Our broken political system “must change or die”, Lisa Nandy will
say Wednesday, as she outlines Labour’s plan to unleash “the
power of all people in all parts of Britain” by pushing power out
of Westminster.
Addressing the Convention of the North, the Shadow Levelling Up
Secretary will say Labour is “calling time on this short term,
arrogant, sticking-plaster approach” that has “written off the
talent, potential and assets of most people in most parts of
Britain”.
Vowing “no more excuses”, she will set out how Labour will begin
to undo this damage by undertaking the biggest ever transfer of
power out of Westminster and Whitehall.
In her speech in Manchester, Nandy will:
- Promise to “empower our communities to take control of their
own economic future” as she calls on local leaders to come
forward and tell us what powers they need to drive their own
local growth plans through Labour’s Take Back Control Act, which
has said will form the
centrepiece of the first King’s Speech of a Labour government.
- Renew a commitment to hand over powers over housing, energy,
childcare, buses, trains, skills, training and employment support
to local leaders.
- Set out an ambition for “a new relationship, of equals, based
on mutual respect” between national and local government, that
will enhance the role of local leaders but also “ask more” of
them.
- Describe the current funding model for local government as
“absurd” and “undemocratic” as she sets out Labour’s ambition for
a “significant expansion of economic devolution in England”.
- Argue that there should be a constitutional requirement to
rebalance the UK’s economy and equalise living standards across
the country over time.
, Labour’s Shadow Levelling Up
Secretary, will say:
“Ambition is everywhere in the towns, villages, and cities that
were once the engines of Britain, for too long written off and
written out of our national story. For 15 years, since the global
crash, the failure of running an economy like this has been plain
to see.
“But every time the public has sounded the alarm, hitting our
politicians with tsunami after tsunami of discontent, our
creaking political system has done nothing. This is the
collective task facing our generation of political leaders: to
respond to that siren call or face obsolescence. To change or
die.”
Labour will “end a century of centralisation”, Nandy will say,
promising that “we’re going to bake this in to our first two
terms of government, across the whole of government” because
“unleashing the power of all people in all parts of Britain is no
longer a nice to have, a local or a regional issue, it is at the
heart of whether this country has a future or not”.
Ends
Notes
Lisa Nandy will be speaking at the Convention of the North in
Manchester at 2.50pm on Wednesday 25 January.
