This is the Labour Party’s vision for the future

Labour is clear-eyed about the problems Britain faces but unlike the Conservatives we are determined to face up to them and seize the opportunities of the future

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (PA Wire)

The Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge our country has faced in a generation. But the way we responded showed time and again how we are stronger, together.

Across our country, people united to look after their neighbours and communities. They volunteered to help our NHS and the vaccine effort. And they supported local businesses adapting to new ways of working in a time of crisis. Meanwhile, trade unions worked with business and government to build ventilators in record time, and to design a furlough scheme that protected jobs through the crisis.

Britain showed we achieve incredible things when we come together. As we look ahead to the coming decade, how can we harness that spirit to start building a better future for everyone? Labour is launching a new report to answer that key question.

Stronger Together: Britain in 2030 identifies the six big challenges facing our country over the next decade. Whether it’s making our country fit for the green and digital future, supporting better jobs and better work, ensuring safe and secure communities, delivering world-class public services that work from the start, creating a future where families come first, or ensuring a successful future role for Britain in the world – these are challenges no future government can afford to duck.

But confronting the challenges of tomorrow is only possible if we understand the situation facing our country today. That’s why our report also examines the trends emerging from over a decade of Conservative rule. In that time, the Tories have weakened our country’s foundations, entrenched insecurity and stripped back our vital public services. This left our country horribly exposed when the pandemic hit, yet the Conservatives seem unable to learn the lessons of the crisis and are making many of the same mistakes again.

Britain in 2030 considers the worrying implications of this poor track record for the years to come. Whether it is the impact on our working and family lives, the transition to net zero and the digital future, the safety and security of our communities, the public services we all rely on or our country’s international standing, it is clear that Britain simply cannot afford more years of the Conservatives and their “sink or swim” mentality.

Another future is possible. Labour is clear-eyed about the problems Britain faces in the coming decade, but unlike the Conservatives we are determined to face up to them and seize the opportunities of the future.

We want to make Britain a global leader in the green economy, supporting new jobs and industries with a managed, fair and prosperous transition that leaves no one behind.

We want a country that rewards a proper day’s work with a proper day’s pay, with a New Deal for Working People, rights from day one in a new job, and a ban on insidious practices like “fire and rehire”.

We want to strengthen our communities and make them safer, with more police on our streets to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour and more control handed to local people over their local area.

We want health and education services that are world-class once again, backing our NHS, investing in and reforming social care, and placing our schools at the very heart of their communities.

And we want to make every part of our country a great place to grow up in and grow old in, with action to put families – in all their diversity – first.

Finally, we want Britain to play a leading role on the world stage that delivers for people at home too, with a 21st century trade policy, a restored international aid budget and an unshakeable commitment to Nato.

Britain in 2030 shows how we can start to build a fairer, greener and more secure future for Britain. But to deliver the change our country needs, we need to rally together – a principle that is central to what the Labour Party stands for.

Our country is at a crossroads. This is our chance to take on the challenges of the post-crisis world to build a future that everyone in Britain can be proud of. That task is beyond the Conservatives, but Labour has done it before: creating the NHS, introducing a national minimum wage, slashing child poverty and bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

Together, we can do it again.

Anneliese Dodds MP is chair of the Labour Party and Stronger Together