Travelling the length and breadth of Britain these past few weeks, I’ve seen potential in every conversation with voters. There is no doubt it’s a tall order to reverse Tory decline and restore optimism. But if you vote Labour tomorrow, change will begin immediately. We’ll start work on day one to enact our first steps – downpayments, if you like – for a better, brighter future. These will be fully funded and fully costed, as you would expect, to deliver the groundwork of a mission-driven Labour government.
I know first-hand the transformative difference Labour in power can make. It was a secure home, decent work and a strong community under the last Labour government that changed my life when I was a young mum struggling to make ends meet.
For too many people in Britain, those foundations of a good life feel as if they’re crumbling today. A generation looks to the future with worry rather than in hope. The dream of a safe, secure and affordable home is further out of reach. More people find themselves in insecure work and dragged into a race to the bottom. Families in every corner of the country are feeling worse off and forgotten.
Labour understands the importance of having a secure home, decent work and putting power in people’s hands. With Keir Starmer at the helm, we’re ready to meet this moment. Our plan for secure homes will end the housing emergency created by the Tories, getting Britain building, with 1.5m homes over five years and delivering the biggest boost to affordable, social and council housing in decades.
We will back first-time buyers, giving them “first dibs” on new developments, and a comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme for those without access to the bank of mum and dad. And we will take action to protect renters, with an immediate ban on no-fault evictions, an end to rental bidding wars, and extended protections against damp, mould and cold. A Labour government will get back on track towards ending homelessness, by addressing its root causes.
We will put power in homeowners’ hands, bringing down mortgages, giving leaseholders the right to manage services, and a route to buy out freeholds, while speeding up work to fix and future-proof unsafe homes.
But the changes we propose aren’t just about the roof over your head. Labour’s plan to make work pay will also ensure every worker has access to a secure job and respect at work. Our new deal for working people will be the biggest upgrade to rights at work in a generation, boosting wages, ending insecure work and ensuring good employers can’t be undercut.
We will do this by delivering a genuine living wage for 2 million of the UK’s lowest-paid workers, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, and ending fire and rehire. And, of course, our agenda for change will empower communities. Labour’s plan to power up Britain will turn the page on the Tories’ levelling up scam.
In place of gimmicks, Labour will do the hard yards to get our economy growing for everyone everywhere, releasing Britain’s untapped strengths and powering up our towns and cities. I want to see new powers handed to local leaders, so they have the tools they need to boost economic growth where you live, from housing and planning to transport and skills.
It’s a plan that will be supported by a modern industrial strategy and a green prosperity plan for 650,000 new, skilled jobs of the future in every region and nation. This is what Britain’s future could be. But we will need a clear mandate for change – don’t doubt that.
To those who say “they’re all the same”, or voting doesn’t change anything, I ask you to reconsider. Change won’t happen unless you vote for it.
Imagine, if you dare, waking up on Friday and the Tories are back in. How will you feel, to see them back in power, and not just back but more entitled and emboldened than ever? If they win another five years, the worst is yet to come.
You don’t have to risk that fate. The power is in your hands. We can heal the wounds, put politics back in the service of the people and start to rebuild Britain. Our best days lie ahead of us. Let’s turn the page and start a new chapter together.
Angela Rayner is deputy leader of the Labour party
