Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government at the Labour Party Spring Conference, Birmingham, 2008

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THANK YOU conference,

It is a great pleasure to be here in Birmingham.

A city which for so long was Labour-led, and will be again.

One of its great Labour leaders- Dick Knowles - who sadly recently died - was the driving force behind so much of the rebirth of Birmingham, including the conference centre where we meet this weekend for our Spring Conference.

I pay tribute to Dick, and to all the Labour council leaders who work so hard to transform their areas.

This great city of Birmingham, like the other great cities of the United Kingdom, is a powerful symbol of Labour's successes over the past eleven years.

Thriving city centres. A growing local economy. Landmark new buildings.

A new sense of pride and confidence. Improving schools and hospitals. More police on the streets.

In just eleven years, we have transformed our city centres from places which emptied out after hours, which people avoided after dark, which looked run-down, worn-out and boarded up.

Now our city-regions are the engines of our economy - creating wealth, opportunities, jobs, culture and hope for our young people.

And I want to pay tribute to the Labour councillors - both in leadership and in opposition - who have worked hard to make it happen.

I know being a Labour councillor can be a pretty tough job.

I know - I was a Labour councillor for eight years, representing a ward in Eccles, in the depths of the Tory recessions.

But it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience.

There's nothing better than knowing you've helped a local family, given hope to a young person, or seeing the investment you voted for six months earlier being translated into new schools, parks or youth clubs.

So I want us to pledge today to work every spare minute we have to get Labour candidates elected.

And if you think it's too difficult to win - come with me to the London Borough of Lambeth, where Labour took control in 2006, against the run of play in London.

When Labour took over from this Tory-Lib Dem council, the reserves were almost spent, and the council was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Today, Labour Lambeth is one of the fastest-improving councils in the country.

Extra Police Community Support Officers on the estates, and a 25% drop in crime.

A 40% increase in funding for youth services.

A new academy, in one of the poorest wards in Britain.

And the abolition of car clamping, which I am told is proving very popular with local people!

And Labour-run councils like Luton, Stevenage, Corby, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Gateshead and Wigan, local people get the same thing: cleaner, greener, safer communities delivered by Labour councillors who are part of the community.

And if you want to see the alternatives - look at Liberal Democrat-run Liverpool, officially the worst council in Britain. 

The Lib Dems have run it into the ground, and soon they'll be coming cap in hand to the Labour government to bail them out of bankruptcy.

The people of Liverpool deserve better than the Lib Dems.

Or look at what happens when the Tories are in control.

Places like Wandsworth threatening the local museum and arts centre, or Hammersmith & Fulham cutting funding to the Hammersmith law centre and getting rid of home helps.

When the Tories take control, the first cuts go deepest on what they see as the soft underbelly of services: the voluntary sector and services for the most vulnerable.

And in London, let us pledge to make certain that we do not wake up on 2nd May with a right-wing Tory Mayor.

It would be a disaster for London if Boris Johnson became Mayor.

Imagine if the right-wing Tory MP for Henley became the representative of our capital - representing the people of Hackney, Brixton, Lewisham and Southall.

Just imagine what it would do to our international reputation to have him as our Mayor in the run up to the Olympics.

Let us be clear - Boris is no joke.

He's a nasty, right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends like Conrad Black,

He wants to cut funding to transport and the police.

And his personal motto is 'the only way forwards is backwards.'

Well Boris - I don't want London to go backwards, I want it to go forwards with Labour.

So it's simple - let's get behind Ken, who has been a brilliant Labour mayor for London, who has been courageous in pressing his environment, transport and regeneration policies, and who deserves our full support.

As we fight these elections on a positive platform of value for money services, and cleaner, greener, safer streets, we need to be much more focussed, and much more courageous in our dealing with Cameron's Conservatives.

He's getting away with murder.

He's started the Co-operative Conservative Movement.
Surely a contradiction in terms?

He's said they'll stick to Labour spending plans, and keep the national minimum wage, and invest in the NHS and schools.

He says he's changed from his days of standing shoulder to shoulder with Norman Lamont as our economy went down the pan on Black Wednesday.
Well do we believe him? Do we?

Has the nasty party really become the nice party? Can the Tory leopard change its spots from true blue to pale pink in 18 months?

Ask yourself this: who have they put in charge of their tax policy commission?

- Geoffrey Howe.

The Tory chancellor whose budgets in the early 1980s slashed public spending, cut taxes for the rich, and increased VAT, before putting three million people on the dole.

Who has Cameron put in charge of local government policy? Eric Pickles, the Thatcherite leader of Bradford council, the cheerleader for the Poll Tax.

Who leads on social policy? Iain Duncan Smith, who Chris Patten called 'the most lamentable choice in living memory.'

And who is shadow foreign secretary? William Hague, who spent his teenage years with posters of Margaret Thatcher on his wall, who ran the most right-wing election campaign of modern times, and led the Tories to their second biggest defeat.

The Tories haven't changed. They're the same tax-cutting, service-slashing, anti-European right-wingers they always were.

And on May 1st, international workers' day, we can send them packing.
Let me finish with a story from another great city - Salford.

A few weeks ago, David Cameron came to the Salford Lads' Club, with an entourage of Tory researchers and David Davis in tow. He wanted to have his photograph taken outside the Lads' Club, in tribute to his favourite band The Smiths.

When my local Labour party found out, they were incensed - how dare the Tories come to a ward which had 80% youth unemployment when they were in power?

So the young members spent the night before making posters and placards.

'Oi Dave - Eton's Lads' Club is 300 miles that way.'

'Salford Lads not Eton snobs.'

And they got local people out of their houses to protest.

And on the day, Cameron was bundled in the backdoor, and bundled out of the back door...

...and he never got his photograph.

And that night I sent him a photo of me outside Salford Lads' Club, with greetings from Salford!

The point is this - we need to rediscover the anger and passion and guts that brought us all into Labour politics.

We need to get out onto the streets. We need to show that we are still campaigners at heart.

Yes - the party of government. But never the party of the establishment.

So if David Cameron pops up in a street near you, get out your marker pens and make your placard and take to the streets, because after what his lot did to our communities, they deserve a rough ride.

Chair, this weekend, we'll hear some great speeches, meet new people, and discuss the future for our neighbourhoods.

We can be confident that whatever the day-to-day tribulations of politics, we are getting the fundamentals right - on the economy, on our public services, on devolving power to local people.

And we can be confident that in our Leader we have a man with the strength and values to lead us to victory.

And we can be confident that people still want Labour to represent and lead them.

So let's get on with the campaigning, proud to be Labour, and between now and May Day let's take these Tories to pieces.