Labour must embrace investment in critical infrastructure as a tool to defeat Reform UK, Paul Sweeney MSP has warned.
Speaking at a LabourList panel at Labour Party conference, in partnership with We Own It, Sweeney said: “There’s so much potential for growth in this country’s economy that’s sabotaged because the state loses its gumption to co-invest and to unlock wealth.”
He added: “Oligarch enterprises have taken control of so much of the key industrial infrastructure of this country.”
Describing the closure of British shipyards that started in the 1980s, Sweeney described how the UK had left “98% of the world’s cruise ship markets to other European countries, which is hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs”.
Discussing how to combat the emerging threat of Reform, Luke Tryl, executive director of More in Common, said Labour must do more to show people it is proactively taking steps to support British infrastructure.
“The most glowing focus group I’ve had since the current government came into office was when it stepped in to save the steelworks in Scunthorpe. It was so important, and it got such a positive response because people have got very used to the politics of can’t.
“Nigel Farage is very good at that. He’s doing the politics of can. It is: ‘We will do this. We will do that.'”
Tryl said that polling shows that people feel significantly more positively about their local area than Britain as a whole, but this comes with a flip side.
“When local assets and community assets are allowed to decline, it has an outsized effect on morale, on feelings of being left behind, on feelings that the system isn’t working.”
Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook.
Cat Hobbs from the campaign group We Own It, meanwhile, called for re-nationalisation ‘quick wins’ and said: “Taking back our 500-year-old Royal Mail from a Czech billionaire would cost us just £3.6 billion.”
She added that “taking back our NHS would mean that Labour would have a really strong message against Nigel Farage”, while also criticising Rachael Reeves’s decision to explore “new private finance to build Neighbourhood Health Centres.”
Labour party conference 2025: Read more from LabourList:
What you need to know:
- SPEECHES: Where is conference and when are Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner speaking?
- VOTES: Revealed: The party rule changes Labour conference could vote on
- SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
- SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
- DONATE: If you value our work, please chip in a few pounds a week and become one of our supporters, helping sustain and expand our coverage.
- PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
- ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].
More from LabourList
Diary from conferece – day one: From Burnham’s wrong turn to Reform protests
‘Anti-immigration politics is not the only way forward, if only politicians are prepared to pave the way’
Shabana Mahmood to set out new rules on indefinite leave to remain