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Lord Collins of Highbury, speaking to Labour Party Annual Conference 2013 in Brighton, said:

I stand here today firmly out and proud.

Out and proud to be both a loyal Labour Party member and a committed trade unionist. 

I’m honoured too that Ed Miliband has asked me to lead the review of his proposals for party reform but not surprisingly I am also deeply daunted. 

Ed’s central objective is to transform Labour so that it becomes a genuinely mass membership party reaching out to all parts of the nation.

That’s no easy task and it will only be delivered with your support and continued commitment.

I know that many people in this hall are nervous about the prospect of change that Ed has set out. 

But we should not fear change, as was famously said before, we are a movement and not a monument. 

At various points in its history, the party has embarked on internal reforms that, when they were first announced, seemed impossible to achieve. Yet once they were made the changes were put into place and the party emerged stronger as a result.

The Labour Party has proud origins as an alliance of trade unions, socialist societies and individual members. Its constitution still reflects those origins. But the party can only succeed if it remains relevant and in tune with the world in which it operates.

To flourish it needs to be rooted in the places where people are – in communities and workplaces – and it needs to operate on their terms, making use of the same social media that citizens use in all other walks of life.

There are tremendous opportunities; great possibilities to innovate, and much to learn. 

In the 2010 election I saw, first hand, very effective trade union member to member campaigning in key constituencies up and down the country. Unions were taking the campaign beyond their traditional branch and industrial structures right into the heart of the communities we needed to win.

The consultation document sets out the key themes for my review. 

Fundamentally we need to explore how to change our structures so that the party is able to forge a closer connection with the millions of men and women who are linked through trade unions and other affiliated organisations. 

But we need to do that in a way which retains the constitutional, collective voice of those organisations. 

Much has been said about the Labour-union link. 

Some have said this is all a plot to break it; others claim it is a smokescreen and say that nothing will change.

Both are wrong. 

There is no doubt that the link has to change. It needs to be made more open and more transparent. 

And it needs to enable individual members of affiliated organisations to make a positive choice about whether to affiliate to the party as individuals. 

But let me be absolutely clear; this is not about breaking the link and I am guided by Ed Miliband’s words: I want to mend the link, not end the link. 

However, this is about much more than the party’s relationship with its affiliates. 

It is about broadening and deepening the party’s relationship with ordinary men and women in communities across the country.

It is about restoring trust in politics, and in our party, and about making Labour more visible to the people it seeks to represent. 

Above all, it is about changing the party so that we are in a better position to change the country. 

Conference, I look forward to hearing your views.