Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised to put the country on a new path in his first Labour conference speech as party leader and Prime Minister.
Promising to give the country greater control over housing, energy and water, and to reform the social care system, Mr Burnham said he was ready to “break the mould” to end the drift and division which has characterised British politics for a generation.
Reversing the 1980s Ban on Public Ownership
The measures included a plan to reverse Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s ban on public ownership of water companies, paving the way for the nationalisation of firms that do not “serve the public interest.”
Mr Burnham also said councils will be given the power to take over poor quality homes if landlords refuse to improve them.
Addressing delegates in Liverpool, he said: “This country isn’t where any of us would want it to be.”
“Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards.”
“More of the same isn’t good enough.”
“That’s why I feel I have to break the mould today.”
A Country Run for Vested Interests
Mr Burnham, who replaced Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 in July, claimed there was a “sense of the powers-that-be pulling against the people, not with them.”
“If there’s one thing I want to put right, it’s that,” he said.
Taking aim at the changes introduced since the Thatcher administration in the 1980s, Mr Burnham said: “Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time.”
“Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit.”
“And what has it given us? A country run for vested interests, not in the public interest.”
Drawing on the 1945 Legacy
He compared his task in building a new form of politics to the 1945 Labour government’s efforts to reshape the country in the wake of the Second World War.
Mr Burnham said: “We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s.”
“Suddenly, the common wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.”
“Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care.”
“Broken up and sold off.”
“The British right talk about ‘taking back control’.”
“Never let them forget: they are the ones who gave it away in the first place.”
