Rachel Reeves heckled by protester during Labour conference speech – video
At almost the exact moment she was delivering this message, however, the Royal College of Nursing announced its members had rejected a 5.5% pay increase from the government. Trade unions have been a thorn in the government’s side throughout this conference, and are organising a vote calling for the cut to winter fuel payments to be reversed.
Some in the union movement, as well as in the business community and the wider party, believe Labour has sounded too pessimistic during its first weeks in power, talking too much about its fiscal inheritance and not enough about its long-term plans.
The chancellor tackled that criticism on Monday, smiling widely as she delivered her speech and promising Labour would restore economic growth and reinvigorate British industry.
“What you will see in your town, in your city, is a sight that we have not seen often enough in our country: shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, the sounds and the sights of the future arriving,” she said. “We will make that a reality.”
She added: “This is our moment, our chance to show that politics can make a difference, that Britain’s best days lie ahead.”
She said next month’s budget would not herald a return to austerity. She told the BBC earlier in the day that Whitehall budgets would rise on average, but would not make the same promise for individual departments.
Economists say an average rise in Whitehall budgets of 1% over inflation – which was assumed under the previous government’s plans – would mean steep cuts to unprotected areas, such as courts and local government.
In a repeated passage that echoed Gordon Brown’s 2009 conference speech as prime minister, Reeves said: “That is the Britain I believe in. That is the Britain we are building.”
A Labour official said: “We needed to be honest about the scale of the challenge. The public and businesses want government to be honest. This speech was about the prize at the end of it.”
She announced little in the way of new policy but did confirm plans, first revealed by the Guardian, to relaunch investigations into £674m worth of Covid contracts. The announcement led to a standing ovation from delegates.
Reeves’s speech was briefly disrupted by a heckler protesting about British arms sales to Israel, which the chancellor reacted to by saying: “We’ve had the years of protest, we’ve had years of division and decline, but left working people worse off.”
