After 14 years of Conservative government, there is one key question we should be asking ourselves ahead of the general election.

Are we better off than we were in 2010?

For working people here in Tameside, the answer is an emphatic no.

This government has failed working people at every turn, keeping them down rather than helping them up.

Workers are trapped in a vicious cycle of insecure, low-paid work, alongside soaring household bills, stripping away any hope of a better future.

But it really does not have to be like this, and we know there is a better way.

Rather than a government that puts walls in front of working people, we need a government that helps people to knock them down.

We need a government that isn’t intent on enflaming the politics of division, but one that brings our communities together for the common good.

Most importantly, we need a government that is firmly in the service of working people, not their own vested interests.

It’s why I’m proud that my friend, Labour’s Deputy Leader, and a Tameside MP colleague, Angela Rayner, is leading the way on Labour’s New Deal for Working People.

It’s a plan that will boost wages and give people the security in work that they need to thrive, ensuring that we make work pay.

Labour will end the scourge of zero-hours contracts, deliver a genuine living wage, and clamp down on the scandalous practice of fire and re-hire.

These urgent and necessary changes will be underpinned by an Employment Rights Bill, that we have committed to bringing forward within the first 100 days of a Labour government.

The New Deal is a priority because it is central to our mission to grow the economy and raise living standards across the country.

As a party, Labour are proudly pro-worker and pro-business.

Far from being a contradiction in terms, it is a vital partnership as one cannot prosper whilst the other is failing.

Boosting incomes, securing better rights at work, and ending insecurity will mean greater productivity, and equitable, sustainable, economic growth.

Working people are crying out for change, and the Conservative Party have shown time after time that they are incapable of delivering.

Only with a decade of national renewal, spurred on by a New Deal, under Labour, can we deliver a brighter future.