‘When ordinary people find themselves up against powerful institutions, they should never stand alone.’ In her government-published speech to the Trade Union Congress, Louise Haigh used that line to sum up the politics she wanted the country to hear. The address opened in sombre fashion, with condolences to the Prime Minister and his family following the death of his father on Sunday night. But Haigh quickly moved to a bigger argument: that government should be judged by whether it stands with working people and whether power starts moving back out of Westminster.

Haigh pointed to what she described as the government’s early record: new rights for renters, the end of the two-child cap, record NHS investment, renewed infrastructure spending, backing for steel, buses returning to public control and railways coming back into public ownership. None of that is abstract in Northern towns and cities. Steel means wages, suppliers and civic pride. Buses and rail decide whether people can get to work, college, hospital appointments and the high street without wasting half the day getting there.

She also set out a warning on artificial intelligence that will feel familiar far beyond conference halls. Haigh spoke about the promise of AI in public services, business and science, but she spent equal time on the worry it is causing around jobs, safety and the sort of world children are growing up in. That anxiety is not confined to Westminster. From office floors to depots and front-line services, workers can see change gathering pace long before clear protections are in place. Haigh’s case was that Britain has to put proper guardrails around the technology, and that the risks to public safety and national security cannot be brushed aside.

On Gaza and the West Bank, the speech turned sharper. Haigh said Britain had been too slow to respond and argued that the country could not keep standing by while Palestinian families are torn apart and the prospect of a two-state solution slips further from view. She backed the government’s move to target illegal settlements with sanctions, stressing that ordinary Israeli people are not responsible for the actions of their government. In a union hall, the point was plain enough: solidarity is not worth much if it only applies close to home.

Haigh then went after the long political settlement that weakened organised labour and left communities to pick up the bill. She said unions were treated as a nuisance, sometimes even cast as part of the problem, when the real damage fell on the millions of working people they represent: the nurse coming off nights, the teaching assistant at the school gates, the bus driver getting a town moving before most people are awake. That loss is still written across much of the North. Secure jobs fell away. Councils were left underpowered and under-resourced. High streets ran down, and the pubs and clubs that once held communities together were boarded up. Haigh even reached for Jimmy Reid’s warning about the rat race, and it landed as a refusal to accept managed decline as normal.

This was the speech’s strongest offer to places that have long been told decisions are already taken somewhere else. Haigh said ministers should ‘expect to lose power’, because if a choice can be made closer to the people affected by it, that is where it should be made. A city that knows a transport link could open up jobs should have the power to build it. A town that can see new industries coming should have the power to train young people for them. A community with a plan to revive a tired high street should be able to get on with it. For Northern readers, that is the part worth watching hardest. Less waiting for permission. More trust in towns, cities and regional leaders to spot opportunity before Whitehall does. Haigh wrapped it up as ‘good growth in every postcode’, and that is a phrase that will mean nothing unless it starts showing up in pay packets, bus routes and town centres.

She was just as direct about the cost of living. After meeting leaders from across regional and local government, Haigh said the same pressure kept surfacing: families buried in bills are not in the mood for airy promises about tomorrow. That is why her argument on hope was more practical than sentimental. People cannot plan a future, she said, until they can see through to the end of the month. Across Northern high streets and business parks, that is still the measure that matters most.

Haigh was keen to say that new investment and new industries are not enough if the jobs on offer are still insecure. She credited union pressure, alongside government action, for the Employment Rights Act and described it as the biggest uplift in workplace rights for a generation. In her telling, that means sick pay from day one, stronger protection against unfair dismissal, more backing for mums and dads, an end to fire and rehire, and action against zero-hour contracts that pile risk onto workers. She also used the speech to announce a stronger right to flexible working. Haigh accepted that not every role can be done from home and not every request can be granted. But if an employer wants to refuse, they should have to sit down with the worker, consider it properly and explain why. For households juggling childcare, caring responsibilities and long commutes, that is not a small workplace tweak. It can decide whether a job is workable at all.

The closing tone was part rally, part warning. Haigh cast the unions as essential to the country’s future and said government should keep campaigning against vested interests and against the far-right organisers who try to spread fear and division on Britain’s streets. She was right to be blunt about that. When places are run down and people are told nothing can change, the politics of grievance and prejudice always move in. For the North, the test is simple enough. If power genuinely shifts closer to towns and cities, if steel and public transport are backed for the long haul, and if stronger rights at work start to feel real in ordinary lives, this speech will stand up. If not, readers here will spot the gap between the words and the world soon enough.