McDonnell: Tory u-turns show what Labour movement can achieve when united in opposition to austerity

This is John McDonnell’s speech to the Labour Assembly Against Austerity Conference on Saturday.

“We’ve had major successes in the last year because as a Party we hammered away at the Tories for making a political choice to impose austerity cuts and I want to congratulate everyone for all of those hard years of campaigning.

“We’ve reversed cuts to tax credits and Personal Independence Payments.

“This shows what the Labour Party and the whole labour movement can deliver when they are united in opposing Tory austerity.

“But this is only the first step.

“We are winning the arguments on the economy.

“Even the Tories have abandoned George Osborne’s failed fiscal targets.

“And they are twisting in the wind as they try to patch up a Brexit deal.

“Theresa May has begun talking about government intervention in the economy in a way we haven’t heard from a Prime Minister for decades.

“But she’ll be opposed by her own Party. She’s talked about workers on boards but press reports make clear her own Cabinet are opposed.

“It’s up to Labour to lay out the positive alternative for the country. The Tories aren’t capable of it because they are trapped in the past.

“Laying out the alternative is the next step for out movement.

“Through Labour’s National and Regional Investment Banks, underpinned by our Fiscal Credibility Rule and backed up by a comprehensive industrial strategy it’s only Labour who are thinking seriously about this country’s future.

“We need to support a new generation of co-operatives and worker-owned firms.

“We want local communities to take ownership of their energy supplies, delivering clean, low cost electricity like the Robin Hood scheme in Nottingham.

“It’s only Labour’s economic vision under Jeremy Corbyn that can create the high-skill, high investment, high-wage economy of the 21^st century.”