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Angela Eagle MP, Shadow First Secretary of State and Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, in a speech to Labour Party Annual Conference in Brighton, said:

Can I begin by saying what an honour it is to be appointed Shadow Business Secretary and First Secretary of State. And can I also say a big ‘thank you’ to Chuka and his team for all the work they did in the last parliament.

In the next period I am determined to forge a Labour vision for business aimed at building a prosperity which includes everybody - a prosperity which leaves no-one behind.

Labour believes in a productive economy which generates good jobs for everyone, a dynamic industrial policy with business acting ethically and responsibly.

An economy where the rights of workers and consumers are respected.

Put into practice, Labour values would deliver a fairer, sustainable and more equal society.

And Conference there is no place in this vision for the divisive and partisan Tory Trade Union Bill.

It is an attack on basic freedoms.

It has no place in modern Britain.

And we will fight to defeat it.

Conference, looking forward, we face an increasingly complex and competitive global environment.

We will only succeed at home and abroad by fostering partnerships between Government, business and employees.

That is why Labour must be pro business and pro worker.

We cannot succeed by tolerating a race to the bottom on wages, skills or job security like this Government does.

To succeed we have to compete in a race to the top.

A race to the top is the only way to achieve economic growth which is socially and environmentally sustainable.

A race to the top is the only way to improve living standards.

And to win this race, we need to support R&D and innovation which can create the industries of tomorrow.

We need to support small business.

We need to ensure that business finance is available to exploit the pioneering scientific innovations we are so good at producing in this country.

And then we need to convert these innovations into the next generation of world beating companies.

But Conference we have a Secretary of State for Business who describes himself as a small state Thatcherite and refuses to let the phrase 'industrial strategy’ ever cross his lips.

A Secretary of State for Business who recently boasted that he was looking for 40 per cent cuts to his Department ahead of the Chancellors looming, ideologically driven Whitehall cuts.

Perhaps he should concentrate more on the day job and less on his ambitions to be the next right wing Prime Minister.

This Tory ideological obsession with a small state is getting in the way of our national interest and leaving our economy vulnerable.

We need a dynamic industrial strategy.

We need partnerships championed by an active state.

Yet with this Government we see the opposite.

There is a complete failure to support strategic industries and sectors.

Take the steel industry.

As we meet in Brighton the entire British industry is hanging by a thread and yet the Government seems reluctant to act decisively.

Steel forms a vital part of a productive and competitive manufacturing sector.

It is worth £45 billion to our economy.

No other Government in Europe would be so slow to react.

This Government must act now with urgency to safeguard the future of steel making in the UK.

The latest announcement from SSI shows how critical the situation in Redcar is. Unless the Government acts, 1700 jobs will be lost.  And that Conference is why I urge you to support the emergency resolution this afternoon.

And what about the green economy?

A hi-tech sector that has been growing at 7 per cent a year.

But just last week the Government was lambasted for abandoning this country’s leadership on the green economy putting billions in potential future export earnings at risk.

This Government has slashed support for the solar power sector and onshore wind at the same time as scrapping the green deal.

That makes absolutely no sense.

And if this failure to support strategic industries was not enough, this Tory Government is presiding over a productivity crisis.

It takes us four days in this country to produce the same amount as they produce in 3 days in Germany, France and America, because we aren’t training and equipping our workforce properly.

Productivity is now the worst since records began.

So much for the march of the makers.

This Tory Government is also presiding over a 'skills emergency’ which threatens economic growth.

Success in the 21st century means partnering with business to make the most of all of our talent.

Yet more than two thirds of businesses now need more high-skilled staff.

In construction, manufacturing, science, engineering and technology the skills shortage is at its worst.

So what is the Government’s answer to this challenge?

They’ve cut further education budgets.

They’re failing young people on vocational qualifications.

And they’re dumbing down apprenticeships.

Conference our young people deserve more than this ideologically driven recipe of cuts and neglect.

And making the most of all of our talent also means empowering women at all levels of the workforce from the shop floor to the boardroom, from large companies to SMEs.

We need more women in industry, more women entrepreneurs, and more women going into science, technology and engineering.

Boosting female entrepreneurship could add £60bn extra to the UK economy.

We simply have to make the most of women’s talent and abilities.

Conference, success in the 21st century also means business working in partnership with their employees to raise skills, productivity and wages.

Labour believes in social partnership, we don’t believe that fear and confrontation in the workplace is the route to economic success.

And that is why the Tory Trade Union Bill must be defeated.

We already have the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe and yet, the Tories want to go even further.

Their divisive and partisan Trade Union Bill undermines fundamental rights and freedoms.

Liberty, Amnesty International and the British Institute of Human Rights have described it as a ”major attack on civil liberties in the UK.”

One Conservative backbench MP described parts of it as resembling the dictatorship of General Franco.

It breaches ILO conventions.

It undermines the very concept of democracy by counting non-voters as no voters.

It seeks to silence the legitimate collective voice of trade unions and bankrupt our Party whilst leaving the Tories’ millionaire donors completely untouched.

With the number of strikes down 90 per cent in the last twenty years this Bill has no reasonable justification.

Conference, let me say this, this vindictive and draconian Bill has no place in a free and civilised society and we will fight tooth and nail to defeat it.

Global partnerships are essential for Britain’s future prosperity.

And the most important of our global partnerships is with the European Union.

It accounts for almost half of our exports.

And I am pleased that Labour will be campaigning to keep Britain in a reformed EU when the referendum is called

But David Cameron’s lack of leadership means the Tory party won’t even be campaigning for what is in our nation’s interests.

He’s too busy trying to appease the Eurosceptics in his own ranks to do what is right for Britain

As always with this Prime Minister the petty partisan interests of the Conservative Party come before our national interest.

Conference, we need Government that is a partner not a hands off observer.

A Government which will work with business and employees, not pit them against one another.

A Government willing to champion an active industrial strategy, not let strategic industries fail.

And a Government which will invest in our young people, not deprive them of a future.

Conference, prosperity in this century is not guaranteed.

To succeed Government needs to build the partnerships for businesses to flourish and for the UK to compete successfully in the world.

That is how we will win a race to the top.

Ends