Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s address to Labour Party conference in full

Thank you, Conference.

And thank you, Matt, for that incredibly kind introduction.

Your enthusiasm alone could power half the country for many years to come.

Conference, in June at the GMB Congress I was proud to announce this Labour Government’s full backing for Sizewell C.

A landmark investment in a new era of nuclear power.

That plant will employ 10,000 people;

Create thousands more jobs in its supply chains and produce the energy to power six million homes.

We made that investment, because, when we came into office just over a year ago, this country was faced with a stark choice:

Investment, or decline.

To invest in Britain’s renewal.

Or to carry on with the same Tory economics, and the same results.

So for jobs and for pay, for energy independence and for our national security, we chose investment.

The Tories wouldn’t invest when they were in power.

The Tories now oppose that choice from opposition.

So, Conference, don’t ever let anyone tell you that there’s no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.

I promised you we would run the economy differently.

No longer would we turn a blind eye to where things are made and who makes them.

Or shrug our shoulders when the national interest is on the line.

Because a strong economy must rest on strong foundations.

I call that approach ‘securonomics’.

That’s why, when the shipbuilder Harland and Wolff was in danger, we chose to step in.

To guarantee a future for shipbuilding in Belfast, Devon, and Fife.

And I am proud to see British shipbuilding going from strength to strength.

With, just last month, a record £10 billion export order from Norway for Scottish-built frigates.

It’s why we are taking action to protect the automotive industry, the jewel in the crown of British manufacturing, with a £1.5 billion loan guarantee, to support Jaguar Land Rover provide certainty and support for the jobs in its business and in its supply chain.

And in April, when the foreign owners of British Steel rejected our offers of support, redirected essential materials abroad and prepared that company to close, we faced another choice.

We could do what the Tories did and stand idly by while jobs and industrial capacity were lost.

Or we could choose a different path – to take control of that company, in the national interest.

That was not just an economic choice, but a test of our conviction, our patriotism and our Labour values.

This Government was not willing – I was not willing – to tolerate a situation in which Britain’s steel capacity was fundamentally undermined.

And nor was I willing to see yet another working-class community lose its pride, lose the prosperity, lose the dignity that industry provides.

So we chose to intervene, to save British Steel and the jobs that go with it.

The Tories would not back British Steel.

And they wouldn’t back Britain’s steelworkers.

But this Labour Government is unequivocal:

There must be a future, there will be a future, for steel forged here on British soil.

Today, I can tell you more.

We are introducing new legislation to put our economic security first…

We understand your cause, and we are recognising a Palestinian state.

But we are now a party of government, not a party of protest.

And I am proud to stand here as your Chancellor.

The Chancellor that’s increased the minimum wage.

A Chancellor that is introducing free breakfast clubs and free school meals.

A Chancellor that has overseen five cuts to interest rates.

That is the difference we make, and that is the difference we make in power and not through protest.

Our party has changed and that is why I am standing here, proud to be your Chancellor of the Exchequer.

We are putting Britain first, empowering us to prioritise British-built ships and British-forged steel.

Strengthening our national economic security and creating manufacturing jobs here in Britain.

Because where things are made, and who makes them, does matter.

And as we build those new railways and new roads, the new power stations and new runways, for this generation and the next;

We want the security – and the good, unionised jobs – that come from making things here in Britain.

I promised you we would run the economy differently.

The Tories didn’t do it.

And they still don’t get it.

But Labour does.

So don’t ever let anyone tell you that there’s no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.

There is one reason why we have the power to make these choices.

It’s not a matter of luck, or a routine swing in the political pendulum.

It is because – thanks, Keir, to your leadership, and to the efforts of countless people in this hall and beyond, that we earned the privilege to serve.

Because we – every one of us – gave our all to regain the trust of the British people.

To earn this precious chance to put our values into practice.

Let me tell you what brought me here, and what gets me up every morning.

Let me tell you what I believe in and what drives me.

Conference, you know where I come from.

My mum and dad were primary school teachers.

And I’m really proud of that.

I know how hard they worked to give all the children that they taught the very best start in life.

I know how hard all our teachers work.

And I know parents’ hopes and fears when it comes to their kids – I feel them for my own.

But ordinary families find themselves fighting against a system which hoards privilege at the top, and leaves too many working-class kids behind.

I joined the Labour Party almost 30 years ago now because I could see that the Conservative governments I grew up under, in the 80s and 90s, actually didn’t care much about schools like mine – Ellie knows that too – and didn’t care much about the kids we grew up with.

Textbooks rationed, libraries closed, kids herded into portacabins, their prospects written off.

I joined our party because I wanted to change all that.

And those same values drive me now today.

Conference, I believe in a Britain founded on contribution.

Where we do our duty for each other and where hard work is matched by fair reward.

I believe in a Britain based on opportunity.

Where ordinary kids can flourish, unhindered by their backgrounds.

And I believe that Britain’s real wealth is found not only in the success of the fortunate few, but in the talents of all our people, in every part of our great country.

But, Conference, we all know that our shared values can only achieve things for ordinary people if we have the power to act on them and have a credible plan to put them into effect.

A plan fit for an uncertain world in which we find ourselves, not for the world that we wish it might be.

A plan to build a stronger, more resilient economy, able to navigate this age of insecurity.

No one said it was going to be easy.

But take pride in what we are achieving, together.

Not just pride in winning, but pride too in the choices we are making and the lives we are changing.

Remember that in every single one of the 451 days that we have been in office we have achieved more than in the more than 5,000 days that we spent powerless in opposition.

Every day since 4 July last year has brought with it a chance to change Britain for the better.

Creating Britain’s first genuine living wage.

Getting spades in the ground on new road and rail projects.

Backing our communities to strengthen pride in place – including, here in Merseyside, with the reopening of Southport Pier.

Investing in homegrown British energy.

Freezing fuel duty.

Capping bus fares.

Recruiting new neighbourhood police.

Opening school breakfast clubs.

Expanding free school meals.

Lifting 100,000 children out of poverty as we do it.

And delivering a pay rise, a deserved pay, rise to our nurses, our teachers, our police, and our armed forces.

And, Conference, we’re making the NHS fit for the future too.

With £29 billion towards its day-to-day funding, a record cash investment.

The NHS – created by a Labour government.

Protected by every Labour government.

And renewed – by this Labour Government.

Let me tell you something else we will do.

I remember as a kid that my school library was turned into a classroom because there were more students than space.

Think about the message that that sends about a government’s priorities.

How little value is placed on opportunities for kids to learn and to grow.

To explore their interests independently.

Or to find a quiet space to study that isn’t always on offer at home.

Under another Conservative government, a generation later, many more kids have that experience.

Today, in England, there are 1,700 primary schools that don’t have a school library.

That’s not right.

And I will not let it stand.

So I am committing here today to providing a library in every single primary school in England by the end of this parliament.

That is a statement of my values.

That is a statement of the value this Government places on all our children’s futures.

So, Conference, the Tories don’t make those choices.

Reform would never make those choices.

So take pride, take pride in our values put into action.

And, Conference, don’t ever let anyone tell you that there’s no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.

Remember how it felt to look on as the Tories took our country in the wrong direction.

Austerity.

The botched Brexit deal.

The mini Budget.

School roofs crumbling.

NHS waiting lists soaring.

Five prime ministers.

Seven chancellors.

The worst parliament on living standards ever.

Our institutions and our country’s very reputation in tatters.

And never forget what they did during the pandemic.

While we were kept apart from our loved ones and feared for our families, the Conservatives partied in Downing Street and dished out contracts to their friends and to their donors.

We are still paying the bill for their waste and their cronyism.

So I’m pleased to tell you that, thanks to our covid corruption commissioner, almost £400 million has now been recovered for taxpayers that had been lost to covid fraud.

And we will continue that fight to recover more from those PPE contracts which failed to deliver.

But we won’t stop there.

In the coming months, we are bringing in additional new powers to investigate and recover more money from fraudsters who have ripped off the government and ripped off our public services.

I can tell you today too that, to deploy those new powers, we are recruiting a new hit squad to investigate and recover all the money that is owed to the British people.

Because, Conference, we want our money back.

We are getting that money back.

And we are putting it where it belongs – in our communities, in our schools, and in our National Health Service.

But the most enduring consequences of the Conservatives’ time in office come from their economic failure.

They made Britain poorer.

They made working people poorer.

And they left our public finances in disarray.

The single biggest factor underlying Britain’s challenges on the cost of living, on the public finances and on our public services, is their 14-year failure on economic growth.

If the UK economy had grown at just the average of other advanced economies in those 14 years, our economy today would be £140 billion bigger.

That’s almost £5,000 for every family in the UK.

Our economic renewal will rest on stability, to keep taxes, inflation and interest rates as low as possible;

Economic reform, to unlock the contribution of businesses and working people.

And investment, in every part of Britain.

Each day, I see a country primed for economic success.

A skilled and committed workforce.

World-class universities.

And innovative businesses.

But the Conservatives and Reform, they want you to believe that our economy is broken.

That our best days lie behind us.

That decline is inevitable.

I fundamentally reject that.

It’s not the country I see around me.

Not the future that I believe in.

I know that things are still difficult.

Bills are too high.

Getting ahead can feel tough.

And there are still too many obstacles in the way for businesses.

And so, our central economic objective is to change that.

Growth to improve living standards is the challenge.

And investment is the solution.

By overhauling our planning system.

Reforming our pensions system.

Launching Britain’s first National Wealth Fund, and a modern industrial strategy;

And signing new trade deals, to back our manufacturers and our exporters.

With India.

With the United States.

And with our closest neighbours and allies in Europe.

Just this month, thanks to Keir’s hard work, we secured £150 billion of overseas investment just from the United States.

I have never believed the Tory mantra that the best thing that a government can do is to get out of the way.

A strategic state must use its power to support jobs and growth – and that includes public investment.

Under the Tories, capital spending was always the first victim when the public finances came under pressure.

So, in last autumn’s Budget, I changed those fiscal rules – to support and to protect investments.

And alongside that, because I know that too often our regions outside London and the South East have not had their fair share of spending decisions, we changed – I rewrote – those rules to support investment in every part of Britain.

In place of decline, we have chosen investment.

Investment in defence, and the good jobs that come with that.

In Plymouth and Barrow, in Aldermarston and Lincoln, on the Clyde and in Rosyth.

Investment in energy.

In nuclear power, yes, and in carbon capture and storage too.

On the Humber and on Teesside, in Aberdeenshire and right here on Merseyside.

Investment in transport – including the biggest ever investment in our city-regions.

We’re investing here in Merseyside, with new links in St. Helen’s and major investment in Merseyrail – including a new station at Liverpool Baltic.

We’re investing in Greater Manchester, with new tram stops in Bury, North Manchester, Oldham and Stockport.

And we’re investing in West Yorkshire, to power ahead with a Mass Transit system linking Bradford and Leeds – the largest city in western Europe without a light rail or metro system – but not for much longer.

We’re investing in South Yorkshire and backing Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

We’re investing in the North East – to extend the Tyne and Wear Metro, linking Washington with Newcastle and Sunderland.

We’re investing in the East Midlands, to link up the Trent Arc.

We’re investing in the West Midlands, extending the Birmingham Metro and backing the Midlands Rail Hub, to link Birmingham, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, with Wales.

And we’re investing in Welsh railways with new stations and new infrastructure – the benefits of two Labour governments, working together;

And we’re investing in East-West Rail, to join up the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.

And, Conference, as well as the TransPennine Route Upgrade, to link Manchester, Leeds, York and the towns between them – this Labour Government will push ahead with our plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Plans never delivered by the Conservatives.

Plans opposed by Reform.

But backed by Labour.

A vote of confidence in the north of England.

To get people to work.

To connect families.

To create jobs.

And to build prosperity in towns and cities scarred by underinvestment for far too long.

That is what we are achieving, together – a Labour Government, working with our Labour leaders across the country, delivering for working people.

And, Conference, we’re not just investing in defence and energy and transport.

The housing crisis is one of the greatest challenges that we face.

Every family deserves the security, safety and the joy of a good home.

That is why we are powering ahead with our commitment to build 1.5 million homes in this parliament.

And any plan to match the scale of that housing crisis must involve a major role for social housing.

Which is why I allocated £40 billion in the spending review just a few months ago.

The biggest cash investment into council, social and affordable housing in a generation.

So, Conference, don’t ever let anyone tell you that there’s no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.

But, Conference, let us be clear.

All that we are doing is only possible because we – all of us – put in the hard work to show the British people we could be trusted to manage our economy.

Because we were unequivocal in our commitment to economic responsibility.

And I will never, ever squander that hard-earned trust.

We were able to increase investment only because we have remained steadfast in that commitment to economic responsibility.

That is not a trade-off with our Labour values – it is essential to our Labour values.

Because our ambition for Britain, our dedication to social justice, is not measured in the size of the deficit we are willing to run.

But in the choices we make to defend and advance the interests of working people.

And responsible management of our public finances is an integral part of that most basic mission.

It is because of the stability that we have created that we have seen five cuts to interest rates since the general election.

Mortgage costs coming down – and hundreds of pounds back in the pockets of working people.

Conference, every advance we make in getting the cost of living down is a Labour achievement and we should take pride in that.

When I said that we must not and would not take risks with Britain’s economic stability, that argument was not just for an election.

Even now, with the global uncertainty we have seen ripple through financial markets, there are still critics out there who would too readily forget the consequences of reckless economic choices.

Never forget that in two hours one Friday almost exactly three years ago, the Conservatives under Liz Truss sent mortgage costs spiralling.

Put pensions in peril.

And consigned their party not just to defeat, but to utter irrelevance.

That was a warning.

And the British people will not forgive any party that forgets it.

Conference, let us reaffirm our commitment that we will never, ever do what the Conservatives did to ordinary working people in this country.

But I do know that there are still those who peddle the idea that we could just abandon economic responsibility and cast off any constraints on spending.

They are wrong – dangerously so – and we need to be honest about what that choice would mean.

Because when spending gets out of control, when market confidence is lost – that doesn’t just show up in some OBR report and some difficult headlines a few months later.

It is felt, immediately, in the growing cost of essentials and rising interest rates.

And let me tell you – there is nothing progressive, nothing Labour, about government using one in every £10 of public money it spends on financing debt interest.

Billions of pounds every year going towards repaying debt.

Debt racked up by the Tories, paid to overseas hedge funds and investors.

That’s not how I want to spend public money.

In the months ahead, we will face further tests.

With the choices to come made all the harder by harsh global headwinds.

And the long-term damage done to our economy, which is becoming ever clearer.

Our first year in power was about fixing the foundations.

Our second must be about building a renewed economy for a renewed Britain.

A renewed economy, that works for working people – and rewards their contribution.

A renewed economy, where we reject austerity and support our public services.

A renewed economy that supports investment, that gets inflation and borrowing down, and where we build growth in every part of Britain.

I will make my choices at that Budget.

They will be choices to take our country forward.

And whatever tests come our way, whatever tests come my way, I make this commitment to you:

I will take no risks with the trust placed in us by the British people.

Remember everything that is at stake here.

The single greatest threat to our way of life and to the living standards of working people is the agenda of Nigel Farage and the Reform Party.

Whatever falsehoods they push, whatever easy answers they peddle, however willing they are to tear communities and families apart – they are not on the side of working people.

Conference, here are the questions that we must never tire of repeating between now and the next election:

Who is standing up for Britain’s working people?

A Labour Government introducing the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in decades?

Or a Reform party, which has opposed those rights every single step of the way?

Who is standing up for Britain’s interests?

A Labour Government that stands with our allies?

Or a Reform party in bed with Vladimir Putin?

Who is standing up for Britain’s economic stability?

A Labour Government resolute in getting prices and interest rates down?

Or a Reform party that cheered on the mini Budget of Liz Truss?

Who is standing up for Britain’s businesses?

A Labour Government that is forging closer relationships with our nearest trading partners?

Or a Reform party, who wants to talk Britain down and longs to cut us off from the rest of the world?

And who is standing up for Britain’s National Health Service?

A Labour Government investing record amounts in our NHS?

Or a Reform party opposed to the very principle of publicly-funded healthcare system, free at the point of use?

Every time, on every issue, it is Labour that is standing up for working people and standing up for our national interest.

Friends, this is a fight that we must win.

And it is a fight that we will win.

So when you leave this hall, when you return to your communities and your workplaces, let the message ring out.

That there is only one party that was founded by working people and only one party that is committed, absolutely, to defending their interests.

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