Steve Reed's speech to Labour Conference

Speech by Steve Reed MP, Shadow Justice Secretary 

Let me start by sharing some happy personal news with you. 

I might not be love’s young dream any more, but this summer, I got married. 

Thank you. 

Growing up gay, during a time of Tory-fuelled hate, I never thought I’d marry the man I love.  

Why did I get my chance? 

Because of this party and this movement.  

Because together we fought for justice.  

Because love trumps hate.  

In the 80s, I protested outside Parliament against Thatcher’s vicious anti-gay laws. 

In 2012, I voted in Parliament for equal marriage. 

And now, and here’s the ring on my finger!    

But, Conference, the fight for justice continues.  

We are meeting today in the great city of Liverpool.   

Thirty-three years ago, the gravest injustice befell this City when football fans followed their team to Hillsborough, and never came home.  

There were 97 victims on that terrible day. 

We all know what happened – a police cover-up. The gutter press smeared the dead. The establishment closed its ranks.  

The families were left alone to fight for justice – no funds allowed for lawyers to represent them. 

Margaret Aspinall lost her son James and she told me there can be no justice for those who died until we stop the same thing ever happening again.   

She’s right.  

That’s why Keir Starmer’s Labour Government will bring in a Hillsborough Law so victims of major tragedies get the same legal representation as the authorities that failed them.    

Conference families of the Hillsborough and other tragedies since are here with us today. This moment is for all of you who have campaigned so long for justice. 

Every victim of crime deserves justice.   

Yet under this Tory Government, justice is denied.   

They’ve taken thousands of police off our streets,  

closed hundreds of courts,  

and trashed the probation system.   

Prosecutions are so low that crimes as serious as burglary and fraud have effectively been decriminalised.  

Under this Conservative Government only 1 in every 100 people accused of rape is ever prosecuted in court. Where’s the justice in that? 

A girl who was raped aged 13 was forced to wait two years for her case to come to trial. Four days before the start date, it was postponed for another 9 months. Delays of this length are the norm not the exception in Tory Britain.  Liz Truss – that is a disgrace.   

Conference, Labour will put rape survivors first.   

We will open specialist rape courts across the country to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls 

and get the courts backlog down.  

But we’ll go further.   

The majority of men who kill their female partners have a history of domestic violence.  Neither women, nor the police, have any way of knowing if a new partner has attacked women before.   

And by the time they find out, it can be too late.    

Campaigners, survivors, women’s groups have all told us the same thing – we need eyes on these violent men. 

We’ve listened.  

The next Labour Government will force convicted abusers to sign a Domestic Violence Register so they are no longer free to seek out fresh victims and abuse again.    

The next Labour government will come down hard on criminals.   

That’s a promise.   

But we will also tackle the root causes of crime,  

No child is not born bad.   

Things happen in some young lives that lead them into crime.  

All the evidence shows that tackling trauma from childhood can break the cycle and prevent a child from becoming a criminal or stop a criminal from reoffending. 

Labour will use this understanding to reshape our criminal justice system - to stop crime at source.    

Our old slogan ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ is about to meet the future.   

Conference, Britain needs a fresh start to tackling crime.  

Prosecute, yes. Punish, yes.  

But never forget the need to prevent crime in the first place.  

And never forget the victims. 

This wedding band on my finger proves that together we can deliver justice.  

But the fight for justice never ends – legal justice, climate justice, economic justice, social justice. 

Justice for the family of little Olivia Pratt-Korbel 

Justice for everyone who grieves. 

The Labour Party is the party of justice. 

We are led by a man who has dedicated his whole working life to justice. 

And in Government, justice is what we will deliver.