Lisa Nandy said she stands with “struggling workers” and pledged that Labour will rebuild the economy to spread wealth as widely as possible.
In a defiant call to arms, the Labour Levelling Up Secretary also told GB News that Labour was ready to govern.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Gloria Di Piero she said: “Three years ago, we came to the Labour Party conference having suffered our worst election defeat in a century – we lost the trust of people to govern.
“The first line in Labour’s constitution says we seek the trust of the people to govern and through a combination of unfunded spending commitments, not being careful with people’s money at a time when they haven’t got a lot of it.
“Through a combination of Brexit and an unpopular leader, we fundamentally broke that trust. We’ve rebuilt that trust now.
“We’ve come to this conference here today to say not only can you trust us with your money, we know you haven’t got a lot of it and we’ll spend it wisely.
“That’s why all our funding commitments, spending commitments are fully costed and fully funded, but that we have a plan for Britain’s so borrowing involves both parties will borrow.”
Ms Nandy added: “The difference between us and the Tories is that last week they set out around £30 billion of tax cuts targeted at the very wealthy and refused to release the impact assessment the Office of Budget Responsibility which traditionally publishes forecasts alongside it, and by doing so what they’ve done is create enormous instability in the markets.
“The value of the pound is falling, which will push up oil and gas prices. They’ve created the perfect storm.
“What we’re doing is setting up plans that are fully funded fully costed, we know how we’re going to pay for them and we understand the impact that that will have that is being safe, sensible, careful with the future of the country, not gambling it away on the hope that you can go for broke and win the next general election.”
She said: “They’ve tried taking all of the wealth out of our economy and handing it to a very few and it’s created a low growth, high tax economy, where working people pay the price. We’re here today and this week, and I’ll be saying later today that the country can do better than this.
“We can build a country where everyone contributes and everyone gains in the end. That is the only way to grow the economy.”
Explaining how Labour was on the side of working people she said: “I’ve been an MP for 12 years and I’ve always stood side by side with workers who are struggling and I think most workers are now struggling.
“It’s not just some people who don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills and feed their families this Winter. It’s most people.
“We’ve got an economy where we work harder than ever but it doesn’t work for us, so of course I’ll stand with workers when they say we deserve the right to be paid properly and to be able to feed our kids. But I’ll do more than that, because they deserve more than that.
“We’re going to fix this broken economic model, and we’re going to fix this country so that it delivers for people. They want me Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves out showing how we’re going to solve the problem.”
She added: “That’s what we’re doing in Liverpool this week and there’s huge support from the trade union movement.
“The mood I don’t think has been as good as this conference for at least a decade. People feel positive, they feel angry about what’s happening to our country, and they feel absolutely determined that this time we’re going to win.”
Asked about Keir Starmer’s speech tomorrow she said: “He’s going to set out a few policy announcements…but the story that Rachel Reeves has been telling about growth in the economy, sharing power and assets more widely that’s the story that I’ll be telling this afternoon, and the story that Keir Starmer will be telling tomorrow.
“That is the story of the country that we can be. And tomorrow when you hear what he’s got to say, I think a lot of people, hopefully especially those people whose trust that we lost in the past, I think they’re going to feel actually that there isn’t just an opposition to this awful Government, but that there is an alternative.”
Ms Nandy said: “I’ll be setting out more about Labour’s plans to get power and wealth distributed much more widely across this country. Clear dividing lines have opened up in the last few weeks.
“The Tories think that you can grow the economy and build the country by the few, for the few. We think all people and all places have to contribute to the country’s success.
“And all people should have a stake. That’s why we’re promising to invest to get good jobs, clean energy jobs back into coastal and industrial towns so that we can get money back into people’s pockets.
“It’s also why I’ll say something this afternoon about housing as well. We’re going into the hardest Winter that many people can imagine with soaring housing costs as well as energy bills and food prices.
“We don’t believe that housing is a market. Housing is a fundamental human right and we’re going to tilt the power back to people, particularly in the private rented sector so that people have far more security in their own homes.”
