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Chair of Labour’s national executive committee Ellie Reeves addressed delegates at the TUC Congress in Brighton – here is the transcript of her speech in full.
Congress it’s a pleasure to join you today as Chair of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee.
I want to start with some thanks.
First, to Paul Nowak, for your leadership and tireless work on behalf of working people.
To Mick Whelan, the longest-serving Chair of TULO, who is standing down this year.
Mick, thank you for your friendship, for your dedication and for always ensuring the voice of the trade union movement is heard loud and clear in the Labour Party.
And thank you to Mark Dickinson for your service as President of the TUC this year.
I’ve been proud to go to Colombia on Justice for Colombia delegations with both Mick and Mark.
And I’ve seen first-hand their commitment to stand shoulder to shoulder with trade unionists not just here in Britain, but everywhere around the world where working people are fighting for dignity and for rights.
That internationalism is at the very heart of our movement and it’s something I will always be proud to support.
Congress, the Labour Party was created more than a hundred years ago when the trade unions came together to form the only party in British history to truly represent working people.
And for over a century, we have marched side by side on the long and often difficult road to social progress.
Those who came before us sacrificed so much in pursuit of the goals of equality and opportunity.
Together, we have delivered victories like the creation of the NHS, equality legislation, the national minimum wage, sure start and so much more.
We’ve stood side by side too through struggles against austerity, deregulation, and attacks on the right to strike.
Our bond is not just our history, it is our present, and our future.
When our partnership thrives, working people win.
And don’t we know how much this matters today.
Because the damage done by the Tories over 14 long years cuts deep.
To our economy, to our communities, and to trust in politics itself.
We can only repair that damage and deliver the national renewal we need by working together.
The Labour movement, side by side, in the interests of the British people.
And look at the difference we’ve already made together in just one year of a Labour government.
Over three million of the lowest-paid workers getting a pay rise.
Easing the cost-of-living crisis for families struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills, and put food on the table.
We’ve delivered over four and a half million more NHS appointments and recruited 1,900 more GPs.
Not just words on a leaflet, but having a real impact on people’s lives.
We are expanding free school meals to another half a million children and we are rolling out free Breakfast clubs in Primary schools and giving 30 hours free childcare from just 9 months old.
Putting money back in people’s pockets, ensuring children don’t start the school day hungry but rather, ready to learn, and enabling parents, especially mothers held back by childcare pressures, to get back into work. That’s the difference only a Labour government can make.
We’ve launched a real Industrial Strategy that lays the foundations for over one million high-skilled jobs.
That’s an opportunity for so many to build their careers, provide for their families, and plan for the future with confidence, because Labour has created the conditions for these well-paid, secure jobs of the future.
And alongside those jobs, through our Employment Rights Bill we’ve introduced the most robust package of workers’ rights in living memory.
As a Trade Union Lawyer for over a decade before entering parliament, representing working people day in day out, I know the difference it will make.
Ending exploitative zero hours contracts.
Giving pregnant women and new mothers strengthened rights and protections.
Cracking down on dodgy fire and rehire practices.
Rights at work from day 1.
Not just strengthening important individual rights, but collective rights too so more workers will have a proper voice at work.
We all know how much this matters.
Last week at the TUC reception in Parliament we heard a really powerful testimony from Finnola.
She is a shop worker and Usdaw member.
She works long shifts and has faced both physical and verbal abuse from customers.
And if she gets sick, she has to wait 3 days before getting any sick pay.
Three days without pay isn’t an option for her, it means missing meals or not paying the bills.
That cannot be right and that’s why this Labour Government is fixing it.
And Congress when I got my first job at a Trade Union Law firm almost exactly 20 years ago, the first case I worked on was representing sacked gate gourmet workers. Mostly low paid ethnic minority women. Sacked for simply standing up for their rights at work.
That is why Trade Unions matter.
That is why collectivism matters.
That is why this Bill matters.
But Congress, we know there is still more to do.
There are still too many people locked out of the labour market.
Too many people still stuck on NHS waiting lists.
Too many people still living in insecure housing.
Too many people still not feeling the benefits of our country’s growth.
If our first year of government was about fixing the mess we’ve inherited.
We are now into the next phase which is about something more.
Making working people better off.
Both in terms of money in their pockets and having public services that work for them when they need them.
But Congress, we also need to look further ahead to the next general election, and to the decade of national renewal that our country needs and deserves and that we know only Labour can lead.
And this could not be more important. Because the sands of politics are shifting fast.
At the next election, our country stands at a crossroads.
And Nigel Farage’s Reform Party stands ready to incite and capitalise on any division.
Because that’s what they do.
Sow seeds of division.
Thrive on anger, not answers.
Separate neighbour from neighbour based on their false sense of what it’s meant to be British.
That is not leadership.
It’s opportunism at the expense of our county’s moral fabric.
While Labour focuses on rebuilding Britain, they’re cosying up to shady foreign donors.
While we stand with our friends in Ukraine, they fawn over Putin.
While we fix our NHS they want to charge you to use it.
While we deliver the biggest advancement in workers’ rights in a generation, they want to rip up protections at work.
While we make the tax system fairer – ending non dom tax status, taxing private jet use, closing the VAT on private schools loophole – They call for huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and brutal public spending cuts for everyone else.
Congress, we will not allow them to take us back.
We have fought too hard for the progress that we have made, to simply surrender that ground.
This movement, our movement will always stand for dignity, fairness, and respect.
Whilst Nigel Farage and Reform stand only for themselves.
They have no sense of responsibility.
No sense of what it is to be part of something bigger than themselves.
To stand for something. To work in the interest of others.
So, the choice facing our country is simple:
Do we give in to anger, or do we build a better future together?
Congress, that is the challenge facing our movement today.
And we face it side by side.
Like we have done in the past.
Because the historic link between the Trade Unions and the Labour Party is not just symbolic.
It’s the foundation of everything we stand for.
And we are proud of that tradition.
Just as when I was a Trade Union lawyer, as Solicitor General I will always be driven by representing working people.
And as an NEC Chair rooted in the Trade Union movement, I will always stand by you.
Yes, our opponents are changing.
But our purpose today is no different from what it was over a century ago, when this partnership was born:
To give working people a voice.
To fight for fairness.
And to deliver a better future for all.
That’s our mission. That’s our movement. And that’s what we’ll do, together.
Thank you, Congress.
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