Darren Jones – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 22 September 2024.

Conference, I want to start by saying thank you.

Thank you to Keir Starmer, our Leader, the seventh Labour Prime Minister of our country, for leading us to victory in an election so many thought was impossible for us to win.

Thank you to you, our members, for all that you did to give this great party of ours the chance to serve once again.

For giving me the chance to serve in the cabinet of a Labour government.

Conference, for generations, my family worked at the Bristol docks.

Ernie Bevin, that great trades union general secretary and Labour statesman, who started life organising workers in my constituency gave them power at work through collectivism.

Bevin said to my forefathers: change begins.

My grandparents grew up in the council flats that the Atlee Labour government built in the 1940s, the same council flats that I grew up in as a child. Homes that gave families like mine the security of a roof over our heads.

Attlee said to my grandparents: change begins.

And the Blair Labour government, with the National Minimum Wage and its mantra of education, education, education, lifted me and my family out of poverty.

Blair said to my family: change begins.

Each generation. A new Labour government giving power, housing, education, the National Health Service to the National Minimum Wage.

Generational opportunities for working people like you and me.

And now, with a new generation, and a new Labour government, Conference, we will deliver generational change for Britain once again.

But conference, we should want more than that.

More than a once in a generation chance to serve.

I want our Labour Party to become the natural party of government.

A title the Conservative Party claimed for years, but we can take it from them.

We have the chance to prove that we are the changemakers. That our changed Labour Party can be trusted to govern.

Not just for one or two terms, but three, four and five.

That together, as a united Labour Party, we can deliver for Britain.

Now, conference, I see my job as Chief Secretary to the Treasury – other than the Chancellor – as one of the hardest jobs in government.

The person responsible for every pound and every penny.

The person who wants to say yes, but often has to say no.

The person who follows the money and asks: does it add up? How will it be paid for? Can we afford it? How do you know it will be spent well? How do we really fix this problem?

But underneath these questions is a serious point.

When the Conservatives crashed the economy, working people paid the price.

When they left no money public services and ran away, working people paid the price.

When the Tories lied to the public, we all paid the price.

These problems that we are dealing with, they are not inevitable problems, they were problems created by the Conservative Party.

So, conference, let us be clear: never again.

Never again will we let the Conservatives wreck the economy.

Never again will we go back to the chaos of the Conservative Party.

Conference, never again should we let the Tories get their hands on the keys to Downing Street.

But Conference, I have a secret to tell you about Downing Street.

There is no magic wand behind those black doors. It’s just us, people making decisions with Labour values in our hearts.

To fix the foundations and rebuild Britain requires difficult decisions every day.

But these difficult decision give us the opportunity to invest in change.

To deliver a more productive, future facing economy – delivering a better future for families across the country.

A more modern, effective government to get Britain building again.

High performing, personalised public services, not least to transform our National Health Service.

A new Britain, fit for the 21st century.

Conference, that’s why I’m so proud to be working with Britain’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, my friend and boss, the woman who’s going to put rocket boosters under the British economy: Rachel Reeves.

With Wes Streeting, who will fix our broken NHS.

With Bridget Philipson, who will give kids from backgrounds like hers and mine that precious thing: opportunity.

With Ed Miliband who will be bold in tackling climate change, and Yvette Cooper will halve violence against women and girls.

Why, with our mission leads and all of us around the cabinet table and in Parliament, we will prove once again that Labour governments deliver real change for Britain.

Conference, progress is always founded on hope.

Hope that better days lie ahead.

Let us remember that this is our moment, because it is our Labour movement that gives people like you and me, families like mine and yours, that great opportunity to achieve more together than we do alone.

Let us together take forward the power of our Labour movement.

The power that won us this General Election, to win us the next election and the one after that.

To power the change this country needs.

Conference: change begins.