Press release
Speech to Labour Party Conference - Harriet Harman MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Harriet Harman MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, speaking to Labour Party Conference today, said:
This has been a historic conference.
It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions.
We’re disappointed to be in opposition, but proud of what we achieved in government.
We’re sobered by the scale of the challenge that lies ahead, but fortified by the energy and determination of our new leader – Ed Miliband.
In Ed’s Conference speech we heard about optimism and fairness and about the New Generation.
And I’m particularly excited about the new generation - so is Arlene Phillips…because we know he’s talking about us.
A new generation of fabulous older women.
As he told you on Tuesday – he used to work for me. And he’s asked me to give you a job reference for him.
Well, I can tell you he was always punctual, always neatly dressed, and makes a lovely cup of tea.
He was incredibly diligent and often he would work all night – even when everyone else was out partying – including me!
Conference, our new leader is intelligent, courageous and has a good heart.
We will all be united in support of him.
And I have no doubt he will be a great Labour Leader of our Party.
It was hard to lose the general election, to be out of office, to see the defeat of so many terrific Labour MPs and see Gordon Brown leave Downing Street.
It was daunting for me to take up the responsibility of leading the party at such a difficult time.
But throughout, I have just had the most fantastic support from the whole party,
Our Shadow Cabinet, MPs, trade union affiliates, party members and staff. I want to thank you all for your support and friendship.
Our Party has the best and brightest team of researchers, advisors, media monitors who all pitched in to help me.
I also want to say a personal thank you to Ray Collins who’s been a steady hand on the tiller in turbulent times.
And the whole party owes him and his team an enormous amount.
And I’d like to pay tribute to my exceptional team in the Leader of the Opposition’s office led by Anna Healy, Ayesha Hazarika and Charlotte Montague.
And I want to thank my family especially my husband Jack Dromey .
You all know Jack – wherever he goes he lights up the room – although often that’s just the light reflecting off his head.
As some of you may have seen, the Sky Top Trump cards which score MPs in a number of categories.
There were some surprising results.
I came out as the most fanciable female MP! If you were wondering why – clearly its because Jack used the Unite block vote.
Conference, May 6th was a blow to us all. And it was difficult for everyone to see us relegated to the opposition benches.
But the Shadow Cabinet dusted themselves down and lost no time in leading the attack on the Tories’ broken promises and the Lib Dems' downwright hypocrisy.
Alistair Darling transformed overnight from Finance Minister to political street fighter.
And though its not something that Alistair would have noticed - he’s been drawing many admiring glances from older women – you know, the New Generation.
We all know Joan Bakewell was called the thinking man’s crumpet – well Alasdair Darling is definitely the thinking woman’s oatcake.
Jack Straw masterminded the attack on the government’s outrageous gerrymandering of the parliamentary constituency boundaries.
Now, there’s been lots of jokes this week about Jack’s long service in public life.
People have commented that Jack was there when Moses came down from the mountain.
There’ve even been references to stair lifts. But Conference, that’s just not fair, because Jack is a man in his prime.
I’ll tell you something – he outdoes everyone in his spinning class in the House of Commons gym.
So today I’m inviting Jack to be the poster boy for my special new campaign – “you’re not past it when you’re past 60”.
I’d also like to thank Bob Ainsworth for the important work he’s done on Defence.
As we saw this week when he sat side by side with the head of the Army Families Federation he is steadfast in his commitment to our troops and their families.
And I’d like to say a few words about a good friend and colleague – Nick Brown – he has been a formidable Chief Whip. Loyal to the party and feared by the Tories.
It’s been a priviledge for me to work with Nick and he leaves our front bench with our deep gratitude and admiration.
We owe them all a huge debt of thanks.
And I’d like to pay tribute to David Miliband. He played a leading role in our years in government.
He was a dedicated Schools Minister, a pioneering Environment Secretary and an outstanding Foreign Secretary. He has been a towering figure in our party and it is certain that the work that he has started – such as the army of community organisers - will go forward.
The Labour Party is proud of him. We are proud of what he did in government. And I know we will be proud of what he does in the future.
Conference – though things are hard – we have a fantastic team of Labour MPs.
And our PLP have shown themselves to be a formidable opposition.
We’ve got 81 women MPs now – a higher percentage of women than ever before.
And we are a powerful mix of youth and experience.
Some of us are the facebook generation – some of us are the facelift generation. But together we make a fierce team.
And this Conference has seen the vitality of Labour women at our 700 strong women’s summit this Sunday – Labour women are radical, controversial and we are unstoppable.
Conference, the last 5 months have been the story of a party which could have given up but refused to do so.
Our new leader takes forward a party which is determined and which is growing stronger.
Every minute our membership is growing – 35,000 new members since May 6th.
And since our new leader was elected on Saturday afternoon, 3,000 more people have joined.
So if you voted Lib Dem – because you wanted to prevent the Tories being in government – join us today to get them out.
And we are going to need all of our members – old and new – to play a key role in shaping our policies for the future. There is an absolute necessity now for the voice of our members to be heard. And they will be.
Every week there are council by-elections up and down the country.
And we are winning again – winning against the Tories and winning against the Lib Dems.
Our team of councillors – who are in the front line of protecting local communities against unnecessary and cruel cuts – our team of Labour councillors is growing.
And we will fight for many more Labour councillors in next May’s elections.
And I want to pay tribute to Jeremy Beecham who has been the voice of Labour in local government for so many years. Jeremy has been a credit to our party.
We have strong Labour teams in the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament and we are determined next May to make Carwyn Jones First Minister in Wales and Ian Gray First Minister in Scotland.
Conference, the last 5 days have certainly been dramatic but we leave Manchester with a new leader and a laser focus on the future.
There are members to recruit.
There are elections to fight.
There are cuts to oppose.
We have work to do.
The contest for our leadership is over.
The contest for the future of the country begins.
And we are ready.
We have important work to do.
Let’s get on with it.
Press release
Speech to Labour Party Conference - Sadiq Khan MP, Shadow Transport Secretary
Sadiq Khan MP, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, speaking to Labour Party Conference today said:
Good Morning Conference,
This week, we have elected a new leader and we have asked him to lead us on a journey of change, so we can reconnect with the British people, win back the voters we lost and return to power.
To do that, and set out the right vision for the future, we have to learn the lessons of the past.
We must take pride in our achievements.
And we must be humble about our mistakes.
And we must learn from them.
So let me first tell you what I am proud of:
And it's not being the first ministerial appointment to be announced on twitter.
As we all are, I am proud of our great achievements – the minimum wage, tax credits, the hundreds of thousands of pensioners taken out of poverty.
The progress on equality that allowed me to become the first MP of Muslim faith to attend cabinet.
Amidst all these successes, it would be easy for some to overlook the progress we made for transport.
But not for me.
Because my dad was a bus-driver.
And there was no escape at the in-laws either.
My wife's dad worked f or London Underground.
Most people feel nagged by their parents from time to time, but very rarely is it about the future of bus regulation.
But talking shop with my family made sure that I never forgot the shambles of a transport system we inherited from the Tories in 1997.
So I am proud of the progress we made.
Embracing market solutions where they are right, but never forgetting the important role government can play.
Time and again challenging the conventional wisdom to stand up for those that rely on our transport network – passengers, motorists, businesses and business people.
Rejecting the ideology that drove the Tory rail privatisation by replacing Railtrack with a body that prioritises safety, not shareholders.
Recognising that access to public transport is more, not less important, in impoverished neighbourhoods and so giving local authorities more control over bus routes.
Opening Britain's first high speed rail line.
Cutting deaths on the roads.
Nationwide free bus travel for over 60s and disabled people.
Giving millions of people more freedom and quality of life.
And in London, we saw what Labour leadership can mean – upgrades to the tube, electronic ticketing, bus services transformed, the congestion charge, and a deal for Crossrail, a scheme which will contribute billions to Britain's economy.
All reasons I'll be proud to campaign once again for Ken Livingstone to become Mayor of London.
We showed the importance of strong regulation, but also that the public sector and the private sector can work together to deliver investment to improve our roads and buses and railways.
It is an approach that was right in the past and will be right in the future.
But this week cannot just be about learning from where we got things right.
We also need to learn from where we got things wrong.
Because to tackle the great challenges to the transport system of the future – rising passenger numbers, growing congestion, the spectre of climate change.
We need to have a clear view about what we need to do differently.
So there are places where we need to change.
We made great strides on ensuring bus services for all communities.
But we could have done more to give local councillors more control and we need to recognise that and move on.
We made great strides on getting children and adults to cycle more.
But we did wait too long to promote cycling as a mainstream form of transport.
As Andrew Adonis reminded us last year... for us "on your bike" is a transport option not an insult to the unemployed.
And we made great strides on tackling carbon emissions.
We have set out some of the most detailed plans in the world, not just on how to cut emissions but also how to support greener motoring, create jobs and ensure that it is in the UK that we manufacture the clean cars of the future.
But we didn't always get the answers right and we need to recognise that and move on.
Part of moving on means working with this government when they make good decisions, where we agree with them we should support them.
But wh ere they put our transport system at risk we should say so as well.
So we hear that they doubt:
The value of investment in new trains.
The value of supporting bus companies to provide services in deprived areas.
The value of our plans for high speed rail.
Of course, we will support responsible cuts when times are hard, but right wing ideological cuts are wrong, unacceptable and we will expose them.
Under David Cameron, much of what we gained is at risk.
Passengers will not pay more for less.
And that will mean one thing.
People who currently use public transport returning to the roads.
Bad for motorists, bad for businesses, bad for the economy.
Conference, of course there would have been cuts under a Labour Government.
Some schemes would have had to be postponed or even scrapped.
I can't stand here and tell you that every local transport project would have been funded.
B ut I can tell you this:
We would not fall into the trap of short-termism, making cuts now which would still be holding our country back in twenty years time.
We would not reduce transport policy to economy, but always remember that it is essential to fairness that people in all parts of our society can afford to get to where they need to be.
We would stand up for ambition and for optimism.
And, because you don't get real change by tinkering around the edges.
That means being prepared to make radical change as a party.
To help build a fairer and more prosperous society.
Tony Blair told us that we are at our best when at our boldest.
Two days ago, our new leader Ed Miliband told us we are at our best when we are restless reformers.
And of course, they are both right.
We must not let being in opposition stifle our ambition, nor austerity smother our hopes.
We'll win the next General Election if we show people a vision of a better fairer Britain that they can believe in.
Not just a vision for the next 5 years – but for the Britain that we want to leave behind for the generations to come.
Conference, I believe that we have that vision in us and we've shown the world this week that we're coming back, bolder than ever.
Sunday 10th October 2010
Friday 15th October 2010 
