Healey to set out Labour's industrial blueprint in first conference speech as chancellor

John Healey is set to promise Britain "a new age of industrialisation" when he delivers his first Labour conference speech as chancellor on Monday, according to party officials, with delegates at the annual gathering in Liverpool expected to hear a vision of renewal built around advanced manufacturing, shipbuilding and skills.

The former defence secretary will use the platform to make a deliberately tough-sounding argument about Britain's economic future. Healey is expected to tell delegates that "our coal mines are not coming back", but that a Labour government will remake the country's industrial past "for the modern age" by committing to advanced manufacturing. The framing is designed to answer critics who argue that pledges of reindustrialisation are nostalgic, and to present the spending as a forward-looking economic strategy rather than a bid to restore 20th-century heavy industry.

The centrepiece of the speech will be announcements for the UK's shipbuilding industry, a sector where successive governments have faced intense criticism for awarding major contracts to foreign yards. Healey is expected to confirm that three new floating docks at HM Royal Naval Base Clyde, at Faslane in Scotland, will be built in the UK rather than put out to international tender. Plans for the docks were first set out in 2023, and they are intended to upgrade the base's facilities to accommodate the next generation of British submarines, including the Dreadnought class vessels now under development.

The floating docks form part of a wider £15bn upgrade programme for the Royal Navy's shipyards, and are expected to enter service in the early 2030s. Officials involved in the announcement describe the decision as a test of political will: a commitment to domestic capability at a time when defence orders from abroad remain lucrative for foreign competitors.

Speaking on Sunday, First Secretary of State Louise Haigh said the government would also commission a new marine research vessel as part of plans for a "new era of reindustrialisation". Healey is expected to announce £115m in funding for the ship, which is likewise due to enter service in the early 2030s. Together, the two announcements are intended to demonstrate that Britain's maritime sector can win and retain substantial public investment.

Ahead of his address, Healey said: "By backing British shipyards, we are not only boosting national security but also securing resilience in the industries that will drive growth today while building the capabilities the country needs for the future." The argument ties industrial policy directly to defence spending, a connection that has become central to Labour's fiscal position.

That fiscal position is under strain. With only a month to go until his first Budget as chancellor, Healey faces pressure to cut spending or raise taxes in order to address the rapidly growing cost of government borrowing. However, he is not expected to reveal any details of his Budget plans in the conference speech, meaning the industrial announcements will land without an accompanying explanation of how they will be paid for.

The Conservatives have already attacked that gap. Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said the plans were "reheated announcements" with "no clarity on where the money is coming from", adding that Labour were "running scared of making the tough choices needed to pay for Britain's defence". "All they can offer is reannounced docks and more hot air from Healey. Only the Conservatives will cut the welfare bill to fund defence," Griffith said.

Trade union sources close to the government offered a warmer response. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national secretary of the GMB union, which has campaigned for domestic shipbuilding, called the move a "massive boost" for the sector. "For too long juicy contracts have been sent to overseas - often subsidised - yards. This policy could reinvigorate UK yards and the communities that depend on them," he said.

The speech comes shortly before Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is due to deliver his own major conference address on Tuesday, and who has previously spoken about his ambition to "reindustrialise" Britain, including during talks with US President Donald Trump last week. Taken together, the two speeches amount to Labour's fullest statement yet on the economic model it intends to pursue in government.

The backdrop is not encouraging. In a survey published on Monday, the Confederation of British Industry is expected to highlight falling economic activity across key sectors, including retail and services, in the three months to September, with manufacturing declining more moderately. CBI deputy chief economist Alpesh Paleja said rising energy and employment costs, combined with weak demand, were continuing to squeeze profit margins. He added that uncertainty ahead of next month's Budget is also holding back activity in some sectors. "Against the backdrop of renewed fiscal pressures, the Budget must draw a clear red line under any more rises in the cost of hiring, investing and doing business," Paleja said.

Healey is also facing pressure from some of Labour's union backers to address the cost of living. Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, has called on the chancellor to "do something for workers and the working class" in his Budget. She urged him to unfreeze income tax thresholds to "put money back into people's pockets", and to take further action on energy bills — demands that sit awkwardly alongside the fiscal consolidation likely to be required.

One smaller announcement is aimed squarely at the labour market. Healey will set out plans to revive the Union Learning Fund, a training scheme run by trade unions to help workers in England gain new skills and adapt as technology — including artificial intelligence — reshapes the workplace. The fund is to receive £15m in taxpayers' money, drawn from existing government budgets rather than treated as new spending. Employees do not need to be union members to benefit, and support ranges from essential English, maths and digital skills to training for jobs in growing industries such as advanced manufacturing.

Whether the rhetoric is matched by hard choices remains the central question hanging over the conference. The shipbuilding and skills announcements are relatively modest in financial terms, but they arrive at a moment when Labour is simultaneously defending higher defence expenditure, promising relief on household costs and searching for a growth strategy capable of repairing public finances. Monday's speech will set out the vision; next month's Budget will have to show how it is paid for.