MPs publish Coronavirus: Lessons Learned To Date report
Covid vaccine programme “one of most effective initiatives in UK history” but delay to first lockdown a “serious error” that should have been challenged
The House of Commons and Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee have published their Report, Coronavirus: lessons learned to date, examining the initial UK response to the covid pandemic.
The 150-page Report contains 38 recommendations to the Government and public bodies, and draws on evidence from over 50 witnesses—including Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Professor Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick Vallance, Sir Simon Stevens, Dame Kate Bingham, Baroness Harding of Winscombe and Dominic Cummings—as well as over 400 written submissions.
The Report was agreed unanimously by members of both Select Committees, which consist of 22 MPs from three political parties—Conservative, Labour and SNP.
The joint inquiry, which began in October 2020, examined six key areas of the response to covid-19: the country’s preparedness for a pandemic; the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as border controls, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic; the use of test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact of the pandemic on social care; the impact of the pandemic on specific communities; and the procurement and roll-out of covid-19 vaccines.
The inquiry concluded that some initiatives were examples of global best practice but others represented mistakes. Both must be reflected on to ensure that lessons are applied to better inform future responses to emergencies.
In particular:
The forward-planning, agility and decisive organisation of the vaccine development and deployment effort will save millions of lives globally and should be a guide to future Government practice;
The delays in establishing an adequate test, trace and isolate system hampered efforts to understand and contain the outbreak and it failed in its stated purpose to avoid lockdowns;
The initial decision to delay a comprehensive lockdown—despite practice elsewhere in the world—reflected a fatalism about the spread of covid that should have been robustly challenged at the time;
Social care was not given sufficient priority in the early stages of the pandemic;
The experience of the covid pandemic underlines the need for an urgent and long term strategy to tackle health inequalities; and
The UK’s preparedness for a pandemic had been widely acclaimed in advance, but performed less well than many other countries in practice.
The 38 recommendations made, if implemented by the Government and by public bodies such as the NHS, would ensure that during the remaining period of the pandemic and in any new emergency, the UK could perform better by having distilled lessons—positive and negative—from the UK’s initial response to covid.
In a joint statement on the publication of the Coronavirus: lessons learned to date Report, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, and Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, said: “The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future.
“Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace programme took too long to become effective. The Government took seriously scientific advice but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible.
“In responding to an emergency, when much is unknown, it is impossible to get everything right. We record our gratitude to all those—NHS and care workers, scientists, officials in national and local government, workers in our public services and in private businesses and millions of volunteers—who responded to the challenge with dedication, compassion and hard work to help the whole nation at one of our darkest times.”
The Report includes an Executive Summary with conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned at the end of each Chapter.
BUILDING BACK BETTER: Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester yesterday. This is what he told the party faithful:
Isn’t it amazing to be here in person
the first time we have met since you defied the sceptics by winning councils and communities that Conservatives have never won in before – such as Hartlepool
in fact it’s the first time since the general election of 2019 when we finally sent the corduroyed communist cosmonaut into orbit where he belongs
and why are we back today
for a traditional Tory cheek by jowler?
It is because for months we have had one of the most open economies and societies
and on July 19 we decided to open every single
theatre and every concert hall and night club in England
and
we knew that some people would still be anxious
so we sent top government representatives to our sweatiest boites de nuit to show that anyone could dance
perfectly safely
and wasn’t he brilliant my friends?
let’s hear it for Jon Bon Govi
living proof that we, you all
represent the most jiving hip happening and generally funkapolitan party in the world
and how have we managed to open up
ahead of so many of our friends?
You know the answer, its
because of the roll-out of that
vaccine
a UK phenomenon
the magic potion invented in oxford university
and bottled in wales
distributed at incredible speed to vaccination centres everywhere
I saw the army in action in Glasgow
firing staple guns like carbines as they set up a huge vaccination centre
and in Fermanagh I saw the needles go in like a collective sewing machine
and they vaccinated so rapidly that we were able to
do those crucial groups one to four
the oldest and most vulnerable faster than any other major economy in the world
and though the disease has sadly not gone away the impact on death rates has been astonishing
and I urge you all to get your jabs because every day our vaccine defences are getting stronger and stronger
and you, all of you, and everybody watching made this roll-out possible
you each made each other safe
so perhaps we should all thank each other
go on – try a cautious fist bump
because it’s ok now
and we in turn thank the
volunteers, the public health workers, the council workers
the pharmacists
but above all our untiring unbeatable unbelievable NHS
and as a responsible conservative government we must recognise the sheer scale of their achievement
but recognise also the scale of the challenge ahead
The NHS
When I was lying in St Thomas’s hospital last year l looked blearily out of my window at a hole in the ground between my ICU and another much older Victorian section and amid the rubble of brick they seemed to be digging a hole for something or indeed someone – possibly me
but the NHS saved me
and our wonderful nurses pulled my chestnuts out of Tartarean pit
and the other day I went back on a visit
and I saw that the hole had been filled in
with three or four gleaming storeys
of a new paediatrics unit
and there you have the metaphor my friends for how to build back better now
we have a huge hole
in the public finances
We spent £407 bn on covid support
and our debt now stands at over two trillion pounds
and waiting lists will almost certainly go up before they come down
covid pushed out a great bow wave of cases
people did not or could not seek help
and that wave is now coming back
a tide of anxiety washing into every A and E and every GP
your hip replacement
your mother’s surgery
and this is the priority of the British people
does anyone seriously imagine that we should not now be raising the funding to sort this out
is that really the view of responsible conservatives?
I can tell you something
Margaret Thatcher would not have ignored this meteorite that has just crashed through the public finances
she would have wagged her finger and said more borrowing now is just higher interest rates and even higher taxes later
when this country was sick our NHS was the nurse
frontline health care workers
battled against a new disease
selflessly
risking their lives sacrificing their lives
and it is right that this Party that has looked after the NHS for most of its history
should be the one to rise to the challenge
48 new hospitals
50,000 more nurses
50m more GP appointments
40 new diagnostic centres
and fixing those backlogs with real change
because the pandemic not only put colossal pressure on the NHS
it was a lightning flash illumination of a problem we have failed to address for decades
Fixing Social Care
In 1948 this country created the National Health Service but kept social care local
and though that made sense in many ways generations of older people have found themselves
lost in the gap
when covid broke there were 100,000 beds in the NHS
and 30,000 occupied by people who could have been cared for elsewhere
whether at home or in residential care
and we all know that this problem of delayed discharge is one of the major reasons why
it takes too long to get the hospital treatment that your family desperately need
and people worry that they will be the one in ten
to suffer from the potentially catastrophic cost of dementia
wiping out everything they have
and preventing them from passing on anything to their families
and we Conservatives stand by those who have shared our values
thrift and hard work
and who face total destitution in this brutal lottery
of old age
in which treatment for cancer is funded by the state
and care for alzheimers is not – or only partly
and to fix these twin problems of the NHS and social care
we aren’t just going to siphon billions of new taxes into crucial services
without improving performance
we will
use new technology so that there is a single set of electronic records as patients pass between health and social care
improving care
and ensuring that cash goes to the frontline
and not on needless bureaucracy
When I stood on the steps of Downing Street I promised to fix this crisis
and after decades of drift and dither
this reforming government
this can do government
this government that got brexit done
that is getting the vaccine rollout done
is going to get social care done
and we are dealing with the biggest underlying issues of our economy and society
the problems that no government has had the guts to tackle before
and I mean the long term structural weaknesses
in the UK economy
It is thanks to that vaccine roll-out that we now have the most open economy and the fastest growth in the G7
we have unemployment two million lower than forecast
We have demand surging
and I am pleased to say that after years of stagnation – more than a decade – wages are going up
faster than before the pandemic began
and that matters deeply
because we are embarking now on a change of direction that has been long overdue
in the UK economy
we are not going back to the same old broken model
with low wages
low growth
low skills
and low productivity
all of it enabled and assisted by uncontrolled immigration
and the answer to the present stresses and strains
which are mainly a function of growth and economic revival
is not to reach for that same old lever of uncontrolled immigration
to keep wages low
the answer is to control immigration
to allow people of talent to come to this country
but not to use immigration as an excuse for failure to invest
in people, in skills
and in the equipment the facilities the machinery they need to do their jobs
the truckstops – to pick an example entirely at random – with basic facilities where you don’t have to urinate in the bushes
and that is the direction in which this country is going now
towards a high wage
high skill
high productivity
and yes, thereby low tax economy
that is what the people of this country need and deserve
in which everyone can take pride in their work and in the quality of their work
and yes it will take time
and yes it will sometimes be difficult
but that was the change that people voted for in 2016
and that was the change they voted for again powerfully in 2019
and to deliver that change we will get on with our job
of uniting and levelling up across the UK
the greatest project that any government can embark on
We have one of the most imbalanced societies and lop-sided economies
of all the richer countries
it is not just that there is a gap between London and the South east and the rest of the country
there are aching gaps within the regions themselves
what monkey glands are they applying in Ribble Valley
what royal jelly are they eating
that they live seven years longer than the people of Blackpool
only 33 miles away
Why does half of York’s population boast a degree and only a quarter of Doncaster’s
This is not just a question of social justice
it is an appalling waste of potential
and it is holding this country back
because there is no reason why the inhabitants of one part of the country should be geographically fated to be poorer than others
or why people should feel they have to move away from their loved ones, or communities to reach their potential
When Thomas Gray stood in that country churchyard in 1750 and wrote his famous elegy
as the curfew tolled the knell of parting day
he lamented
the wasted talents of those buried around him
the flowers born to blush unseen
the mute inglorious miltons who never wrote a poem
because they never got to read
the simple folk who died illiterate and innumerate
and he knew that it was an injustice
let me ask you, maybe you know
where was he standing when he chewed his pensive quill ? Anybody know
Correct, thank you, he was standing in Stoke poges
my friends there may be underprivileged parts of this country but stoke poges is not now among them
in fact it was only recently determined by the Daily Telegraph
and if you can’t believe that, what can you believe my friends
to be the 8th richest village in England
since gray elegised, Buckinghamshire has levelled up to be among the most productive regions in the whole of Europe
Stoke Poges may still of course have its problems
but they are the overwhelmingly caused the sheer lust of other people to live in or near Stoke Poges
overcrowded trains
endless commutes
too little time with the kids
the constant anxiety that your immemorial view of chalk downland is going to be desecrated by ugly new homes
and that is why levelling up works for the whole country
and is the right and responsible policy, because it
helps to take the pressure off parts of the overheating South East
while simultaneously
offering hope and opportunity to those areas that have felt left behind
and let us be clear that there is a huge philosophical difference between us and labour
because in their souls they don’t like levelling up
they like levelling down they do
they like decapitating the tall poppies and taxing the rich till the pips squeak
they dislike academic competition latin I hear
and in Islington – I kid you not I have seen it with my own eyes – they like kids to run races where nobody actually wins
and I have to tell you I don’t believe that is a good preparation for life
let alone for the Olympic games
and if you insist on the economic theory behind levelling up
it is contained in the insight of Wilfredo Pareto
a 19th century Italian figre who floated from the cobwebbed attic of my memories
that there are all kinds of improvements
you can make to people’s lives he said
without diminishing anyone else
Rishi will I am sure confirm this
and we call these pareto improvements
and they are the means of levelling up
and the idea in a nutshell it is that you will find talent genius flair imagination enthusiasm everywhere in this country all of them evenly distributed
but opportunity is not
and it is our mission as conservatives to promote opportunity
with every tool we have
and it is still a grim fact that in this country
that some kids will grow up in neighbourhoods that are safer than others
and some will be, as Priti was saying, some will be sucked into gangs
and some will be at risk of stabbing and shooting
and some will get themselves caught in the one way ratchet of the criminal justice system
and many others will not
that’s why levelling up means fighting crime
putting more police out on the beat as we are
and toughening sentences
and rolling up the county lines drugs networks as we are
1100 gone already
and giving the police the powers they need
to fight these dealers in death and misery that’s what we want to do
– and what is Labour’s answer, by the way –
to decriminalise hard drugs apparently
to let the gangsters off with a caution
an answer that is straight from the powder rooms of the North London dinner parties
and nothing to do with the real needs of this country
crime has been falling
and not just by the way because we took the precaution of locking up the public for much of the last 18 months
but because you have a conservative government that understands the broken windows theory of crime
I read a learned article by some lawyer saying we should not bother about pet theft
Well I say to Cruella de Vil QC – if you can steal a dog or a cat
then there is frankly no limit to your depravity
and you know those people gluing themselves to roads
I don’t call them legitimate protestors
like some Labour councillors do I, some Labour councillors actually glue themselves to roads
I say they are a confounded nuisance who are blocking ambulances, stopping people go about their daily lives
and I am glad Priti is taking new powers to insulate them snugly in prison where they belong
what I found most incredible of all was the decision by Labour
now led by lefty Islington lawyers
to vote against tougher sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders
and on behalf of the entire government I tell you
we will not rest until we have increased the successful prosecutions for rape
because too many lying bullying cowardly men are using the law’s delay
to get away with violence against women
and we cannot and we will not stand for it
and I know that there are some who now tell us that we are ungenerous and unfeeling in our attempts to control our borders
and I say – don’t give me that
This is the government that stood up to China and announced that we would provide a haven for British overseas nationals in Hong Kong
30,000 have already applied
and I am really proud to be part of a Conservative government that will welcome 20,000 Afghans
people who risked their lives to guide us and translate for us
we are doing the right and responsible thing
and speaking as the great grandson of a Turk who fled in fear of his life I know that this country is a beacon of light and hope for people around the world
provided they come here legally
provided we understand who they are and what they want to contribute
and that is why we took back control of our borders
and will pass the borders bill
because we believe there must be a distinction between someone who comes here legally and someone who doesn’t
and though I have every sympathy with people genuinely in fear of their lives
I have no sympathy whatever
with the people traffickers who take thousands of pounds
to send children to sea in frail and dangerous craft
and we must end this lethal trade
we must break the gangsters’ business model
and is it not a sublime irony that even in French politics there is now a leading centre right politician calling for a referendum on the EU
Who is now calling for France to reprendre le controle??
it’s good old Michel Barnier
that’s what happens if you spend a year trying to argue with Lord Frost
the greatest frost since the great frost of 1709
and we will fight these gangs at home and abroad
because their victims are invariably the poorest and the neediest
and I will tell you what levelling up is
a few years ago they started a school not far from the Olympic park
a new school that anyone could send their kids to
in an area that has for decades been one of the most disadvantaged in London
that school is Brampton Manor academy and it now sends more kids to Oxbridge than Eton
and if you want proof of what I mean by unleashing potential
and by levelling up
look at Brampton Manor
and we can do it
There is absolutely no reason why the kids of this country should lag behind
or why so many should be unable to read and write or do basic mathematics at the age of 11
and to level up
– on top of the extra 14 bn we’re putting into education
and on top of the increase that means every teacher starts with a salary of £30k
we are announcing a levelling up premium of up to £3000 to send the best maths and science teachers to the places that need them most
and above all we are investing in our skills, skills folks
our universities are world beating, I owe everything to my tutors and they are one of the great glories of our economy
but we all know that some of the most brilliant and imaginative and creative people in Britain
and some of the best paid people in Britain
did not go to university
and to level up you need to give people the options
the skills
that are right for them
and to make the most of those skills and knowledge
and to level up you need urgently to
plug all the other the gaps in our infrastructure that are still holding people and communities back
As I’ve been saying over this wonderful conference to you
when I became leader of this party, there were only, can you remember, what percentage of households had gigabit broadband when you were so kind as to make me leader? 7 percent, only 7 percent
and by the new year that will be up to 68 per cent
thanks to Rishi’s superdeduction the pace is now accelerating massively
as companies thrust the fibre-optic vermicelli in the most hard to reach places
it’s wonderful, for years SNP leader Ian Blackford has been telling the Commons that he is nothing but a humble crofter on the isle of Skye
well now we have fibre optic broadband of very high quality that we can inspect the library or is it perhaps the billiard room of Ian Blackford’s croft
and that is levelling up in action
and my friends it is not good enough just to rely on zoom
after decades of ducked decisions
our national infrastructure is way behind some of our key competitors
It is a disgrace that you still can’t swiftly cross the pennines by rail
a disgrace that leeds is the largest city in Europe with no proper metro system
a waste of human potential that so many places are not served by decent bus routes
transport is one of the supreme leveller-uppers
and we are making the big generational changes shirked by previous governments
we will do Northern Powerhouse rail
we will link up the cities of the midlands and the north
we will restore those sinews of the union that have been allowed to atrophy
the A1 north of Berwick and on into Scotland
the A 75 in Scotland that is so vital for the links with northern Ireland and the rest of the country
the north wales corridor
and we will invest in our roads
unblocking those coagulated roundabouts and steering-wheel-bending traffic lights
putting on 4000 more clean green buses
made in this country
some of them running on hydrogen
and as we come out of covid
our towns and cities are again going to be buzzing with life
because
we know
that a productive workforce
needs that spur
that only comes with face to face meetings
and water cooler gossip
if young people are to learn on the job in the way that they always have and must
we will and must see people back in the office
and that is why we are building back better with a once in an a century £640bn pound programme
of investment
and by making neighbourhoods safer
by putting in the gigabit broadband
by putting in the roads and the schools and the healthcare
we will enable more and more young people everywhere
to share the dream of home ownership
the great ambition of the human race
that the left always privately share but publicly disparage
and we can do it
Look at this country from the air Go on google maps
you see how our landscape has been plotted and pieced and jigsawed together by centuries of bequests and litigation
a vast testament to security of title
trust in the law
a confidence that is responsible for so much international investment
you see how rich this country is growing
the billions of loving and incremental improvements to homes and gardens
you can see how beautiful it is
vast untouched moorland
and hills
broadleaf forests
we are going to re-wild parts of the country and consecrate a total of 30 per cent to nature
we are planting tens of millions of trees
otters are returning to rivers from which they have been absent for decades
beavers that have not been seen on some rivers since tudor times
massacred for their pelts
are now back
and if that isn’t conservatism, my friends I don’t know what is
build back beaver
and though the beavers may sometimes build without local authority permission
you can also see how much room there is
to build the homes that young families need in this country
not on green fields
not just jammed in the south east
but beautiful homes on brownfield sites
in places where homes make sense Home ownership And this government is helping young people to afford a home
It has been a scandal – a rebuke to all we stand for
that over the last 20 years the dream of home ownership
has receded
and yet under this government we are turning the tide
we have not only built more homes than at any time in the last 30 years
we are helping young people on to the property ladder
with our 95 per cent mortgages
and there is no happiness like taking a set of keys
and knowing that the place is yours
and you can paint the front door any colour you like
as it happens I am not allowed to paint my own front door, it has to be black
but I certainly don’t have far to go to work
and if you don’t have too far to go to work
and the commute is not too dreadful
and if
the job suits your skills
and your wifi is fast and reliable
then I tell you something else
that housing
in the right place
at an affordable price
will add massively not just to your general joie de vivre
but to your productivity
and that is how we solve the national productivity puzzle
by fixing the broken housing market
by plugging in the gigabit
by putting in decent safe bus routes and all other transport infrastructure
and by investing in skills skills skills
and that by the way is how we help to cut the cost of living for everyone
because housing, energy, transport
are now huge parts of our monthly bills
and it is by fixing our broken housing market
by sorting out our energy supply – more wind, more nuclear, becoming less dependent on hydrocarbons from abroad
by putting in those transport links
we will hold costs down and save you money
and we will make this country an even more attractive destination for foreign direct investment
We are already the number one
– look at the Nissan investment in Sunderland
or the Pfizer vaccine manufacturing centre that’s coming to Swindon
and with these productivity gains we will turbo charge that advantage
and help businesses to start and grow everywhere
so let me come now to the punchline of my sermon on the vaccine
It was not the government that made the wonder drug
it wasn’t brewed in the alembicks of the department of health
It was, of course it was Oxford University, but it was the private sector that made it possible
behind those vaccines are
companies and shareholders and, yes,
bankers
you need deep pools of liquidity that are to be found in the City of London
it was capitalism that ensured that we had a vaccine in less than a year
and the answer therefore is not to attack the wealth creators
it is to encourage them because they are responsible for the aggregate increase in the country’s wealth
that enables us to make those pareto improvements
and to level up everywhere
and to rub home my point
it is not just that vaccination has saved more than 120,000 lives
Vaccination has allowed us to meet like this
and blessed us with such rapid growth
with wages rising fastest for those on lowest incomes
and that levelling up in action
The vaccines have ensured that by a simple vowel mutation jabs jabs jabs
become jobs jobs jobs
the world’s most effective vaccines have saved our open society and free market economy
and it is our open society and free market economy that have produced the world’s most effective vaccines
and that is the symmetry in the lesson of the covid vaccines
– science, innovation, capitalism –
is vital now for the challenge we face
the challenge the whole humanity faces
is even more existential for our way of life
in just a few weeks time this country will host the summit of our generation in Glasgow
when the resolve of the world is put to the test
can we keep alive the ambition of Paris – to stop the planet heating by more than 1.5 degrees
government can’t do it alone
and taxpayers certainly can’t do it alone
the other day I took a boat out into the moray firth
to see an aquatic forest of white turbines towering over the water like the redwoods of california
and you have no idea of their size until you see them up close
the deceptive speed of their wings
twice the diameter of the London eye
their tips slicing the air at more than 100 miles per hour
and I met the young men and women
apprentices
who had moved straight across from the world of oil and gas
and they had the same excitement at working amid winds and wave
and being able to see whales and dolphins from the office window
but they had the extra satisfaction that goes with knowing you are doing something to save the planet
and get Britain to Net Zero by 2050
and that is the symmetry represented by these giant windmills
massive and innovative private sector investment
and a government taking the tough decisions to make it possible
that’s the difference between this radical and optimistic Conservatism
and a tired old Labour
did you see them last week, did you watch them last week in Brighton
hopelessly divided I thought they looked
their leader like a seriously rattled bus conductor
pushed this way and that by, not that they have bus conductors any more unfortunately, like a seriously rattled bus conductor pushed this way and that by a corbynista mob of sellotape-spectacled sans-culottes
or the skipper of a cruise liner that has been captured by Somali pirates
desperately trying to negotiate a change of course
and then changing his mind
and remember Labour’s performance during the pandemic
flapping with all the conviction of a damp tea towel
They refused to say that schools were safe
they would have kept us in the European medicines agency
and slammed the brakes on the vaccine roll out
the Labour leader attacked the vaccine task force for spending money on outreach to vaccine hesitant minority groups
when it is hard to think of any better use of public money
and let us try to forgive him on the basis that he probably didn’t know what he was talking about
in previous national crises labour leaders have opted to minimise public anxiety and confusion by not trying to score cheap party political points
one thinks of Attlee or even Michael foot in the falklands crisis
sadly that was not the approach taken by captain hindsight
attacking one week
then rowing in behind when it seemed to be working
the human weathervane
the starmer chameleon
and in his final act of absurd opportunism he decided to oppose step four of the roadmap in July
that’s right folks
if we had listened to captain hindsight we would still be in lockdown we wouldn’t have the fastest growth in the G7
if Columbus had listened to captain hindsight he’d be famous for having discovered Tenerife
and how utterly astonishing that in the last few weeks labour should actually have voted against new funding we’re putting frward for the NHS
and we need to remember why and how we have been able to back people through this pandemic at all
it was because we Conservatives fixed the economy
we repaired the damage Labour left behind
every labour government has left office with unemployment higher than when it came in
every single one – ever since the party was invented
and today we are going to fix this economy and build back better than ever before
and just as we used our new freedoms to accelerate the vaccine rollout
we are going to use our brexit freedoms to
to do things differently
we are doing the borders bill
we have seen off the European superleague and protected grassroots football
we are doing at least eight freeports
superfertilised loam in which
business will plant new jobs across the UK
and now we are going further
not only jettisoning the EU rules we don’t need any more
but using new freedoms to
improve the way we regulate in the great growth areas of the 21st century
as we fulfil our ambition of becoming a science superpower
gene editing
data management
AI
Cyber quantum we are going to be ever more global in our outlook
we have done 68 free trade deals including that great free trade deal with our friends in the EU that they all said was impossible
and after decades of bewildering refusal we have persuaded the Americans to import prime British beef
a market already worth £66 m
build back burger I say
and you ask yourself how have the americans been able to survive without British beef for so long?
and if you want a supreme example of global Britain in action
of something daring and brilliant that would simply not have happened if we had remained in the EU
I give you AUKUS – an idea so transparently right that Labour conference voted overwhelmingly against it
and I know that there has been a certain raucus squaukus from the anti-aukus caucus
But Aukus is simply a recognition of the reality that
the world is tilting on its economic axis
and our trade and relations with the Indo pacfific region are becoming ever more vital than ever before
and that is why we have
sent the amazing carrier strike group
to the far east
been performing manoeuvres with 40 friendly countries
HMS Queen Elizabeth
as long as the entire palace of Westminster
and rather more compelling as an argument
than many speeches made in the house of commons
it has dozens of F35s on board
and 66 thousand sausages aboard
not because want to threaten or be adversarial to anyone
either with the F35s or indeed the sausages
but because we want to stick up for the rule of law that is so vital for freedom of navigation and free trade
and that is what brings AUKUS together
Australia, UK, US
shared values
a shared belief in democracy and human rights
and a shared belief in the equal dignity and worth of every human being
very few countries could have pulled off the Kabul airlift – an astonishing feat by our brave armed forces
even fewer have the same moral priorities
No other government brokered a deal such as this government did with Astra Zeneca
so that the Oxford vaccine has been distributed at cost around the world
more than a billion low cost vaccines
invented in Britain
saving millions of lives
we are led by our values
by the things we stand for
and we should never forget that people around the world admire this country for its history and its traditions
they love the groovy new architecture and the fashion and the music and the chance of meeting Michael in the disco
but they like the way it emerges organically from a vast inherited conglomerate of culture and tradition
and we conservatives understand the need for both and
how each nourishes the other
and we attack and deny our history at our peril
and when they began to attack Churchill as a racist I was minded to ignore them
it is only 20 years ago since BBC audiences overwhelmingly voted him the greatest Briton of all time
because he helped defeat a regime after all that was defined by one of the most vicious racisms
the world has ever seen
but as time has gone by it has become clear to me that
this isn’t just a joke
they really do want to re-write our national story
starting with hereward the woke
we really are at risk of a kind of know nothing cancel culture know nothing iconoclasm
and so we Conservatives will defend our history and cultural inheritance
not because we are proud of everything
but because trying to edit it now is as dishonest as a celebrity trying furtively to change his entry in Wikipedia
and its a betrayal of our children’s education
churchill’s last words to his cabinet, actually his whole ministers but his cabinet were there
were
Never be separated from the americans
pretty good advice I’m sure you’ll agree –
–
and ended with the observation
man is spirit
He was right there.
I believe that through history and accident this country has a unique spirit
the spirit of the NHS nurses AND the entrepreneurs
whose innovative flair means that there are three countries in the world that have produced more than 100 unicorns not a mythical beast
tech companies worth more than a billion dollars each
They are the US and China and the UK and those unicorns they are now dispersed around the United Kingdom in a way that is new to our country, that is the spirit of levelling up
and we need the spirit of the NHS nurses and the entrepreneurs because each enables the other
I mean
the spirit of the footballers who took England into the final of a major knock out tournament for the first time in the lives of the vast majority of the people of this country
probably, looking around at all you young thrusters, the majority of you in this room
the indomitable spirit of Emma Raducanu
her grace and her mental resilience when the game was going against her
because that is what counts
the spirit of our Olympians
it is an incredible thing to come yet again in the top four
a formidable effort for a country that has only 0.8 per cent of the world’s population
in spite of the best efforts of some us jacob
but when we come second in the Paralympics as well –
that shows our values
not only the achievement of those elite athletes
but a country that is proud to be a trailblazer
to judge people not by where they come from
but by their spirit
and by what is inside them
That is the spirit that is the same across this country
in every town and village and city that can be found
that can be found in the hearts and minds of kids growing up everywhere
and that is the spirit we are going to unleash.
While the conference hall lapped it up, others were less generous:
The SNP said: Boris Johnson’s shameless attempt to shift the blame will do nothing to fix the crisis he has caused.
Tory Universal Credit cuts and regressive tax hikes will push families into poverty.
Yet, just like Thatcher, the Prime Minister fails to show an ounce of regret.
Commenting on the Prime Minister’s speech at Conservative Party conference, in which he claimed previous goverments ‘haven’t had the guts’ to tackle big issues in our economy and society, Katie Schmuecker, Deputy Director of Policy & Partnerships at JRF said:“The Prime Minister has not had the guts to look the millions of people whose incomes are being cut today in the eye and tell them how they are expected to get through the year ahead.
“The Prime Minister’s attempt to strike an upbeat tone is completely at odds with the despair people are feeling and the cost-of-living crisis we are now facing. He has chosen to cut £20 a week from the incomes of millions including many who are in work as well as those who cannot work due to sickness, disability or caring responsibilities.
“Promises of a ‘high wage, high skill economy’ that will take years to reach will offer no comfort to families whose incomes have been cut, and the Government knows this.
“It is a sign of profound disrespect that he did not even acknowledge the struggle people across the country on low incomes are facing on the very day that the biggest ever cut to social security comes into force.”
Anneliese Dodds MP, Labour’s Party Chair, responding to the Prime Minister’s speech at the Conservative Party conference, said: “Boris Johnson’s vacuous speech summed up this whole Conservative conference. The PM talked more about beavers than he did about action to tackle the multiple crises facing working people up and down the country.
“Far from getting a grip on the spiralling costs of energy, fuel and food, the Tories are actively making things worse – cutting incomes today for six million families by over £1,000 a year.
“Britain deserves a fairer, greener and more secure future. Last week Labour set out how we can get there. This week it’s clear that after over a decade in power the Conservatives don’t have a clue.”
Responding to Boris Johnson’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “If Boris Johnson was serious about levelling up Britain, he wouldn’t be slashing universal credit in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
“The PM is in no position to lecture people on wages when he is holding down the pay of millions of key workers in the public sector.
“And when he is doing nothing to fix the gaping hole in local authority budgets that has resulted in most social care workers being paid less than the real living wage.
“As the country’s biggest employer, the government should be setting an example on paying staff properly – not skimping on wages.
“My advice to the PM is simple. The best way to level up pay and conditions across the country is to give workers and their unions more bargaining power at work.
“11 years into a Conservative government we hope that he can finally learn this lesson.”
Commenting on the PM’s claims that wages are rising, Frances added: “Wages are barely rising above inflation, and millions of key workers – who got us through this crisis – are facing a real-terms pay cut this autumn.”
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the Scottish Government remained committed to incorporating the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into domestic law to the maximum extent possible – despite a UK Supreme Court ruling.
The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was backed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in March, but could not be implemented because of a legal challenge brought by UK Government law officers.
The Supreme Court has now ruled that certain parts of the Bill fall outwith the competence of the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Swinney said the ruling exposes the limitations in the devolution settlement, but he pledged that protections in the Bill will go ahead.
The Deputy First Minister added: “While we fully respect the court’s judgment and will abide by the ruling, we cannot help but be bitterly disappointed. It makes plain that we are constitutionally prohibited from enacting legislation that the Scottish Parliament unanimously decided was necessary to enshrine and fully protect the rights of our children.
“The judgment exposes the devolution settlement as even more limited than we all – indeed the Scottish Parliament itself - had understood. It sets out new constraints on the ability of our elected Scottish Parliament to legislate to protect children’s rights in the way it determines.
“There is no doubt that the implications of this judgment are significant from a children’s rights perspective. This Bill will not now become law in the form which our Parliament agreed, but we remain committed to the incorporation of the UNCRC to the maximum extent possible as soon as practicable. Whilst the judgment means that the Bill cannot receive Royal Assent in its current form, the majority of work in relation to implementation of the UNCRC can and is continuing.
“The UNCRC is the most widely ratified international treaty, but very few countries have committed to take the journey that Scotland so clearly wants to take. To everyone who has walked with us this far on that journey, encouraging us along the way, I want to reassure you that we will reach our destination. This Government remains committed to the incorporation of the UNCRC to the maximum extent possible.
“There is no doubt that we may not yet wholly comprehend all the implications from this judgement – it will require careful consideration and I will keep Parliament updated.”
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland Bruce Adamson said: “Scotland is committed to protecting the rights of children and young people.
“The Scottish Parliament was unanimous in its support for this law which would ensure that decisions are taken in children’s best interest; that children have a say in decision making; and that all available resources are used to the maximum extent possible to fulfil rights like education, health, and an adequate standard of living – and that there is accountability when things go wrong.
“The last 18 months have shown just how urgent it is to strengthen rights protections for children. We will work with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament in its role as a Human Rights Guarantor to get this done as soon as possible.”
The Supreme Court also ruled that certain provisions in the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill are outwith the competence of the Scottish Parliament.
The Bill, which is intended to further strengthen the relationship between the Scottish Government and local government, started as a Member’s Bill and was passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in March 2021.
Edinburgh Pentlands MSP Gordon MacDonald has said being under Westminster control is threatening the rights of children across Edinburgh and only independence can ensure we protect everyone in Scotland from the Tories.
After a legal challenge by the Westminster Tory Government the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish Parliament could not enshrine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law, a bill that was unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament. The judgement laid bare the limitations of the devolution settlement in Scotland.
On the same day, the Tories at Westminster cut Universal Credit by £20 a week, taking away from the most vulnerable at a time when they need it most.
Gordon MacDonald said: “The SNP Scottish Government introduced the UNCRC Bill to put the needs of children in Edinburgh and across Scotland at the very heart of every decision made by Government and local authorities.
“However, those noble intentions have been scuppered by the Westminster Tories challenge. The court judgment lays bare the limits placed on the Scottish Parliament and within the devolution settlement that we cannot introduce vital protections for our young people – leaving them at the mercy of a callous Tory UK government.
“We cannot trust the Tories to protect future generations in Scotland as they cut Universal Credit this week and plunge 20,000 children into poverty.
“Families across the city will face a decision of whether to heat their homes or feed their children as the cost of living skyrockets with energy bills increasing and food bills going up.
“The only way we can ensure we protect the future of Scotland from an uncaring Tory UK government is with the full powers of independence.”
The Scottish Conservatives reckon the SNP is playing political games.Sharon Dowey MSP said: It’s incredibly disappointing that the SNP think playing nationalist games with children’s rights is ok.
“Their portrayal of the Supreme Court judgement is not just petty, it’s detracting from a serious issue that affects kids up and down the country.”
This morning, around 5.5 million families across the United Kingdom are waking up £1,040-a-year worse off due to the Prime Minister imposing the biggest ever overnight cut to social security.
Despite fierce opposition from across the political spectrum, his government has pressed ahead with this controversial cut which will cause immense, immediate and avoidable hardship.
As the cut comes into effect today, the Prime Minister must face the five most serious consequences of his cut:
Half a million more people pulled into poverty, including 200,000 children.
Makes social security wholly inadequate by reducing the main rate of out-of-work support to its lowest level in real terms since around 1990 and its lowest ever level as a proportion of average earnings.
Around 20% of all working-age families across the UK have lost £1,040 a year. 6 in 10 single parent families will be affected by this cut.
1.7 million people who will experience this cut to Universal Credit are unable to work – due to caring for others, disability, or illness – a promise of higher wages will do nothing to help them.
The cut takes £6 billion of spending power out of local economies. The cut has the most severe impact in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North East, North West and West Midlands, although no region will be left unscathed.
Helen Barnard, Deputy Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:“Today the Prime Minister has imposed the biggest ever overnight cut to social security. It makes a mockery of his mission to level up.
“Despite overwhelming opposition, he is ploughing ahead with a cut which fundamentally undermines the adequacy of our vital social security system as we face a cost-of-living crisis. This is not building back better, it’s repeating the same mistakes made after the last financial crisis.
“The Government says a key test of levelling up is improving living standards, yet they have just made around 5.5 million low-income families £1,040 a year worse off. People’s bills won’t get £87-a-month cheaper from today, in fact they are going up. Ministers’ arguments in recent days beg the question: has the party that created Universal Credit forgotten the purpose of the system?
“The Prime Minister is abandoning millions to hunger and hardship with his eyes wide open. Low-income families urgently need him to reinstate this vital lifeline.”
Participants in the Covid Realities project responding to the Prime Minister’s comments on the eve of the cut:
“My husband has been in his job for 25 years +, he hasn’t received a pay rise in 5 years and has recently been told there’s no way he will get one anytime soon.
So I’m sorry but there’s no fix there for us. Once again the only option is to struggle and I’m tired of it.” – Emma, England, Covid Realities
“He has no idea how tough it is and how hard people are working to make ends meet!
It is sickness inducing that he completely misses the point that families will either be cold or hungry due to this cut.” – Kim, Wales, Covid Realities
“Fuel and food is on the increase and … families on a low income cannot afford to absorb these costs.
“It is short-sighted to not think of the long term costs involved when already impoverished working families cannot sustain themselves.” – Aurora, England, Covid Realities
“So our prime minister has said he knows it is tough for people on low incomes, does he honestly? … How as parents can we support our children when we are going without food, hungry and unable to concentrate and even sleep at night with worry and stress, do you really understand?
… I would invite any MP to come and actually experience the day to day drain of living on low income and the impact that has on our mental and physical wellbeing.” – Caroline, Northern Ireland, Covid Realities
Political consequences:
413 parliamentary constituencies across Great Britain will see over a third of working-age families with children hit by the planned £1,040-a-year cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.
Of these 413 constituencies, 191 are Conservative – 53 of which were newly won at the last general election or in a subsequent by-election.
In 35 local authorities across Great Britain, 50% or more of working-age families with children will be impacted by the planned cut.
“THE NASTY PARTY IS WELL AND TRULY BACK”
Edinburgh Pentlands SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald has condemned the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit, which comes into force today. The First Minister of Scotland, the First Minister of Wales and the First Minister of Northern Ireland have also condemned the measure.
The previous week, the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelming to support cancelling the Tory UK Government’s planned £20 a week cut to Universal Credit.
Gordon MacDonald also raised the matter with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, Shona Robison seeking information on what representations the Scottish Government has made to the UK Government.
Ms Robison confirmed that the Scottish Government had written to the UK Government on eight separate occasions since March 2020 to ask it to retain the much-needed £20 uplift. In addition on 30 August, Ms Robison joined colleagues from Wales and Northern Ireland to write to the UK Government to urge it to retain the uplift. They are yet to receive a response.
SNP MSP Gordon Macdonald for Edinburgh Pentlands said: “The Scottish Parliament overwhelmingly spoke and demanded the Tory UK Government halts their plans to scrap the uplift to Universal Credit.
“Sadly, we also witnessed every single Tory MSP failing to stand up to their Westminster bosses in opposing the £20 a week cut – the biggest welfare cut since the 1930s at the worst possible time. Even former Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson and six former Tory DWP Secretary of States, opposed the cut.
“I am standing up for the 32,022 households impacted across Edinburgh, but the Tory Government at Westminster has now implemented their plans that will rip more than £1,000 a year out of the hands of the most vulnerable at a time when they need it most.
“I am quite frankly shocked, but not surprised, that the Scottish Tory MSPs not only voted to back the Universal Credit cut which will condemn thousands of families to poverty, but actively defended it – the Nasty Party is well and truly back.
“History will remember them for this – Scottish Tory MSPs are letting down thousands of families and children with this callous cut in favour of propping up their Tory chums in the UK Government who are imposing these policies on the people of Scotland.
“This demonstrates once again how the people of Scotland cannot afford to continue to suffer under Westminster control. We need to have the option of choosing a different path in a referendum which can give us the full powers of independence where we can build a fairer Scotland.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak made the keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester yesterday. On the week the Tories will cut the £20 Universal Credit lifeline, the Chancellor told the conference:
Whatever it takes.
That phrase, and those press conferences, were my introduction to so many of you as Chancellor.
It was daunting to face such a challenge in my first days in office. And what it also meant is that more than a year has gone by before I had the chance to meet you all properly. And that is why these last few days have been such a joy. Meeting you all face to face and hearing so many of you say to me “Wow, you’re even shorter in real life!”
Nothing can ever prepare you to become Chancellor, especially in recent times. There have been occasions where it really did feel that the world was collapsing. In those moments, there are certain things I fell back on. Yes, my family. Yes, my colleagues. Yes, my tremendous Treasury team.
And yes, the person who made all this possible, the person who delivered a thumping Conservative majority, my friend, our leader, the country’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
But the other thing I fell back on is something we all have in this room. Our values. Our Conservative values.
I believe in some straightforward things.
I believe that mindless ideology is dangerous. I’m a pragmatist. I care about what works, not about the purity of any dogma. I believe in fiscal responsibility. Just borrowing more money and stacking up bills for future generations to pay, is not just economically irresponsible. It’s immoral.
Because it’s not the state’s money. It’s your money.
I believe that the only sustainable route out of poverty comes from having a good job. It’s not just the pounds it puts in your pockets. It’s the sense of worth and self-confidence it gives you. So I will do whatever I can to protect people’s livelihoods, and create new opportunities too.
And when it comes to those new opportunities, I am very much a child of my time. I spent the formative years of my career working around technology companies in California. And I believe the world is at the beginning of a new age of technological progress which can transform jobs, wealth, and transformed lives.
So: pragmatism. Fiscal responsibility. A belief in work. And an unshakeable optimism about the future. This is who I am. This is what I stand for. This is what it will take. And we will do whatever it takes.
Our Plan is Working
And there can be no prosperous future unless it is built on the foundation of strong public finances.
And I have to be blunt with you. Our recovery comes with a cost.
Our national debt is almost 100% of GDP – so we need to fix our public finances. Because strong public finances don’t happen by accident. They are a deliberate choice. They are a legacy for future generations. And a safeguard against future threats.
I’m grateful, and we should all be grateful to my predecessors and their 10 years of sound Conservative management of our economy. They believed in fiscal responsibility. I believe in fiscal responsibility. And everyone in this hall does too.
And whilst I know tax rises are unpopular. Some will even say un-Conservative. I’ll tell you what IS un-Conservative.
Unfunded pledges.
Reckless borrowing.
And soaring debt.
Anyone who tells you that you can borrow more today, and tomorrow will simply sort itself out just doesn’t care about the future.
Yes, I want tax cuts. But in order to do that, our public finances must be put back on a sustainable footing.
Labour’s track record on the public finances speaks for itself.
Since 2010, we’ve had 5 Labour Leaders, 7 Shadow Chancellors and innumerable spending pledges. And in all that time they still haven’t got the message. The British people won’t trust a Party that isn’t serious with their money. That’s why they vote Conservative.
We must never forget that the fundamental economic differences between us and Labour run very deep.
Differences not just about debt and borrowing but about how to deal with the real pressures people face in their lives.
And right now, we are facing challenges to supply chains not just here but right around the world and we are determined to tackle them head on.
But tackling the cost of living isn’t just a political sound bite. It’s one of the central missions of this Conservative government.
Picture this: you’re a young family. You work hard, saving a bit each month. But it’s tough.
You have ambitions for your careers for your children.
You want to give them the best more than you had.
Now you tell me: Is the answer to their hopes and dreams, just to increase their benefits?
Is the answer to tell that young family the economic system is rigged against you, and the only way you stand a chance is to lean ever more on the state?
Be in no doubt, that is the essence of the Labour answer.
Not only does Labour’s approach not work in practice. It is a desperately sad vision for our future.
But there is an alternative. An approach focused on good work, better skills, and higher wages.
An approach that says: ‘Yes, we believe in you. We will help you. And you will succeed.”
And better still, it’s more than words. It’s a plan in action. A Conservative plan and Conference it is working.
We’re giving people the means and opportunities to help themselves
Governments rarely get to set the tests by which they will ultimately be judged.
And our test is jobs.
Remember, as economies around the world pulled the shutters down, forecasters were predicting unemployment to reach 12%. Millions of people were on the precipice of losing their jobs, their livelihoods, and their homes.
Well, the forecasts were wrong.
The unemployment rate is at less than 5% and falling. That’s lower than France, America, Canada, Italy, and Spain.
And we now have one of the fastest recoveries of any major economy in the world.
Now it wasn’t that the forecasters had bad models No. It’s just their models did not take account of one thing – and that was this Conservative Government. Our will to act and our plan to deliver.
An increased national living wage. The restart programme. Sector based work academies. Doubling work coaches. Job finding support. Traineeships. Apprenticeship incentives. Skills Bootcamps. And the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee.
All things we are doing that won’t just help people but will give them the means and opportunities to help themselves.
Our plan for the future
I believe in good work, better skills, and higher wages.
I believe that every person in this country has the potential to become something greater.
And I know that we, and only we, the Conservative party, are the ones who can make that happen.
And our economy cannot be what we need it to be without the courage, creativity and sheer force of will that each new generation brings.
Yet, at its peak just under 1 in 3 workers under 25 were on furlough. One in three.
That’s one million people who didn’t have the fall back of a career history or a network of contacts, and in many cases hadn’t even moved into their first job.
And so what did we do? We created the Kickstart scheme, up running and working in a matter of months. A landmark programme that is helping young people start exciting new careers.
And thanks to our plan, young people, just like John Chihoro who introduced me today, are starting those new jobs in their thousands.
So to give more young people the same chance as John, I can confirm we are expanding our successful Plan for Jobs into next year.
The Kickstart scheme extra support through the Youth Offer, the Job Entry Targeted Support scheme, and our Apprenticeship Incentives. All extended because we believe in the awesome power of opportunity.
And we are going to make sure that no young person in our country is left without it.
But what we do today means little if we don’t also have a plan for tomorrow.
A plan for the future.
A future economy shaped by the forces of science, technology, and imagination.
The years I spent in California left a lasting mark on me, working with some of the most innovative and exciting people in finance and technology. Watching ideas becoming a reality. Seeing entrepreneurs build new teams.
It’s not just about money.
I saw a culture, a mindset which was unafraid to challenge itself, reward hard work, and was open to all those with the talent to achieve.
The future is here
I look across the United Kingdom and that culture is here too in the young people I’ve already spoken about today, unencumbered by timidity and orthodoxy.
And it’s there in our willingness to take risks not just on companies, but on people.
People with the raw potential to create a wave of the most dynamic high growth companies. A wave that will reach the farthest corners of the world.
That optimism, that unshakeable belief that the future, can be different and better was also at the heart of Brexit.
I remember over five years ago being told that if I backed Brexit my political career would be over before it had even begun.
Well, I put my principles first. And I always will.
I was proud to back Brexit. Proud to back Leave.
And that’s because despite the challenges in the long term, I believed the agility flexibility and freedom provided by Brexit would be more valuable in a 21st century global economy than just proximity to a market.
That in the long term a renewed culture of enterprise willingness to take risks and be imaginative would inspire changes in the way we do things at home.
Brexit was never just about the things we couldn’t do. It was also about the things we didn’t do.
That’s why we introduced the super deduction, a UK first in tax policy which is triggering an explosion in capital investment.
That’s why we created the Help to Grow scheme another UK first to help small and medium sized companies digitize skill up and scale up.
That’s why we launched the Future Fund another UK first in government investment backing high potential start-ups.
My point is this: even if you can’t see it yet, I assure you, the future is here.
Now is the time to turn to the future
Last year alone the UK attracted more venture capital investment to our startups than France and Germany combined.
And along with enhanced infrastructure and improved skills, we are going to make this country not just a Science Superpower, not just the best place in the world to do business… I believe we’re going to make the United Kingdom the most exciting place on the planet.
Take Artificial Intelligence. Once the stuff of science fiction. Now it’s reality – and we’re a global leader.
The steam engine kicked off the industrial revolution. Computers delivered automation. The internet brought information exchange.
And as the latest general-purpose technology, AI has the potential to transform whole economies and societies.
If Artificial Intelligence were to contribute just the average productivity increase of those three technologies, that would be worth around £200 billion a year to our economy.
And so today, I am announcing that we will create 2,000 elite AI scholarships for disadvantaged young people and double the number of Turing AI World-Leading Research Fellows, helping to ensure that the most exciting industries and opportunities are open to all parts of our society.
New policy, focused on innovative technology, supporting jobs for the next generation, a sign of our ambition for the future.
Because that’s why we are here. All of us. That’s why we became members of the Conservative party.
That’s why you all give up so much of your time sacrificing things that are important to you in order to help build a better future.
You know, the longer I spend in this job, the more I realise that the worst parts of politics are driven by fear. Fear of change. Fear of losing. The fear of being wrong. Even fear of the future.
And when people get scared they create divisions. They say: “you’re either with us or you’re with them.” But you cannot make progress if you’re pitting people against each other.
That’s what you get from a tired, fearful sort of politics. We saw it last week in Brighton.
It’s not just that Labour don’t like us. They don’t even like each other.
Whereas we, the Conservatives, are now and always will be the party of business and the party of the worker.
The party of the private sector and the public sector.
A party for the old and the young.
The British people want a party that can get things done.
So, at just the moment when it feels like we’ve done enough, that we’ve gotten through, that we can take a rest, we must not stop.
Now is the time to show them that our plan will deliver.
And now is the time, at last, at long last, to finally turn to the future.
Thank you.
Responding to the Chancellor’s speech at Conservative Party Conference, Helen Barnard, Deputy Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:“The Chancellor may say he has a plan for jobs but he has no plan for paying the bills.
“He spoke of doing whatever it takes to protect people’s livelihoods, yet he is cutting the incomes of around 5.5 million families by £1,040 a year on Wednesday when we are facing a cost of living crisis.
“It is completely wrong to suggest there is a trade-off between good jobs and adequate social security when they are both essential to improving people’s living standards.”
“This cut will impact many working families and inadequate social security makes it harder for people to seize opportunities whilst they struggle to stay afloat. We must ensure people who are sick, disabled or caring for others and therefore unable to work can meet their needs with dignity.
“To impose the biggest ever overnight cut to social security would be economically irresponsible which is why it is so fiercely opposed from across the political spectrum. The Government can’t credibly claim to be levelling up while levelling down people’s incomes. He must abandon this cut.”
Joseph Rowntree Foundation issues a stark warning ahead of the cut to Universal Credit scheduled for 6 October – the same day as the Prime Minister’s speech at Conservative Party Conference.
New analysis looks at the impact of the Universal Credit cut by local authority.
On Wednesday, as the Prime Minister delivers his speech to the Conservative Party Conference, his government will be imposing the biggest ever overnight cut to social security. This will reduce the incomes of around 5.5 million families by £1,040 per year.
In the Greater Manchester Combined Authority area – the host city of this year’s Conservative Party Conference – around 312,000 working-age families (26%) are facing this historic cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.
If the Government presses ahead with the cut, it would:
Pull half a million people into poverty, including 200,000 children.
Fundamentally undermine the adequacy of our social security system at precisely the moment when families are facing considerable increases in the cost of their energy bills, prices on the shelves are going up and National Insurance is set to rise in April 2022.
Reduce the main rate of out-of-work support down to its lowest level in real terms since around 1990 and its lowest ever level as a proportion of average earnings.
The Government themselves have admitted this week that families may struggle to meet basic costs, like food and heating, by increasing the funding available for local authorities to give grants to families in emergency situations.
The support available through their newly announced Household Support Fund is temporary and discretionary and is typically reserved for one-off emergency situations such as a broken fridge. This scheme does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge facing families.
Who will be impacted by the cut?
New analysis finds that in 35 local authorities across Great Britain 50% or more of working-age families with children will be impacted by the planned cut.
JRF has consistently warned that:
Working families make up around 60% of families who will be affected by the cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.
Families with children (particularly single-parent families), those containing someone who is disabled, and Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (‘BAME’) families, will be disproportionately impacted by the reduction in Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit.
The cut will have the most severe impact in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North East, North West and West Midlands, although no region will be left unscathed by this decision.
Katie Schmuecker, Deputy Director of Policy & Partnerships at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:“The Prime Minister is abandoning millions to hunger and hardship with his eyes wide open. The biggest ever overnight cut to social security flies in the face of the Government’s mission to unite and level up our country.
“When the increase to Universal Credit was introduced, the Chancellor said it was to “strengthen the safety net” – a tacit admission a decade of cuts and freezes had left our social security lifeline to wear thin and threadbare for families in and out of work relying on it. This planned cut would reverse the progress made and leave it wholly inadequate.
“People’s bills won’t get £87-a-month cheaper from Wednesday and families are already anxious about how they will get through a looming cost of living crisis. This decision is set to plunge half a million people into poverty and shows a total disregard for the consequences. The Prime Minister cannot say he has not been warned, he must abandon this cut.”
Table 1: Top 10 Labour and Conservative majority local authorities with the highest percentage of working-age families with children impacted by the cut
Top 10 Labour majority local authorities affected
Top 10 Conservative majority local authorities affected
Local Authority
% of all working-age families with children impacted by the cut
Local Authority
% of all working-age families with children impacted by the cut
Newham
64
Pendle
58
Leicester
62
Walsall
53
Manchester
61
Great Yarmouth
52
Bradford
61
North East Lincolnshire
50
Oldham
60
Southampton
49
Birmingham
60
East Lindsey
48
Blackburn with Darwen
58
Dover
45
Kingston upon Hull – City of
58
North Lincolnshire
44
Sandwell
58
South Holland
44
Tower Hamlets
58
Nuneaton and Bedworth
44
Of local authorities with no majority party, with the highest percentages of working-age families with children impacted by the planned cut, Middlesbrough (60%) and Burnley (58%) are both coalition-led councils. Blackpool (57%) is Labour minority and Thanet (55%), Peterborough (55%) and Stoke-on-Trent (55%) are all Conservative minority.
Table 2: Families impacted by £20-per-week reduction to UC/WTC in October 2021
Family type
Families on UC or WTC losing £20 per week in October 2021
Number of families (millions)
Proportion of families who lose
% of all working-age families of that type who lose
All working-age families
5.5
100%
20%
Families with someone in work
3.5
64%
16%
Families without someone in work
2.0
36%
33%
Single without children
2.3
42%
18%
Couples without children
0.6
10%
8%
Single-parent families
1.1
20%
61%
Couple-parent families
1.5
28%
25%
Families where someone is disabled
2.8
50%
35%
Families where no one is disabled
2.7
50%
14%
BAME families
1.1
20%
25%
Non-BAME families
4.4
80%
19%
Source: Microsimulation by JRF using the IPPR Tax and Benefits Microsimulation Model and the OBR’s March 2021 forecasts. Breakdowns may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Making this decision with his eyes wide open:
The cut is opposed by six former Conservative Work & Pensions Secretaries, the Northern Research Group of Conservative MPs, the One Nation Group of Conservative MPs, all the devolved administrations, numerous cross-party committees in all nations of the UK. Iain Duncan Smith recently said, “the extra £20 has returned to UC some of the investment that was cut from my original design.”
100 organisations are urging the Prime Minister not to cut Universal Credit. Among the signatories of the joint open letter to the Prime Minister are leading voices on health, education, children, housing, poverty, the economy and other aspects of public policy. (published 2 September)
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has joined with the First Minister of Wales and the First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland to demand Prime Minister Boris Johnson “do the right thing” by reversing the decision to withdraw the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit.
In a rare joint intervention, the leaders of the devolved nations have warned in a letter that the UK Government “is withdrawing this lifeline just as the country is facing a significant cost-of-living crisis.”
They have urged the Prime Minister to “consider the moral, social and economic harms” of the of this cut, and “do the right thing” and reverse his government’s decision to withdraw this funding which will harm around 6 million people across the UK.
The First Minister, along with Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and Northern Ireland First Minister and deputy First Minister Paul Givan and Michelle O’Neill say the move, which comes into effect this Wednesday, 6 October, is short sighted at a time of increases in the cost of food and fuel, rising inflation, the end of the furlough scheme, and imminent rise in National Insurance contributions.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I do not think there has been anything quite so morally indefensible in UK policy in recent times as the proposed cut to Universal Credit.
“At a time when we are facing the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and soaring costs, removing £20 per week from the lowest-income households simply cannot be defended in any way, shape or form.
“The planned cut represents the biggest overnight reduction to the basic rate of social security in more than 70 years and would sever a crucial lifeline for countless households across the UK at a time when budgets are already facing an unprecedented squeeze.
“It is an immoral, ill-thought out and ultimately counterproductive policy which simply must be stopped.
“Those on low incomes are going to find it difficult to feed their children, heat their homes, and pay their rent if the cut goes ahead. We have therefore united as the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to say to the Prime Minister: ‘Do not do this.’”
The full text of the letter is included below:
Dear Prime Minister
We are writing to call on you, with the utmost urgency, to reverse your Government’s short-sighted decision to withdraw the £20-per-week uplift to Universal Credit.
Your Government is withdrawing this lifeline just as the country is facing a significant cost-of-living crisis. This winter millions of people are facing an untenable combination of increases to the cost of food and energy, rising inflation, the end of the furlough scheme, and an imminent hike to National Insurance contributions.
There is no rationale for cutting such crucial support at a point when people across the UK are facing an unprecedented squeeze on their household budgets.
Within the last month, an overwhelming majority of elected members in Holyrood, the Senedd, Stormont and Westminster have voiced their opposition to this cut to Universal Credit, as have the four social security committees of each parliament. The four Children’s Commissioners of each nation, numerous charities and faith groups have also expressed their grave concerns as have millions of people who face additional and unnecessary hardship because of this cut to Universal Credit against the backdrop of a winter of hardship.
We note your Government’s announcement of a Household Support Fund – an acknowledgment that too many people will be unable to make ends meet this winter. Unfortunately, a £500 million fund handed out on a discretionary basis is wholly inadequate to making up the £6 billion shortfall in social security expenditure that will result from the cut to Universal Credit.
Your Government has repeatedly refused to conduct any impact analysis on the biggest overnight reduction to the basic rate of social security for more than 70 years.
As such, it is important that we draw your attention to the growing body of evidence and analysis about the harm this cut will inflict. Research by the Resolution Foundation and the Trussell Trust has highlighted the significant and devastating impact the cliff-edge withdrawal of the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit will have on family incomes, with an associated rise in food insecurity.
The Legatum Institute has produced sobering analysis highlighting that the £20-per-week uplift has kept 840,000 people, including 290,000 children, out of poverty in Q2 of 2021. It makes no sense at all to knowingly pursue a policy that will result in this immense and needless rise in child poverty and we ask you to consider the lasting harm and costs of this cut accordingly.
It is important to note that this will increase poverty and hardship without delivering any tangible social or economic benefits. The UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights said – when calling upon you to reverse this cut – that for a healthy and well-qualified workforce to emerge, your Government must provide adequate levels of social protection. Years of a freeze on benefits means Universal Credit has not kept pace with rising living costs. Further to this, rising inflation means that a basic rate of Universal Credit after this cut will hold less purchasing power than it did in March 2020.
To support a meaningful recovery from this pandemic we must first ensure the needs of our most vulnerable are met. This cut threatens to undermine the recovery by diminishing the capacity of six million people to make ends meet.
It is not too late for you to reverse the decision to take money out of the pockets of the poorest in society at a time when they are facing a serious cost of living crisis.
We, with the full support of the Northern Ireland Executive and the Scottish and Welsh Governments, urge you to consider the moral, social and economic harms of this cut, and do the right thing and reverse your decision to withdraw this lifeline.
A copy of this letter is being sent to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and relevant Secretary of States for the devolved nations.
Yesterday, Lothian MSP, and Scottish Greens Co-leader, Lorna Slater joined the overwhelming majority of MSPs in voting to oppose the cruel Tory £20 cut to universal credit that is being inflicted by Westminster.
The cut will impact tens of thousands of families in Lothian, cutting their income by £1,040 per year.
Lothian MSP and Scottish Greens Co-leader Lorna Slater said:“The Tories have shown their true colours. This is one of the biggest social security cuts ever seen in this country and could plunge tens of thousands of families in Lothian into despair.
“It is particularly unwelcome at a time when so many people are still struggling with the impact of the pandemic.
“£20 a week may not be a lot to the Prime Minister and his colleagues, but for far too many families it is crucial to their budgeting and their wellbeing. For many people across this city, it could be the difference between a warm home and a cold one this winter
“Many people claiming universal credit are in fact in work. The so-called uplift was not an act of generosity, but an admission of failure – an admission that the system had been so damaged by cuts that it was no longer able to provide adequate support for people needing help with their incomes for reasons beyond their control.
“The cut is symbolic of a UK government that knows the price of some things but the value of nothing. It shows why Scotland needs the powers to chart a different path that prioritises human need and builds a fairer, greener recovery for all.”
Holyrood Social Security Minister, Edinburgh Northern & Leith MSP Ben Macpherson, closed yesterday’s debate:
Demonstrators gathered at High Riggs Jobcentre yesterday to demand the re-instatement of the £20 cut to Universal Credit. The protest was called by Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty in response to a call from Disabled People Against the Cuts for UK-wide protests.
Participants included disabled people, pensioners, workers and a group of school students.
Police attended but did not intervene.
The demonstrators denounced the UK government cut, due to be implemented from the end of this month. Protestors held placards with the hashtag #20MoreForAll, demanding the £20 increase be extended to “legacy benefits” like Job Seekers Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.
Campaigners have raised alarm at the hardship which a £20 cut will cause to the six million Universal Credit claimants, who include the low paid, unemployed, families and sick and disabled people.
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty leaflets distributed at the protest quoted research by the Child Poverty Action Group.
The research reveals that over the last decade nearly 100 cuts have been made to social security entitlement and the value of payments has fallen as social security rates have been either frozen or increased by less than inflation.
Thus even with the £20 increase a typical Universal Credit claimant would be hundreds of pounds worse off in 2021 than in 2010.
Ethel MacDonald of Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty said: “The brutal cut in Universal Credit is yet another example of governments attacking the poor to benefit the rich.
“This is also an attack on wages and conditions, aiming to force people to accept insecure low paid jobs. Many on Universal Credit are of course already in such badly paid work, since 39% of Universal Credit claimants are in employment.”
The ECAP spokesperson urged people to organise: “ We need to organise at the grass-roots to resist the cut to Universal Credit, the entire austerity agenda, and the whole profit-based system.
“Claimants need to join together and support each other – for example by accompanying each other to appointments and assessments.”
ECAP stress: “After today’s protest, the struggle against the cut continues. What’s more, we are opposing the DWP’s reckless return to compulsory jobcentre appointments – this endangers both claimants and jobcentre workers, due to the continuing covid threat. We totally oppose all sanctions, and urge claimants to contact us for solidarity.”
While MSPs will debate the Universal Credit cut at Holyrood today, the decision lies with Westminister. The UK Government insists the UC uplift was always intended to be a temporary measure and that their focus is on getting people into work.
Women Speak Scotland, as part of a coalition of 14 Scottish grassroots feminist and women’s rights organisations, have called on the Scottish Parliament to reject the Scottish Government’s proposed reform of the Gender Recognition Act.
Our joint statement, sent to all 129 MSPs, sets out our principled objections to the proposed legislation in its current form.
The First Minister has offered an assurance that this new legislation will “not … remove any of the legal protections women currently have”.
We welcome this commitment to women’s sex-based rights.
However, we believe the central feature of the proposed Bill – the introduction of sex self-identification – is incompatible with retaining women’s existing rights and protections under the Equality Act.
We use the term sex self-ID rather than gender self-ID because the most significant aspect of obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC) is that it allows people to engage in the legal fiction that they have become a member of the opposite sex, despite the biological impossibility of such an action.
Sex self-ID contributes to widespread confusion that makes it increasingly difficult to name, identify or define women or to protect any single-sex spaces, including hospital wards, prisons, youth hostels and changing rooms, sports, awards and women-only shortlists.
We ask the Scottish Government to drop its plans to introduce sex self-ID and to ensure its commitment to women is kept by:
Ensuring women’s voices and experiences are heard and inform any legislative change;
Ensuring protections for women on the basis of our sex are strengthened and not weakened by any changes to legislation;
Maintaining single-sex spaces for the dignity, privacy, physical, emotional and psychological safety of women and girls;
Guaranteeing the human rights of women, including those to freedom of speech and assembly, are not adversely affected by legislative change.
We ask all MSPs to vote against the proposed Bill because of its hugely detrimental impact on women’s rights to safe single-sex spaces and freedom of speech.
Signatories Frontline Feminists Scotland Women Speak Scotland Sole Sisters Women Matter Keep Prisons Single Sex Liberal Voice for Women Yes Women’s Pledge Labour Women’s Declaration Conservatives For Women Independence for Scotland Party (ISP) Brodie’s Trust Audacious Women Festival National Network of Scottish Feminists Women’s Human Rights Campaign (Scotland)