‘DO BETTER!’ | Rayner CALLS OUT Starmer's 'MISTAKE' in blocking Burnham from Westminster return

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]It's no good acknowledging the mistakes if they're not put right.

[00:00:06]So, let me be honest, conference.

[00:00:09]We as a party have to do better than this. And we can only prove we mean our Labor values by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism.

[00:00:22]And we can start by accepting that Andy Burnham should never have been blocked.

[00:00:28]It was a mistake that the leadership of our party should put right conference. We have to show that we understand the scale of the response that the moment calls for by rejecting factionalism, uniting our movement, apologizing for our mistakes, but learning from our successes too.

[00:01:00]Conference, we must make politics work for ordinary people with an economic agenda to make people better off. change how we run our party and how we do politics.

[00:01:15]Labor exists to make working people better off and that is not happening fast enough and that needs to change now.

[00:01:25]Conference the trade union movement taught me that if you have strong values, if you work collectively, you can get things done no matter what you're up against.

[00:01:38]conference. Our movement, the trade union movement, the Labor Party is not just a political alliance. It's a family. And in families, you have your ups and downs and we have our our scrapes, but we look out for each other. And in the end, we're always there for each other. And it was the Tories that wrote me off and said that kids like me were getting pregnant to get a council house.

[00:02:07]That wasn't what was on my mind when I was young. I was scared. I was frightened. And I was looking for opportunity.

[00:02:18]And it's thanks to our Labor family that I was able to improve my life and the lives of my fellow workers who I represented as their trade union rep.

[00:02:30]Our Labor family, our union family gave me those opportunities.

[00:02:38]You were there for me and proved that kids like me deserve better than that.

[00:02:43]And I wouldn't be stood in front of you today if it wasn't for our movement. I may have been born in Stockport, but I was raised in the trade union movement.

[00:02:54]It was our union family that gave us a new deal for working people. It wasn't created in an ivory tower by politicians. It was de It was delivered in collaboration with you, the trade union movement, and it would be delivered with you.

[00:03:14]Let me say this.

[00:03:16]There is no way that we have had we'd have had the New Deal nor the Employment Rights Act, nor the rest of the plan to make work pay without affiliated unions like the CWU in the Labor Party conference. It is testament to the strength and the importance of the link.

[00:03:45]But I know that families also have disagreements. Our Labor family is no different. And it's right that we're honest about them. I know you'll always push us to do more and be better. And we won't always agree about every dot and comma. But I don't need to be persuaded that tweaks won't fix the fundamental challenges that our country faces.

[00:04:11]This government needs to put measures in place that makes people's lives better.

[00:04:18]We need to fix the foundations of a system that is rigged against them because we know that things can be so much better than this. Spain and Canada have shown that economies can grow and people can thrive with when governments stay true to their values and put people first. And we need to learn from that.

[00:04:42]In London, we lost young people who fear they will never afford a home. And in my patch and across the north, we lost working people whose wages are too low and the costs are too high.

[00:04:58]In Scotland and Wales, people do not currently see labor as the answer.

[00:05:06]Conference. After too long, governments have allowed wealth and power to concentrate at the top without a plan to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are shared fairly. The result has been an economy that does not work for the majority with wealth concentrated in far too few hands.

[00:05:26]The level of inequality alongside squeezed living standards is the outcome of a model built on deregulation, privatization, and trickle down economics.

[00:05:39]But we have a chance to fix this. We need immediate action to cut the costs for households and put money back in the everyday economy.

[00:05:48]And we can do this within our fiscal rules by making sure that those that benefit from the crisis contribute more so that everyone can thrive.

[00:05:58]Our Employment Rights Act was just the first step in the plan to make work pay.

[00:06:04]And now's the time to take the next step, starting with a fair pay agreement in social care. But it mustn't end there. Conference. A plan to get young people back into work. good jobs that pay decent wages. And as we've seen last week, we're up against another party claiming to be for working people.

[00:06:26]Let me tell you, conference, when I was introducing our employment rights act that gave millions of workers a pay rise, protections from unfair dismissal, an end to exploitative zerour contracts.

[00:06:42]None of it would have happened without the union and its links to the Labor Party. But conference reform voted against it every time. And by the way, the Greens often stood in our way, too.

[00:06:59]Populists and nationalists are not parties for the working class. It is only Labor that can protect you at work, rebuild our estates, make sure that we have the council homes that we need, end no fault evictions, bring down waiting list, and feed our kids.

[00:07:19]We've had snake oil salesmen before and we know we can see them off if we stand and fight for our values together. Our labor values of equality, of social justice and fairness to get people to follow us and make this country better.

[00:07:40]The late John Prescott used to tell me, "You've got a voice, kid. Use it." A union man to his core, John would have relished this fight.

[00:07:50]It's a fight that you are all part of.

[00:07:54]He had the courage to set out set out his stall and persuaded people to follow it. He'd be fighting back for what he believed in a bold vision for a better country. And we have to do exactly that.

[00:08:11]In each generation, it's fallen on a Labor government to strengthen the hands of workingclass people. And the task of this generation is to do that again. The fight back for the soul of this country.

[00:08:27]And we can only do that with our union family, our Labor family fighting for the same cause. So, conference, let's do it together.