Labour won’t just win in 2024 – it’ll turn the next vote into a climate election

The general election was devastating if you desperately wanted a Labour government.

I wouldn’t blame you for looking for an easy option. Change the man at the top and give up on a few things and we can win, you might hope. But, as we’ve seen for social democratic parties in country after country, the path of despair is also the path to defeat.

After seven weeks of this contest, I am the only candidate with that detailed path to power. I laid it out in a speech last week and members can join me to discuss it further on a Zoom call on Sunday night.

We all know that we must win back the communities lost in 2019. I can do it. I’m from the so-called “red wall”. I don’t just speculate about the frustrations of many voters and communities; I’ve felt them. I know what it’s like to be told you will never get to where you want to be, that you don’t have the right background or the right CV. I’ve felt what it’s like to have obstacles placed in the way of your hopes and aspirations – and those of your community. That’s why I know that in 2024 I can win back areas we lost and win new ones too.

That next election will take place after four more years of a rapidly warming planet, more frequent extreme weather, like flooding and fires and, by the looks of it, a flatlining economy and inaction from the Tory government. Britain needs the Green Industrial Revolution I put together – an aspirational socialist response to the climate crisis that promises a brighter future. We must turn the next election into a climate election.

Our Green Industrial Revolution will bring together a broad, winning coalition because it can improve people’s lives and help them to realise their dreams. It’s not a feel-good add-on; it’s aspirational socialism in action. People want a better life for their children than they had – that’s aspiration – but we can only secure that together – and that’s socialism.

But the economy blocks off aspiration for millions of people. Instead of allowing everyone to achieve their hopes and dreams, the already very rich hoard wealth and opportunity.

To help people realise their hopes and aspirations, our economy needs a new motor. That’s what the Green Industrial Revolution will be, a central driving force to create good, well-paid, unionised jobs in every community, 21st-century infrastructure and lower bills and fares for millions of households. That revitalised economy will help us expand our public services to provide support and opportunity for all.

We can bring pride to our country by leading the way in combating the climate crisis and renew our neighbourhoods and towns, with new businesses, energy and green spaces.

By the next election, we need to be able to say in every community, in detail, this is what we’ll do and here’s how we’ll pay for it. I led the development of our Green Industrial Revolution policies, bringing together energy experts, businesses, engineers, activists, trade unions and members of local communities and I know this stuff inside out.

I’m a details person. I work hard. I don’t slack off. I suppose that’s the benefit of being a working-class woman, always having to work twice as hard to show you’re just as good – in fact, better – than an upper-middle-class man.

If you want a government that delivers a Green Industrial Revolution and aspirational socialism, I’m your woman. But I won’t achieve that alone. We only win together, as a movement. And the movement I will lead outside of Westminster will mobilise our party, its members, supporters, climate activists and trade unions to force the government to act on the climate crisis.

And when we win in 2024, I want you to be able to say that you stared defeat in the face last time. You felt the pain. But you picked yourself up and were part of a new path to power.

Rebecca Long-Bailey is MP for Salford and Eccles​ and a Labour leadership candidate