‘Security, opportunity, pride, growth and hope for every part of Britain’

This is a serious moment for Britain. Our politics is fractured. Our communities are struggling. Wars are raging. We are in the fifth year of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while the Iran war sends economic shocks worldwide. And NATO wants allies to be ready to resist a Russian attack by 2030.

As a Government, we have to demonstrate how we will meet this moment. And as a Party, we must not lose sight of the duty people gave us in 2024. The public will not forgive us if they think we’re more concerned about ourselves than we are about them. We must get serious, and focus on the national interest, not self-interest.

That does not mean standing still. Far from it.

Across Britain, working-class families are fed up of being buffeted by crisis after crisis. Insecure work. Rising costs. Squeezed living standards. For over a decade, what united the experience of communities across Britain is one word: insecurity.

READ MORE: ‘Labour must lead a national conversation on defence, resilience and regional growth’

Labour is at its best when we offer British working people a story of hope for the future. But you can’t feel hopeful if you don’t feel secure. Our Labour tradition has always understood something else too: that the strength of our national security is only as good as the industries and the working people who stand behind it. Bevin built the post-war order on the twin pillars of strong alliances and strong workers.

That tradition runs through everything we are doing now.

So yes, after the largest increase in defence spending since the Cold War, we will spend more and go further. But we must also spend better. That means backing British. Every pound spent on defence must work twice: once for national security, and once for British industry and British jobs.

That is our commitment, and it marks a fundamental break from the failed approach of the past. A post-industrial politics that saw many proud jobs in areas like mine in Rotherham – go away and not come back.

Through defence, we are changing that. We’ve signed over 1,200 major defence contracts, 86 per cent with British-based firms. Crucially, 70 per cent of those jobs are outside London and the South East. Artillery manufacturing has returned to South Yorkshire for the first time in a generation. Barrow has created thousands of new jobs. Scottish shipyards on the Clyde are full for years to come.

This is real growth, real jobs. The average salary in our defence industries is £57,000 – ten thousand pounds more than equivalent manufacturing roles. This is skilled, well-paid, unionised work. Last year, I gave trade unions formal seats on the Defence Industrial Joint Council for the first time, because only Labour believes the workforce should be at the heart of decision-making.

Restoring hope to our industrial communities means bringing the next generation into a sector that too many never considered. So we are creating five new Defence Technical Excellence Colleges – in Lincoln, Blackpool, Rotherham, Plymouth and Yeovil – alongside Defence Growth Deals across all four nations of the UK. Just as Attlee and Bevin did after 1945, this is about ensuring local economies and local people, not overseas investors, feel the opportunities that rearmament creates.

But backing British is not only about established industrial communities. It is also about the innovators and entrepreneurs who will define the next generation of our defence sector. That’s why we’ve announced thirteen contracts for Britain’s future top defence companies, all with the potential to become billion-pound businesses. The defence companies of the 2030s don’t start then. They start today. And I call on private investors to back them alongside us.

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This is what a serious industrial strategy looks like: rooted in communities, backed by workers, and open to the innovators who will drive future growth.

The working-class families who are the lifeblood of this country and the backbone of our Armed Forces deserve exactly this. They don’t ask for much — a home they can afford, a job they can be proud of, wages they can live on, a story of hope to pass on.

Into this moment step the chancers of Reform, offering easy answers to hard questions. But they cannot be trusted on the issues that matter most, least of all national security. Their leader has praised Putin, is weak on NATO and tears down the Ukrainian flag from Reform council buildings. Farage also has serious questions to answer about his secret £5 million donation from a crypto billionaire.

Unlike Reform, our Labour government will never give ground on facing down Putin’s aggression. And we know that what deters him is built in Britain’s working-class communities. It’s the submarines we build at Barrow, the drones we build in Plymouth, the helicopters we build in Yeovil. In our factories, labs, shipyards and thousands of small family firms, British workers are quietly building the kit that sends an unambiguous message to Moscow: don’t even think about it.

Security and opportunity. Pride, growth and hope for every part of Britain. That is what Labour is building. 

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