Five key takeaways from Andy Burnham’s conference speech

In his first speech to the party conference as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham laid out his radical vision for Britain.

From adjusting the triple lock and addressing the country’s care crisis to greater public ownership and electoral reform, Burnham urged members, delegates, MPs on all sides and the country to work with him in a podium-free speech.

Here are LabourList’s five main takeaways from the Labour leader’s conference speech:

Taking back control

The first mention of policy in the speech was Burnham’s pledge to repeal a ban on public ownership of water companies brought in by Margaret Thatcher.

He said water was a “symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain”, pledging a strengthened Water Bill, with the repeal of Thatcher’s “ideological” ban on public ownership as its “centrepiece”.

Alongside a commitment to grant greater public control over water, he announced GB Grid, a publicly owned company that would challenge private sector operators – with the hope that energy costs would be in line with Britain’s neighbours within a decade.

The announcement formed part of a wider condemnation of four decades of national mismangement.

Burnham said: “In 1945, we had the vision to win the peace. We had the bravery to make change. We built good homes, secure jobs, health and education for everyone. We gave Britain hope again. We made working-class aspiration feel real for families like mine. We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s.

“Suddenly, the common wealth we had created, this party, the wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.

“Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care. Broken up and sold off.

“The British right talk about ‘taking back control’. Never let them forget, they are the ones that gave it away in the first place.”

Burnham’s tears

At the outset, the Prime Minister promised the hall a less-than-typical speech. As he came to its culmination, he became visibly emotional, his voice breaking as he spoke of his father Roy, who passed away after a battle with Alzheimer’s a mere two weeks ago.

Through tears, Burnham lamented that his dad could not appreciate the moment he walked into Downing Street with his family in July.

“If only he had been able to appreciate that moment of the family in Downing Street… that the son of a man who failed his 11+ exam had become prime minister.”

Saving the union

When talking about his dad, Burnham mentioned that the day he died was the same day Scottish First Minister John Swinney said he would be the last Prime Minister of the UK.

He said: “I relay it because I want you to know how it made me feel, utterly determined to prove him wrong.

“The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in. A union of nations that gave trade unions and the cooperative movement to the world.

“The National Health Service. A country that stood up to fascism. A country of solidarity, not separation. That’s the Britain my dad represented.”

Amid a splintered political ecosystem, Burnham warned of the prospect of a divisive government winning an election with less than 30 percent of the national vote.

With conference previously backing electoral reform, Burnham used his speech to announce a new National Commission on Electoral Reform – coming just weeks after around 100 Labour MPs backed an amendment in Parliament calling for such a commission.

Care reform

If there was a central pillar propping up the roughly hour-long speech, it was Burnham’s vision for a ‘National Care Service’.

Like the NHS, Burnham said the new service would be free at the point of use: “everyone contributes and everyone is covered”.

Care reform will be linked to the future of the triple lock. At present, the policy matches the highest of 2.5 percent, CPI inflation or the average wage increase from May to July of the previous year.

While Burnham said the government would honour a manifesto commitment to retain the triple lock for this parliament, he said that the system would be adjusted from 2030, with savings used to help build the new care service.

Ahead of the speech, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham had warned that scrapping the triple lock would amount to “electoral suicide” for Labour.

Brexit wounds

As part of his pledge of honesty, Burnham also addressed Britain’s relationship with the European Union and said: “Brexit has done more harm than good”.

The Prime Minister explained that, through Britain’s exit from the trading bloc, the UK had lost some control over its economy and immigration.

He said that Britain needed to decide on what the long-term relationship with Europe looks like and would lay out different options and seek consensus on what that path could look like.

It is understood some of those options would include rejoining the single market, the customs union, or even rejoining the EU altogether.

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