Cabinet reacts to Gordon Brown speech
David Miliband and Peter Mandelson
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By Matthew Champion. |  |
Tuesday, 29, Sep 2009 06:20
By Matthew Champion.
Leading members of Gordon Brown's Cabinet gave inthenews.co.uk their instant reactions to Gordon Brown's speech earlier today.
Foreign secretary David Miliband
"I've said every year for the last ten years, certainly for the last two years, four years since the last general election, of course we can win the next election, I've always said we can win but I never make predictions.
"I think this was his best speech he's made as prime minister and leader of the Labour party.
"He set out a very clear plan for the future of Britain and the test will be in four or five years time, four or five years into the next parliament, when these announcements today are changing Britain for the better."
Health secretary Andy Burnham
"I think it was a very moral case the prime minister put out there. A moral case - but also a Labour vision of the future. The hall responded because he was very much talking to people's heart and their soul - the vision of the country they want to see.
"The instruction was very clear - think big, fight hard. So we've got our marching orders now! We've got big, bold policies - the national care service in my area, I'm delighted the prime minister has put that centre stage. If we believe in that vision let's go out there and fight hard for it.
"It sounded like a prime minister who was clear and confident about the choice he was offering before the country. He was setting out a Labour stall and saying 'this is what we believe in'. It's your choice at the election but this is a Labour party that's confident about the future, knows what it wants to do.
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Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw
"He did exactly what he needed to do, which was set out very clearly the stark choice that will face the country at the time of the election and that we need to wake the country up to what the consequences would be of a Tory government.
"[We] stand on our proud record but also offer a progressive future, with things like the National Care Service, new jobs in the creative industries and the green economy, it was all there
"I don't think the choice could have been clearer, it's a choice of change, but it's the choice of change under Labour. The Tories don't offer any change they offer a return to the past.
"I thought he did get that balance [on policy] right, particularly addressing the very real concerns about resistant residual antisocial behaviour and problem families, that would have appealed I think very much to my constituents and to the broader country but at the same time a great restatement of both Labour and national values and beliefs in the health service, social solidarity, in fairness. I think those things are as important to the British public as they are to the Labour party.
"He was much stronger on policy than I expected him to be, there was a lot in there, it was very meaty."
Environment secretary Hilary Benn
"He explained why he would be prime minister after the next election; he said we've got to think bigger, we've got to fight hard. And if you look at the NCS, the chance for the people to vote on electoral systems, the commitment on the minimum wage to support the very poorest people of the world; this is someone who is thinking about the future.
"I thought the speech was full of policy and it was full of policy about what we need to do in the future, and it makes it very clear the next election is going to be a fundamental choice between us and the Tories."
Justice secretary Jack Straw
"I thought the most effective part of a very good speech was the section at the end when he was quiet - getting people to listen to him and to listen to the choice between a Labour government able to manage us through a completely new period and a Conservative party which has been holding back on the consequences of its policies.
"Majorities are made up of a series of minorities. Certainly saying however to middle Britain, we really are on their side and we have been on their side..., but we've got to continually upgrade our policies and that's what we've been doing."
Communities secretary John Denham
"What he made very clear was that once recovery is firmly established... we've got to deal with the borrowing. But he also made it clear that each of us as ministers know that we can continue to make choices which continue to improve stuff. In local government, which is my responsibly, we will share with the health service delivering the new promises on adult care and we can do that even though we've got to make savings in the rest of our services.
"They weren't individual announcements - there was a theme to them. These are things which for the typical family on a middle income who's feeling the pinch at the moment will benefit from, and so will people on modest incomes.
"There's a big difference between that and, say, Tory local councils, who are saying you've got to pay twice before you can get a decent service, or David Cameron's tax cuts for the every rich - that's a choice."