Burnham's first speech to Labour Conference as Prime Minister

Responding to the Prime Minister's address to Labour Party Conference today, his first since entering 10 Downing Street, Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said:

"The Prime Minister has said the quiet part out loud. Years of privatisation, weakening regulations and giving enormous powers to big business have rigged the economy to benefit just a few. Meanwhile, the rest of us have been left to shoulder the impacts of the cost of living and climate and ecological crises.

"After a scorching summer of heatwaves, wildfires and drought, the case for urgent action on the climate and protections for frontline communities has never been clearer. The creation of a publicly-owned GB Grid to accelerate the energy transition is certainly welcome, but the Prime Minister must categorically rule out more drilling in the North Sea for oil and gas.

"It's also encouraging to see the Prime Minister taking steps to fix our fundamentally flawed water system. We are all paying the price of the failed privatised water experiment - whether it's through the cost of our bills, the slow death of the precious rivers we love, or through impacts to our health from bathing in dangerously polluted waters.

"But we need guarantees that the government's upcoming Clean Water Bill will not simply tinker round the edges, like the previous iteration did. The government must break from the politics of the past by creating a new, fairer system where our essential services are brought under public ownership and power is put back in the hands of communities."

ENDS

Notes to editor:

1. Friends of the Earth responded this morning to reports that Prime Minister Andy Burnham was set to announce the creation of a new national body, GB Grid, in his speech at Labour Party Conference.