On Tuesday (10 September), in the first address from a Prime
Minister to the Trade Union Congress in 15 years, will champion unions and
business to come together with the shared purpose of partnership
to deliver national renewal.
Addressing TUC delegates in Brighton, he will champion
the politics of partnership, and recommit his changed Labour
Party to governing as a changed Labour Party:
“I call now, as before the election, for the
politics of partnership. With us in government, with business,
and most importantly of all, with working people… the mood is for
partnership. And not just on pay - on everything. To turn around
our NHS, give our children the start in life they deserve, make
our public services fit for the future, unlock the potential of
clean energy. A new era of investment and reform. The common
cause of national renewal.
“Partnership is a more difficult way of doing politics. I know
there's clarity in the old ways, the zero-sum ways: business
versus worker, management versus union, public versus private.
That kind of politics is not what the British people want.
“We have the chance to deliver for working people: young people,
vulnerable people, the poorest in society, because we changed the
Labour party. So when I say ‘country first, party second' – that
isn't a slogan. It's the guiding principle of everything this
Government will do. We ran as a changed Labour Party and we will
govern as a changed Labour party. So I make no apologies to
those, still stuck in the 1980s, who believe that unions and
business can only stand at odds, leaving working people stuck in
the middle.
“And when I say to the public our policies will be pro-business
and pro-worker, they don't look at me as if I'm deluded, they see
it as the most ordinary, sensible thing in the world. And I know
there will always be disputes, but there is a mood of change
in the business world, a growing understanding of the importance
of good work and the shared self-interest that comes from
treating the workforce with respect and dignity. The productivity
gain of fairness which is an opportunity to be grasped.”
Making the speech within his first 100 days of
government, he will warn that the Conservatives ‘salted the earth
of Britain's future to serve themselves', and that the road to
fixing the foundations of the country won't be easy:
“I have to level with you, as I did on the steps of Downing
Street just over two months ago, this will take a while. It will
be hard. But just as we had to do the hard graft of change in our
Party now we have to roll up our sleeves and change our
country.
“When we finally saw the books, and with trust in politics so
low, I had to be honest with the British people when standing in
the full sunlight of democracy, I owed it to them to promise only
what we knew we could deliver. And yet even in our worst fears we
didn't think it would be this bad. The pollution in our rivers,
the overcrowding in our prisons, so much of our crumbling public
realm - universities, councils, the care system, all even worse
than we expected. Millions of pounds wasted on a Rwanda scheme
that they knew would never work. Politics reduced to an
expensive, divisive, noisy performance, a game to be played and
not the force that can fundamentally change the lives of those we
represent.”
will tell the TUC that this
work has begun with the biggest levelling up of workers' rights
in a generation:
“Let's be clear why we need this bill. It's
because this government is committed to driving up living
standards, improving productivity, and working in partnership
with workers. And as part of that bill we will repeal the 2016
Trade Union Act, we will get rid of Minimum Service Level
legislation, end the cheap and vindictive attacks on this
movement and turn the page on politics as noisy performance –
once and for all.
The Prime Minister will make clear the conditions of
partnership working, and the role all sides will need to play in
securing economic stability for wealth creation for working
people:
“I do have to make clear, from a place of respect, that this
government will not risk its mandate for economic stability,
under any circumstances. And with tough decisions on the horizon,
pay will inevitably be shaped by that. I owe you that candour
because – as was so painfully exposed by the last government -
when you lose control of the economy it's working people who pay
the price.”
In addressing the challenges the country faces, he will
set out his vision of rewriting the economy so we can ‘build a
new home':
“The crisis we have inherited means we must go deep into the
marrow of our institutions, rewrite the rules of our economy and
fix the foundations so we can build a new home. A country where
growth not only comes from the enterprise of working people, but
where growth serves the interests of working people. Living
standards rising, not just because we are redistributing from
prosperous parts of the country but because we are growing the
economy in every community. That is our mission.
“Because economic rules written in the ink of partnership will be
more durable and long-lasting – whoever is in power. So it is
time to turn the page, business and unions, the private and
public sector, united by a common cause to rebuild our public
services and grow our economy in a new way. Higher growth, higher
wages, higher productivity. The shared purpose of partnership as
the path through the mess the Tories made, and onwards to
national renewal.
“We will keep to the course of change, reject the snake oil of
easy answers, fix the foundations of our economy and build a new
Britain. More secure, more prosperous, more dynamic, and fairer.
A country renewed and returned, calmly but with confidence, to
the service of working people.”
