Keir Starmer – 2023 Speech at GMB Congress

The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, at the GMB Congress held on 6 June 2023.

Thank you Barbara for that introduction, and for your great service to this great union.

Thank you Congress for that very warm welcome. It’s always a pleasure to be in Brighton in the sunshine, and especially when the sun is beginning to shine on the Labour argument.

Now, there’s more work to be done – of course there is, I’m under no illusion the hardest yards are ahead of us.

We need to be prepared, disciplined, relentlessly focused on the future, show we’re ready to provide the leadership that this country so desperately needs. Meet Tory attacks with hope.

But make no mistake if we keep demonstrating that we’re a changed Labour Party, that in everything we do, we put country first, that we know what true service means. Then together, we have a golden opportunity to shape the future to the interests of working people – firmly and decisively.

All around us, the world is changing, it’s becoming a more volatile place.

Revolutions in technology, energy and medicine are reshaping the economy and our public services.

Climate change is driving global instability, war has returned to our continent.

Our job is to lead working people through these headwinds, provide the confidence that Britain will be better for their children, bend the future so it delivers the stability, the dignity and the hope they need.

Congress, a tide has turned.

The rest of the world is moving on from the outdated ideas our opponents provide, the economic argument which has held back working people is now on the back foot.

Put simply: people aren’t going to take it anymore. They’ve had enough. You know that.

When you ask the key questions now: “where does growth come from”, “who is it for”, the Tory answers – they just don’t wash.

When it’s your interests on the line, your services being cut, your bills and taxes going up, the Tories say – “well, we’re all in this together”.

But when it comes to protecting their interests it’s – “well, this is just the way of the world”.

People see through that. 13 years of the Tories, and it boils down to this: one rule for them, another for working people.

And the prize at the next election, the prize is not just to win, not just to change our country, it’s to put this damaging idea into the ground – for good.

That’s what my Labour Party – this project – has always been about.

I’ve always said we have different roles, different ways of fighting for working people – party and movement.

I was there in 1986, in Wapping, when the police charged the picket, doing my job as a legal observer.

Everyone who stood in solidarity with the print workers – they were doing their job as well.

But you know – I remember thinking that night. There’s one institution that isn’t doing its job here – the Labour Party.

No – because the Labour Party was in opposition, it was on the side-lines. It was impotent and powerless.

That’s the condition of opposition and I can’t stand it.

Gary, I know you feel the same frustration.

Because, just look at the price working people pay for it – the stagnation, the economic pain, the cuts to public services, attacks on working people and this movement.

In parliament again this week, a bill that takes away your hard-earned, democratic rights.

Now, I can stand here and say – we will fight it and we will repeal it and mark my words – we will. But this only demonstrates the prize of power.

The Labour Party is never doing its job when it’s in opposition – that’s our clause one.

But power must always have a purpose and I accept that the Labour Party did drift away from its fundamental cause of serving working people.

So I want to be clear – everything I do, all the changes we are making, are in the service of this goal. They are grounded in a new project which understands that the Labour Party can only restore hope in Britain, if we once again become the natural home for working people.

This is in our DNA. Who we are in it for, who we serve, who we wake up in the morning and fight for, who we have in our mind’s eye when we make decisions, who we back to grow our economy.

The answer, the only answer, the Labour answer – is working people.

Friends, my government will work every day to serve their interests – and protect their future.

This is about respect and dignity and for me, it goes deep.

My dad was a working man, a toolmaker who worked all his life in a factory.

He always thought that people looked down on him for that and it weighed him down, chipped away at his esteem.

There are millions of people in this country today who feel just like my dad did and that’s not good enough.

I want Britain to be a country where people don’t have to change who they are, just to get on.

And at the very least – a bare minimum – whoever you are, whatever your circumstances, however you contribute.

Whether you work for Asda, Amazon or the ambulance service, you deserve respect.

That’s not just a moral imperative, it’s also a vast spring of potential, ready to be tapped.

Because when people are respected, when they feel their contribution carries weight, that they are able to bring their whole self to their work, that they are treated fairly and with dignity – then their shoulders lift up, their belief comes back. Hope and pride are restored.

When I tell you exactly what my Labour Party will do for working people in the prose of policy and rights. I never lose sight of the emotions, the values, the ordinary hopes that sit behind them.

The dignity and esteem which comes with respect in the workplace – that’s our project.

It’s a project for carers, the couriers, the ambulance drivers, the supermarket staff, those in the office and those on the factory floor, those working long shifts, night shifts, 9 ‘til 5s, those working part time and those working full time.

My Labour Party is the party for those who keep us safe, who create the wealth, who make up the backbone of Britain – this is a project for working people, all across our country.

Congress, those are the people the country clapped for during the pandemic.

Even the residents of Downing Street found time to stumble into the street to do it.

But how have they been repaid?

Just take carers as an example – this is a subject very close to my heart.

For many of them, every time they had to self-isolate during the crisis, they did so at their own expense, with no sick pay. That’s not on.

And let me be very clear, those days are coming to an end.

A country that doesn’t respect care work – is an uncaring country.

So we will strike a fair pay agreement for every care worker in the country, we will get you round the table, and the deal you make will set a new floor, a higher floor.

With more progression, more training, more rights, better standards, and yes – fairer pay.

A fair deal for our carers, that’s what people clapped for, and that’s what Labour will deliver.

This goes to the heart of the Tories’ failure.

It’s why we’ve had 13 years of chaos that have left our economy broken.

They simply don’t get that growth comes from working people.

And because they don’t understand that fundamental, they can’t provide the secure foundations to build our country’s future.

To be honest – I’m not even sure they see the problem.

If the City of London races ahead, while the rest of Britain stagnates. So long as there is a hint of growth on his spreadsheet, Rishi Sunak will claim that’s fine. But it’s not.

If you leave that many people behind, a nation can’t grow fairly.

We can’t do it with low wages, you can’t do it with insecure jobs and bad work, with a stand-aside state that doesn’t fight for the future without a proper industrial strategy.

The average British family is £8,800 poorer than in other advanced economies.

Economies like France, Germany and the Netherlands. Economies that have better collective bargaining, have stronger workers’ rights, and a fairer share of wealth across their country.

So we will strengthen the role of trade unions in our society, and, like you, I want to see Amazon and businesses like it recognise unions.

Nobody does their best work if they’re wracked with fear about the future if their insecure contract gives them no protection to stand up for their rights at work, or a proper safety net doesn’t support them in times of sickness and poor health.

That’s what Labour’s New Deal for Working People is about.

That’s why we’ll ban zero hour contracts, extend parental leave, strengthen flexible working, better protections for pregnant women, close the ethnicity pay gaps, fundamental rights from day one, statutory sick pay for all, no more one-sided flexibility, no more fire and rehire.

For years, working people have been told that good pay, fair work and dignity are the barriers to growth. Well, no more.

A reformed labour market where we finally make work pay, provide the security denied to working people for decades, that is my mission on growth.

But, you know, we are not a nation apart.

The world around us is changing, and changing fast.

President Biden once said: “when I hear climate change, I think jobs”.

When Labour sets out our mission for Britain to become a clean energy super power, we are thinking jobs too.

For too long, Britain has allowed the opportunities of the new energy technologies to pass us by.

Without a plan, the energy industries that we rely on will wither and decline.

The Tories think it’s the market doing its job when British industry falls behind.

It’s not some glitch in their model – it is their model.

Yet, our allies around the democratic world are waking up to the threat of energy insecurity and the opportunity of economic security.

Change is coming and yes it can unsettle us.

But mark my words, on my watch, good jobs – good, union jobs – will be fundamental to that change.

Decent pay, respect, dignity and fairness, cleaner, safer work, new and better infrastructure for Britain.

These are the purposes of our party and they are historic prizes that we will win again.

I won’t pretend that just because a technology is greener that automatically makes working conditions fairer.

So as new nuclear, battery factories and offshore wind repower Britain, Labour will build strong supply chains that create jobs, skills and decent wages here in Britain.

We will work with you and with industry to seize the opportunities of hydrogen, carbon capture and storage.

Our Green Prosperity Plan, like President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, is our plan for growth, and because we are Labour it is a plan for working people, their jobs and their prosperity.

We will create a new company – GB Energy – and through that vehicle, we will take advantage of the opportunities that we have.

And because it’s right for jobs, because it’s right for growth, because it’s right for energy independence, then yes, it will be publicly owned.

GB Energy will be good for Britain and good for business.

It will have twin goals: leading the way in better jobs and lower bills.

I am clear-eyed about how tough the challenges that face us are.

We have all seen what happens when politicians see change as something to stand and stare at in awe.

When government surrenders working people to the power of the market, when the future comes and people are left behind.

That is why the next election is so important for the future of working people.

Holding back the future is no way to growth. But, equally, there is no way to growth that doesn’t involve bending and shaping that future.

We can create a new business model for Britain.

One which creates economic security and grows, not just our productivity, but our hope and our optimism.

Labour in government will work with unions and with industry.

We will always have a stake, will always have skin in the game, will always see the fight for working people as our driving purpose.

Because for us, this is personal.

Together, we will make Britain work better. Together, we will give working people their future back. Together, we will build a better Britain.

Thank you, Congress.