I started last week in Liverpool at Labour Party annual conference.
I have to say that I thought Andy Burnham’s speech was straight-from-the-heart but also ‘hit the nail on the head’ in terms of setting out a plan for the country.
He didn’t bother with the usual conference stuff – he just walked on stage and detonated a political reset.
All Together Now was his message.
Britian, he said, has been drifting for decades, hollowed out by deindustrialisation, Brexit, deregulation, privatisation and austerity.
And he’s finished with pretending otherwise.
Andy framed his mission through the story of his own family – working-class aspiration, post-war opportunity and a country that once backed ordinary people to build a decent life.
That Britain, he said, has been replaced by one “run for vested interests, not in the public interest.”
His answer is to take back control of the essentials that make life liveable.
Housing is the first battleground with Andy pledging the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war era, powers for councils to seize empty homes and a crackdown on slum landlords.
“We don’t let people sell food which damages health, so why allow it with homes?” he asked.
Right-to-Buy will be reformed so new council homes stay in public hands and leaseholders will finally get the reforms they’ve been promised for years.
Councils will gain powers to seize derelict properties and expand social housing – a major shift for areas like ours with chronic housing need.
Then came water – the symbol, he said, of everything broken.
The government will bring forward a bill to repeal the Thatcher-era ban on public ownership.
Mayors will get teeth to punish failing water companies and public takeover will be on the table.
Energy reform was next.
Andy wants UK energy costs in line with Europe and a national energy plan along with a new publicly-owned operator – Great British Grid – to challenge private monopolies and speed up grid connections.
But the emotional core of his speech was social care.
Andy described watching his dad suffer in a failing system and care workers holding it together “on poverty pay.”
It is a picture that too many people will recognise.
Labour’s answer will be a National Care Service, free at the point of use, protecting people’s homes and savings and ending the scandal of pensioners paying care charges out of their state pension.
It will be funded partly by offering a new settlement for older people from 2030 and protecting a pension that rises every year, no care charges and peace of mind in later life.
Young people weren’t forgotten.
Andy promised guaranteed mental health support, work placements from 16 to 18, apprenticeships at 18 and a rebuilt comprehensive system with equal status for technical education.
A new Your First Home scheme will be open to first-time buyers in England with a deposit of 2.5 per cent. It would provide them with a loan worth 20 per cent of their new build property’s value to help pay for the purchase.
Welfare will be reshaped to invest in opportunity rather than “pay for failure.”
It wasn’t so much a speech as a manifesto for a more optimistic future.
I totally get that many will disagree with some or all of what he said.
But you cannot say that he has not given what people often say is missing from politics – honesty, ideas and a clear direction for the country we all love.
You can watch it in full at Andy Burnham’s speech to Labour Party Conference 2026 – The Labour Party