Harriet speaks to Yorkshire and Humber Labour Party

Harriet spoke to the Yorkshire and Humber Labour Party Conference on Saturday 7 February 2009.

Text of speech:

I’m delighted to be here in Sheffield with the Labour Team in Yorkshire and Humberside.  

Labour’s team here -  your MPs and Ministers, Members of the European Parliament and councillors, trade unionists and party activists – have a proud place in Labour’s history and play a vital role in taking Labour values forward today.  

We meet in difficult times.  The international financial crisis has hit hard in this region – not just in the financial services sector but to those businesses big and small that have been hit by the squeeze on credit.

But you all know that our Government will not stand by and let people suffer.  Because we know that those who are hit hardest are those who can least afford it – people who struggle to pay their mortgage at the best of times – people who work hard but still worry about how they will make ends meet.

And above all we are working to take any and every step we can to protect jobs.  Ours is and always has been a trading economy – one in 10 of the jobs in this country depend on our trade with Europe.  So it would be madness to retreat from or shrink away from Europe.  Because all the economies of the world – including ours -  are now interconnected Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling are working internationally to put together a solution that will ensure that the world economy gets back on track and starts to grow once more.

As well as protecting people from the present global economic crisis – we need to build our economy for the future.  And that means jobs and job opportunities for everyone.  The right to work is at the heart of what Labour has always stood for.  And the right to skills and qualifications is what Labour has always stood for – and that is even more important as more and more jobs demand skills and qualifications.  And we will use public investment to build the infrastructure that we need to take the country forward.  So we will not be cutting public investment in capital projects like schools, hospitals and transports.  That’s what the Tories say they would do and that would be disastrous.

And the Cabinet visit to Leeds in November last year left no cabinet member in any doubt that Yorkshire and the Humber is working through your MPs, councillors and MEPs to ensure that the Government, and the Regional development Agency do everything we can to protect people in these difficult times but also to build the region’s economy for the future.

So I want you – and everyone in the party – to be confident and determined.  We are confident that we are taking all the measures that need to be taken.  We are determined that whatever it takes we will do it.  And we need to counter the lies that the Tories are trying to put around.  As Yvette Cooper is so brilliantly doing at the Treasury.

We need to tell people that when we came into government in 1997 pubic debt was 43% of our national wealth.  As well as rebuilding hospitals and schools, we paid off debt year by year till it was down to 37% of GDP.  And so we are in a position – as we must – to let public borrowing rise to protect our economy in this unprecedented economic storm.  Not allowing debt to rise now would make it much worse later.

And we have made plans to pay back the debt – as we must.  And our plans are that those who have most should pay most and that’s why we’ve said that on income over £150,000 there will be a new top rate of tax of 45%.

We are determined not only to build a strong economy for the future but to have a fairer and more equal society.

We don’t have to choose between a strong economy and fairness – we must have both.

And that includes fairness in the financial services sector.  There is something rotten in the remuneration system of the banks and finance companies.  Men paying themselves millions of £s of bonuses each – and then saying that they didn’t know what was going on.  Half the employees in the finance sector are women.  Yet the men are paid 40% more than the women employees.

I’ve set up an enquiry by the Equality Commission to look into the financial services industry.  The discretionary bonus system is a license for unfairness and discrimination.  And is anyone any more going to justify a system which allows for the old boys network to fall back on a financial cushion of millions of pounds while helping cause the problems which makes others struggle.

The Financial Services Authority which Gordon Brown set up is also conducting a review into bonuses.  Because they will need to stop the bonus system encouraging those at the top taking risks with everyone else’s money.  It’s right that those who’ve left the RBS have done so without “severance pay” and that there will be no board level bonuses in the banks where the public purse has stepped in to secure their future.  But the Equality Commission and the FSA reviews will clearly need to take things further.

The great task for all of us in the Party in 2009 will be the elections on June 4th.  These are important council elections in North Yorkshire Council, mayoral elections – including for the mayor of Doncaster and for our Members of the European parliament.

At theses elections we will show Labour’s team working at local, national and international level – to deliver for people the jobs and living standards that they deserve and peaceful safe communities in which to live and a sustainable future for the environment. Caroline Flint – our Europe Minister, and John Healey our local government minister and I are working together on this.  Because these elections are not about the institutions,  not about county hall or the European parliament – they are about Labour as a team at local, national and European level doing everything we can to protect people and build for a strong and fair future.

We have to do everything we can to get everyone to vote.  Everyone will have a vote – and every vote will count.  If you are in a “safe” labour area – we need all the votes from your area to be added up for our MEP candidates.  If you are in a marginal seat – we need know you need a vigorous campaign – not just for our MEP and council votes  - but as a curtain raiser for the next general election.  

June 4th is the time for us to draw a line in the sand against the advance of the hatred, racism and division of the BNP.  Not only countering their arguments but also, by our local campaigning, by our presence on the doorstep and in the local community, showing people that we understand and share their concerns and that we are on their side.