Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock's speech to Labour Party Conference 2026

Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock's speech to Labour Party Conference 2026

"Thank you very much Conference.  

It is a joy to be here with you. After a thousand generations of waiting for the first one, another Kinnock has the chance to speak with you from this platform. 

My first job today is to convey warm and comradely greetings to you all from Dad.

He is no doubt watching on the telly, and no doubt drafting detailed feedback as we speak. So no pressure!

It is the greatest honour of my life to be your Secretary of State for Wales. I was born in Tredegar.  As was my father and his. To be a child of Tredegar is to inherit something precious.  

It is to be born into a place, a community, a crucible of principles and action that teaches you what human solidarity actually means. 

Because in Tredegar, we learned something the world keeps trying to forget: that the greatest source of value is not money, it is each other. That every person matters. That society must be for everyone. 

But we also know that we exist in community with one another and true solidarity goes beyond sympathy to action. 

The Tredegar Medical Aid Society, the seed that gave life to our NHS, wasn't charity. It was people saying: we're going to take care of each other. We're in this together and we all have something to contribute. Because society must always also be by everyone. 

So that is what I hope to contribute to as your Secretary of State: a Wales for everyone, by everyone. 

A Wales that is strong and bold. 

A Wales in sync with the vision that the Prime Minister has set out for our country. 

For everyone - because we believe in the power of government to unblock the barriers that hold people back. Because every person in every postcode deserves a genuine shot at realising their potential. 

By everyone - because we refuse to be a nation where some people decide and others just accept, where some people can do and others just receive. Because to be fulfilled we need to feel we're contributing to something that is bigger than ourselves. And that only happens when we work together. 

But that vision of our society has been receding to the horizon. Wave after wave of deindustrialisation has gutted Welsh communities. A failed privatisation agenda has hollowed out our utilities. Austerity ripped through our public services. 14 years of Conservative government left us exhausted and insecure. 40 years of trickle-down economics has left us thirsty for hope. 

And now we have a Plaid Cymru government in Cardiff that in its first hundred days has offered nothing but consultations, reviews and talking shops.  

Conference, let me tell you this: you can't review yourself to a better future. You have to act. So let me tell you what action looks like. In my home patch of Port Talbot, the steel industry has been under threat. We could have told those workers:  

Sorry, that's just how markets work, you're on your own.  

That's what other parties we know would have done. That is what they did, 

in community after community. But we looked these skilled workers in the eye  

and asked ourselves: 

Do we believe in those people? 

And of course we do. So we acted.

£102 million of investment, through our transition board. 100 new businesses. New jobs that offer dignity and hope.  

That's not a review: it is the knowledge that your country believes in you  

and you have a stake in the future. 

Or take the rail network. For years, under the Conservatives, Wales has been starved of the rail infrastructure that drives growth and connection. The message was pretty clear: you're not a priority, you're not worth it. 

We said: Wales is part of the United Kingdom and we invest in all of our people.  

A £14 billion plan. 12,000 jobs. Seven new stations. That's not a review: that is connecting people to opportunity, and to each other. 

In the Celtic Sea, we're investing £64 million in port infrastructure to support 5,000 jobs in floating offshore wind. That's not a review, that's giving power to our people. 

And we are working hard to lift our young people up. The Youth Jobs Guarantee, the Connect to Work Programme, 12 new Youth Hubs; opening Shift Retail partnerships; that's not a review, that's taking actions to tell people: you are the future and we are going to act like it. 

When Jo Stevens delivered the biggest ever budget settlement for Wales, she sent one message: we believe in you.  

She delivered it with the purpose, compassion and clarity that everyone who has ever met her knows that she has.  

So thank you, Jo. I'm proud to carry forward that commitment forward

I'm proud to carry that commitment forward to a strong Wales in a strong United Kingdom. 

But now, in Cardiff and in the UK, there are voices telling a different story. 

Before the 7 May election, Plaid were silent on their obsession with separatism. But now their true colours shine through.

They say: Let's build walls. Look inward. Keep Welsh power confined to Welsh borders. 

So what are they really saying to the Welsh steelworker? Your world stops here. 

To a young Welsh person? Your opportunities are limited. 

To a Welsh business? Let's shrink the size of your market. 

But Conference You cannot put borders on Welsh power. 

And Reform are no better. All they ever want to do is build walls between people and communities. They stoke division and tell you your neighbour is the problem.  

Now they may offer an arresting narrative on Facebook, but I spy some plastic patriotism. 

Funded by crypto billionaires, egged on by foreign powers waging war on Europe and on our values.  

But Conference Wales is a nation of dragons, we are not Putin's Parrots. 

Plaid and Reform offer the same poison: you're safer alone. You're stronger, smaller.  

But that's a lie. And it's not who we are in Wales.  

Wales wasn't built by people who retreated or set communities against each other.  

Wales was built by people who ent out and changed the world.  

Who lifted each other up. The songs of the valleys and the poems of the hills brought people together and expanded the world. 

That is the Welsh tradition.  

Hopeful. Ambitious. Rooted in solidarity.  

And that's what Andy Burnham understands.  

That collaboration isn't weakness, it's a force multiplier. That when we work together, we get stronger.  

And that is the spirit in which we reach out to Plaid Cymru.

Work with us. Stop sitting on your hands and get energy infrastructure through planning.  

Allow broadband upgrades for thousands of homes. Stay true to your commitments on our £50 million Defence Growth Deal. 

In England these deals are underway. In Wales, Plaid are stalling: jobs and security delayed. 

When Labour's UK government offers a funding settlement for Wales with the money to meet demand for additional needs provision in schools: there it is, stop dithering and get that funding to the kids who need it.

So, I and the UK government will work with you. The hand of co-operation is extended. But solidarity requires both sides to show up. And we are showing up.  

Just this month I announced that £1.4 billion of contracts are available with Rolls Royce to deliver nuclear power on Anglesey, bringing thousands of jobs to North Wales. 

We're investing £160 million in an Investment Zone for South-East Wales boosting advanced manufacturing and job creation, as well as £500 million in the local growth fund, and £280 million in Pride in Place for 14 areas of Wales that most need support. 

No reviews or committees or talking shops. Just action and delivery.  

So we can and must build a Wales that is for everyone, by everyone. 

But here's the truth: Wales is set to become the most centralised nation in the UK. People feel ever more distant from power.  

It's the Welsh Government's job to devolve more power from Cardiff. I am clear about that. But the Welsh people deserve similar levels of control over decisions as people across the border. 

In Ken Skates we have a leader who gets the importance and the scale of the job at hand. 

He is leading the debate on how to rewire Wales to bring power closer to people and to deliver more jobs and more opportunity. 

So I ask Plaid to work with us. 

Because communities like Tredegar where I was born, and Port Talbot that I now call home, and countless others like them, deserve to be trusted. That's what Tredegar taught me. That politics is personal. And it's about the lives of real people.  

Whether your mum gets the care that she needs.  

Whether you can find a job.  

Whether you feel like you have a say. 

If you'll indulge me, conference. I really wish my mother was with us today.  

Glenys Kinnock taught me something essential: that our values are not in the speaking. They're in the doing. 

That politics is about the choices you make with the power you hold - and that you cannot put borders on your values. 

That is the Welsh Spirit. That is the greatness of Wales. Tredegar didn't keep the Medical Aid Society within its borders.  

It gifted us that unmatched wonder of wonders: our NHS.  

Our inheritance as Welsh people is not to stay small. It's to dream big and go far.  

Because we have always known that solidarity multiplies power.  

A Welsh worker building alongside English workers. Welsh innovation scaling across the whole UK.  

A young Welsh person knowing Britain is open to them. A Welsh patient getting care from expertise that crosses borders.  

A Wales that is stronger and bolder precisely because it is part of something bigger. 

Conference, I will work with everyone in Westminster, in Cardiff Bay, in communities across Wales to show the value and opportunity of our precious union. 

A strong Wales in a strong United Kingdom. 

A Wales for everyone, by everyone. 

Conference It is possible, if we are brave enough to build it. 

Thank you."