Ahead of Labour Connected – a four day online event taking place instead of Labour’s Annual Conference – Labour’s Deputy Leader and Greater Manchester MP Angela Rayner has set out Labour’s offer of new leadership for our country, saying that the Labour Party is offering the country “the leadership it needs at this time of national crisis”.
Labour’s Deputy Leader, who also serves as the Party’s Chair and Shadow First Secretary of State, said that the opposition will act in the “best interests of the British people and in our shared mission to defeat this terrible virus” and warned that Labour will “call this failing Conservative government out for it serial incompetence that is holding Britain back”.
Acknowledging that Labour faces a “mountain to climb” to win the next election, Labour’s Deputy Leader, who will open Women’s Connected today before giving a keynote speech to open Labour Connected on Sunday, committed the Party to restoring “the British people’s trust in Labour as a party of government”.
Speaking ahead of Labour Connected, Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said:
“Over the next four days, the Labour Party will show what we can achieve with a new leadership for our party and for our country.
“At this time of national crisis, we are offering the country the leadership it needs. We will act in the best interests of the British people, and in our shared mission to defeat this terrible virus.
“And we will call this failing Conservative government out for its serial incompetence that is holding Britain back.
“We know that we have a mountain to climb to win the next election, but we are determined to climb it. We must – and we will – restore the British people’s trust in Labour as a party of government.
Labour’s Deputy Leader, who was a social care worker before becoming a Member of Parliament, paid tribute to the key workers who have “kept us all cared for, fed and connected” during the coronavirus crisis:
“This crisis showed us that the people our economy and our country cannot survive without are our key workers. The NHS and social care staff who have put their lives on the line to save others. The posties, the bus drivers, the shop workers, the delivery drivers and so many others who have kept us all cared for, fed and connected.
“Your service, your sacrifice and your bravery will never be forgotten. Our whole country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.
“After all the sacrifice and hardship, we can’t go back to business as usual”.
Angela Rayner also argued that Labour’s values of fairness and compassion “must be the foundation of our country’s recovery”:
“The coronavirus crisis has changed everything for all of us, for our country and for our party. But our values haven’t changed.
“And it is those values of fairness, compassion that are seeing our country through this crisis. These are our values, Labour values, and they must be the foundation of our country’s recovery.
“Out of this crisis, we can build a better, fairer, more equal society”.
