Daisy Cooper's keynote speech in full

Daisy Cooper Full Keynote Speech

In her keynote speech at Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference, Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP has unveiled a 30-page report on how to Get Britain Growing Again warning that economic growth is being held back by a computer says no economy.

Cooper announced her 30-page plan to Get Britain Growing Again and boost businesses in every sector from farming to pharmaceuticals.

Link to Get Britain Growing Again here.

Full Speech Text

Check Against Delivery

Conference,

Two years ago, I became our Treasury spokesperson and since then I've had thousands of conversations.

With entrepreneurs and investors.

With family businesses and start-ups.

With bankers, manufacturers and engineers.

From Brecon to Birmingham, and from Fife to Farronland - I keep hearing the same story.

Conference, we have sleepwalked into a computer-says-no economy.

Businesses everywhere are grappling with a system so riddled with barriers - it feels like it's been designed to trip people up rather than help them succeed. When they try to get ahead, the computer says no.

Just listen to these stories -

A London founder running a space-tech company told me she could deliver nationwide 5G coverage through a network of British satellites. But when she applied for a government contract, the form required evidence of revenue, even for pre-revenue companies.

Innovation said yes. The system said no.

A shellfish farmer in Devon told me officials couldn't decide whether his business was agricultural or food. While departments argued, a shipment sat at the border until it spoiled and had to be destroyed.

An exporter said yes. The system said no.

A care-tech entrepreneur from Shropshire built an award-winning company backed by UK Research and Innovation funding. Canada offered contracts and support to help it scale. But because the procurement system is so fragmented here, Britain couldn't even procure what Britain had helped create.

An entrepreneur said yes. The system said no.

And the stories keep coming.

A Norfolk distillery too frightened to hire because of rising complexity and cost.

A veteran-founded cyber-security firm in Brecon struggling to bid for contracts because of procurement rules designed for incumbents not new entrants.

Financial firms across Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool and London, struggling to compete because Brexit has become a barrier not just to trade, but to talent.

Conference, these stories reveal a country that is not living up to its potential.

The problem to me is clear as day:

Britain has no shortage of ambition, ideas or drive.

But Britain's strengths are being held back.

Everywhere I go, I meet people giving blood, sweat, and tears - and sometimes their life savings. Only to come up against roadblocks and hurdles - the computer says no.

I see people taking risks. Creating jobs. Building businesses. Determined to succeed and to help Britain succeed too.

Britain's problem is not that we lack entrepreneurs, innovators or workers willing to succeed. It's that we've built bureaucracies and bad institutions too often designed to hold them back.

The frustration is real. The anger is real.

But so too is the demand for a party prepared to do something about it - a party that can Get Britain Growing Again.

Now, I know that the word "growth" has become cheap.

Every Prime Minister in the last decade - all seven of them - said they wanted growth.

Liz Truss made a dash for it - and we all saw how well that turned out.

Keir Starmer said growth was his number one mission - before delivering two anti-growth budgets.

Every politician says they want it. Few have ever had a plan to deliver it.

The two old parties and now Reform UK, fall into the same trap:

They're locked in an argument about the size of the state, when the real question is the size and shape of our economy.

They're too busy fighting over who owns what, whether the state or the markets know best. They never focus on tearing down the barriers that hold individuals, communities and businesses back.

And I'm worried that Labour won't be bold enough.

Just two weeks ago, the new Labour Chancellor gave his first big speech on growth. It was trailed as a "major speech," the "product of deep thinking." It contained no vision, no ideas, and absolutely no mention of Europe.

Meanwhile, Reform UK and the Conservatives are locked in a race to the bottom without a single credible costing between them.

Remember the disastrous mini- Budget? Well the Tories new Shadow Chancellor helped write it and Nigel Farage called it the best Conservative budget since 1986!

But the worst could be yet to come:  Farage is modeling himself on Trump. A man who has used the presidency to enrich himself, dismantle anti-corruption safeguards and pardon crypto criminals.

Conference we cannot let that kind of politics to take hold in our country. We cannot let Nigel Farage win the keys to No 10. And we cannot let the Tories put him there.

Conference, we.. are.. ready.

For years, people wrote us off. But we rebuilt this party.

Door by door. Street by street. Seat by seat . From 11 MPs to 72.

We pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps, from the margins of British politics to becoming the largest third party in a hundred years.

Nobody handed this to us. We built it. And if we can rebuild our party, then we have what it takes to rebuild our country.

And that's why today I'm unveiling my plan to Get Britain Growing Again. 

This plan starts with the single biggest thing we can do to tear down the barriers holding Britain back - because the prize is enormous.

It could turbo-charge our economy and start to reverse the economic damage of Brexit which is currently costing us £90 billion a year in lost tax revenue.

That is a new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU.

In power, we will strike the deal on the single market. We will strike the deal on a customs union. We will strike the deal on defence. A new deal that makes our country safer, stronger and more prosperous. And we will say what no other party dares to say: Britain belongs at the heart of Europe, and we will take her there.

But this plan doesn't stop at the border.

Here's what I've learned from every business I've met: Britain doesn't have a problem creating value. We have a problem capturing it./p>

We build brilliant start-ups, but watch too many leave to scale elsewhere. We produce world-class research, but too little of it becomes a British product. We attract foreign investment, but can't raise enough of our own capital to match it. We pour money into infrastructure but don't get bang for our buck. Communities generate growth, but the rewards are captured by Whitehall.

Britain has the potential. The system holds it back. The computer says no.

This plan tears down the barriers to investment, to innovation, and to skills. It sets out how we will make Britain the best place in the world for start-ups to scale and stay; how we build infrastructure with communities at the heart of it; how every business, wherever it is, can reach the talent, the capital and the markets it needs to grow.

It sets out how we can become a nation of investors: a country that invests in itself so that others invest further still. And how we will change government itself to create a one-stop-shop for businesses - of all shapes, all sizes and all stages of growth.

Conference, they say that a tree with deep roots fears no wind - well I can tell you that we're ready to face-down the oncoming storm.

Our future liberal economic vision is rooted in the values that have guided us for almost 200 years.

Some of us came to this party carrying the Orange Book. Some of us came carrying the banner of the SDP.

But here's the thing: we've never just been two traditions bolted together for convenience. We are one party built on one conviction: wealth creation and social justice are two sides of the same coin.

Remember -

We defeated the protectionist Corn Laws. We opposed the trade barriers of Brexit. We're standing up to Trump's tariff wars. We are the party that has always championed international trade, competitive markets, and innovation.

But - we are also the party that established the welfare state. We rolled out the old age pension. We gave children free school meals, and conceived of the National Health Service.

We are the party which lifted millions of low-paid people out of paying tax altogether.

The party that established the Green Investment Bank, the British Business Bank, and Better Society Capital, because we know that an active state can back British startups, drive investment and deliver for people, planet, and prosperity.

Our history shows that Liberals have helped Britain succeed by ripping down the barriers to enterprise, openness and innovation - just as we have ripped down the barriers to opportunity, security and social justice.

So today, Conference: if we are to avoid more punishing tax hikes from Labour or painful spending cuts by a Conservative and Reform UK coalition then Britain needs our party and it needs this plan to get Britain Growing Again.

And Conference, there is a bigger prize than growth alone. History tells that when economies grow and growth is shared widely, people become more open, more tolerant, more willing to support fairness for everyone. When growth stalls, people turn defensive, more suspicious and go looking for someone to blame.

The cost of living crisis was caused by the Conservatives, ignored by Labour, and is now being exploited by Reform UK.

We can fix Britain without turning on each other. Getting Britain growing again isn't just economics. It's how we keep the populists out of power. It's how we build a liberal country.

Conference, we rebuilt this party. Now let's rebuild our country.

The choice in front of Britain is simple: isolation or openness, stagnation or opportunity, scapegoats or solutions, decline or growth.

Britain's future will not be built by populists searching for enemies. It will be built by people with the freedom to succeed.

Let's replace a computer-says-no economy with a Britain that once again says yes.

That is the liberal way. That is how we rebuild our economy, this is how we rebuild our country.

Thank you.