Ruth Kelly MP: Preparing For
A Second Labour Government

This is the text of the talk by Ruth Kelly, MP taken directly from the Deane-Cum-Heaton Labour Party's Branch minutes.

Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly was warmly welcomed to the meeting.

  The Coming Campaign

Ruth began by saying that it was probably only about 10 weeks before the next general election is called and everything we do from now on must be aimed at getting a second term for our Government. After four years of Labour in power activists are bound to feel different about the coming election than they did in 1997 at the end of 18 years of the Tories.

Ruth reminded members that if only one in five declared Labour voters don’t turn out we would loose as many as 60 seats. It’s imperative that we have another large majority so that we can push through a good legislative programme in the next Parliament.

  A Lot Done, More To Do

In Bolton West we had a majority of only 7,000 four years ago and it could as easily swing back to the Tories as it did to us. It’s worth remembering what has happened and what is happening with a Labour Government. Cherie Booth came to Bolton recently to open a new school and there are new schools opening up all over the country. Our hospitals are slowly but surely improving. Bolton Royal has a new A&E Department and a new Eye Unit. There will be better breast cancer screening too. Police numbers are just starting to increase as we are spending more money on them.

We have started something that will take a long time to come to complete fruition and we will need at least a second term, if not a third to meet our current objectives.

There is a huge chasm between the Tories and us both locally and nationally. Their current slogan is “You’ve paid the taxes, where are the doctors? (nurses, teachers, police, etc.)”. But we are training more of these and they will be working within the next few years.

  Tories Stirring Up Apathy

The Tories are trying to inject cynicism and apathy into the voters and discourage people from turning out to vote. In the US the Democrats didn’t manage to get across the message that delivering low unemployment, a sound economy, low inflation and interest rates is worth voting for. Labour in Britain has done all of that and more and it’s vital that we get out the vote.

We must remember that we have delivered an extra million jobs, interest rates are half what they were and for every £1 of taxes raised 83p goes on frontline services (only 60p under the Tories).

  We've Made Mistakes

Ruth admitted that Labour in Government has made mistakes, e.g. on pensions, but we’ve learned from them. Among the many positive things we’ve done have been the minimum wage, the working families tax credit and doubling the maternity grant to needy mothers.

  Appealing to Youth

Appealing to youth is difficult as they are the most politically apathetic group of the whole electorate and the tuition fees issue was not favourable. But we’ve cancelled third world debt, rough sleeping has almost gone and we’re well on the way to banning fox hunting.Ruth admitted that there are a lot of problems in further and higher education to be tackled and these ar eas must be dealt with during a second Labour term.

Ruth’s talk was followed by questions and offers of help and assistance from members for the campaign ahead.

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