Angela Rayner: born in Stockport, raised in UNISON

On the first day of UNISON’s national delegate conference in Brighton, Angela Rayner MP gave a speech to conference delegates.

“UNISON is, and always will be, my union family. Like all families, we have our ups and downs. But we are still family, one united in our commitment to a fairer future,” she said. 

Rayner told conference delegates that she had first joined UNISON as a care worker about 25 years ago, in the Stockport local government branch.

“I still remember my first national delegate conference and I remember my first UNISON young members weekend, where I called for votes at 16. I wasn’t told to stay in my lane. I wasn’t told I was talking too much. I wasn’t told that my opinion didn’t count. 

“For me, UNISON was the place where respect was given to me and to others. I owe each and every one of you a debt of thanks. I was born in Stockport, but I was raised in UNISON. 

“Two decades later, as your deputy prime minister, I was proud to propose the law giving young people the vote. 

“If UNISON made me a bit of a rebel, you made me a rebel with a cause. And today our values are every bit as relevant as at any time before. 

“This movement taught me that it’s not about yourself, it’s about ‘us’. The cause of our movement has always been to secure for workers the fruits of their labour. That is not an idea of the past. Driving living standards for working class people should still be the mission of this Labour government. 

“It is a government that has done many good things to bring about that change. But let’s be honest. I’m under no illusions that people are queuing up to thank us. People have turned to populists and nationalists because for all we have done, it has not been enough to fix the crises they face. They are impatient for change. So are you. And so am I.

“Living standards are barely higher than they were a decade and a half ago. Growth isn’t just low, it also fails to benefit most people, places and businesses. Yet when people have more to spend in their local high streets, businesses have higher revenues; in turn, they can hire more workers, and a community prospers. 

“That is not just morally right, it’s economically right too,” she said.

“For too long, Britain has been on the wrong path. A path that has damaged communities and drained away power from ordinary people. Once again, working class people are paying the price for decisions they did not make and crises they did not cause. De-industrialisation in the 1980s. Deregulation and privatisation. The financial crash. Austerity. Brexit. Covid. 

“We’ve seen the banks bailed out, energy companies posting record profits, the water companies that were flogged off paying huge bonuses to executives. For too long, governments have allowed wealth and power to concentrate at the top without a plan to ensure the benefits of economic growth are shared fairly. 

“The result is an economy that does not work for the majority, with wealth concentrated in too few hands. It has left us with an affordability crisis where people pay over the odds for the daily basics: energy, housing, water, transport.”

The Labour government

“The Labour party must now live up to our name. We must be the party for working people. This government needs, at pace, to put measures in place that make people's lives better. 

“We need to fix the foundations of a system rigged against them. Because we know that things can be so much better than this.”

Rayner said she was motivated to go into government to give workers a fairer share, to fix the foundation of a good life for working people: home, work and community. But she has not lost her trade union roots.

“As a former care worker, I stood with today’s care workers last week [at UNISON's migrant workers demo]. Because fairness means enforcing the rules, not ripping them up; people who follow those rules and contribute to our society should be able to trust the system in which they work.”

Migrant workers

Rayner echoed UNISON's calls to introduce a sector-wide visa, which, she said, will “empower those giving care, but support those receiving it as well.

“Behind every visa is a care worker. In front of every care worker is a vulnerable person, a cared-for elderly relative, and a community that depends on them. 

“Yet migrant care workers are trapped in a system that does not protect them. And because it does not protect them, it does not protect us. 

“It is the same problem we see across the economy. It is why we need an active, interventionist government to promote good jobs that pay decent wages.”

Employment Rights Act

“When I was introducing our Employment Rights Act (ERA), we gave millions of workers: higher pay; new rights and protections, and an end to exploitative zero hours contracts.”

Rayner said that the ERA had only happened ‘despite Reform’, who voted against it at every turn in its journey to become law.

“Farage is a Thatcherite and we must never forget it. Populists and nationalists are not on our side, and do not have the answers to the problems working people face.

“When I pledged an Employment Rights Bill within a hundred days, they said we couldn’t do it. We proved them wrong.”

Rayner proceeded to address the argument that better wages and conditions for young people are the reasons why there are not enough jobs. 

“I agree that the tide of young people not in employment, education or training is a genuine problem. But as Alan Milburn found, it is long-term and structural, and has been consistently higher than other countries since long before Labour took office, let alone improved pay for young people. 

“It’s why we didn’t bring in our changes to the minimum wage overnight but let the Low Pay Commission do its job.”

Better quality jobs for all

She continued: “I’m passionate about getting young people, including those with disabilities or health challenges, into good jobs. But abandoning our ambitions and making those jobs worse surely cannot be the way to get young people into them. 

“And this is the wider point. Better quality jobs - with a stronger voice for people at work - is the solution, not the problem. It is how we build the higher productivity, higher pay economy that we need. 

“This should be common sense: businesses often tell me ‘our greatest asset is our people’. And we all know from our own experience that we work best when we have notice of work patterns, are safe and respected in the workplace, and are fairly rewarded.

“Where working people have money to spend, businesses grow. Where there is less temporary work, employers invest more in training. Better quality jobs mean more people are able to and stay in work - and stay healthy. Good employers thrive as they are no longer undercut.”

Addressing the previous 14 years of Conservative austerity before Labour took office, Rayner said: “As our rights were attacked over the last decade, productivity stagnated. Growth ground to a halt. We have to break the cycle of squeezed living standards and weak economic growth. 

“To those who say we can’t afford to make work pay, I say we say we can’t afford not to. And to you, I say let’s do it together. 

“There is no way we would have had that new deal, nor our Employment Rights Act, nor the rest of our plan to make work pay, without UNISON and our trade union movement. And it will be delivered with you.

“It was this union and a Labour government that changed my life, that unlocked doors of opportunity that would have been closed for someone like me. And when I went into a Labour government myself, I saw first-hand that when we fight for change, better things are possible.

“We must finish the job on workers’ rights, not shy away from taking on union-busting bosses. Create jobs that pay a wage on which you can live and where you aren’t afraid of facing the sack at a moment's notice.

“Harness the power of procurement to reshape the economy and unleash the biggest wave of in-sourcing in a generation. Reject any bailout of the private owners of Thames Water and put it back under public control. 

“End rip off rents and the exploitative leasehold system for good. Take on the vested interests who rip off working people from bullying bailiffs to car park cowboys. 

“Help households with their transport, energy and water costs. Restore our high streets and support smaller enterprises to thrive.

“Defend our democracy and society from any foreign dictator or fascist oligarch who seeks to divide our country and buy our politics. 

“A country built for the one interest we should serve – the British people.  That’s what is at stake. That’s what our shared future can be if we stand, and fight, for our values of equality, social justice and fairness. Labour values, but British values too. 

“Conference, I urge you, to fight with me, let’s win together.” 

Watch Angela Rayner's full speech to conference
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