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Brexit: John McDonnell says article 50 should not be revoked without a referendum – live news Brexit: John McDonnell says article 50 should not be revoked without a referendum – live news
(32 minutes later)
McDonnell says Labour will aim to reduce the full-time working week to 32 hours within the next decade - with no loss of pay. Yasmine Dar, a CLP representative on the national executive committee, is addressing the conference now. She is moving the the NEC statement about Brexit. (See 10.10am)
She says passing this motion will not stop delegates being able to debate and vote on the other Brexit motions.
She says Brexit should not be allowed to divide the party. “Please, comrades, support Jeremy [Corbyn] on this issue,” she says.
McDonnell is now on his peroration.
When they ask you some time in the future:
“Where were you when people were left to sleep on our streets?
“When families queued at food banks to survive?
“When the Tories tried to sell out our country to Trump”
“When climate change threatened our planet and our very existence?”
I want you all to be able to say:
“I built the homes and public services our people needed”
“I made sure everyone was fed and cared for.
“With nobody forced to endure poverty
“I saved the planet by tackling climate change
“I helped lay the foundations of a new society
“Foundations so deeply rooted that the Tories can never break them up”
And when they ask “how did you do that?” You can tell them: “I supported Labour, I joined Labour, I voted for Jeremy Corbyn. That’s how.”
Solidarity.
McDonnell says Labour would give developing countries free or cheap access to green technologies, partly to make “reparations” for colonialism.
We recognise that the first industrial revolution meant Britain was the first major contributor to climate change – something that left a lasting legacy for the global south.
And to begin making some reparations for our colonial past, I pledge we will provide to the citizens of the global south free or cheap access to the green technologies developed as part of our green industrial revolution.
McDonnell says Labour would spend “whatever resources are necessary” to meet climate change obligations.
For my part, I will make sure the Treasury puts in whatever resources are necessary to meet our obligations. A sustainable Investment Board, coordinating the Treasury, BEIS department and Bank of England. £250bn of green government investment in a National Transformation Fund.
And £250bn more of lending through our National Investment Bank, delivered at grassroots level by regional development banks and our new Post Bank.
And while the Labour government will need to take the lead, we’ll make whatever reforms are necessary to ensure the finance sector isn’t pushing the other way by investing in carbon-intensive sectors. That means billions more raised through green bonds and support for a Europe-wide green new deal programme so that we can bring forward significantly that 2050 target.
McDonnell turns to climate change.
I believe when historians write about 2019, the most important political event so far has not been replacing one useless Tory prime minister with another. It’s been the emergence on the national scene of climate change as amongst the most urgent political questions of the day.
And he pays tribute to the school strikers and Extinction Rebellion.
And outside parliament I want to pay tribute to the school strikers and Extinction Rebellion. I have been proud to march and demonstrate with them. They have shamed older generations of politicians into taking climate change seriously and with the urgency it needs. Now it’s essential that the Labour movement continues to join in solidarity with those young people to help lead that fight.
McDonnell says Scotland would benefit from Labour’s plan, even though it already has free personal care.
Of course, in Scotland, a Labour government has already introduced free personal care, so when we spend the billions needed to guarantee free personal care in England, there will be billions more for First Minister Richard Leonard when he takes office in 2021. A Labour government making millions of lives better across the UK, thanks to our transformative policies in Westminster, but also through the new resources for the Scottish and Welsh governments.
McDonnell gives more details about the proposed national care service.
So I can announce today that, after years of campaigning by trade unions and carers – as the first building block in our new national care service – the next Labour government will introduce personal care free at the point of use in England. Funded not through the Conservatives’ gimmicky insurance schemes. But, like the NHS and our other essentials, through general taxation.
And we’re publishing the first steps of our national care service vision today. Investing in the workforce and ensuring they are employed on local authority rates of the pay, working conditions and training to deliver high quality care, as Unison has advocated.
And over time, we will bring those services back into public ownership and democratic control. We will make sure that local councils have the necessary resources after years of savage cuts. Building up capacity in local government for both care homes and domiciliary care
So we’ll require all providers – public, private or charitable – to adhere to strict criteria on ethical standards. Because nothing is more important than dignity in retirement for those who have built our country and given younger generations the world we live in today. And I want to thank the hard work and leadership that Barbara Keeley has shown in driving forward our policy on this issue.
McDonnell confirms the announcement about Labour offering free personal care.
McDonnell says Labour would rebuild local democracy and revive local services.
My generation inherited a treasure of public parks, libraries, swimming pools and leisure centres. Free or affordable for all. But in too many cases they’re now gone. They’ve been privatised or have priced out the families they were built for. These public assets meant a better life for millions of us. And were part of the strong welfare state that our movement fought for and built. Providing free at the point of use the things that make lives worth living. As well as the essentials like health, education, even those have come under attack in recent years
But we mustn’t limit our ambition to repairing the damage caused by 9 years of Tory austerity. We must go much further. I’m launching today our document on universal basic services. It lays out our belief that everyone has a right to a good life. That the state has responsibility to make good on that right.
By providing public services free at the point of use. These services are part of our shared experiences. Experiences that are too important to be left to the vagaries of the market. Whether a family can afford them or not.
As socialists we believe that people have the right to education, health, a home in a decent safe environment and, yes, access to culture and leisure.
McDonnell explains how Labour would go about this.
As a first step we’ll end the opt-out from the European working time directive. As we roll out sectoral collective bargaining, we will include negotiations over working hours. We’ll require working hours to be included in the legally binding sectoral agreements. This will allow unions and employers to decide together how best to reduce hours for their sector.
And we’ll set up a working time commission with the power to recommend to government on increasing statutory leave entitlements as quickly as possible without increasing unemployment.
But while millions are exhausted from overwork, there are too many others who can’t get the working hours they need, so we’ll also ban zero-hour contracts to make sure every employee has a guaranteed number of hours a week too.
McDonnell says Labour will aim to reduce the full-time working week to 32 hours within the next decade – with no loss of pay.
We should work to live, not live to work. Thanks to past Labour governments but mainly thanks to the trade union movement, the average full-time working week fell from nearly 65 hours in the 1860s to 43 hours in the 1970s.We should work to live, not live to work. Thanks to past Labour governments but mainly thanks to the trade union movement, the average full-time working week fell from nearly 65 hours in the 1860s to 43 hours in the 1970s.
As society got richer, we could spend fewer hours at work. But in recent decades progress has stalled. People in our country today work the longest average full-time hours in Europe apart from Greece and Austria. And since the 1980s the link between increasing productivity matched by expanding free time has been broken. It’s time to put that right.As society got richer, we could spend fewer hours at work. But in recent decades progress has stalled. People in our country today work the longest average full-time hours in Europe apart from Greece and Austria. And since the 1980s the link between increasing productivity matched by expanding free time has been broken. It’s time to put that right.
So I can tell you today that the next Labour government will put in place the changes needed to reduce average full-time hours to 32 a week within the next decade. A shorter working week with no loss of pay.So I can tell you today that the next Labour government will put in place the changes needed to reduce average full-time hours to 32 a week within the next decade. A shorter working week with no loss of pay.
McDonnell says work is not just about wages.
Work isn’t just about wages. It’s about freedom from drudgery; having dignity, respect and a voice in the workplace. That means a strong trade union movement and collective bargaining. But also, in the new public services we’re creating, it means management by workers and service users rather than by remote bureaucrats in Whitehall.
In large companies it means a third of directors being elected by workers and a tenth of shares being owned by those workers. It means doubling the size of our cooperative sector, and going further, I hope, in our ambitions.
McDonnell says Labour would end in-work poverty.
Labour has traditionally been committed to full employment. We have always believed that getting a job should be a means to lift yourself out of poverty. But under the Tories the link between work and escaping poverty has been broken.
So I commit today that within our first term of office Labour will end in-work poverty.
This is a current pledge. McDonnell explained how Labour would achieve this in a speech in July.
McDonnell says article 50 should not be revoked without a referendum.
I warn those who would revoke article 50 without a democratic mandate, ask yourselves what message that sends to our people.
An old professor of mine, Bernard Crick, was once asked to define socialism in one sentence. He said socialism is the achievement of equality through democracy.
We can’t say to people, “Labour wants you to share in the running of your workplace, your community and your environment, but we don’t trust you to have the final say over Brexit.” Nothing would do more to undermine their faith in democracy in all its forms.
(There are few people in Labour arguing for article 50 to be revoked without a referendum. This passage seems to be aimed primarily at the Liberal Democrats.)
McDonnell turns to Brexit.
We aim to trust the people in having the final say on Brexit. A deal or remain. Some of you will know I have said I will campaign for remain. But let me make it clear that I profoundly respect those who support a genuine alternative.
In our debates today I want us to demonstrate in the respect we show each other and how we bring our party together just how we can also bring the country together again.
McDonnell says politics is going through a period of “profound insecurity”.
My fear, though, is that as a result of the behaviour, language and cynical opportunism of some politicians on the right, we have entered a period of profound insecurity and risk to our democratic system.
We have seen before in our history what kind of forces can be unleashed by politicians who have a total disregard for the truth in their ruthless pursuit of power for power’s sake … politicians who attack the very institutions and practices, no matter how flawed, that protect and uphold our democracy, parliament, the courts and the rule of law. The best antidote to those who attack our democratic rules and institutions is more democracy itself.
McDonnell praises a friend who almost became leader of the Labour party by accident - Jeremy Corbyn.
And what makes me so proud of him is that no matter what smears and personal attacks by the gutter press. He always continue to embody the kinder, gentler politics he advocates.
McDonnell says he thinks Labour MPs should be supporting the unions, in parliament and on the picket line.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is delivering his speech now.
He starts by paying tribute to all the members of his team, including Anneliese Dodds, who he says has found the “magic money tree” in the Cayman Islands and is digging it up and bringing it home. She has been working on tax avoidance.
Tom Watson thinks Jon Lansman, who tabled the motion at Labour’s national executive committee without warning on Friday night in an attempt to abolish Watson’s deputy leader post, is not the best person to complain about NEC processes being abused. (See 10.37am.)
Irony is not dead. https://t.co/5NZz591J9R
Ahead of the Brexit vote this afternoon Labour pro-remain campaigners are flagging up some figures from a poll conducted for the People’s Vote campaign. It found that 72% of Labour leave voters said they would definitely not vote Conservative, and 48% said they would definitely not vote for the Brexit party. But only 14% of Labour remain voters said they would definitely not vote Lib Dems. Labour remainers think this shows that the fear of Labour losing millions of voters to leave parties is exaggerated; they claim the real risk is from Labour losing remain votes to the Lib Dems and the Greens.