, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary,
addressed the party conference today.
Conference, I’ve spent my life
tackling poverty and inequality.
And as Labour’s Shadow Work and
Pensions Secretary - that’s what I’ll do again.
Working with colleagues across
our Party to provide opportunity and security for all.
All around us, every day, we see
the costs of Tory failure.
Parents working 12-hour shifts in
shops and cafes - but struggling to pay basic bills.
Mums forced to give up work -
because they can’t afford childcare.
A country where there are now
more foodbanks than police stations.
This must end.
Last week saw an endless parade
of Tories claim they are the party of freedom.
Do me a favour.
The Tories have starved so many
people of opportunities, of hope.
That’s what poverty and
insecurity does.
And it’s our job - Labour’s
job.
To set people free.
Real freedom means going as far
as you want in life.
But today too much of your future
is still determined by where you’re born.
Your class, gender and the colour
of your skin.
Because Tory freedom is tax cuts
for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor.
Labour knows real freedom, and
real prosperity, starts with working people.
It is built from the bottom up
and the middle out.
And when the working classes and
the middle classes prosper, our country prospers too.
We must harness our greatest
asset - the talents of the British people.
Too much talent is wasted
today.
Poverty is soaring.
And the cost to the taxpayer is
spiralling too.
Conference, Britain isn’t
working.
Over two million people shut out
of the workplace because of sickness or disability - want to
work.
The over 50s, especially women,
struggling with poor physical health and caring
responsibilities.
Young people with mental health
problems, lacking basic qualifications - on the back foot before
they’ve even begun.
Under Labour this will
change.
Our top priority will be ensuring
everyone who can work, does.
Because we believe the benefits
of work go beyond a payslip - and in the dignity and self-respect
good work brings.
So we will tear down the barriers
to success.
We’ll tackle the root causes of
worklessness.
Recruiting thousands more mental
health staff and overhauling skills.
So no one is ever written off
again - whatever their age.
We’ll transform employment
support.
So it’s tailored to individual
and local needs.
Families and communities doing
well together.
And because there should be no
limits to the ambitions of working people, transforming the
quality of work will be a driving mission.
Only two things ever stop you
living on poverty pay: the law and a trade union membership card
in your pocket.
Labour will strengthen
both.
Our New Deal for Working People
will cut poverty, increase wages and improve workers
rights.
And we’ll make sweeping changes
to Job Centres, so they don’t just help people get work but get
on in their work.
This is our contract with the
British people.
Real opportunities matched by the
responsibility to take them up.
Because that’s what true fairness
is all about.
And Conference, we’ll deliver
real security too.
The last Labour Government lifted
two million children and pensioners out of poverty.
Today, our ambition is
undiminished.
Our resolution, redoubled.
We will reform Universal Credit -
to protect people when they need it and to genuinely make work
pay.
We’ll champion equality for
disabled people.
And we will deliver a bold, new,
cross-government, child poverty strategy.
And ensure decent state and
second pensions for all.
Conference, despite all the
problems and challenges we face - I am optimistic and hopeful
about our future.
Because I see the talents and
decency of the British people.
They need a government that is on
their side.
And that is what Labour will
deliver.
And to the country, I say:
Our mission will be to set you
free.
To provide the opportunities you
need to live the life you choose.
And the security to make that
freedom real.
Together, we will build a
brighter Britain.
And give our country its future
back.
