WHEN I made my first keynote speech, as a freshly elected general secretary in 2019, I spoke about how we were living through a level of uncertainty beyond anything in living memory. Uncertainty for the country’s future, for the sectors where we organise and for the members we represent. Today, looking back at everything that has happened since then, that word uncertainty, didn’t even begin to cover it.

Labour’s worst election defeat since 1935. Four Tory prime ministers. A global pandemic. A cost-of-living crisis. International turmoil. The world, the country and our members have been battered by headwinds we could not have imagined, hit hard by crisis after crisis. We faced a hostile Tory government and the Labour Party, the party founded by the trade unions, faced the very real threat of extinction.

I don’t look back on those times fondly, but I do look back on them proudly and so should our reps, because Usdaw got through those times in the same way we always have — by standing together. Member by member, rep by rep, workplace by workplace, we have rebuilt our organising strength and through our political links we have helped to rebuild the Labour Party, so that it can begin the work of rebuilding the country. There is still a long road ahead, but together, we have achieved so much.