David Lammy – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 22 September 2024.

Conference, everyone in this room has their own story.

My story starts in place called Dongola Road, in the shadow of Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm Estate.

Life was not always easy. My mum struggling to put food on our table.

Skinheads shouting abuse as we walked by.

My father leaving when I was 12.

He didn’t leave me very much.

But he did leave me a map, an atlas of the world which I put on my bedroom wall. And from this map, I learned about the countries my ancestors had come from. Transported from West Africa to Guyana as part of the Transatlantic slave trade. Long before my parents moved from Guyana to Britain to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War.

Conference, I can’t tell you how it feels to stand here today. A Black working-class man from Tottenham; a child of the great Windrush Generation.

Now back on this stage as the Foreign Secretary in a Labour Government.

My job is to tell a new story about the United Kingdom abroad.

A story of openness. A story of the future. A story of hope that will reconnect Britain with the world once more.

Conference, when I stood in this room last year, I said we had a once in a generation chance to get Britain’s future back.

The chance to win back the public’s trust. To turn the page on 14 years of Tory decline.

Well Conference, we did it.

And when I say we did it – I mean you did it.

Every party member who walked dozens of miles knocking on doors.

Every activist who convinced a young person to register to vote.

Every supporter who endured the failing private train networks to campaign in an unfamiliar town.

Every single one of you who supported our leader – our Prime Minister – Keir Starmer.

You are the greatest advocates of our values, our missions, and our purpose.

We are forever grateful to you for the greatest electoral turnaround in our party’s history.

From electoral oblivion less than five years ago, to a Labour majority today.

Thank you, thank you.

Of course, you, the party members in this room, did not just change the fate of our party. You changed the fate of our country.

Now, together, let’s work to change the fate of our world.

Conference, for 14 long years, the Conservative Party misused the British state.

Handing out crony contracts to their mates. Crashing the economy with their delusional ideology.

For 14 long years, the Conservative Party damaged our reputation abroad, threatening to break international law.

Threatening our European friends and treating them as our as foes.

For 14 long years, the Conservative Party abandoned our values.

Tearing up climate commitments.

Threatening to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

On my first weekend as Foreign Secretary – when I travelled to Germany, to Poland, to Sweden in less than 48 hours – I was proud to say: Britain is back.

When Keir Starmer, and my dear friend John Healey and I flew to Washington DC a few days later to meet with world leaders and commit unshakeably to NATO, we were proud to say: Britain is back.

When the Labour government hosted 45 European leaders at Blenheim Palace, to reset our relationship with Europe, we said: Britain is back.

When we restored funding to UNRWA for their work in Gaza, what did we say Conference? Britain is back.

When we stood up for international law when it was not easy: what did we say? Britain is back.

In my first four months, I visited 10 countries, engaged over 20 world leaders and 40 foreign ministers and what did I tell them? Britain is back.

And when, unlike Rishi Sunak last year, the Prime Minister and I travel later this week to the UN General Assembly later, what will I say?

Britain is back. Britain is back. My friends, Britain is back.

Conference, unlike the Tories, We understand Britain needs to work with its neighbours to flourish.

We know that Britain’s strength is founded on its alliances.

That is why we are resetting our relationship with Europe. Since July, we have launched negotiations on a wide-ranging bilateral treaty with Germany. I have been on a joint visit with the French Foreign Minister, the first of its kind for more than a decade. I have welcomed the Spanish and Polish Foreign Ministers to London.

We will reduce trade barriers to help boost business, jobs and economic growth, and we will seek a new broad, ambitious new UK-EU security pact to strengthen cooperation on shared threats that we face, enshrining a new geo-political partnership.

Because Britain is back. A leading nation in Europe once again.

Earlier this month I was in Kyiv – the frontline of the defence of European democracy – meeting with President Zelenskyy, two and a half years into Putin’s full-scale invasion.

I took an overnight train with Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, to send a clear message. If the West does not demonstrate it can outlast Putin, it does not only threaten Ukraine’s democracy, it threatens us all.

We need to show Putin that Britain and its allies are not going anywhere.

Which is why this government has increased support to Ukraine and we have committed £3 billion per year in military aid for as long as it takes. And it is why I told Zelenskyy; this Labour government will always stand with his courageous people.

We need to send another message to Vladimir Putin: your interference in our democracy; promoting disinformation and encourage disorder on our streets; encouraging kleptocrats to store their ill-gotten gains in our property market must end.

And that is why I am proud to tell Conference, together with two of our closest allies – the United States and Canada – and the rest of the G7, we are taking action against Russian disinformation. Exposing their agents, building joint capability and working with the Global South to take on Putin’s lies.

Conference, last year, as we boarded trains up to Liverpool, we read the horrific news that Hamas terrorists had murdered around 1200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 others.

What has followed those atrocities is a horrific war. Tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children killed and injured. Their homes turned to rubble, leaving Gaza a vision of hell on earth.

Meanwhile dozens of Israelis remain cruelly held captive and Israel faces threats from all angles with Iran and its proxies seeking to wipe Israel off the map.

Conference, I know, like me, you are desperate to see the conflict in the Middle East come to an end. And this Labour government has already made clear Britain’s principles.

In my first weeks of government, I went to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to call for an immediate ceasefire. Words no previous Foreign Secretary had even used.

We have used the full weight of Britain’s diplomacy to push to protect civilians, now. Get all the hostages out, now. And unrestricted aid into Gaza, now.

We have provided millions to fund field hospitals in Gaza. We brought the Security Council together to demand polio vaccinations for Palestinian children.

We have respected the independence of the international courts and we have made the right decisions to stand up for international law.

We have called out the violent settlers in the West Bank. We have continued to fight for the hostages and to support their families.

We have never lost sight of the end goal: an irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.

I believe in the right of Israel to be safe and secure. I also believe in the justness of the Palestinian cause.

And it is only once Palestinians and Israelis have the same fundamental rights – sovereignty, security and dignity in their own independent, recognised states – that we can achieve a just and lasting peace for all.

In recent days, we have seen a worrying escalation between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah.

This is in nobody’s interest.

Our message to all parties is clear: we need an immediate ceasefire from both sides so that we can get to a political settlement.

So that Israelis and Lebanese civilians can return to their homes and live in peace and security.

And to British nationals still in Lebanon, let me say clearly: for your own safety, leave now.

Iran is not only destabilising the Middle East but providing support to Putin’s barbaric war through exporting ballistic missiles.

That is why we put new restrictions on Iran Air that will stop it entering the UK and new sanctions against the IRGC.

Conference, in a world filled with conflict it is easy to take our eyes off the most fundamental threat that our world faces. The climate emergency.

Treated by the last government with a cynical disdain that we cannot afford.

With Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband, I will help restore Britain’s climate leadership, for British jobs, opportunity and growth. And because climate matters.

The climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Labour Foreign Office does. Because climate matters.

With Labour, Britain will lead a new Global Clean Power Alliance. Because climate matters.

With Labour, Britain has founded Great British Energy. Because climate matters.

We will accelerate onshore wind. Why? Because climate matters.

We will appoint new climate and new nature envoys. Because climate matters.

We have pledged to end new oil and gas licences while guaranteeing a fair transition in the North Sea. Why? Because climate matters

And Conference, the Conservatives abandoned our leadership on international development too.

With my dear friend Anneliese Dodds, we will strengthen development leadership, capability and expertise, and support faster reform to the global financial system.

Our goal is nothing less than a world free from poverty on a liveable planet. That’s what a Labour government will achieve.

Conference, the world we face is filled with disorder. Conflict in Europe, Africa and the Middle East; great power competition, an increasingly assertive China and a climate emergency.

But together we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the change we want to see.

Not just in Britain, but in Europe and in the world.

Just as Clem Attlee’s 1945 government rebuilt the country after the second world war; just as Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s seized the white heat of technology to face the future; and just as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s government transformed our public services, we in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, have the opportunity to make history.

With a decade of national renewal. Our Prime Minister has laid out five missions for this purpose.

Five missions that will give our country the growth it needs and the security it deserves.

Five missions that will allow Britain to return to the top table of international diplomacy.

A Britain Reconnected.

Britain back where it belongs.

Conference, thank you. Thank you very much.