and we'll talk with the museum of the west's curator. >> this is the shift change whistle for csfi. many generations of children learned how to tell time by this whistle. >> saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's book tv and sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. in the morning, a hearing on the conflict in syria and its impact on other countries in the middle east. deputy secretary of state tony blinken briefs the foreign relations committee. live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern. next, newly elected labor party leader jeremy corbyn talks after the uk voted to leave the european union. this is just over an hour. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you so much for that welcome and that introduction. this hall is absolutely packed here today in liverpool, and we've even got an overspill down the road. i want to say thank you to everyone that's here today. [ applause ] i want to also, before i go into my speech, to say a huge thank you to all the staff of this conference center that have made us so welcome and worked so hard here today. [ applause ] i want to say thank you to all of our labor part staff for all the work they put in for this conference today and all the other days. i want to say thank you for the huge work and support the staff gives me and our party all the year around. i've got to slightly correct myself because i did say the hall is completely packed. i got a message on the way in from virgin trains. they have assured me there are 800 empty seats in the hall. either way, conference, it's a huge pleasure to be holding our party's annual conference at this fantastic city. the city of liverpool that shaped our country, our economy, our culture, and our music. liverpool has always been central to the labor party and our movement. i know some people say campaigns and protests don't change things. but the hillsboro families have shown just how wrong that is. [ applause ] it's taken 27 years, but those families have shown with great courage and dignity finally that you can get truth and justice for the 96 who died. i want to pay tribute to all of the families and campaigners for their solidarity, their commitment, and their love. thank you. [ applause ] and as andy burnham put it to conference this morning, we must learn from them. and we promise those campaigning for justice, for allgrieve, for shrewsbury, for the thousands of workers blacklisted for being trade unionists, we will support your battles for truth and justice and when we return to government, we will make sure you have both. [ applause ] because winning justice for all and changing society for the benefit of all is the heart of what labor is about. so yes, our party is about campaigning and it's about protests too. but most of all, it's about winning power in local and national government to deliver the real change our country so desperately needs. [ applause ] that's why the central task of the whole labor party, the whole labor party, must be to rebuild trust and support to win the next general election. [ applause ] and form the next government. that is the government i'm determined to lead to win powerful change in britain for the benefit of working people. [ applause ] but every one of us, every one of us in this hall today knows that we will only get there if we work together. and i think it's fair to say after what we've been through these past few months, it hasn't always been exactly the case. those months have been a testing time for the whole party. first, the horrific murder of jo fox, followed by the referendum results, and the leadership contest that ended last saturday. jo's killing was a hate-filled attack on democracy that shocked the whole country. jo cox didn't just believe in loving her neighbor. she believed in loving her neighbor's neighbor and that every life counted. and as jo said in her maiden speech as an mp, we have far more things that -- far more in common with each other than things that divide us. let that essential truth guide us as we come together again to challenge this tory government and its shaky grip on power. [ applause ] in jo's memory, thanks for everything she did and thanks to her family and all her close friends for all they've been through and the solidarity they've shown together so we may all learn from her life. [ applause ] we've also lost good mps like michael meecher and harry harper, good friends of mine, labor through and through, passionate campaigners for a better world. [ applause ] let me also pay particular tribute to those parliamentary colleagues who stepped forward in the summer to fill the gaps in the shadow cabinet. [ cheers and applause ] and ensure that labor could function as an effective opposition in parliament. they actually didn't seek office but they stepped up when their party and in fact the country needed them to serve. they all deserve the respect and gratitude of our party and movement. and this conference should thank them today. they are our future. [ applause ] we've just had our second leadership election within a year. it had its fraught moments, of course. not only for owen smith and me. and i hope we don't make a habit of it. but there have also been some up sides to it. over 150,000 new members have joined our party. [ applause ] young rising stars of shone on the front bench. we found the party is more unity on policy than we would have guessed. i'm deeply honored to have reelected by our party a second time with an even bigger mandate. [ cheers and applause ] but we all have lessons to learn and a responsibility to do things better and to work together more effectively. i will lead in learning those lessons. and i would like to thank owen too for the campaign and his work as shadow pension secretary. [ applause ] and also of course to the labor party's staff, our own teams, and the brilliant teams that support all of our members of parliament and our party around the country. one lesson is that there is a responsibility on all of us to take care with our rhetoric. respect democratic decisions. respect our differences. and respect each other. we know that robust debate has at times spilled over into abuse and hate around our country, including misogyny and anti-semitism, especially on social media. let me make it clear that is utterly unacceptable. our party -- [ applause ] our party must be a safe and welcoming space for everybody. we will continue to take firm action against abuse and ind intimidati intimidation. and let me be absolutely clear. anti-semitism is an evil. it led to the worst crimes of the 20th century. every one of us what's responsibility to ensure that it is never allowed to fester in our society again. this party -- [ applause ] this party always has and always will fight against prejudice and hatred of jewish people with every breath in our body. [ applause ] we meet this year as the largest political party in western europe, with over half a million members, campaigning in every community in britain. more people have joined our party in the last 20 months than in the previous 20 years. [ applause ] we have more of our fellow citizens in our party than all the other political parties in britain put together. [ applause ] some may see this as a threat. i see it as a vast democratic resource. our hugely increased member is part of a movement that can take labor's message into every community and win support for the election of a labor government. [ applause ] each and every one of these new members is welcome in our party. and after a ten-year absence, we welcome back the fire brigades union into our party and into our conference. [ cheers and applause ] we are reuniting the labor family. but i want to also, if i may, say thank you to all of the firefighters and indeed all of the public sector workers who worked so hard to save people during the floods last winter. thank you for everything you do. [ applause ] and over the past year, we've shown what labor can do when the party stands together. at conference a year ago, i launched our campaign against cuts to tax credits and we succeeded in knocking this government back. this year, this year, 3 million families are over a thousand pounds better off because labor stood together. [ applause ] in the budget, the government tried to take away billions from disabled people. but we defeated them on that. [ applause ] and we want all four parliamently by-elections. and i want to welcome them into parliament and the great victories they achieved. in the may elections, we overtook the torys to become the largest party nationally. we won london with sadiq khan for mayor, my congratulations to sadiq for that incredible win. we won the bristol mayor for the first time, marvin reese. the first black mayor of any european city, my congratulations to marvin. and we also won the morality right here -- may recall -- mayoralty right here in london. that's what we'll have to do to turn our party into the electoral support we need across britain. there is no doubt that my election as labor leader a year ago and reelection this month grew out of a thirst for a new kind of politics and a conviction that the old way of running the country isn't delivering for more and more people. it's not, i promise you, about me of course or unique to britain. but across europe and north america and elsewhere, people are fed up with the so-called free market system that has produced grotesque inequality, stagnating living standards, and many clam us it wars without end that leaves the vast majority of people shut out of power. since the crash of 2008, the demand for an alternative and an end to counterproductive austerity has led to the rise of new movements and parties in one country after another. but in britain, it's happened in a different way, in the heart of traditional politics in the labor party, which some say we should be extremely proud of. it's exactly what labor was founded for, to be the voice of the many for social justice and progressive change from the bottom up. [ cheers and applause ] but it also means it's no good harking back to the tired old economic and political fixes of 20 and 30 years ago because they won't work anymore. the old model is broken. we're in a new era. that demands a politics and economics that meets the needs of our own time. actually even theresa may gets it, sort of, that people want change. that's why she stood on the steps of downing street and talked about the inequalities and burning injustice in today's britain. she said it. in fact she promised a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us. but even if she manages to talk the talk, there are problems about walking the walk. this isn't a new government. it's david cameron's government repackaged with progressive slogans but with a new, harsh, right-wing edge, taking the country backwards and dithering before the historic challenges of brexit. [ applause ] who seriously believes that the forri i torys could ever stand up to the privileged few? they are the party of the privileged few. [ applause ] funded by the privileged few for the benefit of the privileged few. [ applause ] theirs is a party, after all, that now wants to force through an un-democratic boundary review based on an out of date version of the electoral register with nearly 2 million voters missing. they've dressed it up as a bid to cut the cost of politics, by abolishing 50 constituencies. but the 12 million savings are dwarfed of the peers that david cameron added at the cost of 34 million pounds a year, it's nothing more than a cynical attempt to gerrymander the next election. [ applause ] and this is from a prime minister who was elevated to a job without a single vote being cast, after a pantomime which saw one leading tory after another falling on their swords. when i meet theresa may across the dispatch box, i know that only one of us has been elected to the office they hold by the votes of a third of a million people. [ cheers and applause ] in any case, the torys are simply incapable of responding to the breakdown of the old economic model, because that failed model is absolutely in their political dna. it's what they deliver every time they're in government. tory governments reregulate. they outsource, privatize, and they stand by as inequality grows. they've cut taxes for the privileged few, sold off our national assets to them, always on the cheap, and turned a blind eye to their chronic tax avoidance. they're so committed to the interests of the very richest, they've recruited sir phillip green into government, something called an efficiency czar. i'm not quite sure what an efficiency czar does. i'll simply say this. if the government might be a bit more efficient if people like sir phillip actually paid their taxes. [ cheers and applause ] when government steps back, there are consequences for every one of us. look what's happened to housing under the torys. house building has fallen to the lowest level since the 1920s, nearly a century ago. home ownership is falling as more people are priced out of the market. evicti evictions, and disgracefully, they are going up year after year. council homes are sold out without being replaced. another consequence of that is we, all of us, are paying over 9 billion pounds a year to private landlords in housing benefit to pay the rent. instead of spending public money on building council housing with subsidizing private landlords. that's wasteful, inefficient, and frankly, poor government. [ applause ] so labor will, as theresa pierce said, build over a million new homes, at least half of them council homes. and we will control private rents so we can give every british family that basic human right, a decent home. [ applause ] it's the same in the jobs market. without proper employment regulation, there's been an explosion of temporary insecure jobs. nearly 1 million people on zero hours contracts, not knowing what their earnings are going to be. there are now 6 million working people earning less than the living wage. and the poverty amongst those in work is at record levels. that didn't happen by accident. the torys have torn up employment rights and deliberately tried to weaken the organizations that get people justice at work, the trade unions. [ applause ] of course trade unions are not taking this lying down. look at the great campaign, united to get justice for exploited workers. [ applause ] and holds mike ashley to account. that is why labor will repeal the trade union act and set unions free to do their jobs defending and supporting their members and rights at work. [ cheers and applause ] and we will raise the minimum wage to a real living wage that brings working people out of poverty and will ban zero hours contracts. as john macdonnelmacdonnell, ou chancellor, andy ian lavery se this out at conference last week. more subsidy going to private firms, more cancellations, and on top of that, the highest fares in europe. that's why the great majority of the british people backed labor's plan set out so well by macdonnell last week to take the railways back into public ownership. [ cheers and applause ] if you want the most spectacular example of what happens when government steps back, the global banking crash is an object lesson. a deregulated industry of out of control agreed and speculation that crashed economies across the globe and required the biggest ever government intervention and public bailout in history. millions of ordinary families paid the price of that failure. i pledge that labor will never let a few reckless bankers wreck our economy again. [ applause ] so labor is offering solutions. during this summer's leadership campaign, i set out ten pledges which i believe can be the platform of our party's program at the next election. they'll put to conference yesterday in an nec statement. they lay out the scope of the change we need to see. for full employment, a homes guarantee, security at work, a strong public national health service, and social care. a national education service for all. action on climate change. public ownership and control of our services. a cut in inequality of income and wealth. action to secure an equal society. and peace and justice at the heart of our foreign policy. [ applause ] don't worry, don't worry, conference, they're not the ten commandments. i haven't come down from the mountain with them. they are here already. and they will now of course go to the national policy forum. and the whole party needs to build on them. all our brilliant members have ideas, imagination, inspiration. we want to hear them. we want to help in refining those policies. and above all, take them out to the people of this country. take them out so that we get support on them. those ten pledges, the core of the platform on which i was reelected, will now form the framework for what labor will campaign for and for what a labor government will do. together they show the direction of change we're determined to take and outline a program to rebuild and transform britain. they are rooted in traditional labor values and objectives. but they are shaped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. they have values labor is united on. they reflect the views and aspirations of the majority of our people and they are values our country can and will support as soon as they're given the chance to do it. [ applause ] these pledges are not just words. already across the country, labor councils are putting labor values into action in a way that makes real difference to millions of people, despite cynical government funding cuts that have hit labor councils, often representing the poorest parts of the country, five times as hard ast tory-run areas. [ applause ] good examples like nottingham city council setting up the not for profit robin hood energy company to provide affordable energy. [ applause ] or cardiff bus company taking 100,000 passengers every day, publicly owned with a passenger panel to hold its directors to account. [ applause ] or preston council, working to favor local procurement and keep money in the town. or newcastle council, providing free wi-fi in 69 public buildings across the city. or croyden council, which has set up a company to build a thousand new homes. and as counselor alison butler said, we can no longer forward to sit back and let the market take its course. or glasgow that has established high quality and flexible workplaces for startup high growth companies in dynamic new sectors, all right here in liverpool, set to be at the global forefront of a new wave of technology. the home to center city, a 15 million pound business hub that aims to create 300 startup businesses and a thousand jobs over the next decade. and there are many other examples. it's a proud labor record. each and every labor councillor deserves a heartfelt thanks for the work they do and the difficulties they endure doing it. [ applause ] but i want to go further, because we want local government to go further and put public enterprise back into the heart of our economy and services to meet the needs of local communities. municipal socialism for the 21st century as an engine of local growth and development. that's why i'm announcing that labor will remove the artificial borrowing cap and allow councils to borrow against their housing stock. that single measure alone -- [ applause ] that single measure alone would allow them to build an extra 12,000 council homes a year. labor councils increasingly have a policy of an in-house as the preferred provider. and many councils have brought bin collections, clearance, and i.t. service back in house, in-sourcing privatized contracts, to save money, the council taxpayers, and ensure good terms and conditions for their staff. [ applause ] i have said that labor will put security at work and employment and union rights from day one, center stage. but one in six workers in britain are now self-employed. they're right to value their independence. but for too many, it comes with insecurity and a woeful lack of rights. so we will review arrangements for self-employed people, including social security that self-employed people pay for in their taxes yet aren't fully covered by it. we will ensure that successful innovators have access to the finance necessary to take their ideas to the next level, grow their businesses, and generate employment. so as part of our workplace 2020 review, we will make sure that our tax and social security arrangements are fit for the 21st century, consulting with self-employed workers and the federation of small businesses. [ applause ] if the torys are the party of cuts and short termism, labor is the party of investing for the future. [ applause ] with the same level of investment as other major economies, we could be so much more. unlock so much skill, ingenuity and wealth. that's why we'll establish a national investment bank at the heart of our plan to rebuild and transform this country. and we will borrow to invest at historically low interest rates to generate far greater returns. it would be foolish not to, because that investment is expanding the economy. and the income it generates for us all in the process. even this government, after years of austerity and savage cuts, is starting to change its tune. i'm not content with accepting second class broadband. not content with creaking railways. not content with seeing the united states and germany investing in cutting edge and green technologies while we lag behind. last year, for example, the prime minister promised a universal service obligation for 10 megabyte broadband. but since then the government has done nothing, letting down entrepreneurs, businesses, and families, especially those in rural areas that want to grow their economy. that's why we've set out proposals for a national investment bank with 500 billion of investment to bring our broadband, our railways, our housing, and our energy infrastructure up to scratch. [ applause ] a country that doesn't invest is a country that has given up, that has taken the path of managed decline. a labor government will never accept second best for this country. [ applause ] our country's history is based on individual ingenuity and collective endeavor. we're the country of ada lovelace, alan turing, sarah guppy, brilliant people that made so much and developed so much. but the torys have turned their back on this proud british tradition. they put privatization and cutting spending first. britain now spends less on research as a share of national income than france, germany, and the u.s. we will bring our research up to 3% of gdp. [ cheers and applause ] yesterday, rebecca longbailey set out the terms of our industrial strategy review. we need an economy that works for every part of this country so that no community is left behind. today i'm asking everyone, businesses, academics, workers, trade unions, and anyone who cares about our future prosperity to have a say in that review. we're a wealthy country and not just in terms of money. we're rich in talent, rich in potential. that's why we proposed a comprehensive national education service at the heart of our program for government, to deliver high quality education for all throughout our lives. [ applause ] education has always been a core labor value. from the time of ellen wilkinson, and later education minister, and before that. and a national education service will be an essential part of the 21st century welfare state. in a rapidly changing economy, people need to retrain or upgrade their skills without falling into debt. britain already lags behind others in productivity. partly that's about investing in technology and infrastructure, and partly it's about investing in people and their skills. how can we build and expand the sector of the future without a skilled workforce? but this conservative government has slashed adult education budgets, taking away opportunities for people to develop their skills, and leaving businesses struggling to find the skilled workforce they need to succeed. so today i'm offering business a new settlement, a new deal to rebuild britain. under labor, we will provide the investment to rebuild britain's infrastructure. we will fund that investment because it will lead to a more productive economy, providing the basis on which our economy is our businesses can thrive, helping to provide over a million good jobs and opportunities for businesses. but investment in capital must include investment in human capital. the skilled workers needed to make our economy a success. this is the deal labor offered to business, to help pay for a national education service, we'll ask you to pay a little more in tax. we've already started to set out some of this, pledging to raise corporation tax by less than 1.5% to give an education maintenance allowance to college students, grants to university students, so that every young learner can afford to support themselves as they develop skills and get qualifications. [ cheers and applause ] business shares in economic success and it must contribute to it too. and i recognize that good businesses deserve a level playing field. so i also pledge to good businesses that we will clamp down on those that dodge their taxes. you should not be undercut by those that don't play by the rules. [ cheers and applause ] there is nothing more unpatriotic than not paying your taxes. frankly, it's an act of vandalism, damaging our national health service, damaging all the people's social care, damaging younger people's education. so a labor government will make the shabby tax avoidance a thing of the past. [ applause ] our national education service is going to be every bit as vital as our national health service has become. and we recognize that education isn't simply about preparing for the workplace. it's also but exploration of knowledge and unlocking the creativity that's there in every human being. so all schools' pupils should have the chance to learn an instrument, take part in drama and dance, have regular access to a theater, gallery, museum in their local area. that's why we will introduce an arts pupil premium to every primary school in england and wales and consult on the design and national rollout to extend this pauupil premium to all secondary schools. this will be a 160 million boost to schools to invest in projects to support cultural activities in schools over the longer term. it could hardly be more different than the tory approach to education. their only plan is the return of grammar school segregation and second class schooling for the majority. [ applause ] and what a great job angela raider is doing in opposing them in this. [ cheers and applause ] so this saturday, 1st of october, i want you to take this message into your community, that labor is standing up for education for all. [ cheers and applause ] grammar schools are not the only way torys are bringing division back into our society. they're also using the tried and tested tricks of demonizing and scapegoating to distract from their failures. whether it's single mothers, unemployed people, disabled people or migrants, tory failure is always someone else's fault. [ applause ] and those smears have consequences, from children being bullied in school to attacks on the street such as the rise in disability hate crime. i'm so proud of this party. in the last year we stood up to the government on cuts to disabled people's benefits and cuts to working families' tax credits. and on monday, our shadow work and pensions secretary, debbie abrahams, announced we would be scrapping the punitive sanctions regime and the degrading work capability assessment. [ cheers and applause ] as politicians, as political activists, as citizens, we have zero tolerance towards those who whip up hate and division. stand together against racism, islamaphobia and anti-semitism and defend those being demonized. [ applause ] it's been shaming to our multicultural society that assaults on migrants have increased sharply since the referendum campaign, a campaign that peddled myths and whipped up division. it isn't migrants that drive down wages. it's exploitative employers who rip up trade union rights. it isn't migrants who put a strain on our national health service. it only keeps going because of the migrant nurses and doctors who come here, filling the gaps left by politicians who failed to invest in training. [ applause ] it isn't migrants that have causing the housing crisis. it's a the tory government that's failed to build homes. [ cheers and applause ] immigration can certainly put extra pressure on services. that's why under gordon brown, labor set up the migrant impact fund, to provide extra funding to communities that have the largest rises in populations. good plan. very effective. what did the torys do? they abolished it. then they demonized the migrants for putting pressure on services. a labor government will not offer false promises on immigration as the torys have done. we will tackle the real issues of immigration instead. whatever the eventual outcome of brexit. [ applause ] and we will ease the pressure on hard-pressed public services that are struggling to absorb tory austerity cuts in communities absorbing new populations. labor will reinstate the migrant impact fund and give extra support to areas of high migration, using the visa levy for its intended purpose. we'll add a citizenship fee levy to boost the fund. that's the labor way to tackle social justice, not racism and division. [ applause ] this party campaigned hard to remain in the european union. and i spoke at rallies from cornwell to aberdeen for our labor campaign. although most labor voters to back us, we did not convince millions of labor voters left behind by years of neglect and industrialization. now we have to face the future together. we're not helped by patronizing or lecturing those in community who voted to leave. we have to hear their concerns about immigration, wages, a future for their children, and we have to respect their votes and the decision of the british people. of course that does not mean giving a blank check to theresa may and her three-legged team of fractious brexiteers. as they work up a negotiating plan but unfortunately they have a distraction from that because they have to squabble about whose turn it is to go to country retreat each week. we've made it clear that we will resist a brexit at the expense of workers rights and social justice. [ applause ] we've set out our red lines on employment, environmental and social protection, and on access to the european market. but we will also be pressing our own brexit agenda including the freedom to intervene in our own industries like steel without the obligation to liberalize or privatize public services. [ applause ] and building a new relationship with europe based on cooperation and internationalism. and as europe faces the impact of a refugee crisis, fueled by wars across the middle east, we have to face the role that repeated military interventions that british and other governments have played in that crisis. [ applause ] the chillcot report made absolutely clear the lessons to be learned from the disastrous invitation and occupation of iraq, u.s. is as this month the foreign select committee's report illustrated. those lessons have still to be learned a decade later. an arc of conflict has displaced millions of people, forcing them from their countries. that's why i believe it was right to apologize on behalf of the party for the iraq war, right to say we learned the lessons. [ cheers and applause ] and right to say that such a catastrophe must never be allowed to happen again. we need a foreign policy based on peace, justice, and human rights. i'll tell you this. today, what great news it is to hear the peace treaty that's been agreed in colombia after 50 years of devastating war. [ applause ] and we need to honor our international treaty obligations on nuclear disarmament as much as we do on human rights and other things, and encourage others to do the same. but we're a long way from that humanitarian vision. britain continues to sell arms to saudi arabia, a country the united nations says is committing repeated violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes in yemen, and on sunday it was good to stand along side the yemeni community here in liverpool who endorsed our call to end those arms sales to saudi arabia. [ applause ] just as the war crimes that are going on in other places such as syr syria. there has to be a political solution to the conflict. [ applause ] so today, i make it clear that under a labor government, when there are credible reports of human rights abuses or war crimes being committed, british arms sales will be suspended starting with saudi arabia. [ cheers and applause ] last year, the votes we needed to win power went many different ways in all parts of our country, while millions of our potential voters stayed at home. many didn't believe that we offered an alternative that they wanted. eight tr it's true, there is an electoral mountain to climb. but if we focus everything on the needs and aspirations of middle and lower income voters, of ordinary families, if we demonstrate we've got a viable alternative to the government's failed economic policies, i'm convinced, absolutely convinced we can build the electoral support that can beat the torys. this means -- [ applause ] this means being the voice of women, of young people, pensioners, middle and lower income workers, the unemployed, self-employed, minority communities, and those struggling with the impact of migration at work and everybody struggling to work to get on to secure a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. running like a golden thread through labor's vision for today as throughout our history is the struggle for equality. rampant inequality has become the great scandal of our time, sapping the potential of our society, tearing at its fabric. labor's goal isn't just greater equality, wealth, and income, it's also about power. we want a new settlement for the 21st century, in politics, in business, in our communities, with the environment and in our relations with the rest of the world. he's one of us in the labor party is motivated by the gap of what our country is and what it could be. [ applause ] we know that in the sixth largest economy in the world, the food banks stunted life chances and wealth of an undreamt-of scale are the mark of a shameful and totally unnecessary failure. [ cheers and applause ] we know how great this country could be for all its people with a new political and economic settlement. with new forms of democratic public ownership driven by investment in the technology and industries of the future, with decent jobs, education, and housing for all, with local services run by and for people, not outsourced to faceless corporations. this is not backward looking. it's very much the opposite. it's the socialism of the 21st century. [ applause ] our job, our job is now to win over the unconvinced of our vision. only that way can we secure the labor government we need. and let's be frank. no one will be convinced of a vision promoted by a divided party. we all agree on that. so i ask -- [ applause ] so i ask each and every one of you to accept the decision of the members, end the trench warfare, and work together to take on the torys. [ cheers and applause ] conference, anything else is a luxury that the millions of people who depend on labor cannot afford. we know, we know there will be local elections next may. in scotland, where we won three council by-elections, thank you, labor scotland, and in wales and across the counties and england. there will be mayoral elections too, including right here on merseyside, where my good friend will be standing as labor's candidate. [ cheers and applause ] steve, best of luck. i'll miss your comradeship, your humor, your criticism, and your wonderful support. [ applause ] and on the same day, we're going to be electing andy burnham in manchester and john simon in birmingham. [ cheers and applause ] three big labor victories on the same day. are we agreed on that? but -- there's always a "but," isn't there? we could also face a general election next year. whatever the prime minister says about snap elections, there is every chance that theresa may will cut and run for an early election. so today, we put ourselves on notice. labor is preparing for a general election in 2017. [ cheers and applause ]