Hollie Ridley, Labour Party General Secretary, speech at Labour Party Conference

Hollie Ridley, Labour Party General Secretary, speech at Labour Party Conference 2025

Good morning Conference, I'm Hollie Ridley and I am proud to be the General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Now, that line has even more significance for me today because I stand on this stage with my six-year-old daughter Violet in the audience.

It's the first time she's seen me deliver a speech because last year, she sat at home and watched on the television.

But she was desperate to be here today.

Now, Violet probably knows more about politics than the average six-year-old.

Last year, during the General Election, she explained in great length to her class how elections work and why voting is important.

But it was when she started explaining the D'hondt system at Christmas dinner that we really started to get worried.

Violet has this passion to make things better that inspires me every single day and each time I hear her talk about the importance of being kind or why we have to protect nature, I'm reminded why politics matters.

I'm reminded that, no matter how tough the road seems, we keep driving forward. 

Not for ourselves, but for our children, our neighbours, our communities.

Each of us here is involved in politics to build a better country for those who come after us. To ensure that Britain's future is as proud as our past.

It's what kept us all going in opposition.

Knowing that one day, we might get a chance to change the country.

Well conference, that day has arrived and it has arrived because of you.

Last year, we achieved something seismic.

From the worst result since 1935 to a historic majority in just one parliamentary term.

You did that.

We put the Labour Party back where we belong. In government, delivering for the British people.

I will never be able to express my pride and gratitude to our members who worked so hard, and gave so much to turn the tide of history back in our favour.

And look what we have achieved since:

Free breakfast clubs in schools; five million more NHS appointments; a pay rise for three million working people.

And conference, we are delivering the most comprehensive package of workers' rights in a generation.

Labour values, in action, in government.

There is a long way to go to repair our country after 14 years of neglect and mismanagement under the Conservatives.

We are going to need to rely on every ounce of the spirit that got us here.

The resilience.

The unity.

The ruthless focus on our goals.

You see conference, our country faces a growing threat. One so severe that it undermines the very fabric of our democracy.

It's driven by those who want our country to fail.

Because if Britain succeeds - they lose.

These parties - Left and Right - are colluding as one to sow the seeds of distrust.

Their goal isn't power. It's to destroy people's faith in a system.

A system that keeps us all safe.

A system that keeps Britain strong.

Because they thrive on the chaos.

This isn't about an election.

They want to use the politics of division to undermine our very way of life.

And not in an abstract sense, but in a real, immediate way.

And Conference, it falls to us - the Labour Party - to defend it.

Let's face it - it's not going to be the Conservatives. Gone are your grandparents' Tories.

We may have disagreed with them. But they had a code - a values system.

They have been replaced by the likes of Robert Jenrick - a man driven by nothing but his own personal ambition.

Conference, the country can never be led by somebody like that.

And that brings me on to Nigel Farage.

A man who wants to replace our NHS with an insurance model of healthcare.

A man who voted against banning zero hours contracts.

A man who called for the US to implement trade penalties on the UK, even though he knew it could cost jobs and drive up bills for the British public.

The man is fundamentally unfit for office.

The stakes at the next election could not be higher.

It's not just Labour and Reform on the ballot.

The future of our country is.

If there ever was an issue to focus the mind, to move us beyond the petty squabbles that sometimes blight Labour politics, then this has to be it.

To our members who give so much of themselves as they look to put our values into action, I cannot tell you how proud you make me to be Labour.

To our elected representatives at a local and national level - the work you do on behalf of your constituents, day in day out, represents the best of our movement.

To our trade union colleagues, I see the hours you put in, the campaigns that you run, what you do to stand up for your members.

You are the voice of working people in this country - not Nigel Farage.

And to our Labour Party staff – because of you, it continues to be the honour of my professional life to lead this organisation. Thank you.

I want to pay tribute to Mike Creighton and Tom Sawyer. Two titans of former staff who sadly passed away this year.

Tom was General Secretary in 1997 and was key in delivering that historic result. All who knew him speak of him with great fondness.

Mike was somebody I knew personally. I benefited from his sage counsel and his generous spirit on more times than I care to count.

We will miss them both greatly.

Conference, I cut my teeth as a Trainee Organiser. When I was first employed by the Labour Party, my role was part funded - part by the GMB and part by a private donor, Graham Cole.

And because of them, the Labour Party was able to take a chance on a working class girl from Dagenham and change my life forever.

But being a donor to a political party isn't easy. It comes with a huge amount of scrutiny.

People question your motives.

But conference, I have worked with so many of our donors over the last year.

I have seen first-hand that they are driven by the same thing that drives us all – a desire to deliver positive change in the world.

We are very lucky to have them.

Conference, make no mistake - our opponents are better funded than you could imagine.

To compete, we are going to have to fundraise harder and spend smarter.

We are in the fight of our lives and I will not allow us to be outgunned.

That's why we're launching a new rate of Labour Party membership.

The victory rate.

It's a voluntary top up of £15 per month. Every penny raised goes towards funding our campaigns to put Labour values into action.

Every single penny.

And Conference, I'm proud to announce that I signed up this morning.

And if 10,000 people join me – that's just a small fraction of our membership - then we will be able to write to millions of people about what we are delivering for Britain.

We'll be able to invest more into our campaigns, ensuring we can push the envelope.

In 2024, our field campaign was described as the best in the world. Conference, let me tell you now - our field campaign in 2029 will be even better.

We are building a campaign machine that will push back the tide of division and hate.

A machine that will ensure every second donated by our volunteers is spent delivering outcomes that change the future of this country.

Today, we are launching a suite of products that allow us to do that.

A new app - Labour One - that makes campaigning a safe and seamless experience.

Providing our campaigners with the very latest in data analysis to shape your campaigns.

We're investing again in our digital capabilities to ensure we can better compete in this new world of political communications.

Our 2024 digital campaign was decades ahead of our opponents - but the landscape has changed fundamentally since then.

We have to be sharper, more dynamic and smarter than ever - just to be heard.

If we attempt to fight the last election again, we will lose and we will deserve to.

Your hardworking Labour staff have been beavering away for months on the latest campaign innovations, and they will continue to. Honing, testing, tweaking. Doing whatever it takes to ensure that you have the tools you need to win.

But Conference, it's no use investing in our technology if we're not investing in our greatest asset - you.

That's why we're going to continue to focus overwhelmingly on training for our members.

We are upskilling our members in digital and campaign comms.

We're investing in our campaign summer schools - providing our campaigners with the very best advice from the best campaigners around.

We're launching Campaign 365.

We've built a new website with shareable videos that deliver our message of hope to the British people.

You've asked for the tools to do the job - and this video platform is just the start, Conference.

And as I stand here as only the third female General Secretary in our party's history, with a Labour cabinet where three of the four great offices of state are held by women, and a PLP where we have more female MPs than at any point in our history, I am so proud to be launching the latest tranche of the Jo Cox Women in Leadership scheme.

So many of our latest cohort of female MPs are graduates of the scheme.

And I'm delighted that we can continue Jo's legacy by building up the leaders of the future.

Conference, in just a few short months we face a significant set of elections.

In 2026, we are contesting seats in Wales, Scotland and across most of England.

We're not just fighting Reform.

We'll be fighting the Greens with their “let's be all things to all people” strategy.

We'll be fighting the SNP and their decade long record of failure.

We'll be fighting Plaid who are the only route to a Reform Government in Wales.

These elections will be tough.

But we have faced tough tests before.

Winning is hard. It takes discipline and unity and hard work.

But we know how to do it and we'll do it again.

Conference, don't listen to those who have written us off in these elections.

Wait, no, I want you to listen to them. I want you to let it kindle a fire inside of you.

These are the same people who have written us off before.

They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

But to win, just like in 2024, this is going to take the very best of our movement.

But conference, together we are greater than the sum of our parts.

Or to put it another way, we achieve more together than we achieve alone.

It is time for us to dust ourselves down and get back in the fight.

The British public is counting on us and we will not let them down.