Healey to pledge "new age of industrialisation" in first Labour conference speech as chancellor

John Healey is expected to promise a "new age of industrialisation" for the United Kingdom when he delivers his first Labour conference speech as chancellor on Monday, setting out a positive vision for British industry at the party's annual gathering in Liverpool.

The former defence secretary will acknowledge the end of Britain's traditional heavy industries, telling delegates that the UK's coal mines are not returning. But he will argue that Labour intends to reshape the country's industrial heritage for a modern era, with advanced manufacturing placed at the centre of that project.

Much of the speech is expected to focus on the shipbuilding sector, where the chancellor is due to announce fresh orders for the Royal Navy. Three new floating docks are to be built for HM Royal Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, and the government has decided they will be constructed in Britain rather than being put out to international tender.

Plans for the floating docks were first announced in 2023, and they are intended to upgrade the Scottish base's facilities so it can accommodate the next generation of British submarines. The docks fall within a wider £15bn programme to renew the Royal Navy's shipyards, and are expected to enter service in the early 2030s.

A second element of the announcement, flagged by First Secretary of State Louise Haigh in a speech on Sunday, is the commissioning of a new marine research vessel. The chancellor is expected to confirm £115m of funding for the ship, which is also slated to enter service in the early 2030s and is being presented as part of a "new era of reindustrialisation".

Ahead of his address, Healey said backing British shipyards served two purposes at once: strengthening national security while building resilience in the industries that the government says will generate growth now and supply the capabilities the country will need further down the line.

The timing is politically significant. With only a month remaining before his first Budget as chancellor, Healey faces sustained pressure to cut spending or raise taxes in order to address the rapidly rising cost of government borrowing. Yet he is not expected to set out any of the specifics of his fiscal plans in Liverpool.

Instead, the speech is designed to project optimism, built around what will be described as a new confidence in Britain. That framing comes at a moment when the Confederation of British Industry is expected to publish a survey on Monday pointing to a slowdown in the wider economy.

According to the CBI's findings, economic activity fell across key sectors in the three months to September, with both retail and services weakening, while manufacturing declined at a more moderate pace. Deputy chief economist Alpesh Paleja said higher energy and employment costs, combined with soft demand, were continuing to squeeze corporate profit margins.

Paleja also suggested that uncertainty surrounding next month's Budget is itself holding back activity in some parts of the economy. On that basis, he argued, the Budget needs to draw a clear red line under any further increases in the cost of hiring, investing and doing business.

Labour's own supporters have been pushing the chancellor in a different direction. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has urged Healey to do more for workers and the working class, calling on him to unfreeze income tax thresholds to put money back into people's pockets and to take further steps to bring down energy bills.

The speech is also expected to include announcements on skills. Healey is due to revive a trade union-run training programme, the Union Learning Fund, which will receive £15m of public money redirected from existing government budgets.

The scheme is intended to help workers in England gain new skills and adapt as technology — including artificial intelligence — reshapes the workplace. Workers do not have to be union members to take part, and support ranges from essential English, maths and digital skills to training for jobs in growing sectors such as advanced manufacturing.

Opposition parties were quick to dismiss the industrial plans. Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith described them as reheated announcements that came with no clarity on where the funding would come from. He claimed Labour was running scared of the tough choices needed to pay for Britain's defence, and that the Conservatives alone would cut the welfare bill to make room for it.

In the trade union movement, the response was far more positive. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national secretary of the GMB union — which has campaigned for the shipbuilding change — called it a massive boost for the UK's shipbuilding sector. He said that for too long juicy contracts had been sent to overseas yards, often ones receiving subsidies, and argued the new policy could reinvigorate British yards and the communities that depend on them.

The announcements also form part of a wider government push on industrial policy. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is due to give his own major conference speech on Tuesday, has previously talked about his ambition to reindustrialise Britain, including during talks with US President Donald Trump last week.

For Healey, the challenge in Liverpool is to make a strategic industrial argument land with an audience that remains worried about household finances, while leaving the difficult fiscal arithmetic of the Budget unresolved for another month.