Moving contemporary composite two on the economy at Labour party
conference Unite general secretary Len McCluskey is expected to say
(check against delivery): “Conference, we live in an
extraordinary time. “We have gone through a summer when everything
possible has been used to attack and undermine our Party and our
leader. “But we are still ahead of the Tories in the polls!
“Despite the smears and the sneers from the media and some
who should know better, we have...Request free trial
Moving contemporary composite two on the economy at Labour party
conference Unite general secretary Len McCluskey is expected to say
(check against delivery): “Conference, we live in
an extraordinary time.
“We have gone through a summer when
everything possible has been used to attack and undermine our Party
and our leader.
“But we are still ahead of the Tories in
the polls!
“Despite the smears and the sneers from the
media and some who should know better, we have held all the
incredible advances we made last year under ’s
leadership.
“That tells us something about our
country.
“People are desperate for hope, crying out
for an alternative to austerity, fed up with inequality and the
economics of privatisation, outsourcing and deregulation and
anxious about a blundering Tory ‘no deal’
Brexit.
“And they can see through the venomous
attacks for what they are – the last throw of an elite desperate to
hang on to its privileges, perks and ill-gotten
gains.
“It also tells us something about our Party
and our movement. We are stronger than our
enemies.
“And their abuse is the highest compliment
they could pay us – they feel threatened, and they are right to be
so.
“Because we are coming for their fat cat
tax fiddles.
“We’re going to take back the railways,
water, energy. We’re going to build houses for the people, not for
foreign oligarchs.
“We’re going to kick the capitalists out of
the NHS. We’re going to lift the burden of debt from our young
people.
“And we are going to give trade unions and
working people their rights back. So we can look the bosses in the
eye and end their abuses from McDonalds to
Uber.
“That’s the programme that last year won us
the most votes this century and we would be insane to retreat an
inch from it.
“The polls prove that that the British
people want that agenda put into action. They want that change made
– as soon as the Tories dare risk a general
election.
“Wouldn’t it be great Comrades if all our
party, from top to bottom, was united in promoting our
alternative?
“I’m not talking about an unthinking
agreement on everything or blind
loyalty.
“Anyone has a right to disagree and a right
to criticise.
We are a democratic
party.
“But I am talking about some MPs turning
into an echo chamber for whatever line of attack the Tories and the
press are deploying against us.
“Yes. Anyone with a point of view should be
heard.
“But anyone screaming ‘you are a racist’ at
has lost every sense of moral
proportion, every shred of decency.
“Nor do we need any lessons on racism from
the professional, fully paid-up racists of the Daily Mail and the
Sun.
“Not one of them has done a fraction as
much for community relations in this country as .
Our Party is the Party of unity, equality
and justice. It’s the Tories who stoke fear and
hatred.
“So we should not let the attacks put us on
the back foot for a minute. It’s time we all – each and every one
of us – spoke up for our Leader.
“The most decent and principled man in
politics today.
“He should not have to face these attacks
alone, and while Unite is here and good comrades like you, he will
never have to. And let me advise anyone who may be listening to
siren voices urging some sort of
breakaway.
“If the centre ground is fighting for a
better deal for working people and protecting our communities, look
no further.
“It’s right here in the .
“So Chuka, drop the country club plotting.
Listen to working people the length and breadth of the country. Get
behind the Party that made you.
“And join the rest of this movement in
fighting to get rid of this rotten
government.
“Give our country the fresh start it needs.
And make the People’s Prime
Minister.”
