“Increasingly, people think the Big Six energy companies are behaving unfairly”

Meg Hillier’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Thank you.

Conference, we’ve had an excellent debate, proof that the Labour Party understands the threat to the environment, and we’ve the political will to protect it.

There are people – some of them in the Conservative Party – who are climate change sceptics. They dispute the science, downplay the risks, denounce us as cranks.

Conference, they are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Under Labour, Britain signed up to the toughest carbon reduction targets in the world. We enshrined them in law.

And we did it with Ed Miliband in charge of the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

As Energy Secretary, Ed displayed leadership on the world stage on climate change.

He understood the audacity needed to meet the challenge.

What a contrast with the Department for Energy and Climate Change today. Humiliated almost daily. The laughing stock of Whitehall. Trampled by the Treasury. Undermined by No. 10.

“People have realised that to go green you have to vote red”

Mary Creagh’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Conference.

Imagine you work in a job where your home is tied to your employment and you are on call at all hours.

I’m talking about rural workers, who live in tied accommodation and work in the wind and weather all year round.

The Agricultural Wages Board, set up by Clem Attlee in 1948, which sets the pay and conditions of 140,000 rural workers in England and 12,000 workers in Wales, is to be abolished by the Tory-led Government.

What will that mean?

For 42,000 casual rural workers, it’s an instant pay cut as soon as their current job ends.

For permanent rural workers, the constant worry that your employment contract will be downgraded, your tied home at risk if you say no.

It’ll mean no minimum wage for child workers who currently get £3.05 an hour.

So much unfairness in an industry where four out of five workers has no company pension scheme for their retirement.

The Government calculates it’ll take £9 million pounds a year of spending power out of the village high street.

That’s not the plan B the economy needs; that’s the same old Tory unfairness.

“We need an economy where morality and ethics count”

Angela Eagle’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

It’s fantastic to be here at Labour Party Conference in Labour run Liverpool.

We have a great venue here at the Echo arena and it’s just across the river from the centre of the universe – my own constituency of Wallasey.

You know the first time I came to this great new place I was down there in the front row and one of my heroines Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders was up here performing. Well I won’t be attempting anything as brilliant or as loud as the Pretenders produced then because I’ve forgotten to bring my guitar. And anyway there might be a few sore heads in the hall after ‘Scouse night’.

You know we are in a great city with a proud history of Labour representation.

Those of you who came up on the train might have seen the statue of ‘Battling Bessie Braddock’ when you arrived at Lime Street. Bessie was the MP for Liverpool Exchange for 24 years and the first woman to represent Liverpool in Parliament. She was a passionate campaigner who did much to rid Liverpool of its slums. She fought poverty, hunger and unemployment all her life and she would have been delighted that our Conference was taking place in her city.

A city Labour-led: revitalised under our Government after years of Tory neglect.

And now I worry that those days are returning.

“This is Britain, Mr Murdoch. The integrity of our media and our politics is not for sale”

Ivan Lewis’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Conference.

I want to begin my speech today with some thank yous.

To my brilliant team Gloria de Piero, Ian Lucas, Ian Austin and Ian Murray for their commitment and support during the past year. To Sophie, David and my constituency team for their endless patience and sound advice. But most of all to you.

Those of us who sit at the top table of the Labour Party in Parliament should never forget the debt of gratitude we owe to the party activists, trade unionists and party staff who in every community in every part of this country are the heart and soul of this great movement.

Conference, the history of the relationship between this Party and the Murdoch press is a complex and tortuous one. But what can never be complex or tortuous is the responsibility of politicians to stand up for the public interest without fear or favour. That is why today please join me once again in paying tribute to the courage and tenacity of Tom Watson, Chris Bryant and John Prescott for the service they have done to our country in exposing the phone hacking scandal. And let us also recognise that when the country reacted with revulsion to the news that Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked while the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister dithered, it was our leader Ed Miliband who day after day provided the leadership which was needed and spoke for the nation when he said, enough is enough.

“Instead of sitting on their hands, it’s time for Cameron and Osborne to act now”

Ann McKechin’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Conference, without any doubt 2011 has been a very tough year for Labour in Scotland but it has been an even tougher year for the people of Scotland.

Jobs disappearing – more and more in long term unemployment; incomes frozen; hours cut and the highest youth unemployment since the 1980’s.

Along with rising inflation in the items we need the most – food; energy bills and transport, people across Scotland are really feeling the squeeze on their living standards.

Not surprisingly after the May elections, our critics rushed to claim that labour would never recover; that we no longer have a vision for Scotland’s future; that we have lost our way.

But conference the task to protect what is best about Scotland and to tackle the enormous problems we face today is one where Scottish labour should be at the heart. Be in no doubt that we are determined to be Scotland’s voice for social justice.

“Let no one underestimate the determination of Scottish Labour to regroup, to reform and to fight-back”

Iain Gray’s Speech to the Scottish Labour Party.

Chair, conference.

On the day after the Scottish Parliament election in May I announced that I would step down as leader, because I take responsibility for our terrible result. That’s what leaders do. But I did not step down immediately, because I wanted Scottish Labour to have time to reflect, review and reform.

The truth is that Labour devolved the United Kingdom in 1999, but we did not devolve ourselves to match that new reality. In Scotland we focused all our energies on using our new parliament to make the lives of Scots better – and for eight years we did just that.

But over time our failure to match our reform of our country with reform of our party undermined our capacity to convince Scottish voters of our aspirations for a better Scotland, and our determination to deliver for them.

So now, in the most difficult of times, we have searched for, and found, the reserves of strength and self-confidence to open up and move forward rather than to retreat. A radical reorganisation of the Scottish party endorsed by this Conference, creating not just greater discipline in our campaigning but a profound unity of purpose and vision in our pursuit of a better Scotland. A Scotland shaped by Labour values of fairness, opportunity, equality and solidarity. All credit to Sarah Boyack and Jim Murphy. They have made our party review a measure not of our weakness, but of our strength.

“We have to be the party that refounds the welfare state for working people”

Liam Byrne’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

When you hear the voices of those we’ve had on stage today, don’t you think it beggars belief that George Osborne has the audacity to say we live in some kind of safe haven.

I wish we were safe.

From him.

Tell the parent, who I met in my constituency a couple of Saturdays ago, Patricia, that we’re a safe haven.

She’s the proud parent of a teenage daughter in who she has invested so much hope.
A daughter who’s now fighting for a chance to work in a constituency with the highest youth unemployment in Britain.

Her story is now the story of one of a million of our young people.

Six and a half thousand of them here in this city of Liverpool.

This country is such a safe haven that we have unemployment rising faster than in America, in Japan, in Europe.

This country is such a safe haven, do you know how many jobs they have created in the last year?

66 a day.

At that pace, it is going to be another 17 years before we get unemployment back to where it was before the crash.

“Our rail system is not fit for purpose and needs radical change”

Maria Eagle’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Conference.

As Liverpool’s voice in the Shadow Cabinet, I’m proud to welcome you to our fantastic city. A city transformed under a Labour government. A city determined not to be dragged back, despite the best efforts of the Tories and Liberal Democrats. And I pay tribute to the inspirational leadership of Joe Anderson as he steers our city through tough times.

And in May, Liverpool told the Liberal Democrats what we thought of their decision to sell out this city. To prop up a Tory government. We defeated them in seat after seat. And I want to welcome to his first conference our energetic new councillor for Wavertree: elected in May at just 18 years old: Jake Morrison.

It’s great to see Liverpool leading the way on transport. Outside London, the only city to take control of its rail network. Keeping fares down. And about to introduce our version of London’s Oystercard: the Walrus – the first travelcard in the country that buys more than just your ticket.

And wouldn’t it be good if London was once again led by someone who understands why transport matters? Someone who doesn’t let bus and tube fares spiral, but brings them under control. So let’s ensure the next Mayor of London is a Labour Mayor: Ken Livingstone.

“In difficult times governments can’t just stand by and watch”

John Denham’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Conference.

Last week, in Birmingham, Vince Cable gave the Lib Dems what’s been described as the most depressing speech by a Cabinet minister in modern political history.

I haven’t come to Liverpool to spread doom and gloom.

You’re not Lib Dems. You haven’t come here to wallow in it.

There’s no easy way forward.

The deficit must be dealt with.

World markets are in turmoil.

The world we face is so fiercely competitive it will be harder than ever before to pay our way and build a better future for young people.

But we know there is a way forward for Britain and its families.

But first I have got a message for Vince Cable and the rest of the Tory-led Government.

If you’re depressed, stop making things worse.

Stop saying you will tax the banks and get them lending.

When you know you’re cutting their taxes and they’re cutting their lending.

“Labour running Wales stays true to the vision of the great Aneurin Bevan”

Peter Hain’s speech to Labour Party Conference.

Wales, thank you.

The tragedy reminded us of grim times in the past we thought would never be repeated.

But the strongest message of support we can send to the traumatised and grieving families of the four miners, is this.

The Labour Party stands today as we always have done in the best spirit and the proud tradition of miners and their communities, to fight and to win again for justice and equality for all.

Conference it’s great to be here again as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales.

While Cameron and Clegg privatise the health service in England and hand it over to American companies, Labour running Wales stays true to the vision of the great Aneurin Bevan: an NHS for the people, by the people, of the people.

While Cameron and Clegg treble student fees in England, Labour running Wales has refused to do so, refused to saddle students with debts of £50,000, refused to put universities beyond the reach of youngsters from low income families.