Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education, speech at Labour Party Conference 2024

Thank you Conference, and thank you Zahida.

I owe you so much. More than I could ever say. More than I could ever put into words. Thank you.

What you and the amazing teachers like you at my local state school believed,

what I believe,

what Labour believes,

is that the best education, shouldn't just be for some of our children,

but for all our children,

not just as children, but right throughout our lives.

That education is how we build a better future,

not just for each of us as individuals,

but for all of us together.

Conference it is the honour of my life to be before you,

as Labour's Secretary of State for Education,

and Minister for Women & Equalities,

in a Labour government led by Keir Starmer.

And as a Labour government, we see education as so much more than what happens in the classroom:

it is about children, and it is about their opportunities.

Opportunity not just for some of our children, but for all of our children.

A vision of education centred not simply on schools or nurseries, knowledge or skills, university or college.

But on our young people:

on their chance to achieve and thrive, to succeed and flourish.

Conference, I spent my teenage years growing up under the previous Labour government.

I saw the changes that vision brings:

the classrooms rebuilt,

the teachers respected, rewarded,

with time to drive up standards for every child;

Hundreds of thousands of children lifted out of poverty, a Labour government transforming lives and life chances.

And thanks to all of you here today, we have a Labour government again after so many years in opposition.

We all know how much it means not merely to call for change, but to make it.

And that change is so desperately needed.

Because, Conference, my story, the story Zahida tells, the luck I had:

it's not enough.

Life should not come down to luck.

It can never be enough, that a system that's supposed to serve so many, works only for a lucky few.

It will never be enough for some of us to defy the odds to succeed, when the promise of opportunity must belong to all of us.

We have to change the odds, so success belongs to each and every child,

in every school, in every corner of our country.

And Conference, be in no doubt: the mess the Tories left behind stacked the odds against our children even further. 

A threadbare childcare system, asked to do more, but reeling from years of being given less.

Teachers leaving classrooms not in dribs and drabs, but in their droves.

School absence, stubbornly high; attainment, for children growing up in poverty, far too low.

Support for children with special educational needs, for children growing up in care, left in crisis, year after year.

T-levels botched, apprenticeships vanishing, standards falling.

Universities turned into noisy political battlegrounds, not prized for their success.

Ministers who forgot that children grow up in homes and playgrounds, as well as classrooms.

Who watched technology turn our children's world upside-down, but whose answer was to turn back the clock.

And of course the defining image of the last government — schools literally crumbling round the next generation,

children cowering under steel props, to stop the roof falling in on their heads.

This is what we find after fourteen years.

And I know — we all know — the Tories love a one-word judgement.

But today, I have two.

Never again.

Let those words ring out,

not just in this hall and in our Party,

but across our country. 

Never again.

That is the difference between our parties:

we have always known, that bringing up the next generation, doesn't start and stop at the school gate.

Conference, across education, I hear a story told time & again.

Of staff in our nurseries and schools, in our colleges and universities, going above and beyond so often.

Who stepped in when the services around them frayed and failed.

School staff ending up as both maths teacher and mental health counsellor.

College staff helping with benefits as well as BTECs.

I want to put on record my thanks, our thanks, Labour's thanks, to everyone who works in education across our country.

You deserve a government that works with you, to deliver the change our children need.

And I am here today to tell you, that we are that government,

that we will work with you and your unions, that the change has already begun.

In just twelve weeks we have begun the hard work of reform:

We have already brought an end to one-word Ofsted judgments in our schools, once and for all.

Today the Curriculum and Assessment Review begins a national conversation, to ensure that a rich and broad education, the start that every parent wants for their children, is the experience of the many, not the privilege of a few.

In less than a hundred days we will end private schools' tax breaks.

To drive high and rising standards for the nine in ten children who go to state schools.

We have launched Skills England, to bring the skills we need for a decade of national renewal for our communities, our businesses, our country.

We will focus apprenticeships once more on young people, to set them up to succeed.

And Conference, we have turned government to the work of tackling child poverty once again, because it is the purpose of our Party, above all others — it is my purpose — to ensure that no child — no child — grows up in poverty in modern Britain.

But this is just the beginning.

You know, as I know, that if we are to build a better society for tomorrow, we must change the childhood of today.

And our mission to deliver opportunity for the next generation, must start with our youngest children.

So much in life, depends on those crucial early years:

before school, when the gaps between rich and poor open up.

It is my first priority, the life chances of our children, and the future of our country, demand nothing less.

Conference, a year ago I told you, from this stage, that we were launching a review of early years education.

Our manifesto, pledged 3000 new school-based nurseries.

Today I can tell you that change begins, delivery begins:

those extra places start opening next year.

The first phase of our new nurseries, of high quality early education, boosting life chances for children and work choices for parents.

And two years ago, I promised you that the next Labour government would bring breakfast clubs to every primary school.

And I am so proud that breakfast clubs will start to roll out from April, with hundreds of schools set to become early adopters, this school year.

Change begins.  Delivery begins.

A new era of child-centred government — building a country where children come first.

Labour in government, once again, honouring the promises we made to the British people.

Putting education, putting our children, once again at the heart of national life.

Conference, you know, as well as I do, that this can only be the start.

The legacy that we have inherited is bleak; the challenges, vast.

The path of change will be paved with tough decisions.

But my belief is simple.

Our best days lie ahead of us, and the work of government is to deliver them.

To bring to life, to make real for our children.

Our vision of the chances in life that they all deserve, a vision rooted in our values:

In the belief that socialism is about using the power of government, to extend to all of us the freedoms that in the past, a great education only gave to a lucky few.

The freedom to choose your calling and your cause.

The freedom to achieve and succeed, to make a living for yourself and your family.

Freedom not just for security today,

but to build a better tomorrow too.

That ordinary hope, that inspires the ambition working people have for their children, that our children have for themselves.

Conference, our party has always shared that ambition – but only now do we have the power to make it a reality.

And with our victory, with this Labour government, comes the chance to build on our proud history, to deliver opportunity not just for some but for all.

Let us seize the moment together, and deliver the brighter future our children and our country deserve.

Thank you.