-CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY-

Michael Dugher MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, in a speech to Labour’s Annual Conference 2014 in Manchester, said:

Conference, no doubt you’ve seen the Tories on Twitter encouraging people to “hashtag share the facts”.

Well why don’t we do that Conference?

Why don’t we share the facts about this Conservative Government:

Like the tax cut for millionaires – but a bedroom tax for the disabled.

Record bank bonuses.

Over three-quarters of a million young people unemployed.

Long term youth unemployment up by nearly a third.

Apprenticeships for young people falling.

A record number people working part-time because they can’t get the hours.

A massive increase in zero-hours contracts exploiting workers.

A massive increase in the use of food banks.

300,000 more children living in families that cannot afford to keep the house warm.

Waiting lists for treatment at the highest level for six years.

A crisis in A&E departments.

Patients waiting longer to see a GP.

House-building at its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s.

The average age of first-time buyers raising to 33.

Energy bills up by £300 since the election.

Hardworking people £1,600 a year worse off.

The biggest fall in wages of any Parliament since 1874.

And more borrowing in the first three years of this government than Labour did in 13 years in government.

So let’s share the facts, Conference. Share the facts. That is the Tory record in government and the sooner we get rid of this Government, the better.

So it’s no wonder, Conference, that Labour has got the Tories on the run in so many parts of the country.

Like last year, we made major inroads in the local elections in May.

From Cannock to Carlisle, Hastings to Harlow, Burnley to Broxtowe, Wolverhampton to Weaver Vale and Cambridge to Colne Valley.

East, west, south and north – thanks to our brilliant PPCs, our councillors, trade unionists, members from across the country, Labour is winning again in key seats that will decide the next general election.

Now, Conference, we all know the Tories have given up economically on many parts of the country. Well we also know the Tories have given up politically on trying to win in many parts of the country.

Did you know that in 1973, the Conservative share of the vote here in Manchester was nearly 45 per cent. It’s now fallen to only 7 per cent. Well done Manchester – but we’re not going to stop there.

Today, Conference, the Tories don’t have a single councillor in Manchester, in Liverpool, in Newham, Harringey, Oxford, Norwich, Chesterfield. Or in Sheffield.

Conference, we know there’s only one Tory in Sheffield - and that’s Nick Clegg.

So we have the Tories on the run. We see them hollowing out in every region across the country.

The average age of a Conservative party member is now 69.

Their membership has nearly halved since David Cameron became leader.

It now stands at around 134,000.

Conference, that makes a Conservative party member officially an endangered species.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, based on their current numbers, Conservative party members are now officially rarer in numbers than hippos, chimpanzees, beluga whales – apologies to Eric Pickles - Galapagos sea iguanas and something called the cloven-feathered dove, which, conference, I am told is a particularly rare type of pigeon.

But we’ve got more evidence that Tory party membership is still spiralling downwards.

We have uncovered that income from membership dropped last year in over 80 per cent of Tory Associations, at a loss of over three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

Not only this, but the Tories are also losing members in their key seats.

New figures show that membership fell last year in 70 per cent of Tory Associations within their most marginal seats.

They are losing support in vital places like: Hendon, Carlisle, Lincoln, Watford and Pudsey.

Conference. The Tories are not a political party. They are not a movement like ours.

They are a club – standing up for just a privileged few.

This is a government of the millionaires, by the millionaires, for the millionaires.

But it’s not just the Tory party that is on the slide and on the run. It’s David Cameron too.

He says he’s up for debating Ed Miliband in the prime ministerial TV debates, but he has been ducking and diving for months.

Conference, Ed asked me to lead the negotiations for Labour. But the Tories are always inventing reasons why the negotiations can’t start.

We know the truth, Conference.

The truth is David Cameron doesn’t want to face Ed Miliband in those TV debates. He doesn’t want to have to defend his record. He’s got nothing to offer the country except more of the same. He’s bottling it, Conference.

20 million people watched the TV debates last time. They may be called the ‘prime ministerial TV debates’, but they are not in the gift of the Prime Minister. They belong to the public. And it’s time to get on with it.

So today, I’m writing to Grant Shapps to say enough is enough. They should name their negotiators, fix a time and a place for the negotiations to begin and let’s get the TV debates sorted.

Conference, this is a high stakes election.

And this was brought home to me recently when I visited a food bank in Barnsley.

At one level, I was inspired by the generosity of the local community, the amazing work of the volunteers there.

But at the same time I felt an overwhelming sense of anger.

When I looked at the queue in the food bank. Mainly young women. Mums with their young children. Kids the same age as mine.

Queuing up for vouchers to get a parcel of value beans and powered milk. In one of the richest economies in the world. What a complete disgrace, Cameron and Clegg are.

Conference, I looked at the children in that queue at the food bank. I looked at their faces.

What does that experience say to those children about what kind of country we are, about what kind of a society we are, about what life has to offer them and what they can achieve?

Conference, I grew up in a pit village in South Yorkshire during the miners’ strike. I remember seeing the food parcels. My mates on free school meals.

For those children in that food bank queue in Barnsley, that is an experience that will live with them their whole lives.

So let nobody say that this election doesn’t matter.

Conference. Let’s get out there. Let’s drag David Cameron kicking and screaming out of Downing Street. Let’s get Ed Miliband into No 10. Let’s make the big changes this country needs.

And let’s get after these Tories.

Thank you.

Ends