“Shocked” Labour’s Liz opens national conference with powerful speech attacking effects of austerity in Southport and UK

“Shocked” Labour’s Liz opens national conference with powerful speech attacking effects of austerity in Southport and UK

Labour’s Southport candidate Liz Savage has given the opening address to the national Labour Party Conference, a move that came as a surprise even to herself.

Expressing how she was “proud, honoured and delighted” but also a little shocked to be asked to open the event, she then went on to deliver a hard-hitting attack on austerity and its effects in the town and communities across the UK.

Referring to a report that had attributed 120,000 additional deaths to austerity, the former teacher told the packed hall:

“Figures such as these are always difficult to be exact but we don’t need an exact figure – one death is too many. We all recognise the scale of the attack on our communities; we have all met people suffering as a result.”

“People across the country are suffering due to brutal cuts brought in by the Tories and supported by the Lib Dems. When homelessness rockets; something has gone drastically wrong. When the UN criticises the UK because of its attacks on the disabled, something has gone drastically wrong.”

“When our local authorities are on the verge of collapse; wages are still lower than a decade ago; and when our NHS is being eroded by underfunding, undermined by privatisation and the very land it stands on is being sold from underneath it… something has gone drastically wrong.”

“Our towns, villages and cities are suffering; they are suffering because the Tories put profits before people. They put cuts before communities; their ideology before the circumstances of individuals.”

Southport’s Labour candidate went on to attack the roll-out of Universal Credit locally and the constituency’s Tory MP for supporting it:

“In Southport, we have seen the local Conservative MP warmly welcome Universal Credit to the town, despite all the warnings about that failed Tory system, leaving local residents to suffer the consequences. A system whose implementation is a universal discredit to our country and also a universal truth about Tory heartlessness.”

Describing the town as Sefton’s “jewel in the crown” and inviting all those attending to visit, she told them that its future fortunes would be better served by Labour:

“Southport’s Lord Street is reputed to be the inspiration for Napoleon’s tree-lined boulevards of Paris. It’s a beautiful place that sadly like many others, is now suffering from eight years of Tory misrule. Let’s end that and ensure the investment that only Labour will bring to restore, revive and reinvigorate our towns, cities and communities.”

Video of the full speech can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/southportlabour/posts/1364040637032974