Andy Burnham has just delivered the best speech from a Labour MP at conference. Taken from the autocue, it was emotive, stirring, tribal, and just what delegates needed. It seemed to have taken rather a number of lessons from the ‘Yes’ campaign in Scotland in that it was relentlessly negative about the threat that the Tories pose to the NHS and framed not voting Labour as an active threat to the health service.
Burnham got a number of standing ovations – the first was just a few words into his speech – and had the audience captivated throughout. Why? He spoke with a passion and a sense of purpose. When he reached the stage in his speech where he explained why he wanted better care standards, he spoke about his own family:
‘About ten years ago, I saw my own mum ground down and worn out by the battle to get decent care for my gran. She was in a nursing home where corners were often cut and where it was hard to get GPs to visit. The decent people who worked there were let down by the anonymous owners who filled it with untrained, temporary staff.
‘My gran’s things often went missing and we had got used to that. But I will never forget the day when we walked in to see her and her knuckle was red raw where her engagement ring had been ripped off. Right there, right then – I made it my mission to end this scandal.’
Burnham is good at stirring up the party, but this was especially good. His sense of purpose came from having something big and meaty to announce, even though it was a follow-up to Ed’s speech. So unlike his fellow Shadow Cabinet members, he had more of a reason to give his speech than simply the need to give a speech.
This was a speech aimed at the core vote, encouraging them to get out and campaign on the NHS with what he’d clearly planned to be a Churchillian call to arms:
‘Make no mistake – this coming election is a battle for the soul of the NHS. The fight of our lives.
‘Now we must walk 300 miles for the NHS to every doorstep in the land. With hope. With pride. With passion. With a plan you can believe in. But, in the end, this is about more than us. This is about you. Your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren.
‘It’s about whether an NHS will still be there for them in their hour of need as it has been for you. Don’t regret it when it’s gone. Join the fight for it now.’
A lot of what he was saying was inaccurate, of course: the image he painted of an NHS that is about to disappear is not true. And this adds to the Tories’ problems. It is not just that they are faced with a Labour party that can talk far more emotively about the NHS than they can. It is also that it is very difficult to fight false myths, as they found in Scotland when the SNP went big on the NHS. This was the only speech that should worry the Conservatives from this conference.
Comments