Labour's Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy's
Speech at Labour Party Conference 2025
Conference.
In my home town of Wigan, we are the best in the world at rugby
league - a sport where two teams run towards each other across 10
metre lines for the whole game.
It's so much more than sport.
Head down, chin up, boots on.
It's working class.
Fierce. Ferocious. No nonsense, just grit.
Every tackle, every carry, every clash.
And when things don't go our way - we relish the fight.
Every single time.
When 100 thousand people marched across the capital under the
banner ‘unite the kingdom'.
Like the riots of last summer, it was a glimpse of what the
future may hold.
But we have a choice.
We can choose to drift towards a future defined by division, in
fear, where most of us must lose so some of us can win.
Or we can choose to get our heads down and run towards a
different future.
A country that is wide and inclusive enough to hold all of
us,
Where difference is not something to fear, but a strength to be
respected.
This Party has been fighting for 100 years and if I have one
message today.
It is that the path of least resistance never ever pointed
towards progress.
And now is not the moment to turn inwards but to run towards the
fight.
That's why, every day as your Culture Secretary I promise you
that I will get up and fight for our country to tilt the balance
of power in favour of working-class people.
That's why your honours list has finally recognised a black
working-class man from Cardiff and Wigan, rugby league's greatest
Billy Boston. Ignored for too long.
We are righting these wrongs because we respect and recognise the
contribution of all of our people, not just some.
And we're putting our money where our mouth is, with nearly £1bn
invested in major events and grassroots sport – from boxing in
Blackpool to football in Belfast
10 years ago people would have said you could never fill
Twickenham for a women's rugby match.
The Red Roses proved them wrong.
They said no-one cared about women's football.
The Lionesses proved them wrong.
They aren't just winning tournaments.
They're changing the story of our country.
And we are changing it with them by insisting that girls have
equal access to any facility we fund.
Because girls belong on every pitch they choose to play on.
And that, Conference, is non-negotiable.
It is time to write a new national story, that recognises and
includes us all.
The story of our culture is as much Northern Soul and brass bands
as it is Royal Opera and Ballet.
And our Government sees it, we value it and we respect it.
I am proud that the last Labour Government launched City of
Culture, celebrating the enormous contribution that cities from
Bradford to Birmingham have made to our cultural life.
But every town across Britain has its own story to tell of the
working class men and women that have shaped our country and
shape it still.
And that's why today we are launching a brand new competition to
recognise the UK Town of Culture.
To celebrate the creativity, history, and identity that has made
us such a vibrant, diverse and incredible country.
And Conference.
While we know that talent and imagination is everywhere,
opportunity is not.
That's why today, I am proud to announce that we are backing our
regions and handing money and power back to our people.
With a £150million Creative Places Growth Fund to unleash the
incredible potential of film, music, media, TV and fashion.
That's £25m for Greater Manchester.
£25m for The North East.
£25m for The West Midlands.
£25m for the West of England
£25m for West Yorkshire.
And £25m here, in the Liverpool City Region where Steve is
building on the incredible strengths of a city region, where four
working class lads went on to become the most famous band in the
world.
No more distant decisions handed down from desks in
Whitehall.
Because real change doesn't come from the top down, it comes from
the ground up.
And finally, Conference,
Through the first National Youth Strategy in decades, we are
putting young people in the driving seat.
The Tories' turned their backs on our young people. They left
families without support.
Communities without hope.
Children without opportunity.
Well today, we say: no more.
Because Conference, Labour is back in government and we are
rebuilding what they broke.
Not just in bricks and mortar, but in belief.
The Wilson government gave us arts everywhere.
The Blair government gave us Sure Start.
That is why I am delighted to announce ‘Every Child Can' - a
bold, unapologetic programme of investment in our young
people.
With £132.5 million, we are reversing years of decline by funding
youth centres, grassroots sports, arts and music programmes in
the communities that need it most.
Because we believe that every child can.
Every child can draw.
Every child can dance.
Every child can dream.
This is nation building, the Labour way.
Because a creative life is a life worth living.
It's how self-belief is built.
How confidence is formed.
How futures are changed.
We're talking about the dignity of every child, in every
community, to live a full life.
So today, we say:
No child shut out.
No postcode written off.
No potential untapped.
Because every child can.
And under a Labour government, every child will.
Conference, we may be in government, but we will never be the
establishment, and never accept the status quo.
This is the lesson of our history. And my own story.
My dad, an immigrant to this country, went on to write the Race
Relations Act, one of the greatest gifts Labour has given to our
country.
He was up for the fight.
The men and women who boycotted the buses in Bristol in
solidarity with black workers. They changed our country and they
changed my life. Because they were up for the fight.
The Hillsborough campaigners whose fight for justice has spanned
nearly three decades and who we are proud to honour them with the
Hillsborough Law.
The lives of people whose names they will never know, who they
will never meet will be changed forever.
Because they chose to fight.
So now every one of us faces that choice.
Are we up for the fight of our lives?
From the NHS, the Welfare State, the Minimum wage and the world's
first Climate Change Act.
It was never easy. It was always hard.
But we changed the course of our country.
Now we fight again.
So that every child can play their part in a broad, inclusive,
self confident country.
We are the 4th ever Labour Government in history.
And we will go out with courage and conviction
And fight for the country we believe in.
And make no mistake.
We will win.
