Former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock told a packed Tribune Rally at Manchester Town Hall how he was sitting in the conference hall listening to the new leader’s speech when a trade union activist tapped him on the shoulder. “Neil”, he smiled. “We’ve got our party back.”
That response was typical of the warmth and enthusiasm which greeted Ed Miliband’s election and his first major speech. Ken Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for London Mayor in 2012, told the rally: “I have to go back to John Smith to hear the speech of a Labour leader during which I didn’t have my heart in my mouth. We can now take this message forward and defeat the Tories on a programme of which we can be proud.”
Jack Dromey, the new MP for Birmingham Erdington, said: “Ed is forging a progressive and popular politics for the party. This is a movement reborn and a party reborn.” Chuka Umunna, new MP for Streatham, said: “We needed this change after Blair and Brown dominated this party for two decades.” And Tribune columnist Rupa Huq said it was good to have an optimistic mood at conference “and no more talk of record low polls or leadership challenges”.
Emily Thornberry MP, like many of the speakers, had fond memories of “hot, sweaty” Tribune rallies past – her favourite was hearing Barbara Castle speak – and she urged members to realise the importance of voter registration – and getting people to vote – which made the difference in battling the Lib Dems in her Islington South and Finsbury constituency.
Lisa Nandy, the new MP for Wigan, warned that the coalition Government will take Britain back to the 1980s with its savage cuts which will, like the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, lay waste to whole swathes of this country. “We are not in this together. It is up to us to protect the most vulnerable, like the people in my constituency, and we should be proud of our trade unions, which have played such an important part in Labour history.”
Frances O’Grady, deputy general secretary of the TUC, said: “Trade unions have negotiated pragmatic agreements to protect jobs and apprenticeships even if it means pay freezes. People are already hurting. It’s an absolute insult to put billionaire tax avoider Philip Green in charge of public service reform. It’s like putting Herod in charge of a creche.”
Lord Kinnock closed the rally with a barnstorming 45-minute speech which recieved a standing ovation. He spoke of the Tories creating a climate of fear through which to rule Britain, saying: “It is immoral because it is punishing people who are utterly innocent of causing this economic crisis.”
