Ed Miliband – 2024 Speech at Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, on 23 September 2024.

It’s great to be here in Liverpool.

I want to start by thanking my brilliant ministerial team, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Phil Hunt, Sarah Jones, Michael Shanks and Kerry McCarthy.

And let’s hear it for Charlie for his brilliant speech.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the work you did at the election to sweep away the Tories that failed the British people over 14 long, wasted years.

The governments of Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak.

Consigned to the dustbin of history thanks to your hard work.

And lets thank our leader Keir Starmer who led us out of the wilderness and to election victory.

But friends, we fought that election, not for ourselves, but with one simple idea: things can, and must be better for the British people.

We must build a country that puts working people first once again.

And just look at what your Labour government has been able to do on energy in a few short weeks.

The onshore wind ban in place for 9 years under the Tories, swept away in 72 hours under Labour.

Cheap, clean solar power, blocked for years under the Tories, unlocked in the first week of a Labour government.

Offshore wind trashed under the Tories, roaring back under Labour with the most successful renewable auction in history.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And I’ll tell you something else that has changed.

Now this may surprise you, but the last Tory government believed in public ownership of our energy infrastructure, but only if it was by foreign governments.

We believe the British people have the right to own and benefit from our natural resources.

And friends, we’re making it happen

Great British Energy, demanded by this conference, at the heart of our manifesto, overwhelmingly backed by the public now being delivered by your Labour government.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And friends, my message today is this:

We’ve only just started.

Of course, the country faces hard times.

There is no doubt the Tories have left Britain in a complete mess.

But hear me when I say this – because we are Labour, tough times mean we don’t lower our sights, we raise them.

Why? Because for every family in poverty, every young person denied opportunity, every community locked out of prosperity, the challenges they face after 14 years of the Tories demand more ambition from us not less.

So our inheritance is a call to greater action and a decade of national renewal.

And at the election, there was an argument about our country’s future.

The Tories and their friends on the right said we should turn away from the climate and clean energy.

We said no, and we won the argument.

And I’ll tell you why. Because the British people know that our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower is the way to put energy policy back in the service of working people.

For social justice, economic justice, climate justice.

So as Charlie said, the Tory energy failure has left us exposed as a country with the British people paying the price.

At the mercy of global fossil fuel markets.

That is why energy prices will rise once again on October 1st.

And there is only one way for us to fix the Tory mess: our mission for clean power by 2030.

Onshore wind, solar power, offshore wind, nuclear, tidal, hydrogen, carbon capture.

An armoury of clean power.

While the Tories left us weak and vulnerable, this Labour government will break the power of the petrostates and dictators over our energy policy.

In words that will sound familiar, we can, we must, we will Take Back Control of our energy.

And we will bring this opportunity to your area with our local power plan for local neighbourhoods.

Solar panels on your local school, housing estate, community centre.

Turbines.

Batteries.

Thousands of projects across Britain.

Tackling fuel poverty.

Led by Labour local authorities.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes

And we’ve only just started.

We all know that the poorest people in our country often live in cold, draughty homes.

Many rent from private landlords, below decent standards.

Friends I say it is a Tory legacy.

It is a Tory scandal.

It is a Tory outrage.

This Labour government will not tolerate it.

So I can tell you today: we will end this injustice.

Decent standards for private rented homes.

Warmer homes, lower bills.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And because being Labour means in tough times we raise our sights and don’t lower them, I can today announce that we will go further.

With Angela Rayner, we will ensure that every family living in a council house, every family living in social housing of any kind will have a right to these standards too.

Over 1 million people lifted out of fuel poverty.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And our mission, our energy policy, is about delivering economic justice too.

Clean energy is the biggest economic opportunity of our time.

But for years, our country has been failed by the Tory fly-by-night, short term, free market nonsense that failed British workers.

But friends, no more.

Under this Labour government, as Rachel Reeves so brilliantly said this morning, industrial policy is back.

We care about what we make, where things are made and who makes them.

And I promise you this: I will use every lever we have to win jobs and build new industries for Britain.

Great British Energy, the National Wealth Fund, the British Jobs Bonus.

And let’s spell out what this future means: jobs building carbon capture and storage.

Jobs Manufacturing electrolysers for hydrogen.

Jobs constructing the next generation of nuclear power stations.

Jobs manufacturing for floating wind.

Using the skills of our North Sea workers, and to decarbonise our country.

A plan to re-industralise our country.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And here’s another difference:

There can no longer be the belief, as there was under the Tories, that these new industries could be a union-free zone.

As I said to the energy companies on day 1 of my appointment: decent pay, good conditions, workers and unions must be at the heart of these new industries we build.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

And just as we will do right by today’s generations in our energy policy, so we will do right by past generations that powered our country.

Across Britain, hundreds of thousands went down the mines.

Too often they paid the price in ill health, and even with their lives. I know it from my own constituency.

We owe them the greatest debt.

But we know there is unfinished business.

The scandal of the mineworkers’ pension scheme.

And so this Labour government will honour the promise in our manifesto to finally deliver justice to mineworkers and their families.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

Social justice, economic justice and climate justice too.

The greatest moral obligation we have is to do right by our children, our grandchildren and the generations to come.

The Tories used to say that because Britain was just 1% of global emissions, that was somehow an excuse for inaction.

And under them, Britain shrank and deserted the global stage.

We say: never again.

We can only keep future generations safe if we show global climate leadership.

Using the power of our example at home to demand that others act too.

That’s why later this week, Keir and I will be representing you on behalf of the British government at the United Nations, with one clear message.

Britain is back in the business of climate leadership.

Getting serious about shifting away from fossil fuels.

Demanding every major company must have proper climate plans.

The first major country to set the goal of clean power by 2030.

Just as we were the first government in the world to deliver a Climate Change Act in 2008.

That is what we mean by climate leadership.

That’s the difference a Labour government can make and will make.

Social justice.

Economic justice.

Climate justice.

And my friends as we face the big challenges of today, tough times, let’s take inspiration from the Labour governments of the past, on whose shoulders we stand today.

Think for a minute of what they achieved in their time despite all the difficulties they faced.

In 1945, our party, Labour, created the NHS despite inheriting a country ravaged by war.

In 1964, our party, Labour, built the future, despite a legacy of 13 Tory wasted years.

In 1997, our party, Labour, created the minimum wage, rebuilt the NHS and established Parliaments for Scotland and Wales, after 18 years of decline and division.

There is a lesson here, those who went before us did not lower their sights, they raised them.

Now this is our chance, in our time, to write a new chapter in the history of our great country.

That is our obligation to the British people.

Every day in government a chance to change Britain.

And I want to end on a more personal note.

I lost the General Election in 2015.

In tough times you sustained me. You kept me going. And now you have given me the chance to serve.

I will not let you down.

Friends, Labour is back.

Britain is back.

And we have indeed only just started.

Thank you.