Preet Gill – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Preet Gill on 27 September 2022.

Can I just start by paying tribute to David? What a fantastic Foreign Secretary you will be.

22 years ago, Nelson Mandela stood before this Conference. He told us then that Labour’s solidarity had “helped make those years of exile bearable”.

Conference, today, international solidarity and Britain’s leadership has never mattered more. The world faces energy, debt and food crises. The climate emergency wreaks havoc, from drought in East Africa to floods in Pakistan. 100 million people are now displaced around the world. 50 million people are on the brink of famine.

But Conference, when times are tough, that is exactly when we stand up to be counted. The last Labour government changed lives at home, from Sure Start to the minimum wage. But we also changed lives overseas: creating the world-class Department for International Development; and, at Gleneagles, canceling hundreds of millions of pounds of unjust debt.

But Conference, twelve years of Tory rule has taken its toll: DFID shut down; aid repurposed and diverted away from tackling poverty; our international reputation in tatters. And in the middle of a global pandemic, they carried out the cruellest cuts imaginable to life-saving aid programmes.

The Tories were warned by their own impact assessment that cuts would devastate women and girls at risk of violence. But they went ahead anyway. They were warned by the security services that aid cuts would risk our national security. But they went ahead anyway. Ex-PMs and International Development Secretaries from their own party queued up to warn that the cuts would cost hundreds of thousands of lives. But they went ahead anyway.

Well, Conference, their development strategy has failed. And Boris Johnson’s ideological merger has failed.

It now falls to Labour to undo that damage and earn back the trust of Britain’s partners. Keir was absolutely right when he called the closure of DFID “totally misguided” and “wrongheaded”, and his commitment to international development speaks to who he is.

So, just as 25 years ago, DFID was created to tackle the global challenges we faced, a Labour government will put in place a new model with the independence needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century: one that recognises the link between development and climate. Its mission will be to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

We will reinstate Britain’s commitment to spend 0.7% of income on aid.

And we will deliver a distinct development programme that brings value for money and ends the government’s wasteful and transactional approach.

The climate emergency is this century’s biggest threat to humanity. That is why I am also announcing today that Labour will legislate to make sure that, as a priority, Britain’s aid budget helps address climate change.

Conference, I didn’t grow up with much. My mum was a seamstress, my dad a bus driver. But I did grow up knowing the importance of helping others. From when I first joined my dad volunteering at the local Sikh Gurdwara where he was president, I saw that helping neighbours makes us richer, not poorer.

Those values of service and solidarity flow through every corner of our movement and our country. When the British people give up their homes to Ukrainians fleeing Putin’s war, when we give to charity appeals in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, we do so not because it’s easy, but because it is right.

And frankly, when the Tories won’t support the British people’s solidarity to the world; when they won’t even keep their manifesto promises to voters on aid; when they throw more than £100 billion of your money at the energy bosses, but then tell you they can’t afford £5 billion to save lives overseas and make Britain safer; well, Conference, I say: not in our name!

I for one will not rest until our values – Britain’s values – are once again shaping what our government does in the world. In Opposition, we are forcing U-turns from the Tories and winning over voters fed up with their basic lack of compassion. So, Conference, let’s keep the pressure up.

22 years ago, Mandela urged us to “become once more the keepers of our brothers and sisters, no matter where they find themselves in the world”. It is time to heed that call again. Our record on international development gave hope to our allies in fighting for a better world and with labour in government it will do so again.

We will back the next generation at home and abroad, demanding a fairer, greener, global future. Conference, this is a reset moment for the Sustainable Development Goals. It is time to renew our movement to fight poverty and inequality and the climate crisis.

Keir Starmer, our leader, knows that a Labour party that is true to its principles is a Labour Party dedicated to winning power. So, let’s get Keir Starmer into Downing Street, Labour back into power, and a fairer, greener future for Britain.

Thank you.