Conference, I stand here ready to bury Britain’s age of decline and usher in the age of ambition. For years, politicians have offered this nation a daily diet of pessimism, demanding ever greater sacrifice from those with nothing left to give. And they have delivered on that pessimism – from stagnant growth to falling wages, from crumbling infrastructure to disintegrating public services, from our declining town centres to a mounting housing emergency.
But that ambition begins with some humility. Our nation expected change, and so far it has seen yet more politicians on the take while imposing hardship on the already struggling. It is far better to change course than double down on mistakes. Our democracy has long been corrupted by those with bottomless pockets, and let’s be candid: they’re not splashing their cash out of generosity. That ends here. If you’re a wealthy individual or private company, invest your money elsewhere, because all such donations to political parties and politicians will now be banned. No more hospitality or freebies: and yes, I will pay for my own Arsenal tickets.
Here’s another rethink. We opened the nation’s books, we talked to top economic minds, and we discovered it’s not our nation’s finances that are broken, but our economic model. Yes, conditions are tough – but did prime minister Clement Attlee survey the ruins of British cities laid to waste by the Luftwaffe, turn to the British people, and inform them, “awfully sorry, but we’re broke”? No: grave crisis became justification for more ambition, not less, and Labour built the NHS, a welfare state and quality council homes fit for heroes.
This country is not broke – it abounds with talent, skill and resources. But conference, I ask you: what is the point of our people grafting day after day if the wealth they create with their hard work ends up stuffed into the bank accounts of a tiny few, often in offshore tax havens? The combined wealth of our richest 350 households is greater than the GDP of Poland; fortunes built not by the exceptional abilities of those select few, but on the backs of millions of British workers. This model is not simply unjust, it drives asset bubbles that distort and destabilise our economy. So we will assemble top economists and accountants to design a wealth tax that is fair, and the vast sums we raise will become our new Ambitious for Britain Fund.
Our ambition begins by investing in our people. That even one child grows up in poverty in a nation as wealthy as ours is a scandal, but in modern Britain, it is 4.3 million. Our war on poverty begins by scrapping a two-child benefit cap defined by cruelty, imposing hardship on kids – mostly in working households – if they have two siblings or more. This will save money. Those condemned to poverty in childhood are more likely to suffer it in later life, imposing further costs on society. Our public health strategy means reducing the burden on the NHS by preventing illness in the first place. From asthma to depression, poverty makes our children ill, imposing further costs. The same goes for pensioners, so by protecting the winter fuel payment for all, we will ensure all our older citizens are not condemned to sickness because of the cold.
We are ambitious for our NHS, so we will invest in the hospitals and staff it needs. But we take prevention seriously, and we understand that inequality lies at its root. That includes giving workers the power they need to fight for decent wages, by granting unions rights fit for the 21st century – not least sectoral collective bargaining – which have done so much to raise workers’ living standards in Scandinavia, ensuring gold-standard agreements in each industry.
We will restore our promised £28bn climate investment fund, tackling the existential threat of the climate emergency while creating well-paid jobs in the communities ravaged by deindustrialisation. Our nation’s infrastructure will be rebuilt, not least in our long-neglected towns.
We are ambitious for our young, and will end the remorseless war the last government waged on them. We will begin by no longer penalising them by saddling them with debt for aspiring to a university education, which the whole of society benefits from.
In our ambitious new age, the services and utilities we depend on will no longer be cash cows for those driven only by profit. Energy and water – as well as rail – belong to the people, and they will become a new model of democratic public ownership. The water bosses who polluted our rivers and lakes will be held to account for what they have done.
We are ambitious at home, and ambitious abroad. We have repeatedly allowed Britain’s reputation to be sullied in the killing fields of foreign wars. That will now change. We say this to the people of Palestine: Britain stands with you in your darkest hour. All arms sales to Israel now end, and I want to pay tribute to a British lawyer, Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, with the following promise: if an arrest warrant is issued against Benjamin Netanyahu, Britain will honour it.
Conference, for too long “tough decisions” has meant making the lives of vulnerable people harder, not standing up to the powerful. Politicians have blamed migrants for the problems they themselves caused – by not investing in services, not building the housing we need, not defending living standards – precisely because it deflects the blame. If we fail to be ambitious, then here is a warning. Dark clouds are gathering across the west, as far-right movements exploit insecurities and hardship. They may triumph – unless we offer the sunshine of investment.
What really holds our country back are the vested interests who care only for themselves. By investing in our people, our services, our infrastructure, our jobs, our climate, we will unleash the limitless talent of this country. No more misery, no more decline. Instead, a new, ambitious Britain, where the wealth you create no longer lines the pockets of a few, but grants you the security and freedom you need to thrive. You ejected the Tories because you wanted actual change: if we don’t deliver that, then why are we even here?
Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
