone, right across our country. That means keeping taxes low, spreading prosperity to all corners of this United Kingdom, and getting out into the world to trade, export and help our economy grow.

 

So as the world’s leading advocate for free markets and free trade, we will pursue new free trade agreements with countries around the world. As we roll out our modern industrial strategy, we will attract and invest in new high-paid, high-skilled jobs – spreading prosperity and opportunity to every part of this country. Tackling our economy’s weaknesses like low levels of productivity, backing our nation’s strengths, and bringing investment, jobs and opportunities to communities that feel they have been forgotten for far too long.

 

We will continue to reform education and skills training so that people growing up in Britain today are ready and able to seize the opportunities ahead. Starting in our schools – those great drivers of social mobility – where our record is strong and our legacy is proud. Because our reforms are working. And after years of stagnation under the last Labour Government, we are turning things around. But there is more to do. Our reform programme goes on. Because it’s simply not good enough that if you live here in the North, you have less chance of attending a good school than someone living in the South.

 

So we will extend the Free Schools programme for a new generation of young people – building 100 new Free Schools in every year of this Parliament. Not because our ideology says so… but because Free Schools work. And it’s the right thing to do.

 

And we need to bring that same energy to skills training too. Preparing our young people for the world of the future. Setting them up to succeed. Taking skills seriously with new T-levels for post-16 education, a new generation of Technology Institutes in every major city in England – providing the skills local employers need, and more technical training for 16-19 year olds. A first-class technical education system for the first time in the history of Britain. Keeping the British Dream alive.

 

That’s how we will prepare Britain for an open, global future. I know that some young people worry that Brexit means we’re turning our back on the world. That Britain will no longer be open, but closed. But we reject both the isolationism of the hard-left and those who would have us turn inward, and we choose a global Britain instead.

 

As Asia booms and the world looks to the East, we will reach beyond the borders of Europe to become a trusted friend to nations all around the world. We will meet our commitments to international security, with the finest armed forces and intelligence services anywhere on the planet. We will build an outward looking Britain that cooperates with other nations to tackle the great challenges of our time like mass migration, modern slavery and climate change. And we will provide a moral lead in the world, and set an example for others.

 

Meeting our commitments on security: committing fully to the NATO alliance and spending 2% of our GDP on defence. Remaining firmly committed to renewing our independent nuclear deterrent, to help uphold the security of the world. And leading the world in cracking down on modern slavery – because if you are buying and selling another human being, you are undermining all that is right. The very basis of our humanity.And we must bring this outrage to an end.

 

And under this government, we will continue to meet the international aid target, spending 0.7% of our GNI on international development. That’s not just because it’s good for Britain, but because it is the right thing to do.

 

Today, UK Aid is being used to bring food to starving children in conflict zones like Syria and Iraq. UK Aid is being used to bring water to drought stricken parts of Africa. UK Aid is helping to educate women and girls in parts of Asia where that most basic of human rights has been denied to them for so long. Yes, charity may begin at home, but our compassion is not limited to those who carry the same passport. We should be proud that under a Conservative Government, this country is one of the few that is meeting its duty to some of the poorest people in our world. And as Prime Minister, I will ensure that’s something Britain always continues to do.

 

But let me also be clear: it is absurd that international organisations say we can’t use the money to help all those that have been hit by the recent Hurricanes in the British Overseas Territories. Many people on those islands have been left with nothing. And if we must change the rules on international aid in order to recognise the particular needs of these communities when disaster strikes, then that’s what we will do.

 

This then is the Britain we choose. Not a Britain that retreats behind its borders, but a global Britain that stands tall in the world. A beacon of hope and an example to others. A modern, compassionate Britain that we can all be proud to call home.

 

And we must renew the British Dream at home through a determined programme of economic and social reform. A programme that champions our belief in free markets by being prepared to reform them when they don’t work. That ensures our economy and society work for everyone in every part of this country, not just the privileged few. Because for too many, the British Dream feels increasingly out of reach.

 

The effects of the financial crisis – nearly a decade of low growth, stagnating wages and pay restraint – linger. The boom in the housing market means that while some have done very well, for many the chance of getting onto the housing ladder has become a distant dream. And it’s that fact, perhaps more than any other, that means for too many the British Dream is increasingly out of reach.

 

Just over a decade ago, 59% of 25-34 year olds owned their own home. Today it is just 38%. It has always been a great sadness for me and Philip that we were never blessed with children. It seems some things in life are just never meant to be. But I believe in the dream that life should be better for the next generation as much as any mother. Any father. Any grandparent. The only difference is that I have the privileged position of being able to do more than most to bring that dream to life.

 

So I will dedicate my premiership to fixing this problem – to restoring hope. To renewing the British Dream for a new generation of people. And that means fixing our broken housing market.

 

For 30 or 40 years we simply haven’t built enough homes. As a result, prices have risen so much that the average home now costs almost 8 times average earnings. And that’s been a disaster for young people in particular. We have begun to put this right. The number of new homes being delivered each year has increased significantly since 2010. Our Housing White Paper set out plans to increase it further, ensuring councils release more land for housing, and giving them new powers to ensure that developers actually build homes once they’re given planning permission to do so. And because it will take time for greater housebuilding to translate into more affordable house prices, we have introduced schemes like Help to Buy to support people who are struggling right now.

 

But the election result showed us that this is not nearly enough. We’ve listened and we’ve learned. So this week, the Chancellor announced that we will help over 130,000 more families with the deposit they need to buy their own home by investing a further £10 billion in Help to Buy.

 

We have announced measures to give the increasing number of families who rent from a private landlord more security – and effective redress if their landlord is not maintaining their property. And today, I can announce that we will invest an additional £2 billion in affordable housing – taking the Government’s total affordable housing budget to almost £9 billion.

 

We will encourage councils as well as housing associations to bid for this money and provide certainty over future rent levels. And in those parts of the country where the need is greatest, allow homes to be built for social rent, well below market level. Getting government back into the business of building houses. A new generation of council houses to help fix our broken housing market. So whether you’re trying to buy your own home, renting privately and looking for more security, or have been waiting for years on a council list, help is on the way.

 

It won’t be quick or easy, but as Prime Minister I am going to make it my mission to solve this problem. I will take personal charge of the government’s response, and make the British Dream a reality by reigniting home ownership in Britain once again.

 

And let me say one more thing. I want to send the clearest possible message to our house builders. We, the government, will make sure the land is available. We’ll make sure our young people have the skills you need. In return, you must do your duty to Britain and build the homes our country needs.

 

And to renew the British Dream for a new generation of young people we must also take action on student debt. As Conservatives, we know education can be the key to unlocking the future. That’s why for more than a century, it has been Conservative Education Secretaries who have driven the reforms that have widened access and raised standards. And it’s why we want everyone to have the opportunity to benefit from studying more after they leave school. Because it’s good for them and good for the country too.

 

But today, young people take on a huge amount of debt to do so. And if we’re honest, some don’t know what they get from it in return.

 

We have listened and we have learned. So we will undertake a major review of university funding and student financing. We will scrap the increase in fees that was due next year, and freeze the maximum rate while the review takes place. And we will increase the amount graduates can earn before they start repaying their fees to £25,000 – putting money back into the pockets of graduates with high levels of debt.

 

For while we are in favour of free markets, we will always take action to fix them when they’re broken. We will always take on monopolies and vested interests when they are holding people back. And one of the greatest examples in Britain today is the broken energy market.

 

Because the energy market punishes loyalty with higher prices. And the most loyal customers are often those with lower incomes: the elderly, people with lower qualifications and people who rent their homes. Those who for whatever reason, are unable to find the time to shop around. That’s why next week, this Government will publish a Draft Bill to put a price cap on energy bills. Meeting our manifesto promise. And bringing an end to rip-off energy prices once and for all.

 

So we have a big task before us. An agenda to follow. A duty to uphold. To renew the British Dream for a new generation, and bring our country together again. For a country that’s divided can never make the most of its potential. And we need to harness that potential if we’re to compete and succeed in the years ahead.

 

That’s why where others seek to bring division, we must stand united. Recognising as Jo Cox put it that we have more in common than what divides us. It’s why I will always be proud to call myself a Unionist – and proud to be the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party too. Because that word means something special to me. It stands for this great union of nations that has so much to offer the world. And it stands for this great union of people – people from all over the world who have made their homes here and are proud to call themselves British. Attracted by the strength of the British Dream. We are an example to the world of how people of different colours and creeds can live side-by-side. And we celebrate that.

 

And as a proud Unionist, I take comfort that the General Election saw the threat of nationalism set back, the case for a second referendum in Scotland denied. And wasn’t it a brilliant result for the Scottish Conservatives and their superb leader, Ruth Davidson?

 

Together, quite simply, we are stronger. So we must unite the country around our Conservative vision of a global, prosperous Britain in which the British Dream is alive. That means showing that we’re determined to make a difference. To doing something, not being someone. To doing our duty by Britain again. Because people are fed-up with the game-playing, the name-calling. The refusal to listen to the other’s point of view. We can look around the world and see where this approach to politics gets us – anger, recrimination and polarisation too.

 

So we must – all of us – look inside. Consider how we conduct our politics in this country. And find a better way. For there is a big problem in our politics when an MP from one party refuses to be friends with those of another. There is a problem in our politics when a leading journalist from our national broadcaster has to hire bodyguards just to be able to do her job. There is a problem when one of our two great political parties is so riven with the stain of anti-semitism that even one of its own council leaders questions if they will be welcome in his city again.
Let me be clear: racism, intolerance and hatred has no place in British politics or British society. This party will never permit it. We will always stamp it out. Britain can do better than this. For this country is – and has always been – the home of tolerance, a bastion of freedom and a beacon of democracy. And this city of Manchester knows it better than anyone. Because four months ago, this city came under attack from those who hate our country and despise our values.
The liberty we extend to everyone, whoever they are and wherever they are from. The way in which our society is open, accepting, and tolerant of others. The fact that we celebrate diversity and champion difference. The way we encourage people from all backgrounds and beliefs to live their lives in freedom. To be all they want to be. And because of this hatred, they chose to take out their rage on the defenceless and vulnerable. The innocent and the young.
Let us be in no doubt: the responsibility for such an outrage lies with no one other than those who planned it, and those who saw it through. And this party, which knows the terrible toll of terrorism all too well, will never seek to justify or excuse such acts of terror. We will stand strong in the face of terrorism and ensure our values always prevail.

 

But what we remember most from the cowardly attack on the Manchester Arena is the response of the Spirit of Manchester. People throwing open their doors to strangers, giving them a place to shelter. Taxi drivers helping people get home safely, accepting no fare in return. Ordinary people rushing to the scene of destruction. Putting themselves in harm’s way. The incredible men and women of the emergency services running towards the carnage, while others dropped what they were doing and went back to work to help.

But above all, an image of a community coming together. Men and women, young and old, black and white, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Hindu, Jew, standing together as one. And it was that image of this city – an image of modern Britain in all its diversity, compassion and strength – that was shared around the globe.

And it said something about us. It said that this is modern Britain. A country of promise, of potential, of hope. And perhaps we too easily forget that. But we must hold on to that essential truth. For we are a nation of dreamers, with the capacity to deliver those dreams too.

Cities like Manchester were the pioneers that fired the industrial revolution, helping to make Britain the workshop of the world. And it’s this heritage that means today we export to and trade with nations in every corner of the globe. It was here in Britain that we discovered the structure of DNA, the biological code for life. All the technologies for sequencing the human genome have been developed in this country. And today we are using this knowledge to improve human health.

Back in the 1970s it was scientists in Oxford who invented the lithium ion battery which powers all laptops and mobile phones. Today we continue to be pioneers in this sector, funding new battery technologies for electric cars and renewable energy. Technologies we will soon be exporting around the world. Within a few hundred yards of here you will find the world’s first passenger railway station. And a few hundred yards beyond that a new research facility to develop the extraordinary material Graphene, for which two scientists here in Manchester won the Nobel prize.
 

And let me say this to George Osborne – you were right to back it as part of the Northern Powerhouse and this Government will back it too. So the future is bright, our potential is great, and if we choose the right path, the British Dream can be renewed. So let us do our duty by Britain. Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs.

For beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues – the daily lives of working people go on. Many pay little attention to great conferences and gatherings like this. They get up early and go to work. They want to know their job is going to last and that they are going to get paid a fair wage. They want to know that the school their children go to is the best it can be. That they will be cared for when they fall ill. That they will have safety and security as they advance towards old age.

And they want to believe in the British Dream: that their children will do better than themselves. That they will have the opportunity to lead happy, successful, secure lives. That they will have the chance to be all they want to be. These are the priorities that it is our duty to respond to. The priorities of working people up and down this land. And they must be our only focus.
 

Not worrying about our job security, but theirs. Not addressing our concerns, but the issues, the problems, the challenges, that concern them. Not focusing on our future, but on the future of their children and their grandchildren – doing everything we can to ensure their tomorrow will be better than our today.


That is what I am in politics for. To make a difference. To change things for the better. To hand on to the next generation a country that is stronger, fairer and more prosperous. And to renew the British Dream for a new generation again.

None of this will be easy. There will be obstacles and barriers along the way. But it has never been my style to hide from a challenge, to shrink from a task, to retreat in the face of difficulty, to give up and turn away. For the test of a leader is how you respond when tough times come upon you. When faced with challenge, if you emerge stronger. When confronted with adversity, if you find the will to pull through. And it is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless.

 

That is the story of our party. That is the story of our country. And that is the resolve and determination we need as we turn to face the future today.

 

So let us go forward together. Confident in our values. Clear in our vision. Sure in our purpose. With a rich, ambitious agenda to follow. A bold, exciting mission to pursue. Let us fulfil our duty to the British people.Let us fulfil our duty to our country. Let us fulfil our duty to Britain. Let us renew the British Dream.

We meet here this week as a united Party, advancing in every part of Britain, winning the confidence of millions of our fellow citizens, setting out our ideas and plans for our country’s future, that have already inspired people of all ages and backgrounds.

 

And it’s a privilege to be speaking in Brighton. A city that not only has a long history of hosting Labour conferences, but also of inspirational Labour activists.

 

It was over a century ago, here in Brighton, that a teenage shop worker had had enough of the terrible conditions facing her and her workmates. She risked the sack to join the Shop Workers’ Union, after learning about it in a newspaper used to wrap up fish and chips, and was so effective at standing up for women shop workers, she became assistant general secretary before the age of 30.

 

In that role she seconded the historic resolution at the Trades Union Congress of 1899 to set up the Labour Representation Committee so that working people would finally have representation in Parliament.

 

That became the Labour Party and it was this woman, Margaret Bondfield who later become a Labour MP. And in 1929, the first ever woman to join the British cabinet’

 

From a Brighton drapery to Downing Street. Margaret Bondfield’s story is a reminder of the decisive role women have played in the Labour Party from its foundation, and that Labour has always been about making change by working together and standing up for others.

 

Conference, against all predictions in June we won the largest increase in the Labour vote since 1945 and achieved Labour’s best vote for a generation. It’s a result which has put the Tories on notice and Labour on the threshold of power.

 

Yes, we didn’t do quite well enough and we remain in opposition for now, but we have become a Government-in-waiting. Our outstanding shadow cabinet team here today. And our message to the country could not be clearer – Labour is ready.

 

Ready to tackle inequality , ready to rebuild our NHS, ready to give opportunity to young people, dignity and security to older people, ready to invest in our economy and meet the challenges of climate change and automation, ready to put peace and justice at the heart of foreign policy. And ready to build a new and progressive relationship with Europe.

 

We are ready and the Tories are clearly not. They’re certainly not strong and they’re definitely not stable. They’re not remotely united. And they’re hanging on by their fingertips.

 

But this Tory Government does have one thing that we lack. They have tracked down the Magic Money Tree when it was needed to keep Theresa May in Downing Street. It was given a good old shake – and lo and behold – now we know the price of power – it’s about £100m for each Democratic Unionist MP.

 

During the election campaign, Theresa May told voters they faced the threat of a “coalition of chaos . Remember that? Well, now they’re showing us exactly how that works. And I don’t just mean the Prime Minister’s desperate deal with the DUP. She’s got a “coalition of chaos” around her own cabinet table – Phillip Hammond and Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and David Davis.

 

At each other’s throats, squabbling and plotting, manoeuvring to bundle the Prime Minister out of Number Ten and take her place at the first opportunity Instead of getting to grips with the momentous issues facing our country.

 

But this coalition of chaos is no joke. Just look at their record since the Conservatives have been in office;

 

The longest fall in people’s pay since record began. Homelessness doubled

 

NHS waiting lists lengthening. School class sizes growing and teachers leaving. Over 4 million children now in poverty

 

20,000 police officers … and 11,000 firefighters cut. More people in work and in poverty … than ever before. Condemned by the United Nations for violating the rights of disabled people. That’s not strong and stable. It’s callous and calculating. Because the Tories calculated that making life worse for millions in the name of austerity would pay for hefty tax handouts to the rich and powerful.

 

Conference, your efforts in the election campaign stopped the Tories in their tracks. The election result has already delivered one Tory U-turn after another over some of their most damaging policies. The cruel dementia tax was scrapped within three days of being announced. Plans to bring back grammar schools have been ditched . The threat to the pensions’ triple lock abandoned. Withdrawal of Winter Fuel payments dumped. The pledge to bring back fox hunting dropped. And their plan to end free school meals in primary schools has been binned.

 

The reality is that barely three months since the election this coalition of Conservative chaos is tearing up its Manifesto and tearing itself apart. They are bereft of ideas and energy. Indeed, they seem to be cherry-picking Labour policies instead, including on Brexit.

 

I say to the Prime Minister: “You’re welcome . But go the whole hog end austerity, abolish tuition fees, scrap the public sector pay cap. I think we can find a Commons majority for all of that. This is a weak and divided Government with no purpose beyond clinging to power.

 

It is Labour that is now setting the agenda and winning the arguments for a new common sense about the direction our country should take.

 

Conference, there were two stars of our election campaign. The first was our Manifesto that drew on the ideas of our members and trade unionists and the hopes and aspirations of their communities and workplaces. And we were clear about how we would pay for it by asking the richest and the largest corporations to start paying their fair share.

 

Not simply to redistribute within a system that isn’t delivering for most people but to transform that system. So we set out not only how we would protect public services but how we would rebuild and invest in our economy, with a publicly-owned engine of sustainable growth, driven by national and regional investment banks, to generate good jobs and prosperity in every region and nation.

 

Our Manifesto is the programme of a modern, progressive socialist party that has rediscovered its roots and its purpose, bucking the trend across Europe.

 

And Conference, the other star of that campaign was YOU. Our members, our supporters in the trade unions, our doorstep and social media campaigners. Young people sharing messages and stories on social media, hundreds of thousands organising online and on the ground to outplay the Tories’ big money machine.

 

Is it any wonder that here today in Brighton you represent the largest political party in western Europe, with nearly 600,000 members, alongside three million affiliated trade unionists, brimming with enthusiasm and confidence in the potential of our people. You are the future. And let me say straight away. I’m awed and humbled by everything you have done, along with hundreds of thousands of others across the country, to take us to where we are today.

 

I have never been more proud to be your elected leader. Our election campaign gave people strength. It brought millions on to the electoral register and inspired millions to go to vote for the first time.

 

And Labour was the Party of unity, bringing generations and communities together, rather than pitting young and old against each other, as the Tories did. We will never seek to squeeze one generation to support another. Under Labour, people will win together.

 

The result of our campaign confounded every expert and sceptic. I see John McDonnell said the ‘grey beards’ had got it all wrong. I’m not sure that’s entirely fair, John? We wiped out the Tory majority, winning support in every social and age group and gaining seats in every region and nation of the country.

 

So please, Theresa May take another walking holiday and make another impetuous decision. The Labour campaign machine is primed and ready to roll.

 

Of course, there were some who didn’t come out of the election too well. I’m thinking of some of our more traditional media friends. They ran the campaign they always do under orders from their tax exile owners to trash Labour at every turn. The day before the election one paper devoted fourteen pages to attacking the Labour Party. And our vote went up nearly 10%.

 

Never have so many trees died in vain. The British people saw right through it. So this is a message to the Daily Mail’s editor - next time, please could you make it 28 pages?

 

But there’s a serious message too, the campaign by the Tories and their loyal media was nasty and personal. It fuelled abuse online and no one was the target of that more than Diane Abbott. She has a decades-long record of campaigning for social justice and has suffered intolerable misogynistic and racist abuse. Faced with such an overwhelmingly hostile press and an army of social media trolls,it’s even more important that we stand.

 

Yes we will disagree, but there can never be any excuse for any abuse of anybody. We settle our differences with democratic votes and unite around those decision.

 

That is the Labour Party, here this week, and out in the communities EVERY week - diverse, welcoming, democratic and ready to serve our country.

 

There is no bigger test in politics right now than Brexit, an incredibly important and complex process, that cannot be reduced to repeating fairy stories from the side of a bus or waiting 15 months to state the obvious. As democratic socialists, we accept and respect the referendum result, but respect for a democratic decision does not mean giving a green light to a recklesss Tory Brexit agenda that would plunge Britain into a Trump-style race-to-the-bottom in rights and corporate taxes.

 

We are not going to be passive spectators to a hopelessly inept negotiating team putting at risk people’s jobs, rights and living standards. A team more interested in posturing for personal advantage than in getting the best deal for our country. To be fair, Theresa May’s speech in Florence last week did unite the cabinet. for a few hours at least. Her plane had barely touched down at Heathrow before the divisions broke out again.

 

Never has the national interest been so ill-served on such a vital issue, If there were no other reason for the Tories to go their self-interested Brexit bungling would be reason enough. So I have a simple message to the cabinet for Britain’s sake pull yourself together or make way.

 

One thing needs to be made clear straight away. The three million EU citizens currently living and working in Britain are welcome here. They have been left under a cloud of insecurity by this government when their future could have been settled months ago. So Theresa May, give them the full guarantees they deserve today. If you don’t, we will.

 

Since the referendum result our Brexit team has focused above all on our economic future. That future is now under real threat. A powerful faction in the Conservative leadership sees Brexit as their chance to create a tax haven on the shores of Europe a low-wage, low tax deregulated playground for the hedge funds and speculators. A few at the top would do very nicely, no question. But manufacturing industries would go to the wall taking skilled jobs with them our tax base would crumble our public services would be slashed still further.

 

We are now less than 18 months away from leaving the European Union. And so far, the Tory trio leading the talks have got nowhere and agreed next to nothing. This rag-tag Cabinet spends more time negotiating with each other than they do with the EU. A cliff-edge Brexit is at risk of becoming a reality. That is why Labour has made clear that Britain should stay within the basic terms of the single market and a customs union for a limited transition period. It is welcome at least that Theresa May has belatedly accepted that.

 

But beyond that transition, our task is a different one. It is to unite everyone in our country around a progressive vision of what Britain could be, but with a government that stands for the many not the few.

 

Labour is the only party that can bring together those who voted leave and those who backed remain and unite the country for a future beyond Brexi. What matters in the Brexit negotiations is to achieve a settlement that delivers jobs, rights and decent living standards.

 

Conference, the real divide over Brexit could not be. A shambolic Tory Brexit driving down standards. Or a Labour Brexit that puts jobs first a Brexit for the many, one that guarantees unimpeded access to the single market and establishes a new co-operative relationship with the EU.

 

A Brexit that uses powers returned from Brussels to support a new industrial strategy to upgrade our economy in every region and nation. One that puts our economy first not fake immigration targets that fan the flames of fear. We will never follow the Tories into the gutter of blaming migrants for the ills of society. It isn’t migrants who drive down wages and conditions but the worst bosses in collusion with a Conservative government that never misses a chance to attack trade unions and weaken people’s rights at work.

 

Labour will take action to stop employers driving down pay and conditions not pander to scapegoating or racism. How Britain leaves the European Union is too important to be left to the Conservatives and their internal battles and identity crises.

 

Labour will hold Theresa May’s squabbling ministers to account every step of the way in these talks. And, with our Brexit team of Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry and Barry Gardiner we stand ready to take over whenever this government fails. to negotiate a new relationship with Europe that works for us all reaching outto help create a Europe for the many for the future.

 

The truth is …. That under the Tories Britain’s future is at risk whatever the outcome of the Brexit process. Our economy no longer delivers secure housing secure well-paid jobs or rising living standards. There is a new common sense emerging about how the country should be run. That’s what we fought for in the election and that’s what’s needed to replace the broken model forged by Margaret Thatcher many years ago.

 

And Ten years after the global financial crash the Tories still believe in the same dogmatic mantra – Deregulate, privatise ,cut taxes for the wealthy, weaken rights at work, delivering profits for a few, and debt for the many. Nothing has changed. It’s as if we’re stuck in a political and economic time-warp.

 

As the Financial Times put it last month our “financial system still looks a lot like the pre-crisis one” and the capitalist system still faces a “crisis of legitimacy”, stemming from the crash.

 

Now is the time that government took a more active role in restructuring our economy. Now is the time that corporate boardrooms were held accountable for their actions, And now is the time that we developed a new model of economic management to replace the failed dogmas of neo-liberalism … That is why Labour is looking not just to repair the damage done by austerity but to transform our economy with a new and dynamic role for the public sector particularly where the private sector has evidently failed.

 

Take the water industry. Of the nine water companies in England six are now owned by private equity or foreign sovereign wealth funds. Their profits are handed out in dividends to shareholders while the infrastructure crumbles the companies pay little or nothing in tax and executive pay has soared as the service deteriorates.

 

That is why we are committed to take back our utilities into public ownership to put them at the service of our people and our economy and stop the public being ripped off.

 

Of course there is much more that needs to be done. Our National Investment Bank… and the Transformation Fund will be harnessed to mobilise public investment to create wealth and good jobs. When I’ve met business groups I’ve been frank we will invest in the education and skills of the workforce and we will invest in better infrastructure from energy to digital but we are going to ask big business to pay a bit more tax.

 

The Tory approach to the economy isn’t entrepreneurial It’s extractive. They’re not focused on long-term investment and wealth creation. When you look at what they do rather than what they say it’s all about driving down wages, services and standards … to make as much money as quickly as possible with government not as the servant of the people but of global corporations. And their disregard for rampant inequality the hollowing out of our public services, the disdain for the powerless and the poorhave made our society more brutal and less caring.

 

Now that degraded regime has a tragic monument the chilling wreckage of Grenfell Tower. A horrifying fire in which dozens perished an entirely avoidable human disaster. One which is an indictment not just of decades of failed housing policies and privatisation and the yawning inequality in one of the wealthiest boroughs and cities in the world, it is also a damning indictment of a whole outlook which values council tax refunds for the wealthy above decent provision for all and which has contempt for working class communities.

 

Before the fire, a tenants’ group of Grenfell residents had warned … and I quote words that should haunt all politicians “the Grenfell Action Group firmly believesthat only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord”. Grenfell is not just the result of bad political decisions It stands for a failed and broken system which Labour must and will replace.

 

The poet Ben Okri recently wrote in his poem “Grenfell Tower”:

 

Those who were living now are dead

 

Those who were breathing are from the living earth fled

 

If you want to see how the poor die, come see Grenfell Tower.

 

See the tower, and let a world changing dream flower.

 

We have a duty as a country to learn the lessons from this calamity and ensure that a changed world flowers . I hope that the public inquiry will assist. But a decent home is a right for everyone whatever their income or background. And houses should be homes for the many not speculative investments for a few. Look at the Conservative housing record and you understand why Grenfell residents are sceptical about their Conservative council and this Conservative government.

 

Since 2010: homelessness has doubled, 120,000 children don’t have a home to call their own, home ownership has fallen, thousands are living in homes unfit for human habitation. This is why alongside our Shadow Housing minister John Healey we’re launching a review of social housing policy – its building, planning, regulation and management.

 

We will listen to tenants across the country and propose a radical programme of action to next year’s conference. But some things are already clear tenants are not being listened to.

 

We will insist that every home is fit for human habitation, a proposal this Tory government voted down. And we will control rents – when the younger generation’s housing costs are three times more than those of their grandparents, that is not sustainable.

 

Rent controls exist in many cities across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too and tenants to have those protections. We also need to tax undeveloped land held by developers and have the power to compulsorily purchase. As Ed Miliband said, “Use it or lose it”. Families need homes.

 

After Grenfell we must think again about what are called regeneration schemes.

 

Regeneration is a much abused word.

 

Too often what it really means is forced gentrification and social cleansing, as private developers move in and tenants and leaseholders are moved out.

 

We are very clear: we will stop the cuts to social security.

 

But we need to go further, as conference decided yesterday.

 

So when councils come forward with proposals for regeneration, we will put down two markers based on one simple principle:

 

Regeneration under a Labour government will be for the benefit of the local people, not private developers, not property speculators.

 

First, people who live on an estate that’s redeveloped must get a home on the same site and the same terms as before.

 

No social cleansing, no jacking up rents, no exorbitant ground rents.

 

And second councils will have to win a ballot of existing tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place.

 

Real regeneration, yes, but for the many not the few.

 

That’s not all that has to change.

 

All parties unite in paying tribute to our public sector workers:

 

The firefighters who ran into Grenfell Tower to save lives; the health service workers caring for the maimed in the Manchester terrorist outrage; the brave police officers who confronted the attackers at London Bridge; and PC Keith Palmer who gave his life when terrorists attack our democracy.

 

Our public servants make the difference every day, between a decent and a threadbare society.

 

Everyone praises them. But it is Labour that values them and is prepared to give them the pay rise they deserve and protect the services they provide.

 

Year after year the Tories have cut budgets and squeezed public sector pay, while cutting taxes for the highest earners and the big corporations.

 

You can’t care for the nation’s health when doctors and nurses are being asked to accept falling living standards year after year.

 

You can’t educate our children properly in ever larger class sizes with more teachers than ever leaving the profession.

 

You can’t protect the public on the cheap. The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts.

 

Scrapping the public sector pay squeeze isn’t an act of charity – it is a necessity to keep our public services fully staffed and strong.

 

Not everything worthwhile costs money though.

 

Like many people, I have been moved by the Daily Mirror’s campaign to change the organ donation law.

 

There are more than 5,000 people on organ transplant waiting lists, but a shortage of donors means that in recent years only 3,500 of them get the life-saving treatments they need.

 

So that everybody whose life could be saved by an organ transplant can have the gift of life – from one human being to another.

 

The law has already been changed in Wales under Carwyn Jones’s leadership, and today I make the commitment a Labour government will do the same for England.

 

In the last couple of days John McDonnell and Rebecca Long-Bailey have set out how we are going to develop the economic plans in our manifesto to ensure that sustainable growth and good jobs reach ALL parts of the country. So that no community or region is held back. To establish regional development banks,. to invest in an industrial strategy for every region.

 

But the challenges of the future go beyond the need to turn our backs on an economic model that has failed to invest and upgrade our economy.

 

We need urgently to face the challenge of automation – robotics that could make so much of contemporary work redundant.

 

That is a threat in the hands of the greedy, but it’s a huge opportunity if it’s managed in the interests of society as a whole. We won’t reap the full rewards of these great technological advances if they’re monopolised to pile up profits for a few. But if they’re publicly managed – to share the benefits – they can be the gateway for a new settlement between work and leisure. A springboard for expanded creativity and culture. The tide of automation and technological change means re-training and management of the workforce must be centre-stage in the coming years. So Labour will build an education and training system from the cradle to the grave that empowers people. Not one that shackles them with debt. That’s why we will establish a National Education Service which will include at its core free tuition for all college courses, technical and vocational training so that no one is held back by costs and everyone has the chance to learn. That will give millions a fair chance.

 

Lifelong learning for all is essential in the economy of the future. The huge shift of employment that will take place under the impact of automation must be planned and managed. It demands the reskilling of millions of people. Only Labour will deliver that. As Angela Rayner said yesterday, our National Education Service will be run on clear principles: universal, free and empowering. This is central to our socialism for the 21st century, for the many not the few.

 

During the election I visited Derwentside College in the constituency of our new MP Laura Pidcock – one of dozens of great new MPs breathing life and energy into Parliament. They offer adult courses in everything from IT to beauty therapy, from engineering to childcare. I met apprentice construction workers. They stand to benefit from Labour’s £250 billion National Transformation Fund, building the homes people need and the new transport, energy and digital infrastructure our country needs. But changing our economy to make it work for the whole country can’t take place in isolation from changing how our country is run. For people to take control of their own lives, our democracy needs to break out of Westminster into all parts of our society and economy where power is unaccountable. All around the world democracy is facing twin threats:

 

One is the emergence of an authoritarian nationalism that is intolerant and belligerent. The second is apparently more benign, but equally insidious. It is that the big decisions should be left to the elite. That political choices can only be marginal and that people are consumers first, and only citizens a distant second. Democracy has to mean much more than that.

 

It must mean listening to people outside of election time. Not just the rich and powerful who are used to calling the shots, but to those at the sharp end who really know what’s going on. Like the Greater Manchester police officer who warned Theresa May two years ago that cuts to neighbourhood policing were risking people’s lives and security. His concerns were dismissed as “crying wolf”.

 

Like the care workers sacked when they blow the whistle on abuse of the elderly..Or the teachers intimidated when they speak out about the lack of funding for our children’s schools. Or the doctors who are ignored when they warn that the NHS crumbling before our eyes, or blow the whistle on patient safety.

 

Labour is fighting for a society not only where rewards are more fairly spread, but where people are listened to more as well by government, their local council, their employer. Some of the most shocking cases of people not being listened to must surely be the recent revelations of widespread child sex abuse. Young people – and most often young working class women – have been subjected to the most repugnant abuse. The response lies in making sure that everybody’s voice must be heard no matter who they are or what their background.

 

The kind of democracy that we should be aiming for is one where people have a continuing say in how society is run, how their workplace is run, how their local schools or hospitals are run. That means increasing the public accountability and democratization of local services that Andrew Gwynne was talking about on Monday. It means democratically accountable public ownership for the natural monopolies, with new participatory forms of management, as Rebecca Long-Bailey has been setting out.

 

It means employees given their voice at work, with unions able to represent them properly, freed of undemocratic fetters on their right to organize. I promised you two years ago that we would do politics differently. It’s not always been easy. There’s quite a few who prefer politics the old way. But let me say it again. We will do politics differently. And the vital word there is “we”.

 

Not just leaders saying things are different, but everyone having the chance to shape our democracy. Our rights as citizens are as important as our rights as consumers. Power devolved to the community, not monopolised in Westminster and Whitehall. Now let’s take it a stage further – make public services accountable to communities. Business accountable to the public, and politicians truly accountable to those we serve. Let the next Labour government will transform Britain by genuinely putting power in the hands of the people, the creative, compassionate and committed people of our country. Both at home and abroad, what underpins our politics is our compassion and our solidarity with people.

 

Including those now recovering from hurricane damage in the Caribbean, floods in South Asia and Texas. and earthquakes in Mexico. Our interdependence as a planet could not be more obvious. The environmental crisis in particular demands a common global response. That is why President Trump’s threats to withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Treaty are so alarming. There is no contradiction between meeting our climate change commitments and investing to build a strong economy based on high skill industries. In fact the opposite is the case.

 

Action on climate change is a powerful spur to investment in the green industries and jobs of the future. So long as it is managed as part of a sustainable transition. We know, tragically, that terrorism also recognises no boundaries. We have had five shocking examples in Britain this year alone.

 

Two during the course of the General Election campaign and one in my own constituency. Both Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan – the mayors of Manchester and London – played a crucial role in bringing people together in the aftermath of those brutal attacks. The targeting of our democracy, of teenage girls at a pop concert, of people enjoying a night out, worshippers outside a mosque, commuters going to work – all of these are horrific crimes. And we all unite in both condemning the perpetrators and in our support for the emergency and security services, working to keep us safe.

 

But we also know that terrorism is thriving in a world our governments have helped to shape, with its failed states, military interventions and occupations where millions are forced to flee conflict or hunger. We have to do better and swap the knee-jerk response of another bombing campaign for long-term help to solve conflicts rather than fuel them. And we must put our values at the heart of our foreign policy. Democracy and human rights are not an optional extra to be deployed selectively.

 

So we cannot be silent at the cruel Saudi war in Yemen, while continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia, or the crushing of democracy in Egypt or Bahrain, or the tragic loss of life in Congo.

 

And I say this today to Aung San Suu Kyi – a champion of democracy and human rights – : end the violence now against the Rohingya in Myanmar and allow the UN and international aid agencies in to Rakhine state. The Rohingya have suffered for too long!

 

We should stand firm for peaceful solutions to international crises. Let’s tone down the rhetoric, and back dialogue and negotiations to wind down the deeply dangerous confrontation over the Korean Peninsula. And I appeal to the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres to use the authority of his office and go to Washington and Pyongyang to kick start that essential process of dialogue. And let’s give real support to end the oppression of the Palestinian people, the 50-year occupation and illegal settlement expansion and move to a genuine two-state solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Britain’s voice needs to be heard independently in the world. We must be a candid friend to the United States, now more than ever.

 

The values we share are not served by building walls, banning immigrants on the basis of religion, polluting the planet, or pandering to racism. And let me say frankly – the speech made by the US President to the United Nations last week was deeply disturbing. It threatened war and talked of tearing up international agreements. Devoid of concern for human rights or universal values, it was not the speech of a world leader. Our government has a responsibility. It cannot meekly go along with this dangerous course.

 

If the special relationship means anything, it must mean that we can say to Washington: that way is the wrong way. That’s clearly what’s needed in the case of Bombardier where thousands of jobs are now at stake.

 

A Prime Minister betting our economic future on a deregulated trade deal with the US might want to explain how 220% tariffs are going to boost our exports. So let Britain’s voice be heard loud and clear for peace, justice and cooperation.

 

Conference, it is often said that elections can only be won from the centre ground. And in a way that’s not wrong – so long as it’s clear that the political centre of gravity isn’t fixed or unmovable, nor is it where the establishment pundits like to think it is. It shifts as people’s expectations and experiences change and political space is opened up. Today’s centre ground is certainly not where it was twenty or thirty years ago.

 

A new consensus is emerging from the great economic crash and the years of austerity, when people started to find political voice for their hopes for something different and better. 2017 may be the year when politics finally caught up with the crash of 2008 – because we offered people a clear choice.

 

We need to build a still broader consensus around the priorities we set in the election, making the case for both compassion and collective aspiration. This is the real centre of gravity of British politics. We are now the political mainstream. Our manifesto and our policies are popular because that is what most people in our country actually want, not what they’re told they should want. And that is why Labour is on the way back in Scotland becoming once again the champion of social justice.

 

Thank you Kezia. And whoever next leads Scottish Labour – our unifying socialist message will continue to inspire both south and north of the border.

 

That is why our party now has around twice the membership of all the other parties put together. Conference, we have left the status quo behind, but we must make the change we seek credible and effective. We have left our own divisions behind. But we must make our unity practical. We know we are campaign-ready. We must be government-ready too. Our aspirations matched by our competence.

 

During the election campaign I met and listened to people in every part of the country. Struggling single parents, young people held back by lack of opportunity. Pensioners anxious about health and social care, public servants trying to keep services together.

 

Low and middle earners, self-employed and employed, facing insecurity and squeezed living standards. But hopeful that things could change, and that Labour could make a difference. Many hadn’t voted before, or not for years past. But they put their faith in our party. We offered an antidote to apathy and despair. Let everyone understand – We will not let you down.

 

Because we listen to you, because we believe in you. Labour can and will deliver a Britain for the many not just the few. Thank you.

It is with a real sense of pride that I stand before you as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

 

First of all, I’d like to put on record my thanks to my predecessor, Tim Farron. He hands over a Party, which is larger, stronger and more diverse than the one he inherited. He stood up for refugees whose plight the government had shamefully ignored. He established our very clear identity as the only real, undiluted pro-European party. We are all hugely indebted to him. It’s good, today, to be amongst friends. So please forgive me if I start by addressing people who are not yet our friends, but whom we might persuade.

 

People who say they don’t know what we stand for, or that we are irrelevant. Anyone who doubts the relevance of the Liberal Democrats should reflect on the three great disasters perpetrated by the two main parties in recent years: the war in Iraq; the banking crisis; now Brexit.

 

You may remember that the Labour Government, egged on by the Conservative opposition, plunged this country into a disastrous, illegal war. It helped to fuel the jihadist movements which terrorise the Middle East, and our own country, and our allies, to this day. And it was only the Liberal Democrats, under Charles Kennedy, who showed sound judgement and political courage when it was needed. I am immensely proud to have served my parliamentary apprenticeship in that company. Then, the same government lost control of the economy. It allowed reckless and greedy bankers to run amok. Yet again, the Conservatives egged Labour on, demanding even less restraint.

 

The Liberal Democrats warned that it would end badly.

 

And it did. An economy built on banking and property speculation was left dangerously exposed to the global financial crisis. And the baleful consequences are still with us: our economy continues to be dependent on the life support system of ultra-cheap money, which is now inflating a new credit bubble; and also a real sense of resentment that wealth inequalities have widened and only the super-rich have flourished in this post-crisis world.

 

In 2010, after all that, we could then have stood aside, washing our hands of responsibility.the party that said “we told you so”. But we didn’t. We went into government, in the national interest, to repair the damage. It was the right thing to do and Nick Clegg led us courageously in doing it.

 

And while thinking about Nick, I know you will all want to join me in sending him and Miriam our collective best wishes as Antonio, and the whole family, emerge from what has been a very tough and anxious time.

 

Our thoughts are with them. Nick has been much vilified by our opponents, but we are proud of him and his record.

 

I am certain that just as Parliament now misses his voice, history will vindicate his judgement. You need only look at our record to know it. In Government we did a lot of good and we stopped a lot of bad. Don’t let the Tories tell you that they lifted millions of low-earners out of income tax. We did. Don’t let the Tories tell you they launched an apprenticeship revolution or the Industrial Strategy. We did. Don’t let the Tories tell you that they brought in the pupil premium and free school meals.We did that. The Liberal Democrats did that. But we have paid a very high political price. Trust was lost.

 

For many voters, we still have to scrub ourselves hard to get rid of the smell of clearing up other people’s mess.

And now, another disaster looms. Brexit. The product of a fraudulent and frivolous campaign led by two groups of silly public school boys reliving their dormitory pillow fights.

 

And thanks to Boris Johnson, they have degenerated into a full scale school riot with the Headteacher hiding, barricaded in her office.

 

In the real world, we’ve yet to experience the full impact of leaving Europe. But we’ve had a taste of what is to come, in the fall in the value of the pound. Foreign exchange dealers are not point scoring politicians. They make cold, hard, unsentimental judgements. Quite simply, Brexit Britain will be poorer and weaker than if we had decided to stay in Europe.Brexit was described by the Brexit Secretary himself as an operation of such technical complexity that it makes the moon landing look simple.

 

I have to say it is a pity that the Brexit landing is being managed by people who would struggle to get their heads around a toddlers’ lego set.

 

These are people who live in a world of infantile fairy tales. I’m sure you know the one about the Giant Tweeter who lives in a White House far away and who flies across the ocean to rescue us from the wicked Gnomes of Europe.

 

But to be serious, for a moment, it is both extraordinary and unforgiveable that the Government is entrusting the future of this country - its trade policy, its security, its standing in the world – to a special relationship with a President who is volatile, dangerous and an apologist for religious and racial hatred. It is an outrage that this man – who now presumes to attack our highly effective police and security services – has been invited here on a state visit. As Jo Swinson so rightly said on Sunday: no red carpet for President Trump – The visit should be cancelled.

 

Let me say a few words about Labour. Many people got behind Jeremy Corbyn in June, genuinely expecting a better politics and a better future.They are already being betrayed. Today’s Labour Party isn’t into problem solving; let alone governing. Jeremy Corbyn’s acolytes are focused on how to maximise the contradictions of capitalism.

 

You don’t qualify for the Labour Shadow Cabinet these days unless you have studied the Venezuelan guide on how to bankrupt a rich economy. It’s no wonder they backed Brexit. It’s no wonder they lined up behind Theresa May, maximising the chances of chaos and disruption. Then a few weeks ago the moderates briefly penetrated the Corbyn bunker. They persuaded him that collaborating quite so closely with the class enemy didn’t look too good.

 

So, they’ve got a new policy: which is to stay in the Single Market and Customs Union... possibly; or to leave... maybe. Or maybe to stay in for a bit, and then leave. I am being kind here: I am trying to understand what they are trying to say. I think the current line is…we should transition to the transition gradually while we prepare for a post transition world. This is what they mean by the smack of firm leadership.I believe Jeremy Corbyn would do a lot better to get off the fence and refurbish his revolutionary credentials. So Jeremy – join us in the Anti Brexit People’s Liberation Front!

 

What the people want, what the country now desperately needs is some political adults. That’s you. That’s us.

Fortunately, we are not alone. There are sensible grown-ups in the Conservative Party and the Labour Party and the Greens.

 

And beyond them are millions of people who are deeply worried about what is happening. We have got to put aside tribal differences and work alongside like-minded people to keep the Single Market and Customs Union, so essential for trade and jobs;Europe’s high environmental and social standards; the shared research; help for our poorer regions; cooperation over policing and terrorism. Europe, of course, needs reform but you don’t achieve reform by walking away.

 

Our position is clear: The Liberal Democrats are the party of Remain.

 

The government meanwhile is stuck in divorce negotiations for which it is hopelessly ill-equipped, ill-prepared, and internally divided.

 

So I have some practical advice for Theresa May. Take the issue of European Union nationals in the UK and British nationals in Europe out of these negotiations. Because using them as bargaining chips is not only morally wrong but utterly counter-productive. Put the lives of 4 million people first, not the posturing internal politics of the Conservative Party. No ifs, no buts. The government should declare a Right to Stay – now. At the end of these tortuous divorce negotiations, the British public must be given a vote on the outcome.

 

Let me be clear about this. This is not a call for a re-run. This is not a call for a second referendum on Brexit. This is a call for a first referendum on the facts. When we know what Brexit means, the people should get the choice: The Government deal or an ‘exit from Brexit’. We know, of course, that our call will be resented by the Brexit fundamentalists. We will be denounced as traitors and saboteurs. I’m half prepared for a spell in a cell with Supreme Court judges, Gina Miller, Ken Clarke, and the governors of the BBC. But if the definition of sabotage is fighting to protect British jobs, public services, the environment and civil liberties, then I am a proud saboteur. Brexiteers will say: “we have already voted to leave. How dare you people flout democracy.”

 

It is actually quite difficult to follow this argument. It seems to go: that consulting the public – having a vote – is undemocratic.

 

Why? What are they afraid of? Are they afraid that the claims of £350m a week for the NHS won’t wash any more? That claim has rightly been dismissed in the last few days by the independent UK Statistics Authority.

 

No wonder Boris and the Brexiteers are so frightened of the people - and the facts. They now believe in the slogan of dictators everywhere: ‘one person, one vote, once!’. I am a grandparent. I am concerned about the country my grandchildren will inherit. I am already getting a colourful correspondence from people of my own generation claiming that I have betrayed them. That I have given up too easily on reinventing the British Empire and on the dream of Britain without foreigners.

 

I am still struggling, actually, to think of an answer to the woman who challenged me, in all seriousness, to explain how her Wiltshire village would cope with the arrival of 60 million Turks.

 

Now I recognise that the true believers in Brexit are honest enough to admit that it will make us poorer…There is another word for that: masochism. It isn’t illegal. I am told some people pay good money to indulge in it.

But unlike masochists, the Brexit ideologues usually envisage someone else bearing the pain. And that pain will mainly be felt by young people who overwhelmingly voted to Remain.

 

But this argument cannot go on forever.Once the issue is resolved by a vote on the facts, we must then try to unite a very divided country around the outcome. So yes, I want our party to lead the fight against Brexit. But we should not be consumed by Brexit to the exclusion of everything else. We are not a single-issue party; we’re not UKIP in reverse.

 

I see our future as a party of government. Our party is not just a Coalition partner of the past, we are the government of the future. And my role, as your leader, is to be a credible potential Prime Minister.

 

I know some of you might say, looking at the alternatives, that the bar isn’t very high.

 

Theresa May is giving us a compelling display of weak and wobbly government: divided, dysfunctional, and dependent on the Democratic Unionist Party.

 

We all know that her colleagues want to sack her, bring in somebody more attuned to the challenges of modernity.I guess that is why a current leading candidate for the succession is, according to bookmakers, Jacob Rees-Mogg. On a dream ticket with his nanny.Then we have the Labour Party. I do have one great advantage over Jeremy Corbyn. I have a great team: our Shadow Cabinet has 10 former ministers, 3 of whom served in Cabinet. And I’m proud that one of them is now our superb Deputy Leader, Jo Swinson.

 

My team has been bloodied in the difficult business of government. By contrast, in a parliamentary party of 262 MPs, Jeremy Corbyn can find only two people who have been anywhere near Cabinet, to serve in his alternative administration. All the other plausible candidates for office have walked out or been thrown out. And the question now presents itself: what would they actually do in power? What would a Corbyn government look like? Their basic appeal is to offer something for nothing. All paid for by someone else. For them budgeting is just a bourgeois hobby.

 

I first encountered this politics of free things as a young Treasury official in Kenya. President Kenyatta – the father – faced defeat in an election against an opposition offering lots of freebies: free food, free land, free cows, free cars. He turned to my department for help. We came up with a winning slogan – Hapana Chakula Kabisa. Roughly translated it meant: there is no such thing as a free lunch.

 

(Unless of course it is a Lib Dem free school lunch!)

 

But money and priorities define the crucial difference between us and Labour.

 

We understand that to govern is to choose. And they don’t.

 

That’s why only we are honest with people about the service which everyone in this country cares about, and which Labour always claims to champion. The NHS. if we want a decent service, we’ve all got to pay for it.

 

For starters, Liberal Democrats will continue to argue for another penny in the pound on income tax to pay for it.

 

That means more than £6bn extra each year for the NHS and social care, and the funding we need for our priority: proper care for those suffering mental illness.

 

If you want a real champion for Britain’s NHS, the Liberal Democrats are the party for you. The attraction of the Labour campaign, however, was that it offered hope. Hope counters despair. Hope can inspire. Hope can achieve change.

 

But what hope cannot do is make 2+2=7. What the country needs is hope AND realism. In a Britain increasingly dominated by extremists and ideologues, I want us to fill the huge gap in the centre of British politics. Liberal Democrats have always grappled with the big challenges facing our country and our world. I am determined that, to meet them, our party will once again become a workshop for new ideas. Hope and realism starts with the economy.

 

Because without a successful economy we won’t have the resources to fix an overstretched NHS,underfunded schools, understaffed police forces,and perilously overcrowded prisons.

 

We currently have a low productivity, low wage economy lagging well behind Germany. And while France is modernising, Britain is lurching down a nostalgic cul-de-sac of Brexit. And Britain’s strengths – and there are real, considerable strengths: its openness to trade, people, ideas, its world class universities and inventiveness. These things are being put at risk.

 

What the country needs… more investment; more innovation; more training and retraining; more patient, long term capital; the renaissance of manufacturing and the nurturing of creative industries; the greening of the economy. To achieve these things requires overcoming the petty tribalism and short termism which are the bane of British politics. We made some progress under the Coalition when we launched and pursued the Industrial Strategy, working with both sides of industry – management and workers.

 

I also drew on the legacy of political opponents, Labour and Conservatives. Because the test should not be ‘who said it’. It should be ‘what works best?’; sometimes the state; sometimes private enterprise; usually a practical combination of the two.Long term thinking means, above all, having an understanding of sustainability and climate change.

 

It is very striking that the most fervent apostles of Brexit are climate change deniers. Striking, but not surprising because climate change doesn’t respect national frontiers and national sovereignty.

 

I think it’s tragic that Ed Davey’s sterling work in the Coalition is now being trashed by Conservative ministers, who revel in anti-scientific ignorance. It is absolutely galling to see the sell-off of the Green Investment Bank to a private sector asset-stripper. To see the Green Deal ditched, the Swansea lagoon delayed, carbon capture and storage abandoned… To see the Conservatives doing a massive u-turn on Heathrow expansion.

 

The Conservatives describe protecting the environment as ‘green crap’. By contrast, Liberal Democrats will always fight for the green agenda. More than anything else, investing in people is the key to a successful modern economy.

 

Britain is fortunate to have excellent universities, many of them world class. But only a minority, and generally a better off minority, go to university. As a country we have systematically undervalued and disrespected the 60% of young people who do not go to university, and the 80% of adults who never went.

 

That is why I have been working with the National Union of Students on a programme to help all young people.Many will go into further, and vocational, education but

Britain’s record in technical education and training so far is woeful, which is why we now have a chronic skills shortage.

 

That is why in government, the Liberal Democrats launched an apprenticeship revolution. We made a lot of progress but there is so much more to do to ensure that high quality apprenticeships and training are an option available to every young person.

 

I hope you will indulge me if I explain a bit of family history which shows why I care passionately about this subject. My own parents left school at 15 to work in factories in York. My father went to night school and qualified to teach building trades at a further education college. He and I fell out over his right-wing politics but I never lost my admiration for his life’s work with skilled workers, technicians, craftsmen; people that we now desperately lack.

 

And my mother’s experience makes the point in a different way. She discovered night school after a prolonged period of mental illness when I was a child. She discovered education as an adult; and it helped her to recover.

I was able to apply this experience in government.

Alongside Norman Lamb, we were able to secure some funding to reintroduce classes in adult colleges for those suffering mental illness. And it has been a great success.

 

But the bigger point is the value for everyone, of continued adult learning. Millions of workers in middle age now face their office and factory jobs disappearing with the advance of automation and artificial intelligence. We’ve got to be the party with the answers for those people.

 

One idea I want to develop with you – with the party – is finding a way to support all young people in future with an endowment or learning account, which they can use at any stage in life…helping to finance further or higher education, either at the post-18 stage or later in life.

 

It is a fundamentally liberal idea, handing control to the individual, and I want to explore how it can be sustainably financed through fair taxation of wealth.

 

Under my leadership, our party will be the champions of lifelong learning, giving everyone a chance of self-improvement and employment at every stage in life.

 

We can’t effectively modernise our economy until we radically reform finance. We’ve got global banks that have little interest whatever in promoting British business and local economies. We’ve got obsessively short term capital markets that have the collective attention span of a goldfish. We’ve got banks that will only lend when secured against property… to people who want to buy houses… but not businesses who want to build them… to real estate speculators, but not to exporters and innovators.

 

Liberal Democrats want to see financiers be the servants of Britain’s real economy, rather than its masters.

 

We did a lot in Coalition to improve things: establishing the British Business Bank, the Green Investment Bank and the business Growth Fund for risk capital; splitting the casinos from conventional banking; promoting a culture of long termism; opening up the market to challenger banks.

 

But that is just the beginning of what is needed to lift Britain from what at present is a dangerous over-dependence on property markets and banks in the SE corner of England.

 

Public investment complements private investment. This country needs a massive injection of public investment… in the railway network – across the north of England and the Midlands to Wales and the South West… and in broadband… and in housing.

 

Every pound spent building modern Britain will be returned many times over. Never in British economic history has it been cheaper for a bold, active government to borrow for productive investment, alongside the private sector… so why is this government so feeble and so passive? I want our party to be pro-business and pro-enterprise. British business is in desperate need of a champion and we will be that champion. Not for the sake of it but because Britain succeeds when they succeed. Growing numbers have given up on the Conservative Party, because they know it has abandoned British business. Their home is now with us. Progressive British firms know, too, that being pro-business doesn’t mean being anti-worker.

 

I spent five years in Government fighting off Tory plans to introduce ‘fire at will’ and to abolish the right to strike. We are pro-business and we are also pro-worker. And because we believe in competitive markets and the rights of consumers, it is time to tackle the abuse of corporate power.

 

Take the communications and technology companies. They have access to vast amounts of personal data and information to use and abuse. It’s not a coincidence that the only body strong enough to stand up to Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook is the European Commission.

Does anybody seriously believe that a post-Brexit British government will do anything other than roll over when the big boys in come looking for favours or dodging taxes at will?

 

As some of you know, I have had occasional disagreements with Mr Rupert Murdoch. But not always. He is, for example, reported to have said “When I am in Brussels, they tell me what to do. When I am in Downing St, I tell them what to do.”

 

He got it in one. As he knows all too well, wealth and power feed off each other. So do powerlessness and poverty. If there is any single lesson from the Grenfell disaster, it is that people in poverty aren’t listened to. Nowhere is inequality more marked than in the housing market. Property wealth for the fortunate coexists with growing insecurity and homelessness for many others. Home ownership, which spread wealth for generations, is no longer a realistic prospect for younger people with moderate means.

 

To put this right, we must end the stranglehold of oligarchs and speculators in our housing market. I want to see fierce tax penalties on the acquisition of property for investment purposes, by overseas residents. And I want to see rural communities protected from the blight of absentee second home ownership, which devastates local economies and pushes young people away from the places where they grew up.

 

Homes are to live in; they’re not pieces on a Monopoly board. But whatever we do with existing homes will not be enough. A doubling of annual housing supply to buy and rent is needed.

 

For years politicians have waffled about house building while tinkering at the edges of the market. I want to recapture the pioneering spirit that in the mid-20th century brought about developments like Milton Keynes and the new towns. I want to see a new generation of garden cities and garden villages spring up in places where demand presently outstrips supply.

 

But we know that private developers alone will not make this happen.Just as social reformers in the 1950s and 60s saw government roll up its sleeves and get involved with building, government today has a responsibility to be bold and to build more of the homes we need for the 21st century. It is utterly absurd that councils are allowed to borrow to speculate in commercial property, but are stopped from borrowing to build affordable council houses.

 

This triumph of ideological dogma over common sense must stop. Government must take the lead, and get building. The housing crisis is at the heart of a growing and deeply corrosive inequality between generations. Elderly people, of course, deserve respect. Some people have even accused me of being one of them. The state pension – thanks to the Coalition – has rightly been protected. But meanwhile young people face employment that is insecure, and unaffordable housing. And – now – a future of narrowing horizons and closing frontiers, which the vast majority of under 25s never voted for. As Britain’s government of the future, Liberal Democrats will always be their voice and their champion.

 

But there is an elephant in the room. Debt – specifically student debt. We all know we suffered grievous political harm from making a pledge seven years ago on tuition fees that we couldn’t meet.

 

The problem hasn’t gone away.We are faced with a fundamental dilemma. The changes we made in Government ensured universities are properly funded. And it is right that the most highly paid graduates pay most; those who earn least pay nothing at all. Yet just because the system operates like a tax, we cannot escape the fact it isn’t seen as one…the worry about debt does cause students and their families real concern.

 

Escalating student loan interest rates add to that concern.And many universities are obsessed with getting bums on seats rather than giving students value for money.

I have therefore launched a review, led by former Cambridge MP David Howarth, which will recommend options for reform, including a graduate tax. We will consult on the outcome through the party’s policy process, and I aim for its results to come before you at a future conference.

 

We value the support of students, so we must get this issue right.We also know that the most pressing issue for students day-to-day, and the main source of debt, is the cost of living.

 

Under our Government, the number of students from poorer households increased, in part because Liberal Democrats improved maintenance grants. The Tories have now trashed that record by slashing those grants altogether. They should be ashamed to see any student deciding to terminate their studies because they cannot pay the rent. But young people need more than financial support. They need a political voice. That is why votes at 16 are at the centre of our campaigning for political reform. If it is OK to vote at 16 and 17 in Scotland, then it’s OK to vote at 16 and 17 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

 

This reform sits alongside proportional representation for Westminster and for English and Welsh local government; a fully elected House of Lords; reform of party funding; and radical decentralisation from central to local government.

We are the party of political reform. And in particular, we are the party of devolution, and we have proved how well it works. I want to pay particular tribute to our campaign teams in Scotland for their advances under Willie Rennie, and to Kirsty Williams for the superb job she is doing as Welsh Education Secretary.

 

But before we overhaul what is fundamentally a broken political system we have to demonstrate that we can win under the existing system. That means opening the way to many more Lib Dem councils and MPs, by getting back, at least, to the national vote share we enjoyed before 2010.

 

I believe it can be done. But it won’t be until we have a party that looks like modern Britain. Thanks to the efforts of our Party President, Sal Brinton, and others, progress has been made in improving gender balance, but it is still inadequate. I demonstrated in government a commitment to this issue by working with women in business to achieve a demanding target for women on the boards of top companies.

 

I am committed to similar ambition in our own party. We have even further to travel in ensuring that we have proper Black, Asian and Minority representation at all levels. As many of you know, I married into an Asian family and we brought up a multiracial family in this country. My own family has flourished. But I am perhaps more conscious than many of the subtle, and often not so subtle, barriers that exist. And now there is an upsurge of xenophobia and racism, which many of us dared to hope had been banished for good. There is much to be done before we can call our country and our party successfully integrated. But I am optimistic. We believe in equality.

 

We have demonstrated through the work of Lynne Featherstone and others on equal marriage that we can lead public opinion in a liberal direction.

 

I am optimistic too for our party. We have had several difficult years since the formation of the Coalition.

 

But I know there is a great deal of resilience, energy and self-discipline in the party which will fuel our recovery.

 

There are big opportunities created by our distinctive and clear leadership of anti-Brexit opinion and by the growing self-indulgent extremism in both the Conservative and Labour parties.

 

I know you are impatient for success. This country is impatient for success. I am impatient for success. But I know too the value of endurance. Success is often laced with setback. I reflect on one of the most difficult periods of my life, when many of you will know that I lost my first wife. In time, I recovered and I found a new partnership with Rachel. She has sustained and supported me ever since. Her energy and dedication to me is the source of my energy and dedication to this party. And politics has proved an even greater waiting game than life. I had to wait 30 years from my first campaign to win a seat in Parliament. I had to wait two years to return, after the setback in 2015. But now, friends, the time for waiting is over.

 

Only the Liberal Democrats have the ideas, the experience and the commitment to transform the fortunes of our country. An exit from Brexit. A grown-up approach to the economy.

 

And bold ideas to strengthen our society through the 21st century. I am ready to take our message out to the country and I ask you to join me on the journey as we, together, take the Liberal Democrats…… back to Government.

The new centre ground

 

When we came to Birmingham this week, some big questions were hanging in the air.

 

Do we have a plan for Brexit? We do.

 

Are we ready for the effort it will take to see it through? We are.

 

Can Boris Johnson stay on message for a full four days? Just about.

 

But I know there’s another big question people want me to answer.

 

What’s my vision for Britain? My philosophy? My approach?

 

Today I want to answer that question very directly.

 

I want to set out my vision for Britain after Brexit.

 

I want to lay out my approach – the things I believe.

 

I want to explain what a country that works for everyone means.

 

I want to set our party and our country on the path towards the new centre ground of British politics…

 

built on the values of fairness and opportunity…

 

where everyone plays by the same rules and where every single person - regardless of their background, or that of their parents - is given the chance to be all they want to be.

 

And as I do so, I want to be clear about something else: that a vision is nothing without the determination to see it through.

 

No vision ever built a business by itself. No vision ever clothed a family or fed a hungry child. No vision ever changed a country on its own.

 

You need to put the hours in and the effort too.

 

But if you do, great things can happen. Great changes can occur.

 

And be in no doubt, that’s what Britain needs today.

 

Because in June people voted for change. And a change is going to come.

 

Britain's quiet revolution

 

Change has got to come because as we leave the European Union and take control of our own destiny, the task of tackling some of Britain’s long-standing challenges - like how to train enough people to do the jobs of the future - becomes ever more urgent.

 

But change has got to come too because of the quiet revolution that took place in our country just three months ago – a revolution in which millions of our fellow citizens stood up and said they were not prepared to be ignored anymore.

 

Because this is a turning point for our country.

 

A once-in-a-generation chance to change the direction of our nation for good.

 

To step back and ask ourselves what kind of country we want to be.

 

Let’s be clear: we have come a long way over the past six years.

 

We’ve brought the deficit down.

 

Got more people into work than ever before.

 

Taken the lowest paid out of income tax.

 

Established a new National Living Wage.

 

Helped nearly a million new business to set up and grow.

 

Got almost one and a half million more children into good or outstanding schools.

 

Put record investment into the NHS.

 

Created nearly 3 million new apprenticeships.

 

And brought crime down by more than a quarter to its lowest ever level.

 

That’s a record of which we should all be proud.

 

And this morning it’s right that we pause to say thank you to the man who made that possible. A man who challenged us to change and told us that if we did then we would win again.

 

And he was right. We did change. We did win. The first majority Conservative Government in almost 25 years.

 

A great leader of our party – a great servant to our country.

 

David Cameron, thank you.

 

But now we need to change again. For the referendum was not just a vote to withdraw from the EU. It was about something broader – something that the European Union had come to represent.

 

It was about a sense – deep, profound and let’s face it often justified – that many people have today that the world works well for a privileged few, but not for them.

 

It was a vote not just to change Britain’s relationship with the European Union, but to call for a change in the way our country works – and the people for whom it works – forever.

 

Knock on almost any door in almost any part of the country, and you will find the roots of the revolution laid bare.

 

Our society should work for everyone, but if you can’t afford to get onto the property ladder, or your child is stuck in a bad school, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you.

 

Our economy should work for everyone, but if your pay has stagnated for several years in a row and fixed items of spending keep going up, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you.

 

Our democracy should work for everyone, but if you’ve been trying to say things need to change for years and your complaints fall on deaf ears, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you.

 

And the roots of the revolution run deep. Because it wasn’t the wealthy who made the biggest sacrifices after the financial crash, but ordinary, working class families.

 

And if you’re one of those people who lost their job, who stayed in work but on reduced hours, took a pay cut as household bills rocketed, or - and I know a lot of people don’t like to admit this - someone who finds themselves out of work or on lower wages because of low-skilled immigration, life simply doesn’t seem fair.

 

It feels like your dreams have been sacrificed in the service of others.

 

So change has got to come.

 

Because if we don’t respond – if we don’t take this opportunity to deliver the change people want – resentments will grow. Divisions will become entrenched.

 

And that would be a disaster for Britain.

 

Because the lesson of Britain is that we are a country built on the bonds of family, community, citizenship.

 

Of strong institutions and a strong society.

 

The country of my parents who instilled in me a sense of public service and of public servants everywhere who want to give something back.

 

The parent who works hard all week but takes time out to coach the kids football team at the weekend.

 

The local family business in my constituency that’s been serving the community for more than 50 years.

 

The servicemen and women I met last week who wear their uniform proudly at home and serve our nation with honour abroad.

 

A country of decency, fairness and quiet resolve.

 

And a successful country - small in size but large in stature - that with less than 1% of the world’s population boasts more Nobel Laureates than any country outside the United States… with three more added again just yesterday – two of whom worked here in this great city.

 

A country that boasts three of the top ten universities in the world. The world’s leading financial capital. And institutions like the NHS and BBC whose reputations echo in some of the farthest corners of the globe.

 

All possible because we are one United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – and I will always fight to preserve our proud, historic Union and will never let divisive nationalists drive us apart.

 

Yet within our society today, we see division and unfairness all around. Between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation. Between the wealth of London and the rest of the country.

 

But perhaps most of all, between the rich, the successful and the powerful - and their fellow citizens.

 

Now don’t get me wrong. We applaud success. We want people to get on.

 

But we also value something else: the spirit of citizenship.

 

That spirit that means you respect the bonds and obligations that make our society work. That means a commitment to the men and women who live around you, who work for you, who buy the goods and services you sell.

 

That spirit that means recognising the social contract that says you train up local young people before you take on cheap labour from overseas.

 

That spirit that means you do as others do, and pay your fair share of tax.

 

But today, too many people in positions of power behave as though they have more in common with international elites than with the people down the road, the people they employ, the people they pass in the street.

 

But if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what the very word ‘citizenship’ means.

 

So if you’re a boss who earns a fortune but doesn’t look after your staff…

 

An international company that treats tax laws as an optional extra…

 

A household name that refuses to work with the authorities even to fight terrorism…

 

A director who takes out massive dividends while knowing that the company pension is about to go bust…

 

I’m putting you on warning. This can’t go on anymore.

 

A change has got to come. And this party – the Conservative Party – is going to make that change.

 

Believing in the good that government can do

 

So today, I want to set out my plan for a Britain where everyone plays by the same rules and every person has the opportunity to be all they want to be.

 

It’s a plan to tackle the unfairness and injustice that divides us, so that we may build a new united Britain, rooted in the centre ground.

 

A plan that will mean government stepping up. Righting wrongs. Challenging vested interests. Taking big decisions. Doing what we believe to be right. Getting the job done.

 

Because that’s the good that government can do. And it’s what I’m in this for. To stand up for the weak and stand up to the strong.

 

And to put the power of government squarely at the service of ordinary working-class people.

 

Because too often that isn’t how it works today.

 

Just listen to the way a lot of politicians and commentators talk about the public.

 

They find your patriotism distasteful, your concerns about immigration parochial, your views about crime illiberal, your attachment to your job security inconvenient.

 

They find the fact that more than seventeen million voters decided to leave the European Union simply bewildering.

 

Because if you’re well off and comfortable, Britain is a different country and these concerns are not your concerns. It’s easy to dismiss them - easy to say that all you want from government is for it to get out of the way.

 

But a change has got to come. It’s time to remember the good that government can do.

 

Time for a new approach that says while government does not have all the answers, government can and should be a force for good;

 

that the state exists to provide what individual people, communities and markets cannot;

 

and that we should employ the power of government for the good of the people.

 

Time to reject the ideological templates provided by the socialist left and the libertarian right and to embrace a new centre ground in which government steps up – and not back – to act on behalf of us all.

 

Providing security from crime, but from ill health and unemployment too.

 

Supporting free markets, but stepping in to repair them when they aren’t working as they should.

 

Encouraging business and supporting free trade, but not accepting one set of rules for some and another for everyone else.

 

And if we do – if we act to correct unfairness and injustice and put government at the service of ordinary working people – we can build that new united Britain in which everyone plays by the same rules, and in which the powerful and the privileged no longer ignore the interests of the people.

 

Only we can do it. Because the main lesson I take from their conference last week is that the Labour Party is not just divided, but divisive.

 

Determined to pit one against another. To pursue vendettas and settle scores. And to embrace the politics of pointless protest that simply pulls people further apart.

 

That’s what Labour stands for today. Fighting among themselves. Abusing their own MPs. Threatening to end their careers. Tolerating anti-Semitism and supporting voices of hate.

 

You know what some people call them?

 

The nasty party.

 

And with Labour divided, divisive and out-of-touch, we have a responsibility to step up, represent and govern for the whole nation.

 

So where Labour build barriers, we will build bridges.

 

That means tackling unfairness and injustice, and shifting the balance of Britain decisively in favour of ordinary working class people.

 

Giving them access to the opportunities that are too often the preserve of the privileged few.

 

Putting fairness at the heart of our agenda and creating a country in which hard work is rewarded and talent is welcome.

 

A nation where contribution matters more than entitlement. Merit matters more than wealth.

 

A confident global Britain that doesn’t turn its back on globalisation but ensures the benefits are shared by all.

 

A country that is prosperous and secure, so every person may share in the wealth of the nation and live their life free from fear.

 

That’s what I mean by a country that works for everyone.

A global Britain

 

And if we believe in the good that government can do, it’s important for people to trust us to deliver the change they need.

 

We can start – as I said on Sunday – by doing something obvious. And that is to stop quibbling, respect what the people told us on the 23rd of June – and take Britain out of the European Union.

 

Because it took that typically British quiet resolve for people to go out and vote as they did: to defy the establishment, to ignore the threats, to make their voice heard.

 

So let us have that same resolve now.

 

And let’s be clear about what is going to happen.

 

Article Fifty – triggered no later than the end of March.

 

A Great Repeal Bill to get rid of the European Communities Act – introduced in the next Parliamentary session.

 

Our laws made not in Brussels but in Westminster.

 

Our judges sitting not in Luxembourg but in courts across the land.

 

The authority of EU law in this country ended forever.

 

The people told us they wanted these things – and this Conservative Government is going to deliver them.

 

It is, of course, too early to say exactly what agreement we will reach with the EU. It’s going to be a tough negotiation, it will require some give and take. And while there will always be pressure to give a running commentary, it will not be in our national interest to do so.

 

But let me be clear about the agreement we seek.

 

I want it to reflect the strong and mature relationships we enjoy with our European friends.

 

I want it to include cooperation on law enforcement and counter-terrorism work.

 

I want it to involve free trade, in goods and services.

 

I want it to give British companies the maximum freedom to trade with and operate within the Single Market – and let European businesses do the same here.

 

But let’s state one thing loud and clear: we are not leaving the European Union only to give up control of immigration all over again. And we are not leaving only to return to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. That’s not going to happen.

 

We are leaving to become, once more, a fully sovereign and independent country – and the deal is going to have to work for Britain.

 

And that Britain – the Britain we build after Brexit – is going to be a Global Britain.

 

Because while we are leaving the European Union, we will not leave the continent of Europe. We will not abandon our friends and allies abroad. And we will not retreat from the world.

 

In fact, now is the time to forge a bold, new, confident role for ourselves on the world stage.

 

Keeping our promises to the poorest people in the world.

 

Providing humanitarian support for refugees in need.

 

Taking the lead on cracking down on modern slavery wherever it is found.

 

Ratifying the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

 

Always acting as the strongest and most passionate advocate for free trade right across the globe.

 

And always committed to a strong national defence and supporting the finest Armed Forces known to man.

 

And this week, our excellent Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, proved not only that we will support them with our hearts and souls. Not only will we remain committed to spending two per cent of our national income on defence.

 

But we will never again – in any future conflict – let those activist, left-wing human rights lawyers harangue and harass the bravest of the brave – the men and women of Britain’s Armed Forces.

 

An economy that works for everyone

 

It’s about restoring fairness – something that must be at the heart of everything we do. Supporting those who do the right thing, who make a contribution.

 

Helping those who give something back.

 

And that’s at the heart of my plan for our economy too.

 

An economy that’s fair and where everyone plays by the same rules.

 

That means acting to tackle some of the economy’s structural problems that hold people back.

 

Things like the shortage of affordable homes. The need to make big decisions on – and invest in - our infrastructure. The need to rebalance the economy across sectors and areas in order to spread wealth and prosperity around the country.

 

Politicians have talked about this for years. But the trouble is that this kind of change will never just happen by itself. If that’s what we want, we need the vision and determination to see it through.

 

That’s why Philip Hammond and Greg Clark are working on a new industrial strategy to address those long-term structural challenges and get Britain firing on all cylinders again.

 

It’s not about picking winners, propping up failing industries, or bringing old companies back from the dead.

 

It’s about identifying the industries that are of strategic value to our economy and supporting and promoting them through policies on trade, tax, infrastructure, skills, training, and research and development.

 

It’s about doing what every other major and growing economy in the world does.

 

Not just sitting back and seeing what happens - but putting in place a plan and getting on with the job.

 

So we will identify the sectors of the economy – financial services, yes, but life sciences, tech, aerospace, car manufacturing, the creative industries and many others – that are of strategic importance to our economy, and do everything we can to encourage, develop and support them.

 

And we will identify the places that have the potential to contribute to economic growth and become the homes to millions of new jobs.

 

That means inspiring an economic and cultural revival of all of our great regional cities.

 

We have made a start.

 

Thanks to George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse, over the past year, foreign direct investment in the North has increased at double the rate of the rest of the country.

 

Here in Birmingham, thanks to the incredible Jaguar Land Rover, the West Midlands is the only part of the country to run a trade surplus with China.

 

And across the region, the Midlands Engine is on track to deliver 300,000 more jobs by 2020.

 

Now it’s time to build on that success – in Birmingham and Manchester and in other cities across the country.

 

And as we are here in Birmingham this week, let us show our support for the Conservative Party’s candidate for next year’s mayoral election.

 

A success in business running John Lewis. An action man in Birmingham, playing his part in transforming this city. A man to get things done, the future Mayor of the West Midlands - Andy Street.

Making markets work for working people

 

An economy that works for everyone is an economy where everyone plays by the same rules.

 

I understand the frustration people feel when they see the rich and the powerful getting away with things that they themselves wouldn’t dream of doing. And they wouldn’t get away with if they tried.

 

I understand that because I feel it too.

 

There’s always an excuse – a reason why something can’t be done – but when that is used as a basis for inaction, faith in capitalism and free markets falls.

 

The Conservative Party will always believe in free markets. And that’s precisely why it’s this party that should act to defend them.

 

From Edmund Burke onwards, Conservatives have always understood that if you want to preserve something important, you need to be prepared to reform it. We must apply that same approach today.

 

That’s why where markets are dysfunctional, we should be prepared to intervene.

 

Where companies are exploiting the failures of the market in which they operate, where consumer choice is inhibited by deliberately complex pricing structures, we must set the market right.

 

It’s just not right, for example, that half of people living in rural areas, and so many small businesses, can’t get a decent broadband connection.

 

It’s just not right that two thirds of energy customers are stuck on the most expensive tariffs.

 

And it’s just not right that the housing market continues to fail working people either.

 

Ask almost any question about social fairness or problems with our economy, and the answer so often comes back to housing.

 

High housing costs – and the growing gap between those on the property ladder and those who are not – lie at the heart of falling social mobility, falling savings and low productivity.

 

We will do everything we can to help people financially so they can buy their own home. That’s why Help to Buy and Right to Buy are the right things to do.

 

But as Sajid said in his bold speech on Monday, there is an honest truth we need to address. We simply need to build more homes.

 

This means using the power of government to step in and repair the dysfunctional housing market.

 

It means using public sector land for more and faster house building.

 

It means encouraging new technologies that will help us to get more houses built faster. And putting in more government investment too.

 

It means stepping up and doing what’s right for Britain.

 

Making the market work for working people.

 

Because that’s what government can do.

 

And something else we need to do: take big, sometimes even controversial, decisions about our country’s infrastructure.

 

Because we need to get Britain firing in all areas again.

 

It is why we will press ahead with plans for High Speed 2, linking London and Birmingham and, eventually, towns and cities in the North.

 

Why we will shortly announce a decision on expanding Britain’s airport capacity.

 

And why – having reviewed the evidence and added important new national security safeguards – we signed up to Hinkley Point.

 

We will take the big decisions when they’re the right decisions for Britain.

 

Because that’s what government can do.

 

And we can make these big decisions because our economy is strong and because of the fiscal discipline we have shown over the last six years.

 

And we must continue to aim for a balanced budget.

 

But to build an economy that works for everyone, we must also invest in the things that matter, the things with a long-term return.

 

That is how we will address the weaknesses in our economy, improve our productivity, increase economic growth and ensure everyone gets a fair share.

 

And that’s not the only reason.

 

Because while monetary policy – with super-low interest rates and quantitative easing – provided the necessary emergency medicine after the financial crash, we have to acknowledge there have been some bad side effects.

 

People with assets have got richer. People without them have suffered. People with mortgages have found their debts cheaper. People with savings have found themselves poorer.

 

A change has got to come. And we are going to deliver it.

 

Because that’s what a Conservative Government can do.

A fairer economy

 

This party will always be the party of businesses large and small.

 

But we must acknowledge that the way a small number of businesses behave fuels the frustration people feel.

 

It’s not the norm. I know that most businesses and the people who run them are hardworking, entrepreneurial and public spirited at heart.

 

But the actions of a few tar the reputations of the many.

 

So the party that believes in business is going to change things to help support it.

 

Too often the people who are supposed to hold big business accountable are drawn from the same, narrow social and professional circles as the executive team.

 

And too often the scrutiny they provide is not good enough.

 

A change has got to come.

 

So later this year we will publish our plans to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but workers as well.

 

Because we are the party of workers. Of those who put in the effort. Those who contribute and give of their best.

 

That’s why we announced on Saturday that we’re going to review our laws to make sure that, in our modern and flexible economy, people are properly protected at work.

 

That’s right.

 

Workers’ rights – not under threat from a Conservative government.

 

Workers’ rights – protected and enhanced by a Conservative government.

 

And let me say something about tax.

 

We’re all Conservatives here. We all believe in a low-tax economy. But we also know that tax is the price we pay for living in a civilised society.

 

Nobody, no individual tycoon and no single business, however rich, has succeeded on their own.

 

Their goods are transported by road, their workers are educated in schools, their customers are part of sophisticated networks taking in the private sector, the public sector and charities.

 

We’ve all played a part in that success.

 

So it doesn’t matter to me who you are.

 

If you’re a tax-dodger, we’re coming after you.

 

If you’re an accountant, a financial adviser or a middleman who helps people to avoid what they owe to society, we’re coming after you too.

 

An economy that works for everyone is one where everyone plays by the same rules.

 

So whoever you are you – however rich or powerful – you have a duty to pay your tax.

 

And we’re going to make sure you do.

A society that works for everyone

 

This is a big agenda for change. But it is necessary and essential.

 

It is a programme for government to act to create an economy that works for everyone – an economy that’s on the side of ordinary working class people.

 

And an economy that can support the vital public services and institutions upon which we all rely – to invest in the things we hold dear.

 

Like the NHS – one of the finest health care systems anywhere in the world, and a vital national institution.

 

An institution that reflects our values, our belief in fairness, and in which we all take enormous pride.

 

And I mean all.

 

Because there is complete cross-party support for the NHS.

 

For its status as a provider of free-at-the-point-of-use health care. For the thousands of doctors and nurses that work around the clock to care for their patients.

 

We all have a story about the nurse who cared for a loved one, or a surgeon who saved the life of a friend.

 

So let us take this opportunity to say to those doctors and nurses – thank you.

 

The NHS should unite us. But year after year, election after election, Labour try to use it to divide us.

 

At every election since it was established, Labour have said the Tories would cut the NHS - and every time we have spent more on it.

 

Every election, they say we want to privatise the NHS - and every time we have protected it.

 

In fact, the party that expanded the use of the private sector in the NHS the fastest was not this party, but the Labour Party.

 

The only party to ever cut spending on the NHS is not this party, but the Labour Party – that’s what they did in Wales.

 

And at the last election, it wasn’t the Labour Party that pledged to give the NHS the money it asked for to meet its five-year plan – it was this party, the Conservative Party…

 

investing an extra £10 billion in the NHS – more than its leaders asked for…

 

and this year more patients are being treated, and more operations are being carried out, by more doctors and more nurses than ever before.

 

That’s a tribute to everyone who works in the NHS.

 

But also to one man – Jeremy Hunt – who is one of the most passionate advocates for patients and for the doctors, nurses and others who work in our health service that I have ever known.

 

So let’s have no more of Labour’s absurd belief that they have a monopoly on compassion.

 

Let’s put an end to their sanctimonious pretence of moral superiority.

 

Let’s make clear that they have given up the right to call themselves the party of the NHS, the party of the workers, the party of public servants.

 

They gave up that right when they adopted the politics of division. When their extreme ideological fixations led them to simply stop listening to the country.

 

When they abandoned the centre ground.

 

And let us take this opportunity to show that we, the Conservative Party, truly are the party of the workers…

 

the party of public servants…

 

the party of the NHS.

 

Because we believe in public service. We believe in investing in and supporting the institutions that make our country great.

 

We believe in the good that government can do.

 

Government cannot stand aside when it sees social injustice and unfairness. If we want to make sure Britain is a country that works for everyone, government has to act to make sure opportunity is fairly shared.

 

And I want us to be a country where it doesn’t matter where you were born, who your parents are, where you went to school, what your accent sounds like, what god you worship, whether you’re a man or a woman, gay or straight, or black or white.

 

All that should matter is the talent you have and how hard you’re prepared to work.

 

But if we’re honest we’ll admit that’s simply not the case for everyone today.

 

Advancement in today’s Britain is still too often determined by wealth or circumstance.

 

By an accident of birth rather than talent.

 

By privilege not merit.

 

Rebalancing our economy is a start, but if we’re serious about overturning some of the longstanding injustices and barriers that stop working people from getting on, we need that economic reform to be allied with genuine and deep social reform too.

 

Because a society that works for everyone is a society based on fairness. And only genuine social reform can deliver it.

 

Genuine social reform means helping more people onto the housing ladder. It means making sure every child has access to a good school place.

 

It means never writing off people who can work and consigning them to a life on benefits, but giving them the chance to go out and earn a living and to enjoy the dignity that comes with a job well done.

 

But for those who can’t work, we must offer our full support – which is why it was so important that Damian Green announced on Saturday that we will end the mandatory retesting of those with chronic health conditions that only induces stress but does nothing at all to help.

 

And genuine social reform means addressing historic injustices that hold too many people back.

 

Some of my proudest moments as Home Secretary came when we began to tackle deep-seated and long-standing problems that few had dared to tackle before.

 

I introduced the first ever Modern Slavery Act, bringing in tough new penalties to put slave masters behind bars, with life sentences for the worst offenders.

 

I cut the police’s use of stop and search by almost two thirds and reduced the disproportionate targeting of young, black men.

 

And I know our impressive new Home Secretary Amber Rudd is committed to carrying on that work.

 

But injustices remain.

 

If you are from a black Caribbean background, you are three times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than other children.

 

If you are a black woman, you are seven times more likely to be detained under mental health legislation than a white woman.

 

People in ethnic minority households are almost twice as likely to live in relative poverty as white people.

 

But it is not just those from minority backgrounds who are affected.

 

White working class boys are less likely to go to university than any other group in society.

 

We cannot let this stand – not if a country that works for everyone is the principle that binds us all together.

 

That’s why I have launched an unprecedented audit of public services to shine a light on these racial disparities and let us do something about them.

 

Because they are all burning injustices, and I want this government – this Conservative Government – to fight every single one of them.

 

A society that works for everyone is one of fairness and opportunity. A society in which everyone has the chance to go as far as their talents will take them.

 

That’s why in one of the first speeches I gave as Prime Minister I set out my plans to transform Britain into a Great Meritocracy.

 

And that starts in our schools.

 

I want Britain to be a country in which every child has access to a good school place that’s right for that individual child.

 

Because Britain after Brexit will need to make use of all of the talent we have in this country.

 

We have come a long way.

 

Thanks to the free schools and academies programme and the efforts of teachers, heads and governors, there are now 1.4 million more children in good and outstanding schools compared with 2010.

 

But we need to go further. Because there are still one and a quarter million children in schools that are just not good enough.

 

And if you live in the Midlands or the North, you have less chance of attending a good school than children in the South.

 

This simply cannot go on.

 

That’s why Justine Greening and I have set out a new package of reforms, building on Michael Gove’s success, to increase the number of good school places across the country… so there’s not just a school place for every child, but a good school place for every child. A school place that suits the skills, interests and abilities of every single pupil.

 

That is why we want more of our great universities to set up or sponsor schools in the state sector – just as the University of Birmingham has done, a few miles from here.

 

It’s why we are saying to the great private schools that – in return for their charitable tax status – we want them to do more to take on children without the means to pay, or set up and sponsor good state schools.

 

It is why we want more good faith schools for parents and pupils who want them.

 

And it is why we have said - where there is demand from parents, where they will definitely take pupils from all backgrounds, where they will play a part in improving the quality of all schools in their area - we will lift the ban on establishing new grammar schools too.

 

And here we see the challenge.

 

Because for too long politicians have said to people and communities who are crying out for change that they can’t have what they want.

 

They’ve said we don’t think you should have it, even though we might enjoy those very same things for ourselves.

 

And you end up in the absurd situation where you stop these good, popular, life-changing schools from opening – by law.

 

Imagine. Think of what that says.

 

If you’re rich or well off, you can have a selective education for your child. You can send them to a selective private school. You can move to a better catchment area or afford to send them long distances to get the education you want.

 

But if you’re not, you can’t.

 

I can think of no better illustration of the problem - why ordinary working class people think it’s one rule for them, and another for everyone else.

 

Because the message we are sending them is this: we will not allow their children to have the same opportunities that wealthier children enjoy.

 

That is a scandal and we – the Conservative Party – must bring it to an end.

A country that works for everyone

 

So my vision is for Britain to be a Great Meritocracy.

 

That’s what I’ve always believed in. The cause that everything I have ever done in politics has been designed to serve.

 

Because a country based on merit not privilege, is a country that’s fair. And when we overcome unfairness and injustice, we can build that new united Britain that we need.

 

And united, we can do great things.

 

We saw that in the summer in Rio. We saw how individual success was powered by collective effort. How the dedication and talent of one was supported by a united team.

 

And how a government’s determination – John Major’s Conservative Government’s determination – to step up and back Britain’s sporting success contributed to such a remarkable result.

 

We were honoured to welcome four members of the team - Helen Richardson-Walsh, Dame Sarah Storey, Vicky Thornley and Andrew Triggs-Hodge - to our conference on Monday.

 

And to them – and to every athlete and every member of Team and Paralympics GB – we say, thank you. You did your country proud.

 

It was a memorable summer for British sport, but one moment stood out for me above all other.

 

It was not from Rio. It happened later. Just a couple of weeks ago on the sun-drenched streets of Cozumel in Mexico.

 

There, our celebrated triathlon champion Jonny Brownlee was heading for glory, the finishing line in sight, when he faltered. Stopped. And was falling exhausted to the ground.

 

And just behind him, his brother Alistair – a tough competitor who typically yields to no one – had the chance to run on and steal the prize.

 

But seeing his brother’s struggle, he didn’t pass on by. As other competitors ran past, he stopped. Reached out his hand. And gently carried him home.

 

And there in that moment, we saw revealed an essential truth. That we succeed or fail together. We achieve together or fall short together.

 

And when one among us falters, our most basic human instinct is to put our own self-interest aside, to reach out our hand and help them over the line.

 

That’s why the central tenet of my belief is that there is more to life than individualism and self-interest.

 

We form families, communities, towns, cities, counties and nations. We have a responsibility to one another.

 

And I firmly believe that government has a responsibility too.

 

It is to act to encourage and nurture those relationships, networks and institutions - and to step up to correct injustices and tackle unfairness where it can - because these are the things that can drive us apart.

 

That’s why I say today – as I have always said – that my mission – and the mission of this party – is to build a country that truly works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

 

It’s why when I stood on the steps of Number 10 for the first time as Prime Minister 84 days ago, I said that the Government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the rich and powerful, but by the interests of ordinary, working class people.

 

And this week, we have shown the country that we mean business.

 

Not just protecting, but enhancing workers’ rights.

 

Building an economy that’s fair, where everyone plays by the same rules.

 

Getting more houses built. More doctors in the NHS.

 

Investing in things that will make our economy grow.

 

Hundreds of great new schools. Universities and fee-paying schools helping state schools to improve.

 

And yes, where parents want them and where they’ll improve standards for children of whatever background - the first new grammar schools to open in England for fifty years.

A democracy that works for everyone

 

This is a bold plan to bring Britain together. To build a new united Britain, rooted in the centre ground.

 

An agenda for a new modern Conservatism. That understands the good government can do. That will never hesitate to face down the powerful when they abuse their positions of privilege.

 

That will always act in the interests of ordinary, working class people.

 

That’s what government’s about: action. It’s about doing something, not being someone.

 

About identifying injustices, finding solutions, driving change. Taking, not shirking, the big decisions. Having the courage to see things through.

 

It’s not always glamorous or exciting, but at its best it’s a noble calling.

 

And where many just see government as the problem, I want to show it can be part of the solution too.

 

And I know this to be true.

 

For as I leave the door of my office at Number 10, I pass that famous staircase – the portraits of prime ministers past lined up along the wall.

 

Men - and of course one woman - of consequence, who have steered this country through difficult times - and changed it for the better too.

 

There’s Disraeli, who saw division and worked to heal it. Churchill, who confronted evil and had the strength to overcome. Attlee, with the vision to build a great national institution. And Lady Thatcher who taught us we could dream great dreams again.

 

Those portraits remind me of the good that government can do.

 

That nothing good comes easy.

 

But with courage and vision and determination you can always see things through.

 

And as I pass them every day, I remember that our nation has been shaped by those who stepped up to be counted when the big moments came.

 

Such opportunities are rare, but we face such a moment today.

 

A moment that calls us to respond and to reshape our nation once again.

 

Not every generation is given this opportunity.

 

Not every generation called to step up in such a way.

 

But this is our generation’s moment.

 

To write a new future upon the page.

 

To bring power home and make decisions… here in Britain.

 

To take back control and shape our future… here in Britain.

 

To build an outward looking, confident, trading nation… here in Britain.

 

To build a stronger, fairer, brighter future… here in Britain.

 

That is the opportunity we have been given.

 

And the responsibility to grasp it falls upon us all.

 

So to everyone here this morning – and the millions beyond whether leavers or remain – I say:

 

Come with me and we’ll write that brighter future.

 

Come with me and we’ll make that change.

 

Come with me as we rise to meet this moment.

 

Come with me and together let’s seize the day.

Thank you for that introduction. And how brilliant it is to see the hall here in Liverpool, absolutely packed for the Labour conference, well I say it's packed but Virgin Trains assure me there are 800 empty seats.

 

Either way Conference, it’s a huge pleasure to be holding our party’s annual gathering here in this fantastic city that has shaped our country, our economy, our culture and our music.

 

Liverpool and its people have always been central to the Labour party and our movement. And I know some people say campaigns and protests don’t change things. But the Hillsborough families have shown just how wrong that is.

 

It’s taken twenty-seven years but those families have, with great courage and dignity, finally got some truth and justice for the ninety-six who died. And I want to pay tribute to all the families and campaigners, for their solidarity, their commitment and their love.

 

We must learn from them so we promise those campaigning for Orgreave, for Shrewsbury, for the thousands of workers blacklisted for being trade unionists that we will support your battles for truth and justice and when we return to government we will make sure that you have both.

 

Because winning justice for all and changing society for the benefit of all is at the heart of what Labour is about.

 

So yes, our party is about campaigning and it’s about protest too.

 

But most of all it’s about winning power in local and national government, to deliver the real change our country so desperately needs.

 

That’s why the central task of the whole Labour party, must be to rebuild trust and support to win the next general election and form the next government. That is the government I am determined to lead, to win power to change Britain for the benefit of working people.

 

But every one of us in this hall today knows that we will only get there if we work together. And I think it’s fair to say after what we’ve been through these past few months that hasn’t always been exactly the case.

 

Those months have been a testing time for the whole party, first the horrific murder of Jo Cox, followed by the shock of the referendum result and then the tipping over of divisions in parliament, into the leadership contest that ended last Saturday.

 

Jo’s killing was a hate-filled attack on democracy itself that shocked the whole country. Jo Cox didn't just believe in loving her neighbor, she believed in loving her neighbour’s neighbor, that every life counted the same.

 

And as Jo said in her maiden speech as an MP “we have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”. Let that essential truth guide us as we come together again to challenge this Tory Government and its shaky grip on power.

 

We have also lost good MPs like Michael Meacher and Harry Harpham. They were Labour through and through, passionate campaigners for a better world.

 

And let me pay particular tribute to those parliamentary colleagues who stepped forward in the summer to fill the gaps in the shadow cabinet and ensure that Labour could function as an effective opposition in parliament.

 

They didn’t seek office, but they stepped up when their party and in fact the country needed them to serve. They all deserve the respect and gratitude of our party and movement. And this conference should thank them today, they are our future.

 

We’ve just had our second leadership election within a year. It had its fraught moments of course, not only for Owen Smith and me , and I hope we don’t make a habit of it.

 

But there have also been upsides. Over 150,000 new members joined our party. Young rising stars have shone on the front bench and we found that the party is more united on policy than we would ever have guessed.

 

I am honoured to have been re-elected by our party a second time with an even larger mandate. But we all have lessons to learn and a responsibility to do things better and work together more effectively. I will lead in learning those lessons and I’d like to thank Owen, for the campaign and his work as shadow work and pensions secretary.

 

And all the Labour Party Staff and my own team for their brilliant work.

 

One lesson is, that there is a responsibility on all of us to take care with our rhetoric, respect democratic decisions, respect our differences and respect each other. We know that robust debate has at times spilled over into abuse and hate around our party, including misogyny and anti-Semitism, especially on social media.

 

That is utterly unacceptable. Our party must be a safe and welcoming space for everybody and we will continue to take firm action against abuse and intimidation.

 

And let me be absolutely clear, anti-Semitism is an evil, it led to the worst crimes of the 20th century, every one of us has a responsibility to ensure that it is never allowed to fester in our society again. This party always has and always will fight against prejudice and hatred of Jewish people with every breath in its body.

 

We meet this year as the largest political party in western Europe with over half a million members campaigning in every community in Britain.

 

More people have joined our party in the last twenty months than in the previous twenty years. We have more of our fellow citizens in our party than all the others put together.

 

Some may see that as a threat. But I see it as a vast democratic resource. Our hugely increased membership is part of a movement that can take Labour’s message into every community, to win support for the election of a Labour government. Each and every one of these new members is welcome in our party.

 

And after a ten year absence, we welcome back the Fire Brigades Union to our party and to conference. We are reuniting the Labour family.

 

And over the past year, we’ve shown what Labour can do when the party stands together.

 

At conference a year ago, I launched our campaign against cuts to tax credits and we succeeded in knocking this government back.

 

This year, three million families are over £1,000 better off because Labour stood together.

 

In the Budget, the government tried to take away billions from disabled people but we defeated them …

 

We have won all four by-elections we’ve contested. In the May elections, we overtook the Tories to become the largest party nationally. We won back London with a massive win for Sadiq Khan the first Muslim mayor of a western capital city.

 

And we won the Bristol mayor for the first time, Marvin Rees, the first black mayor in any European city. And of course we also won the mayoralty in Salford and here in Liverpool.

 

That’s the road of advance we have to return to if we’re going to challenge the Tories for power and turn the huge growth in the Labour party into the electoral support we need across Britain.

 

There’s no doubt my election as Labour leader a year ago. And re-election this month grew out of a thirst for a new kind of politics, and a conviction that the old way of running the economy and the country, isn’t delivering for more and more people.

 

It’s not about me of course, or unique to Britain but across Europe, North America and elsewhere, people are fed up with a so-called free market system, that has produced grotesque inequality stagnating living standards for the many calamitous foreign wars without end and a political stitch-up which leaves the vast majority of people shut out of power.

 

Since the crash of 2008, the demand for an alternative and an end to counter-productive austerity has led to the rise of new movements and parties in one country after another.

 

In Britain it’s happened in the heart of traditional politics, in the Labour party which is something we should be extremely proud of. It’s exactly what Labour was founded for to be the voice of the many of social justice and progressive change from the bottom up.

 

But it also means it’s no good harking back to the tired old economic and political fixes of twenty years ago because they won’t work anymore. The old model is broken. We’re in a new era that demands a politics and economics that meets the needs of our own time.

 

Even Theresa May gets it, that people want change. That’s why she stood on the steps of Downing Street and talked about the inequalities and burning injustices in today’s Britain.

 

She promised a country: “that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us”.

 

But even if she manages to talk the talk, she can’t walk the walk.

 

This isn’t a new government, it’s David Cameron’s government repackaged with progressive slogans but with a new harsh rightwing edge, taking the country backwards and dithering before the historic challenges of Brexit.

 

Who seriously believes that the Tories could ever stand up to the privileged few? They are the party of the privileged few, funded by the privileged few, for the benefit of the privileged few.

 

This is a party, after all that now wants to force through an undemocratic Boundary Review based on an out-of-date version of the electoral register with nearly two million voters missing.

 

They’ve dressed up as a bid to cut the cost of politics by abolishing fifty MPs, but the £12million savings are dwarfed by the expense of the 260 peers David Cameron appointed at a cost of £34million a year. It’s nothing but a cynical attempt to gerrymander the next election.

 

And this is a prime minister who was elevated to her job without a single vote being cast after a pantomime farce which saw one leading Tory after another falling on their swords.

 

When I meet Theresa May across the dispatch box, I know that only one of us has been elected to the office they hold, by the votes of a third of a million people.

 

In any case, the Tories are simply incapable of responding to the breakdown of the old economic model. Because that failed model is in their political DNA.

 

It’s what they deliver every time they’re in government. Tory governments deregulate, they outsource and privatise they stand by as inequality grows.

 

They’ve cut taxes for the privileged few sold off our national assets to them, always on the cheap and turned a blind eye to their chronic tax avoidance.

 

They’re so committed to the interests of the very richest they recruited Sir Phillip Green into government as something called an efficiency tsar.

 

Well, government might be a bit more efficient if the super-rich like Sir Phillip actually paid their taxes.

 

When government steps back there are consequences for every one of us.

 

Look what’s happened to housing under the Tories:

 

housebuilding has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s;

home ownership is falling as more people are priced out of the market;

evictions and homelessness go up every year;

council homes are sold off without being replaced.

 

And another consequence is that we’re paying over £9 billion a year to private landlords in housing benefit.

 

Instead of spending public money on building council housing, we’re subsidising private landlords. That’s wasteful, inefficient, and poor government.

 

So Labour will, as Teresa Pearce said, build over a million new homes at least half of them council houses and we will control private rents, so we can give every British family that basic human right - a decent home.

 

It’s the same in the jobs market. Without proper employment regulation, there’s been an explosion of temporary, insecure jobs nearly one million people on zero hour contracts.

 

There are now six million working people earning less than the living wage and poverty among those in work is at record levels.

 

That didn’t happen by accident, the Tories have torn up employment rights and deliberately tried to weaken the organisations that get people justice at work the trade unions.

 

Of course trade unions are not taking this lying down. Look at the great campaign Unite has waged at Sports Direct, to get justice for exploited workers and hold Mike Ashley to account. That is why Labour will repeal the Trade Union Act and set unions free to do their job.

 

And we will raise the minimum wage to a real living wage that brings working people out of poverty and we’ll ban zero hours contracts as John McDonnell and Ian Lavery have set out at this conference.

 

And then there’s the scandal of the privatised railways more public subsidy than under the days of British Rail all going to private firms and more delays more cancellations. And the highest fares in Europe.

 

That is why the great majority of the British people back Labour’s plan, set out by Andy MacDonald, to take the railways back into public ownership.

 

But if you want the most spectacular example of what happens, when government steps back, the global banking crash is an object lesson a deregulated industry of out of control greed and speculation that crashed economies across the globe and required the biggest ever government intervention and public bailout in history.

 

Millions of ordinary families paid the price for that failure. I pledge that Labour will never let a few reckless bankers wreck our economy again.

 

So Labour is offering solutions. During this summer’s leadership campaign, I set out ten pledges which I believe can be the platform for our party’s programme at the next election.

 

They have now been put to you and endorsed by this conference.

 

They lay out the scope of the change we need to see for full employment, a homes guarantee, security at work, a strong public NHS and social care, a National Education Service for all, action on climate change, public ownership and control of our services, a cut in inequality of income and wealth action to secure an equal society and peace and justice at the heart of foreign policy.

 

Don’t worry, they’re not the Ten Commandments. They will now go to the National Policy Forum and the whole party needs to build on them, refine them and above all take them out to the people of this country.

 

But those ten pledges the core of the platform on which I was re-elected leader will now form the framework for what Labour will campaign for and for what a Labour government will do.

 

Together they show the direction of change we are determined to take - and the outline of a programme to rebuild and transform Britain.

 

They are rooted in traditional Labour values and objectives shaped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. They are values Labour is united on. They reflect the views and aspirations of the majority of our people. And they are values our country can and will support as soon as they are given the chance.

 

And these pledges are not just words. Already, across the country, Labour councils are putting Labour values into action, in a way that makes a real difference to millions of people, despite cynical government funding cuts that have hit Labour councils five times as hard as Tory-run areas.

 

Like Nottingham City Council setting up the not-for-profit Robin Hood Energy company to provide affordable energy;

 

Or Cardiff Bus Company taking 100,000 passengers every day, publicly owned with a passenger panel to hold its directors to account;

 

Or Preston Council working to favour local procurement, and keep money in the town;

 

Or Newcastle Council providing free wi-fi in 69 public buildings across the city;

 

Or Croydon Council which has set up a company to build 1,000 new homes, as Cllr Alison Butler said: “We can no longer afford to sit back and let the market take its course”.

 

Or Glasgow that has established high quality and flexible workspaces for start-up, high growth companies in dynamic new sectors.

 

Or here in Liverpool, set to be at the global forefront of a new wave of technology and home to Sensor City, a £15million business hub that aims to create 300 start-up businesses and 1,000 jobs over the next decade.

 

It is a proud Labour record each and every Labour councilor deserves our heartfelt thanks for the work they do.

 

But I want to go further because we want local government to go further and put public enterprise back into the heart of our economy and services to meet the needs of local communities, municipal socialism for the 21st century, as an engine of local growth and development.

 

So today I’m announcing that Labour will remove the artificial local borrowing cap and allow councils to borrow against their housing stock.

 

That single measure alone would allow them to build an extra 60,000 council homes a year.

 

Labour councils increasingly have a policy of in-house as the preferred provider and many councils have brought bin collections, cleaners, and IT services back in-house, insourcing privatized contracts to save money for council tax payers and to ensure good terms and conditions for staff.

 

I have said that Labour will put security at work and employment and union rights from day one centre stage.

 

But one in six workers now in Britain are now self-employed. They’re right to value their independence but for too many it comes with insecurity and a woeful lack of rights.

 

So we will review arrangements for self-employed people including social security that self-employed people pay for in their taxes, yet aren’t fully covered by.

 

And we will ensure that successful innovators have access to the finance necessary to take their ideas to the next level grow their businesses and generate employment.

 

So as part of our Workplace 2020 review, we will make sure that and our tax and social security arrangements are fit for the 21st century, consulting with self-employed workers and the Federation of Small Businesses.

 

If the Tories are the party of cuts and short-termism. Labour is the Party of investing for the future.

 

With the same level of investment as other major economies, we could be so much more unlock so much skill, ingenuity and wealth.

 

That’s why we’ll establish a National Investment Bank at the heart of our plan to rebuild and transform Britain.

 

And we will borrow to invest at historically low interest rates, to generate far greater returns. It would be foolish not to, because that investment is expanding the economy and the income it generates for us all in the process.

 

Even this government, after years of austerity and savage cuts to investment is starting to change its tune.

 

I am not content with accepting second-class broadband, not content with creaking railways, not content with seeing the US and Germany investing in cutting edge and green technologies, while Britain lags behind.

 

Last year, for example the Prime Minister promised a universal service obligation for ten megabyte broadband.

 

But since then the government has done nothing letting down entrepreneurs, businesses and families, especially in rural areas.

 

That’s why we’ve set out proposals for a National Investment Bank with £500 billion of investment to bring our broadband, our railways, our housing and our energy infrastructure up to scratch.

 

A country that doesn’t invest is a country that has given up. That has taken the path of managed decline. A Labour government will never accept second best for Britain.

 

Our country’s history is based on individual ingenuity and collective endeavor.

 

We are the country of Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing and Tim Berners-Lee, the land of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Sarah Guppy of George Stephenson and Eric Laithwaite.

 

The Tories have turned their back on this proud British tradition. They have put privatisation and cutting spending first.

 

Britain now spends less on research as a share of national income than France, Germany, the US and China. A Labour Government will bring research and development up to three percent of GDP.

 

Yesterday, Rebecca Long Bailey set out the terms of our Industrial Strategy Review. We need an economy that works for every part of this country so that no community is left behind.

 

And today I’m asking everyone, businesses, academics, workers, trade unions and anyone who cares about our future prosperity to have your say in that review.

 

We are a wealthy country - and not just in terms of money.

 

We are rich in talent, rich in potential.

 

That’s why we’ve proposed a comprehensive National Education Service at the heart of our programme for government to deliver high quality education for all throughout our lives.

 

Education has always been a core Labour value from the time of Ellen Wilkinson and before.

 

And a National Education Service will be an essential part of the 21st century welfare state.

 

In a rapidly changing economy people need to re-train or upgrade their skills without falling into debt.

 

Britain already lags behind other in productivity.

 

Partly that’s about investing in technology and infrastructure.

 

And partly it’s about investing in people and their skills.

 

How can we build and expand the sectors of the future without a skilled workforce?

 

But this Conservative government has slashed adult education budgets taking away opportunities for people to develop their skills and leaving businesses struggling to find the skilled workforce they need to succeed.

 

So today I am offering business a new settlement. A new deal for Rebuilding Britain.

 

Under Labour we will provide the investment to rebuild Britain’s infrastructure.

 

We will fund that investment because it will lead to a more productive economy providing the basis on which our economy and our businesses can thrive, helping to provide over a million good jobs and opportunities for businesses.

 

But investment in capital must include investment in human capital, the skilled workers needed to make our economy a success.

 

So this is the deal Labour will offer to business.

 

To help pay for a National Education Service, we will ask you pay a little more in tax.

 

We’ve already started to set out some of this, pledging to raise corporation tax by less than 1.5 percent to give an Education Maintenance Allowance to college students and grants to university students so that every young learner can afford to support themselves as they develop skills and get qualifications.

 

Business shares in economic success and it must contribute to it too.

 

And I recognise that good businesses deserve a level playing field.

 

So I also pledge to good businesses that we will clamp down those that dodge their taxes you should not be undercut by those that don’t play by the rules.

 

There is nothing more unpatriotic than not paying your taxes it is an act of vandalism, damaging our NHS, damaging older people’s social care, damaging younger people’s education. So a Labour government will make shabby tax avoidance a thing of the past.

 

Labour’s National Education Service is going to be every bit as vital as our National Health Service has become.

 

And we recognise that education isn’t simply about preparing for the workplace. It’s also about the exploration of knowledge and unlocking the creativity in every human being.

 

So all school pupils should have the chance to learn an instrument take part in drama and dance and have regular access to a theatre, gallery or museum in their local area.

 

That’s why we will introduce an arts pupil premium to every primary school in England and Wales and consult on the design and national roll-out to extend this pupil premium to all secondary schools.

 

This will be a £160million boost for schools to invest in projects that will support cultural activities for schools over the longer-term.

 

It could hardly be more different to the Tory approach to education. Their only plan is the return of grammar schools, segregation and second class schooling for the majority and what a great job Angela Rayner is doing in opposing them.

 

So this Saturday 1 October, I want you to take the message into your community that Labour is standing up for education for all.

 

Grammar Schools are not the only way, the Tories are bringing division back into our society. They are also using the tried-and-tested tricks of demonising and scapegoating to distract from their failures.

 

Whether it be single mothers, unemployed people, disabled people or migrants, Tory failure is always someone else’s fault.

 

And those smears have consequences, from children being bullied in school, to attacks in the street - such as the rise of disability hate crime.

 

I am so proud of this party. In the last year, we stood up to the government on cuts to disabled people’s benefits and cuts to working families tax credits.

 

And on Monday, our shadow work & pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams announced we would be scrapping the punitive sanctions regime and the degrading Work Capability Assessment.

 

As politicians, as political activists, as citizens, we must have zero tolerance towards those who whip up hate and division, stand together against racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and defend those being demonised.

 

It has been shaming to our multicultural society that assaults on migrants have increased sharply since the referendum campaign a campaign that peddled myths and whipped up division.

 

It isn’t migrants that drive down wages, it’s exploitative employers and the politicians who deregulate the labour market and rip up trade union rights.

 

It isn’t migrants who put a strain on our NHS, it only keeps going because of the migrant nurses and doctors who come here filling the gaps left by politicians who have failed to invest in training.

 

It isn’t migrants that have caused a housing crisis; it’s a Tory government that has failed to build homes.

 

Immigration can certainly put extra pressure on services and that’s why, under Gordon Brown, Labour setup the Migrant Impact Fund to provide extra funding to communities that have the largest rises in population.

 

What did the Tories do? They abolished it and then they demonise migrants for putting pressure on services.

 

A Labour government will not offer false promises on immigration as the Tories have done. We will not sow division by fanning the flames of fear. We will tackle the real issues of immigration instead whatever the eventual outcome of the Brexit negotiations and make the changes that are needed.

 

We will act decisively to end the undercutting of workers’ pay and conditions through the exploitation of migrant labour and agency working which would reduce the number of migrant workers in the process.

 

And we will ease the pressure on hard pressed public services - services that are struggling to absorb Tory austerity cuts, in communities absorbing new populations.

 

Labour will reinstate the migrant impact fund, and give extra support to areas of high migration using the visa levy for its intended purpose. And we will add a citizenship application fee levy to boost the fund.

 

That is the Labour way to tackle social tension investment and assistance, not racism and division.

 

This party campaigned hard to remain in the European Union. I spoke at rallies from Cornwall to Aberdeenshire for our Labour campaign to remain and reform.

 

But although most Labour voters backed us we did not convince millions of natural Labour voters especially in those parts of the country left behind.

 

Left behind by years of neglect under-investment and de-industrialisation.

 

Now we have to face the future together we are not helped by patronising or lecturing those in our communities who voted to leave. We have to hear their concerns about jobs, about public services, about wages, about immigration, about a future for their children. And we have to respect their votes, and the decision of the British people.

 

Of course that doesn’t mean giving a blank cheque to Theresa May and her three-legged team of fractious Brexiteers as they try to work up a negotiating plan and squabble about whose turn it is to have the Chevening country retreat each weekend.

 

We have made it clear that we will resist a Brexit at the expense of workers’ rights and social justice we have set out our red lines on employment, environmental and social protection and on access to the European market.

 

But we will also be pressing our own Brexit agenda including the freedom to intervene in our own industries without the obligation to liberalise or privatise our public services and building a new relationship with Europe based on cooperation and internationalism.

 

And as Europe faces the impact of a refugee crisis fuelled by wars across the Middle East we have to face the role that repeated military interventions by British governments have played in that crisis.

 

The Chilcot report made absolutely clear, the lessons to be learned from the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq, just as this month’s Foreign Affair Select Committee report into the war in Libya demonstrated those lessons had still not been learned a decade later.

 

The consequences of those wars have been the spread of terrorism, sectarianism and violence across an arc of conflict that has displaced millions of people forcing them from their countries.

 

That is why it was right to apologise on behalf of the party for the Iraq war right to say that we have learned the lessons and right to say that such a catastrophe must never be allowed to happen again.

 

We need a foreign policy based on peace, justice and human rights and what great news to hear the peace treaty in Colombia after fifty years of war and we need to honour our international treaty obligations on nuclear disarmament and encourage others to do the same.

 

We are a long way from that humanitarian vision. Britain continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, a country that the United Nations says is committing repeated violations of international humanitarian law war crimes in Yemen just as we have seen taking place in Syria.

 

So today I make it clear that under a Labour government when there are credible reports of human rights abuses or war crimes being committed British arms sales will be suspended, starting with Saudi Arabia.

 

Last year, the votes we needed to win power went many different ways in all parts of our country while millions of our potential voters stayed at home.

 

Many didn’t believe we offered the alternative they wanted.

 

It’s true there’s an electoral mountain to climb.

 

But if we focus everything on the needs and aspirations of middle and lower income voters, of ordinary families, if we demonstrate we’ve got a viable alternative to the government’s failed economic policies. I’m convinced we can build the electoral support that can beat the Tories.

 

That means being the voice of women, of young people and pensioners middle and lower income workers, the unemployed and the self-employed, minority communities and those struggling with the impact of migration at work and everyone struggling to get on, and secure a better life for themselves, their families and communities.

 

Running like a golden thread through Labour’s vision for today as throughout our history is the struggle for equality.

 

Rampant inequality has become the great scandal of our time, sapping the potential of our society, and tearing at its fabric.

 

Labour’s goal isn’t just greater equality of wealth and income but also of power.

 

Our aim could not be more ambitious. We want a new settlement for the 21st century, in politics, business, our communities with the environment, and in our relations with the rest of the world.

 

Every one of us in the Labour party is motivated by the gap between what our country is and what it could be.

 

We know that in the sixth largest economy in the world the foodbanks, stunted life chances and growing poverty alongside wealth on an undreamed of scale are a mark of shameful and unnecessary failure.

 

We know how great this country could be, for all its people, with a new political and economic settlement.

 

With new forms of democratic public ownership, driven by investment in the technology and industries of the future, with decent jobs, education and housing for all with local services run by and for people not outsourced to faceless corporations.

 

That’s not backward-looking, it’s the very opposite.

 

It’s the socialism of the 21st century.

 

Our job is now to win over the unconvinced to our vision. Only that way can we secure the Labour government we need.

 

And let’s be frank, no one will be convinced of a vision, promoted by a divided party. We all agree on that.

 

So I ask each and every one of you, accept the decision of the members end the trench warfare and work together to take on the Tories.

 

Anything else is a luxury that the millions of people who depend on Labour cannot afford.

 

We know there will be local elections next May. In Scotland, where we have won three council by-elections this summer, in Wales and in counties across England.

 

And there'll be metro mayor elections too, including here on Merseyside, where my good friend Steve Rotherham will standing as Labour's candidate, Steve, best of luck, I will miss your comradeship and support.

 

But we could also face a general election next year.

 

Whatever the Prime Minister says about snap elections, there is every chance that Theresa May, will cut and run, for an early election.

 

So I put our party on notice today, Labour is preparing for a general election in 2017, we expect all our members to support our campaign and we will be ready for the challenge whenever it comes.

 

Let us do it, in the spirit of the great Scots-born Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly who said:

 

"The socialism I believe in, is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That's how I see football, that's how I see life."

 

We are not all Bill Shanklys. Each of us comes to our socialism from our own experiences.

 

Mine was shaped by my mum and dad, a teacher and an engineer. Both committed socialists and peace campaigners, my mum’s inspiration was to encourage girls to believe they could achieve anything in their lives.

 

And by working as a teacher in Jamaica when I was a young man, that taught me so much about the strength of communities living in adversity, as well as fighting for the low paid as a trade union organiser here in Britain.

 

As the great American poet Langston Hughes put it: “I see that my own hands can make the world that’s in my mind”.

 

Everyone here and every one of our hundreds of thousands of members has something to contribute to our cause.

 

That way we will unite, build on our policies. Take our vision out to a country crying out for change.

 

We are half a million of us, and there will be more, working together to make our country the place it could be.

 

Conference, united we can shape the future and build a fairer Britain in a peaceful world.

 

Thank you.

Before I say anything else, I’m sure I speak on behalf of all Liberal Democrats when I say that our hearts and condolences go out to the family and friends of Alan Henning and David Haines for their tragic loss.

 

These were good men. In the work they did they stood for hope and compassion – the things that everyone in this room believes are more important than anything else. We have to take on the cowards who took their lives. We have to defeat their barbarity to help protect the millions of people who now live under the threat and fear of these merciless killers. Britain will not be intimidated. We will not be divided. We will not allow this brutal organisation to pervert Islam.

 

And to Isil we say this: All you have done is unite the people of Britain – Muslim and non-Muslim, people of all faiths and none – around a single aim. All you have done is give the British forces who are being deployed to Iraq – some of the best professionals in the world – a clear, single objective. We and our allies – including in the Middle East – are going to find you, we are going to destroy your bases, we will cut off your supplies, isolate you from your support – and for the sake of peace, democracy and the freedom of all those you terrorise, we are not going to stop until it’s done.

 

And let’s also take this opportunity to pay tribute to our armed forces – including the RAF personnel who are being deployed over Iraq, as well as the many men and women helping fight dangerous threats across the world. Our immense gratitude should go without saying – but it’s important we say it too. Al Murray – he of Pub Landlord fame – said a great thing on Trafalgar Square in the days leading up to the Scottish referendum. I was there stood in the crowd with thousands of others and it really stuck in my mind. He said that there is something wonderfully vague about being British. After all, he said, that’s why we call ourselves Brit – ish. And it’s true. You can be British as well as Scottish, English, Northern Irish, Welsh…ish. At the same time you can be black, white, Asian, Indian, African, European, mixed, not-mixed. You can be gay, straight, bi-sexual, transgender. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, atheist.

 

The Scottish referendum was not only momentous because it reaffirmed Scotland’s place in the UK – and for that I will be eternally grateful for the unbelievable efforts of Willie, Alistair, Danny, Jo, Mike, Charles, Ming, the whole Scottish team… The Scottish referendum was also brilliant because it forced us to hold up a mirror and think about who we are. Four nations, yes, but also 64 million people with identities which are distinct yet overlapping, because these Isles of ours are among the most diverse and inclusive in the world.

 

And yet something very un-British is taking root in our politics. A growing movement of people who want to pull us apart. Salmond, Farage, the bitter tribalism of left and right – in their different ways they’re all doing the same thing. A growing pick-a-side politics, in a world of us-versus-them. Worried about your job? Your business? Your children’s future? Your way of life? No matter, just blame Europe/Brussels/foreigners/immigrants/the English/the South/professional politicians/Westminster/big business/anybody claiming benefits/even onshore wind farms… Life is so simple when you know who – or what – to blame. It’s seductive and it’s beguiling. That much may even be proved tomorrow, if the people of Clacton give the UK Independence Party an MP. But resentment, the politics of fear, doesn’t pay the bills or create a single job.

 

Claiming to address people’s acute anxiety about the modern world, it provides nothing but the false comfort of grievance. Dressed up as the politics of hope, it is in fact a counsel of despair. Why do you think I took on Nigel Farage in the TV debates at the European elections? Because I thought it would be easy? – me defending Britain’s membership of the EU, him bashing Brussels. No, I did it for the same reason this party must now come out fighting: Because someone has to stand up for the liberal Britain in which we and millions of decent, reasonable people believe. For tolerance, compassion, openness, unity – the values this party holds so dear. Labour won’t defend those values.

 

Even after four years in opposition Labour have nothing to say – or have forgotten to say anything of any value on the economy. The Tories won’t either. We heard all we needed to know last week: compassionate conservatism is dead and buried. If the Liberal Democrat voice is marginalised in British politics our country will be meaner, poorer and weaker as a result. We must not and cannot let that happen.

 

We must make our voice heard. That’s not easy these days. Disenchantment and anger towards the political class is now at an all-time high and, for a lot of people, we’re included in that. The British people no longer feel an automatic deference to their politicians – and that’s a good thing. Authority everywhere is challenged. And – in what might be the least fashionable statement made by any party leader this conference season – politicians of every party have fed this growing cynicism by exaggerating and overstating what government’s can do. We’ve all done it. I’ve been there.

 

When I apologised for the disappointment and anger caused by our inability to scrap tuition fees, I knew we could never, ever make that mistake again. And we won’t. We understand that political parties must show by doing: our promise of more must be built on a record of delivery, not just words.

 

So if you meet someone who doesn’t believe we’ll raise the personal allowance to £12,500, tell them how we already raised it to £10,500. If they’re not persuaded we can help young people with their travel costs to college, tell them we’ve created more apprenticeships than any Government since the war. If they’re cynical about our promises to help with young children, tell them we’re the first party ever to start providing free support to two year olds across the country, tax free childcare and free school meals for infants. And all of it while fixing our broken public finances – so they can be sure we’ll finish balancing the books fairly too.

 

Danny set it all out on Sunday: Eliminating the deficit in the first three years of the next parliament, and then bringing debt down steadily and sustainably. Running a budget that is balanced overall and – this is crucial – doing it in a way that allows us to invest in Britain’s creaking infrastructure too. The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour, but we’ll cut less than the Tories.

 

We’ll finish the job, but we’ll finish it in a way that is fair. And just as we are refusing to saddle our children with mountains of debt, we are determined to hand them on a clean planet too. Both parties in this Government promised we would stick to our green commitments, but it has taken constant pressure from the Liberal Democrats – not least Ed Davey – to hold the Tories to their word. And I can tell you now that a sustainable environment will remain at the heart of our vision for Britain’s future – it’s not green crap to us. A plan that is credible. A party which has learnt from our mistakes. A party proud to have delivered on the commitments we made on the front page of our last manifesto – remember this? – and a whole lot more. The biggest change in income tax in a generation – designed and delivered by Lib Dems. The biggest overhaul of our pensions system – designed and delivered by Lib Dems. The biggest amount of money going into early years education every year, more than any previous government – designed and delivered by Lib Dems. The biggest shake-up of parental leave, revolutionising the rules for mothers who want to work and fathers who want to stay at home – designed and delivered by Lib Dems. The biggest ever commitment to renewable energy – designed and delivered by Lib Dems. And one of the biggest, proudest achievements for all of us: giving gay couples the same right to marry as everyone else – designed and delivered by Lib Dems.

 

That is an extraordinary record from anyone, let alone a party that had never been in government before, let alone at a time of upheaval and strife. So when you meet people who still aren’t sure about us, ask them this: How will you judge us? By the one policy we couldn’t deliver in government, or by the countless policies we did deliver in Government? Fixing Britain’s shattered economy, making sure the recovery spreads to every part of the UK, cutting taxes for millions for people, investing in young children and protecting Britain’s schools…Judge us on that record. By the four years we worked tirelessly to make sure public services are safeguarded for future generations… The environment – safeguarded for future generations too…Privacy, protected…Civil liberties, defended…Older people, treated with dignity. And all children – from before they even start at school – given a chance, so that they can all live out their dreams and all live their lives in full. Judge us on that record.

 

And, while this party has learnt from our mistakes, can the same be said of our opponents? Ed Miliband is now promising a new Nirvana where everyone will be well-off, no one will be out of pocket, we don’t need to cut government spending and the public finances will be miraculously fixed. Sounds great. How does he intend to deliver this? Well, he promised a rise in the minimum wage by 2020 – which was already going to happen. A one year limit on the increase in child benefit – which is already in place. And a cut in Ministerial pay – which this Government introduced in our first week in office. This is a man who was part of the government which wasted their chance and ruined the economy, destroying jobs and slashing incomes – and yet not a single word on the deficit. A man who was part of the government which obliterated trust in our immigration system – and yet not a word on how you rebuild it. So much for a radical plan from the official Opposition.

 

David Cameron and George Osborne, meanwhile, say don’t worry: immigration can be slashed, human rights redrawn, taxes lowered, the NHS protected, and we can have all the benefits of being in Europe while opting out of the bits we don’t like. Every worry can be fixed with a big wave of the Union Jack. How do they intend to deliver that? Well, they’ve quietly ditched their commitment to reduce net migration to tens of thousands.

 

Conservative Ministers have dragged their feet in implementing Lib Dem border controls. They want to scrap the universal human rights Brits have enjoyed since the days of Winston Churchill. And they’re prepared to jeopardise Britain’s membership of the EU – and our prosperity with it – in order to appease their backbenchers.

 

So much for a credible plan from the Conservative Party. And most astonishingly of all, they have chosen to single out the working-age poor to bear the brunt of the final years of deficit reduction, while refusing to ask the super-rich to make a single additional contribution… That’s the people scraping by on the minimum wage. The jobseekers who’ve found themselves temporarily down on their luck. The men and women trying to earn their way out of poverty, often working more than one job. …And given the Conservatives are not planning a single tax increase, how will they pay for all their spending commitments? They will have no choice but to cut the services they have not protected like social care, policing, education – education – to the bone.

 

No wonder they’ve stopped claiming that we’re all in it together. Say what you will about the Liberal Democrats…We may no longer be untainted, as we were by the freedom of opposition… I may no longer be the fresh faced outsider…But we still stand for a different kind of politics. Treating people like adults. Not shirking the difficult dilemmas this country faces, but confronting them head on. Not pretending there’s a magic wand answer to every problem when there isn’t. Not doing things just because they’re popular. Not being afraid to court controversy when we have to stand up for something we believe. Trying, every day, to do what lies at the heart of politics at its best – decent people, driven by decent values, resolving problems which can only be resolved together for the good of all.

 

So our mission now is to give people a reason to reject bitter, us-and-them politics, to shun the politics of blame and fear, and choose something better. To do that, we have to provide the one thing that so many people across Britain still lack and crave: Opportunity. Government can’t do everything for you. It can’t make life perfect – and no one should pretend it can. But government can strive to level the playing field so that you and your family can look to your future and see the chance to get on. No matter who you are. Opportunity for Everyone. If you can see that you have a fair chance to get on in life, you don’t need to look for someone to blame. If you give people a sense of fair play…The power to shape their own lives and that of their communities…The chance to fulfil their talents, pursue their aspirations, regardless of the circumstances of their birth… The anger, the powerlessness will wane and the hope of a better future can take root.

 

After the London riots three years ago, I commissioned some research into why some people had rioted and others had not. I’ll never forget hearing about the young men and women who told the researchers: of course I didn’t riot. They wanted to apply for apprenticeships. They’d seen jobs they wanted and didn’t want to ruin their chances. Give people a future and they won’t trash the present. Give people hope and they turn their backs on fear. And yet Britain is still a place where opportunity is handed down like an heirloom, not spread around like a universal right.

 

Educational achievement, professional advancement, wealth, life expectancy – all our measures of success are still umbilically tied to an individual’s background rather than the talents they possess. So the question is: which political party can do something about it? Look, I’m sure Ed Miliband and David Cameron would say that their parties are parties of opportunity – no one’s against opportunity. But the point is: they can’t deliver it for everybody. There is no opportunity without a stronger economy – to give people good jobs, business opportunities, the money to follow their dreams. That’s why Labour is not the answer. And without a fairer society you can’t create opportunity for everyone, instead of just those lucky few at the top. That’s why the Conservatives are not the answer.

 

Fairness without a strong economy does not work. A strong economy without fairness doesn’t work either. And – as the last few weeks have now put beyond doubt – there’s only one party with the head and the heart – the resolve and the compassion – to deliver both. To deliver opportunity for everyone – and it’s us. It starts with giving people power over their lives.

 

Powerlessness is the enemy of opportunity. It’s why we care as passionately about civil liberties as we do about good schools. It’s why blocking the so-called snooper’s charter was as important as delivering a massive increase in free childcare. Because a Big Brother state which demands the storage of the websites you visit is as threatening to real freedom and opportunity as a state which fails to help toddlers get the support and care they need. And while we’re on the subject… I say this to Theresa May: stop playing party politics with national security. Stop playing on people’s fears simply to try and get your own way. Your Communications Data Bill was disproportionate, disempowering – we blocked it once and we’d do it again. There are times when the state needs to keep its nose out of our lives, to give us the freedom to make the most of our lives.

 

There are times when the state needs to extend a helping hand so that everyone can make the most of their lives. That is a smart, liberal, enabling state. And at its heart are powerful citizens. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the last four and a half years, it’s that the hardest thing about being in power… Is getting vested interests to give up their hold on power. Just look at where we’ve been thwarted. Giving people a democratic say over their lawmakers in the House of Lords – blocked by Labour and the Conservatives. A clean up of party funding to restrain the influence of big money – blocked by Labour and the Conservatives.

 

The Conservatives have even told us in the most explicit terms: you can’t have your Mansion tax because our donors won’t wear it. So proud are they of this act of brazen self-interest they even wrote to wealthy homeowners boasting about it – in the hope of courting more cash. Within hours of the historic Scotland vote, when we were meant to be cracking on with the plan for further devolution – a plan that this party will not see hijacked, or diluted, or delayed… They were at it again. The Tories trying to impose an entirely self-serving system of Tory votes for English laws on the House of Commons, in order to give more say to their MPs. Labour ignoring the problem altogether in order to give more say to their MPs.

 

Well they can both forget it: whatever reforms we do will be fair and right by the British people, and that will be guaranteed by our MPs. And they still simply cannot grasp that spreading opportunity means putting people in control – in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and in communities up and down England too. We’ve done a lot to release Whitehall’s grip: by the time the election is called next year every single part of the UK – every nation, every City, our towns and villages – will all have more power than the day the Coalition was formed – just as we said.

 

But I want us to go so much further, supporting strong, prosperous, empowered communities – able to shape their own futures. And to anyone who thinks that in the next parliament we should cut our losses and give up on our ambitions for real, meaningful political reform: no way. This country deserves better than the tawdry Westminster politics we get from Labour and the Tories – and I am going to keep hammering away at the system every single day, because bit by bit that system will break to let the people in.

 

And if power is still hoarded at the centre, the ability for people to liberate themselves from the circumstances of their birth is still denied to too many people. I have fought tirelessly to instil opportunity in the earliest years of a child’s life. Did you know Michael Gove raided the budget for much needed school places in order to fund his Free School obsession? Did you see the frenzied bile from the Tory Right against our plan to give young children at primary school a healthy meal at lunchtime? Have you ever heard the dated snobbery from some Conservatives against the value of vocational qualifications and good quality careers advice?

 

Of all the faultlines which have opened up in this Coalition Government, the one that has been most revealing is the way in which self-proclaimed Conservative educational reformers sought to suffocate almost every single initiative designed to instil opportunity at an early age – for all children, not just some. A world class education system is one that releases the potential in all children, not just some.

 

My mother worked as a teacher for children with dyslexia when myself, my brothers and sister were growing up. Those days it wasn’t as readily recognised that very bright children can be hampered by learning difficulties which may obscure their talents, but don’t make them any less bright. Those days countless children were discarded by the education system because children were not treated as individuals, they were expected to conform to the rigours of the classroom or be left behind. And my mother drummed into us what seems so obvious today. That you don’t write anyone off. You don’t overlook anyone’s talents. Given half a chance, everyone can shine. For me, that is what our new commitment to expanding childcare to all two, three and four year olds is all about. That is what our new commitment to healthy lunches for all primary school children is all about. That is what our new commitment to helping with the travel costs faced by all college students is all about. That is what our new commitment to a qualified teacher in every classroom is all about. That is what protecting funding from cradle to college – even as we clear the deficit – is all about. Education. Opportunity. That is what the Liberal Democrats are all about.

 

Almost exactly thirteen years ago Phil Willis and myself visited a number of schools in Denmark, Holland and Sweden. The idea of the Pupil Premium was born. Today it funds breakfast clubs; homework clubs; it helps involve parents who are otherwise disengaged. It gives teachers the time to focus on children, one on one. And the many wonderful, wonderful teachers I meet across the country, working in the noblest profession of all, tell me the ability to do that is priceless in unlocking the talents of every child. The thrill I get every time I hear from a teacher about how great they think the Pupil Premium is never diminishes – and it reminds me that in politics being clear about what you want and then doggedly, stubbornly working away until you make it happen is what really counts.

 

We are the party of education and we always will be – because it is the driver of opportunity. Because if you want to spread opportunity you can’t just stop at today. You have to think about tomorrow too. And for that same reason, our next manifesto will contain something I can guarantee you none of the others will: A commitment to five green laws. Laws that will commit British governments to reducing carbon from our electricity sector…Create new, legal targets for clean air and water…Give everyone access to green space… Massively boost energy efficiency and renewable energy… Prioritise the shift to green cars…Bring an end to dirty coal… Because Liberal Democrats understand that opportunity for everyone means thinking not just of this generation, but of future generations too.

 

There are two other big commitments I want to single out today. For me, they epitomise the way in which we are striving to spread opportunity wherever we can. And – while I’m not going to get dragged into endless speculation about this or that red line in the event of another hung parliament – people do have a right to know what our priorities are. Forget talk of deals, let’s just dwell on our values. This isn’t about tactics in a negotiation, this is about what our values are and where we want to take the country. So the next priority I want to highlight is tax: raising the point at which you start paying income tax to £12,500.

 

I know that some people think I bang on too much about our success in raising the personal allowance from where we found it – just under £6,500 – to £10,500. But I don’t think we bang on about it enough. It is, in my view, quite remarkable that a party experiencing it’s first stint in government, which only has 9% of the MPs in Westminster, should have succeeded in driving through the biggest and fairest transformation of our income tax system in a generation. If that isn’t something to bang on about – loud and proud – I really don’t know what is. Over 3 million people on low pay taken out of paying any tax at all. An £800 tax cut for over 24 million people. And with our new policy of an even higher allowance, nearly a million more people will pay no income tax, and 30 million people will be an additional £400 better off. Labour would never have made this change because it’s all about liberating people through their own hard work rather than making them more dependent on an overweening state.

 

The Conservatives couldn’t have been more explicit that it wasn’t their priority during our Budget negotiations where, year after year, it was frequently referred to as ‘your tax cut, Nick’. Apparently it’s our tax cut in private, but it’s their tax cut in public. In 2012 – I’ll never forget this – Danny and I said: let’s go further and faster to cut people’s income tax. It’s possible now, so why wait? George Osborne turned to me and said: I don’t want to deliver a Liberal Democrat Budget. He insisted instead on the Tory bit of the Budget: a cut to the top rate of tax. I can’t think of a better, simpler illustration of what sets the two coalition parties apart: Tories insisting on tax cuts for the few; Lib Dems insisting on tax cuts for the many. And, when they say now that they’ve signed up to our plan to raise the personal allowance to 12.5k… just scratch beneath the surface. They’re giving a tax cut worth four times as much to the highest earners. And who pays for their income tax cut? You do. It’s no secret. The Conservatives told you last week what they want to do: Everything they promise will be paid for by cutting the support to the working age poor and cutting further and faster the money which goes to our schools, our police, our social care homes and other unprotected services.

 

We, by contrast, have set out how we’ll fairly fund the first step of raising the personal allowance to £11,000 in the first year of the next parliament. So the choice is clear: unfunded, unfair Tory tax cuts or Lib Dem tax cuts which are funded and fair. The difference is that they want to cut taxes for the wealthiest, paid for by the working age poor… We want to cut taxes for working people, paid for by the wealthiest.