75 years ago this year, with our country recovering from the ravages of war, Basildon was created to house the heroes who fought against the fascist far right in World War 2.
In the following decades, council houses were built, communities created, public services developed, and town centres nurtured. We looked after each other.
Those same working-class men and women who sacrificed so much in the war to beat the far right, then helped to build Basildon’s economy. Today, it’s the engine room of Essex.
Generations of working-class people that followed were fuelled by the belief that in the New Towns, anything was possible, that all our tomorrows could be better than our yesterdays.
Basildon was built on belief.
It was brand new. People came here. They made a choice. And they chose Basildon to be their home.
As I look around at our Councillors and Officers today, I see so many who made that same choice.
People from Liverpool and St Helen’s, Bradford and Birmingham, Wakefield and Hertfordshire. And those of us who left the East End of London.
We all chose Basildon. All of us.
But ask yourself, if you faced the same choice now, in 2024, that you faced in 1994, would you make the same decision?
If the answer’s no, then ask yourself, why?
What made you believe in Basildon then, but not now?
And ask how do we get back to fostering a belief in this place? In its possibilities? In its raw potential? How?
Basildon was built on belief, not on blame. I’m certain of that.
Following the election result last week, we’ll hear more and more bleats of blame from the far right in Basildon in the years to come.
They’ll blame the unions. They’ll blame immigrants. They’ll blame LGBT people. They’ll blame the media. They’ll blame Europe. They’ll blame everyone and everything.
That’s just what they do.
They do it because they don’t have the answers to the questions.
They do it because they want you to believe there are easy answers to complex questions.
Basildon is better than that, Basildon is better that being a Borough of feckless whingers.
Whining has never been part of our history and it must not become the story of our future.
As we start our municipal year, and under the gaze of a new government, I’m honest enough to say that I don’t believe government at any level can solve all our town’s problems.
But I don’t think it’s the source of them either.
Our job is to work to fix what we can, as quickly as we can.
Many in this borough will be angry, upset, and fearful at what happened last week.
For some, that will be anger, upset and fear over a Labour landslide.
For others it will be the dread of being represented by a far-right, Putin-apologist party, and what that means for them and their families.
As our new Prime Minister has repeatedly said, ‘politics should tread carefully on people’s lives.’
He is right.
I confess, I had hoped to be standing here today, full of optimism, brimming with hope about our future.
A Labour-led Council and a Labour landslide government in Westminster, should be inspiring me to talk about the possibilities for our town, for our borough.
But there is something bigger that needs addressing.
Right now, I am stood before you as the Leader of our Council, filled with a mix of frustration, irritation and trepidation about what this General Election result in South Basildon and East Thurrock means for our town’s future.
I’m very concerned, colleagues. Not for the sake of political expediency, but for the sake of my community.
You see, the rise of the far right should concern all of us, regardless of whether we sit here today as a Labour, Conservative or Independent Councillor, or as an apolitical officer.
Some of you may not be too concerned about a far-right MP representing the town. You may even think that this result is a good thing.
If so, I respect that opinion, but know, that Reform may have won Basildon’s vote, but they will never give Basildon a voice.
Think about this: our borough now has an MP whose party campaigned on overtly racist views – targeting Muslims specifically – and are apologists for Vladimir Putin, a genocidal war criminal trying to eradicate the Ukrainian people, including just today, bombing children’s hospitals.
And to those who think Ukraine is far away and none of our business, I say it’s our front line too. Our democracy is under attack.
What is most alarming, is that a lot of good people here in Basildon voted for the far right on Thursday.
Good people, taken in by the cult of personality, gave their vote to a party with no platform for government and no plan for meaningful change.
We are one of Britain’s most iconic towns. We have just given the keys to the office of our Member of Parliament to a party that promoted a platform of hate, of division, and pro-Russian propaganda.
The truth is, that following this result, Basildon now has a stigma that will be hard to shake.
Alongside Clacton and Great Yarmouth, Skegness and Ashfield, Basildon will be viewed by the country as a place in decline, with high levels of poverty, lower educational attainment, low skilled workers, poor quality housing and a real lack of investment.
I don’t want our borough to be in this category. But it now is.
We should all reject the weaponisation and scapegoat culture of the vacuous far right; and we should understand that this election was a plea for change.
Why else was Basildon just one of five places in the UK that have given platforms to the far right?
What has gone so badly wrong, in the lives of so many of our residents, that they felt the only political answer was one of blame?
On Friday morning, our new Prime Minister talked about a ‘weariness in the heart of a nation’. Of the ‘draining away of the hope, the spirit, the belief in a better future…’
It resonated.
How have we got to a point where there is no longer sufficient belief in Basildon as a place of opportunity?
Why do the public no longer believe our town centre can be regenerated?
Why do they fear their council can’t provide basic youth services for their children?
Why do so few local people believe that council housing, and the dream of home ownership, is a reality for them?
Why in Basildon, is there is no longer sufficient belief in our education system, or in our economy to provide high paid, secure, work?
Just think, why was it that in the seventies and the eighties, Basildon did not succumb to the National Front?
Why was it at the end of the last Labour Government, Basildon did not succumb to the BNP?
It was because when Basildon is building, when it is reforming, when it is progressing, the far right are silenced.
As Councillors and Officers we must ask ourselves; are we really surprised to learn that when people can’t get a home, can’t find secure work that pays a fair wage, can’t access public services and don’t see a future for their families…they look for people to blame?
That they lose faith in the system and in each other?
The truth is, we can’t say this wasn’t coming.
For the first time in its history, this current generation of Basildon young people will fail to do as well as their parents.
That must concern us all.
Because Basildon was built on a belief in the very opposite being true.
We must ask why, as a council confronted with the chance to intervene and make change happen, why for so long, we have kept saying no, kept making excuses for why things were too hard.
No to regeneration.
No to building more council homes.
No to a local plan.
No to Local Government Reorganisation.
No to standing up to Essex County Council.
No to building a Youth Zone.
No to investing in our local workforce with in-house services, providing secure jobs and putting our local people before corporate profits.
No more.
This administration is going to use what happened here last Thursday to finally get a grip, to get off the fence, add some urgency to the work of this council and finally start the process of intervening to change people’s lives for the better.
We will finally regenerate our towns, finally create the Youth Zone, finally improve our infrastructure, finally build the council homes we desperately need.
And finally create those pathways to high paid jobs.
I believe in a Basildon where no matter your colour or your creed, if you play by the rules, graft hard, take individual responsibility and contribute to your community, you can get on in life without fear or interference. And prosper.
Colleagues, this is not the speech I planned to give.
But I repeat: as Leader of this Council, I will not let Basildon fall to the far right.
I will work with all colleagues who are willing to help, from across the political spectrum, to make sure that doesn’t happen.
It will be difficult, but it is necessary.
For the good of Basildon and its people, I hope you will join me in this important work.