Step one. Our National Wealth Fund. Standing with business. Ready to invest in the critical infrastructure we need. The battery gigafactories, the clean British steel, the ports that can finally handle large industrial parts. More growth, more demand, more jobs.

But honestly, how has it come to this? Working people paying for their own healthcare – in a cost-of-living crisis. Pensioners waiting weeks, months, sometimes waiting years just to get the care that they need. Mental health treatment when you need it. We’ll guarantee that. The 8am scramble for a GP appointment. We will end it. Dangerous waits for a cancer diagnosis. We will consign them to history.That is why the global crises of the last 13 years have been so painful for Britain. The stand-aside state leaves nobody with the future they want, because there’s no direction. An irresponsibility towards the future, that defies the values conservatives say they support. Training lab workers in Derbyshire. Automotive Engineers in Wolverhampton. Computer Scientists in Manchester. Nuclear Technicians in Somerset. Builders in Staffordshire. Toolmakers in Hull. My dad would have loved that. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Conference, my sister is a care worker. She was a care worker during the pandemic. 14 hour shifts, often overnight. Unimaginable pressure. And the reward? A struggle every week – and I mean every week – just to make ends meet. So if you are a Conservative voter who despairs of this, if you look in horror at the descent of your party into the murky waters of populism and conspiracy, with no argument for economic change. If you feel our country needs a party that conserves. That fights for our union. Our environment. The rule of law. Family life. The careful bond between this generation and the next. Then let me tell you: Britain already has one. And you can join it. It’s this Labour Party. The winner of our Labour era will be working people everywhere

Conference, I never thought I’d say this but I’m beginning to see why Liz Truss won. Although I still think we’d be better off with that lettuce. After all, it’s been 13 years now and what does Britain have to show for it?Labour’s own focus groups are littered with voters complaining about Labour moaning all the time without offering their own clear solutions. Powered by the analysis of Starmer’s chief strategist, the former pollster Deborah Mattinson, the leadership believes that Labour’s chances of winning an election depend on economic credibility – not unwise – but that is defined by being seen as “pro-business”. In meetings and dinners with business leaders, Starmer emphasises “wealth creation”. His team believe that Labour under Ed Miliband – let alone Corbyn – was afflicted by this failure, even though post-2015 defeat polling found 42% of voters felt Labour “is too soft on big business and the banks”, with 22% dissenting. It is monstrous that the media baits Labour with relentless questions about trans people’s genitalia, deploying one of the country’s most vulnerable minorities as political fodder to divide the opposition, but why is it so effective? Because with an absence of vision, culture-war baiting can easily fill the vacuum instead.