Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour party and MP for Manchester Central addressed hundreds of union delegates in Liverpool this afternoon at UNISON’s annual women’s conference.
“It’s really great to be here today in a fantastic room full of women. It’s not very often that I am in a room full of women,” she began.
Ms Powell’s speech began with an acknowledgement that she had taken up the reigns as deputy leader from Angela Rayner, whose path to politics began at UNISON.
“Angela was a great and impactful secretary of state and deputy prime minister. She’s not gone away, she’s still a champion for the Labour party,” she said, describing Ms Rayner as ‘a role model that I will try to follow’.
The main difference, Ms Powell outlined, between herself and Ms Rayner, is that Ms Powell is in the government’s political cabinet, rather than the formal cabinet.
“I’m doing it that way because I want to make sure we get some of the politics right,” she said.
“Part of that is making sure that I bring the voice of our broader movement to those [government] decisions. Our members and our affiliated members’ views.”
Ms Powell described the Labour party’s relationship with trade unions as ‘our collective superpower’.
“We’ve got over a million affiliated members as part of our Labour party movement, and that really does connect us to every single workplace and community across the country.”
She went on to list several of the Labour policies that UNISON contributed to: “We’ve extended free school meals to over half a million more children. We’ve rolled out free breakfast clubs. We’ve raised the minimum and living wage.
“We’ve reintroduced the school support staff negotiating body (SSSNB) and fair pay agreements starting in adult social care sector. Rail and buses are now going to be run in the interests of passengers and not profits. Ending zero hours contracts and establishing regular hours.
“Just last week in parliament, we voted to lift the pernicious Tory two-child benefit cap. Meaning that half a million more children will be lifted out of poverty.”
‘A true Thatcherite’
Then, Ms Powell turned her attention to the threat that Reform UK poses to our public services and democracy, and warned of the risk of Nigel Farage walking into Downing Street.
Ms Powell described Nigel Farage as ‘the lovechild of Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher’.
“He’s a true Thatcherite politician,” she said.
The way to prevent Reform gaining power, she explained, was in ‘rewiring this country in the interests of the many and not just the few.’
This includes tackling the cost of living crisis, creating secure jobs with decent pay, and building more affordable housing – ‘the bedrock of a better life’.
In reference to the Employment Rights Act, which will bring in better sick pay rights, an end to zero hours contracts and stronger protections against sexual harassment, she said, “we’ve got to make sure it’s not just a piece of paper but it’s actually implemented.”
All of this, Ms Powell said, is about ‘rewiring the country for ordinary people’.
Returning to Farage, Ms Powell said: “he’s a fake, he’s a phony, he’s not a working-class hero and he will be found out.
“Politics is painted in primary colours, as was famously, said. And whilst Nigel Farage’s colour is becoming increasingly Tory blue, we have to be really, really clear, our colour is Labour red.”
Ms Powell, a proud Mancunian, spoke of the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election, which will be held on 26 February.
“We’re going to have to fight really hard to win it,” she said. Speaking of Manchester, she said, “my city gave birth to the trade union movement, gave home to the suffragettes. It’s built on equality, opportunity and community spirit.
“I am not going to let a Reform MP come into my city with their vision of division and hate. Their candidate is backed by Tommy Robinson. Their candidate is also a guy who wants to tax childless women for not having children. He thinks that too many women go to university.
“This is what we’re up against. But women and men across Manchester are mobilising and galvanising, saying ‘we don’t want this kind of politics in our city.”
“But I say to you finally: this is the fight that we are going to be in. We might just be facing it in one by-election now, but this is what is coming.
“And I think we all know in this room, which side of that fight we’re on. The side of ordinary working people, progress, opportunity, unity. Of the many, not the few.”
The post ‘You are our collective superpower’ appeared first on UNISON National.
Comments are closed.