We’re stronger together. This is central to our policy review launching today

Today Labour launches ‘Stronger Together: A Better Future for Britain’ – our roadmap to bring Britain together and deliver a fairer, more secure future.

The Covid crisis has changed our world, the way we work and how we live. Whether we’re talking about the impact of the pandemic on our children, on older people, our health service or the workplace, we know a lot desperately needs to change in Britain.

We went into this pandemic as one of the most unequal countries in Europe. We’ve got a social care system that the government has promised time and time again to fix and failed. From zero-hours contracts to bogus self-employment, insecure work has exploded. Far too many people have to move away from home to access opportunities that should be on their doorstep.

But while the pandemic has exposed over a decade of Tory failure, and has been such a dreadful time for our country – it has also shown the very best of Britain.

Up and down our country, neighbours banded together to look out for those who needed help. Thousands volunteered to help our NHS. Businesses came together with trade unions and government to build ventilators in record time. Key workers went above and beyond time and again, supporting those who needed help. And AstraZeneca teamed up with Oxford University and NHS key workers to deliver a vaccine at cost price in less than a year.

Wherever we look – in our own communities, or across the country – Britain proved that we’re stronger together. Labour wants to harness that spirit of togetherness to take Britain to new heights. The Conservatives won’t do it, so it’s up to us to deliver the change that Britain needs.

That means building a country with world-class public services for everyone, where access to high-quality schools and hospitals is never about where you live or how much money you have. It means a country that offers decent, well-paid jobs no matter where you are, where a proper day’s work is rewarded with a proper day’s pay and the pride that comes from a job well done. And a country that seizes the opportunities of the digital revolution and takes on the climate crisis, not one whose leaders duck the big challenges.

Covering six big challenges for our country, the roadmap will examine how we can secure Britain’s future role in the world, deliver better jobs and better work, a green and digital future, safe and secure communities, world-class public services, and a future where families come first.

To meet the challenges and opportunities of the coming decade, we know Labour needs policies rooted in what matters to people in their daily lives: their concerns, hopes and aspirations. So this project will engage with people across our party and our movement, and with academics, think tanks and communities across our country.

We’ll be launching a range of events to hear from members and will work closely with Labour’s national policy forum, which has a formal structure to include our members. We will ensure that our roadmap works with existing party structures and democratic processes.

Building a future that everyone in Britain can be proud of is beyond the Conservatives, but Labour has done it many times before. We created the NHS, we introduced a national minimum wage, we slashed child poverty and we brought peace to Northern Ireland.

Our own achievements in government proved we’re stronger together. That belief goes to the heart of everything Labour does – and it will be central to the exciting, hopeful vision for Britain under a Labour government that this roadmap will begin to set out.