“Moments of crisis shine a penetrating light” – Thomas-Symonds’ full speech

Below is the full text of the speech delivered by Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds’ at Labour’s online conference ‘Connected’ this afternoon.

Friends, it is great to be able to join you all today, though we meet in tough times. My hope is that in the near future we can meet in person. But today we must remember the thousands who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Each and every one a tragedy.

The crisis continues to impact on all aspects of our lives: it has been, and is, heart-wrenching – and we know the effects will be felt years to come. We must never forget those who were there when we needed them. All those at the frontline keeping people safe: our police, our firefighters, our emergency medical services. Shop workers, delivery drivers, child minders. All our key workers who have kept our communities going.

They put themselves at risk to help others. They are our inspiration. It is a reminder – not that we in the Labour movement needed one – that the contribution people make to our society is not reflected in what they earn. In their honour, we cannot allow things to return to how they were. Let us also recognise the vital role of our trade union movement – it was their work that ensured we had a furlough scheme and health and safety provisions for workplaces.

Their contribution to tackling this virus and standing up for workers has been nothing short of remarkable, we commend the work they are doing to fight, and protect, every single job. This pandemic has been described as a crisis, a period of national sacrifice like the Second World War – a defining moment in our national story.

I’m honoured to be asked to reflect – today – on the 75-year anniversary of the election of that transformative post-war 1945 Labour government. I’m privileged to be a biographer of Nye Bevan and Clem Attlee. Although born in comfortable circumstances, Attlee’s politics were formed in the time he spent in social work in Stepney, in London’s East End. For Bevan, his politics were forged in his upbringing in the South Wales coalfields, and the industrial struggles of the 1920s.

Both men witnessed the appalling impacts of poverty, ill-health, and the chronic failures of a right-wing ideology, a harsh market economy that left people alone and fending for themselves. They drew a conclusion that never left them: that the Victorian attitude were wrong. Poverty was not the fault of people, and private charity – whilst a fine thing – was not enough on its own.

In the end, you needed a government on the people’s side that would change things. In short, the people needed power. Attlee and Bevan, had an unshakable world view, shaped by these values. They also realised the seemingly insurmountable post-war crisis could be overcome and that communities could achieve their full potential not in spite of our values – but because of them.

Labour’s vision was of a more equal society where everyone could live a fulfilled life from beginning to end – with decent pensions, support for people who were sick and keeping people in work. This was aptly summed up in the title of the 1945 manifesto: Let Us Face The Future.

And when the country turned to Labour, with its promise of a better world, it delivered changes and institutions that to this day define our country. It gave birth to a welfare state. We had mass house building and most of all our most towering achievement: The National Health Service, which is loved now more than ever. Of course, later Labour governments built on the foundations of 1945.

Take another of my inspirations in politics, Barbara Castle. Again, a shining example of how giant Labour figures put values into practice. Whether it be advancing equal pay, or saving lives through public safety legislation and droving forward campaigning to tackle global poverty. She would be horrified to see that, half a century after her landmark Equal Pay Act, we still have a gender pay gap holding our country back.

However, like her, we must have that passion and commitment to change it. Through her immense achievements – in the face of the appalling misogyny – Barbara sets a high bar for so many of us to follow. Clem, Nye and Barbara provide the inspiration I take into my role as proud MP for my home seat of Torfaen in South Wales – and now as Shadow Home Secretary.

It was on the terraced street where I grew up – in Blaenavon – in the constituency I am now proud to represent – that I learned my values. My parents were born just after the war. My mother, Pam, worked in a local factory; my father, Jeff, worked in the steelworks. Others were not so lucky as to have jobs.

I was a child of the miners’ strike. Around me, the local jobs were disappearing, the pits were closing, and the Thatcher government did nothing to replace them. It was economic vandalism on a grand scale. But it also allowed communities to show their togetherness. Steeled and organised by the union movement, we saw solidarity in action.

So, when I wrote biographies of Bevan and Attlee it was so vividly clear that the values that drove them, shape my politics and drive the way our party needs to respond to today’s global crisis. So, our party has a great responsibility in moments of crisis like the one our country and planet faces in the battle against this virus and its consequences.

People rely on us; they look to Labour to offer direction and moral leadership. Because these moments of crisis shine a penetrating light on: how the world has been; how we live today; and what our futures could hold. That is why they can be such catalysts for change.

Nye Bevan summed this up in his great book, In Place of Fear, where he said, we can never “excuse indifference to individual suffering… There is no test for progress other than its impact on the individual”. The baton now passes to our generation to find a way to make timeless values real.

We went into this crisis weakened by a decade of Tory austerity: A housing crisis that left many households financially overstretched; insecure work on a grand scale that left so many workers vulnerable to Labour market shocks; a health system in England undermined and fragmented by Tory ideology; a systematic government attack on our trade unions, that tried to diminish the very organisations that have proved so vital to saving livelihoods and getting people back to work safely.

The pandemic didn’t create these challenges, but it magnified them enormously. And it doesn’t stop there. Anti-Black racism – in the UK and across the world – remains an open wound in our societies. George Floyd’s fateful words – “I can’t breathe” – haunt us. They have been a catalyst for people across the world to stand up and demand action.

We must listen to those voices from our Black communities who have expressed how deep-rooted the systemic racism is in our society and why so much more remains to be done. These words must be met by deeds from the government, not yet another review.

We know, too, the importance of trust in policing and delivering a service that looks more like the people it serves. As Home Secretary, I would lead the change that is necessary from the top. But, instead, we have a Tory government so determined to dehumanise people they would rather leave unaccompanied children in the burning Moria refugee camp, than live up to our promise to help them. Or mobilise the Royal Navy against dinghies in the English Channel – in a bid to militarise a human crisis.

At the same time, they are making the factors that drive people from their homes worse. Abolishing the Department for International Development at a time when war, persecution and poverty cause people to flee their homes is wrong and self-defeating.

We live in a country led by an incompetent – and callous – Tory Party. And it’s only a Labour government – led by our values – that can rebuild. Nye, Clem and Barbara knew that in their moment in time – and we know that now. That’s the test I set myself; I hold true to those values. Hold true as I hold the government to account, in parliament. And these are the values that will guide me as we develop policies, I will aim to implement as Home Secretary.

Crime is a social justice issue. Because be in no doubt, as crime rises – as it always does under the Tories – it is the same people that suffer most: Women; our poorest communities; and minorities. So, I take our duty to tackle and prevent crime so seriously. My role will be to convince people that Labour will keep you, your family and your community safe.

And I am proud that even in opposition, we have been putting those principles in to action and delivering change. I was absolutely clear from taking this job that one of my top priorities, is addressing violent abuse against women and girls. The rates of abuse and levels of convictions are appalling and shame our society.

And for many women the situation was even more bleak as we headed into lockdown. All the warning signs where there, that domestic abuse would increase, and sadly that came to pass. And we all know how appalling a record the Tories have on this.

So I am proud that we campaigned, and secured, along with frontline agencies addressing this problem – to force the government – to earmark £76m for addressing Domestic Abuse during the coronavirus crisis. It took hard graft, teamwork and a threat to try and change the law to get the Tories to do it, but I’m proud we did it.

And if you want another example of what we are up against with this Tory government, take the way they treated our NHS and care workers. They rammed through an immigration bill as soon as parliament reopened, telling the 180,000 health workers in this country from the EU that they are unwelcome. It takes some first-rate hypocrisy to stand and clap for them on a Thursday night, and then tell them that they are not welcome on a Monday.

Yet we stood against the measures that were mean-spirited and dangerous to our NHS. And again, we won a major U-turn from the government, forcing them to back down on charging our overseas NHS and care workers for the very health service they were working in. I’m proud to have worked so closely with our leader, Keir Starmer on these victories.

As anyone in politics knows, we can only success with teamwork. And I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a fantastic Shadow Home Affairs Team, together with Sarah Jones, Holly Lynch, Jess Phillips, Conor McGinn, Bambos Charalambous, Chris Elmore and Taiwo Owatemi in the House of Commons; and Lords Richard Rosser and Roy Kennedy in the House of Lords.

I also want to thank our fantastic police and crime commissioners who have been doing so much to stand up for their communities, as the Tories have woefully failed on crime. It’s vital that we return as many as possible in May’s crucial elections.

But let me be honest with you. Great an honour as this job is, I don’t want to be stood at the opposition despatch box, unable to act. The Home Secretary likes to talk tough. When it comes to issuing press releases and talk of mobilising the armed forces against dinghies she’s there. With her words, she seeks to divide when she should seek to unite.

Yet, she fails to act when injustice stares her in the face. Let me be clear: as Home Secretary, I would not stand by whilst the victims of the Windrush Scandal continue to suffer. It is the least we owe to that remarkable generation of people who were so shamefully treated. And when it comes to addressing violent crime, the Home Secretary is nowhere to be seen. The Home Office’s flagship Violent Crime Taskforce hasn’t even met for over a year – and we’ve seen a decade of nationwide rising violence under the Tories.

So, it couldn’t be starker: with a Labour Home Secretary we could do so much more – and I would ensure that nobody is ignored, and nobody is left without help. As Nye Bevan said, “it’s the impact on the individual”. But to deliver the change our country so desperately needs, we know that Labour has to win. In 2024, we have to deliver that Labour government we all came into politics to make possible.

Labour Connected, let us take the inspiration of the transformative Attlee government into our quest for a future Labour government. The people who rely on a Labour government cannot afford us to falter. And I promise you, we will not. Labour Connected, thank you.