'Rebuild Britain' - Kate Osborne MP on why this government is already 'delivering change'

This year’s Labour Party Conference gave our country the hope we need that things will get better.

Minister after minister set out plans on how they will rebuild Britain from a care service to homes for veterans, care leavers and victims of domestic abuse, to saving our NHS, to 300

New state nurseries to GB Energy and the cleaning up of our waters to renationalising our railways and bus investment. Ministers with clear focused plans on how we will fix Britain and deliver for communities.

In his Conference speech, the Prime Minister announced that he would bring forward the Hillsborough Law before the next anniversary in April - for the 97, for subpostmasters, for Grenfell, and for victims of the infected blood scandal.

I have campaigned for justice for Subpostmasters continuously since being elected in 2019, and it took Keir Starmer a mere handful of months to deliver what I’ve been demanding for five years. 

This new Government is one that delivers.

This is a Government of law and order, and of justice for victims of the scandals 14 years of Tory Governments let slip by.

This is a Government of service, a Government for the people, and a Government of change. 

The Prime Minister also announced his pledge to house all veterans in housing need, to get those who have put their lives on the line, for the sake of this country, off the streets - to give homes to heroes.

We have Ministers that actually understand the departments they run.

We have a Prisons Minister, James Timpson, the current CEO of the Timpson Group, who has a company policy of employing ex-offenders across his UK watch and shoe repair chain.

We have a Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, who was brought up on benefits and went to a state school.

And in her Conference speech, Angela Rayner - the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government  - mentioned her days of only having £60 to get her and her son through the week.

She understands the struggle that far too many working people across Britain, and far too many in the Jarrow and Gateshead constituency, are facing.

I see this first-hand with the large amount of emails and phone calls that come into my office every day, with so many needing help on a range of issues.

Last week I was out and about across the constituency, meeting constituents, local businesses and organisations. 

Demand for services such as our local Citizens Advice Bureau in South Tyneside and Gateshead has continued to grow year in and year out. I visited Gateshead Citizens Advice Bureau who told me all about the pressures on the charity, and the help and support they are providing people on a daily basis.

With 24 per cent of children locally living in poverty, this support is vital.

I was also proud to attend the opening of the Tri Station in Hebburn – A state of the art home to the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, Northumbria Police and the North East Ambulance Service. Our first responders need the investment our Government has promised in order to deliver for all of us.

The Tri Station is brilliant, it was great to look around and I was grateful for the opportunity to thank the staff for all that they do for our communities.

Looking ahead, we know the scale of the task that lies ahead but we are committed to delivering for the people of this country and build on the positive work that a Labour Government has already done in our first months in Government.  

The previous Tory Government did not do anything for working people, they helped make their rich friends richer.

They were the Government that covered up the extent of their damage to our public services, and they left us with a £22 billion black hole.

This is a Government that will deliver devolution, new rights and protections for renters, a landmark review to fix our NHS, a child poverty task force, an end to one-word Ofsted inspections, and fines for bosses who pollute our waters - to name a few.

We will put buses back into local hands, and bring rail into public ownership.

Labour will rebuild Britain, brick by brick, and bill by bill, until we achieve a Britain that delivers for our people. 

This new Britain will be one with faster economic growth and shorter NHS waiting times, one that is prepared to face the future.

For fourteen long years, the Tories failed our country, our communities, and our families.

Our inheritance is bleak, and it will take time but we have already started to rebuild what the Tories dismantled - change has begun and we will rebuild a Britain that belongs to you.