Prime Minister Andy Burnham will deliver his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool today, promising to break away from “politics as usual” amid growing speculation that he will signal a significant move away from the pensions triple lock.
The Liverpool-born Labour leader is due to address the conference hall at 2pm, where he will pledge to bring back hope for the country and set out a vision for the years ahead. He is expected to outline a new course for a “Britain where people feel the country has their back again.”
Social care and energy plans expected
As part of the speech, Mr Burnham is expected to flesh out his plans for reforming social care in England, promise measures to tackle unemployment, and set out his vision for public control of utilities. He will tell party members that “hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid.”
He will also announce a new publicly-owned “Great British Grid” in a bid to bring UK energy costs down in line with European nations within a decade. The Prime Minister will say: “We can’t carry on as we are. Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough and isn’t going to get us where we need to be.”
Triple lock speculation grows
Social care is likely to feature prominently in the speech, with the Prime Minister suggesting on Monday he would set out more detail of his plans to fund reform of the system. Ministers have refused to confirm Labour’s commitment to the triple lock – which guarantees pensions rise in line with inflation, 2.5% or average earnings, whichever is the largest – will be in the manifesto. That has fuelled speculation that a change to a less generous system could partly fund free social care for adults in England.
Chancellor John Healey told the BBC: “The manifesto will be the manifesto at the time, I’m not going to do that now, but I think what people will see from the Prime Minister is not just a vision for the future, but an argument about why we must act.”
Revisiting themes of first speeches
Mr Burnham will revisit themes from his first speeches in office, criticising the centralisation of power in the hands of “vested interests” and promising a break from the “flawed thinking of the last 40 years.” He said he wants a UK with “more control of the basics so that we can make it more functional again.”
He will promise “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation” and say: “I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around.” He will admit that he initially wanted to “give the usual tub-thumping conference speech” but that “the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed.”
Mr Burnham will say “everyone wants less drift and more direction” and that he will “answer that call.” He will also set out plans to make it easier to get connections to the energy grid, addressing an issue blamed for slowing economic growth and pushing up costs. The GB Grid – set up under the Great British Energy umbrella – will be the first publicly-owned player in electricity networks since privatisation under Margaret Thatcher, giving “more public control” to reform the “broken energy market.”
