London faces a big choice tomorrow. If the Tories win — and they could — Britain will remain stuck in their low growth, high tax, declining public services doom-loop.
On the other hand, vote Labour and the work of change begins. We will launch a new national mission to create wealth in every community. We’ll get to work repairing our public services with an immediate cash injection and a new reforming zeal. We will break with recent years by putting country before party. And we will be guided by that core British value — that whoever you are, wherever you started in life, we should give you a fair crack of the whip.
For me, London, at its best, embodies this spirit. It is a city that pulses with creativity, and opportunity; that celebrates diversity as a community of communities. Yet we can’t pretend it’s not also a city where many of us live parallel lives.
Take Somers Town in my constituency. From the high rises of that estate, young boys and girls can look out across the glittering development behind Euston and King’s Cross, only a few hundred yards away. And yet they struggle to imagine such success could ever belong to them.
The Britain I want to build is a country where nobody feels they have to change who they are, just to get on.
So Londoners should vote for our plan to tackle the housing crisis and build 1.5m homes. They should vote to harness the opportunity of clean British power and cut energy bills for all, with GB Energy, a new public company. They should vote to tackle knife crime, with 13,000 extra police and community officers. They should vote for a new Young Futures programme that will work with communities to prevent young people turning towards crime in the first place.
They should vote for our plan to open 3,000 new nurseries, hire 6,500 new expert teachers and boost creative subjects in our schools. They should vote for a party that believes in Britain’s cultural power and wants to open up their brilliance to all. And they should vote for a Government that will champion London and fight for its values. That will work with our outstanding Mayor, rather than constantly stymie his plans.
Take our creative industries, as one example. Ask anyone around the world what Britain is known for and it won’t be long before they come up. And yet the Tories still belittle them.
Make no mistake — vote Labour on Thursday and that will change overnight. But if you want change, you do have to vote for it. It’s a basic fact of the democratic process. The power belongs to you.
