Labour is putting Britain first when it comes to procurement - Louise Haigh

In the face of economic headwinds, from the Middle East crisis, to the cost of borrowing - it is more important than ever that we are a bold, reforming government. One that treads where others have shied away from.

Every year, £90bn of taxpayers’ money is spent by the public sector. And how that money is spent matters. In my first days in office, I took radical action to rewrite the rules that govern how that money is spent so that businesses who want to win Government contracts are in no doubt about what we expect from them.

Good jobs, skills and apprenticeships for people here in Britain. No more hiding behind red tape and jargon. No more box-ticking exercises. No more pointless hoops to jump through.

And for the first time in years, our defence sector will be held to the same standard and told to create British jobs and British opportunities in return for the billions they receive.

The Chancellor John Healey and I have been very clear, if your business is bidding for government contracts to defend our country, then you will be judged on your commitment to backing high quality, British jobs.

That same logic, relentlessly applied, will now be extended to our utilities as well because the big water companies, the energy giants - these are not free marketeers. These are not Adam Smith’s merchants, in fierce competition to outdo one another on price or on quality. These are monopolies with a vice-like grip on British people and British businesses.

I want to be clear that we expect private utility companies to use their own procurement to back British jobs and skills in manufacturing. To create thousands of new, unionised British jobs and training opportunities. To support our young people with new apprenticeships. To begin reindustrialising our country. And this Government will lead the way.

We will hold ourselves to those same standards we are now enforcing on our suppliers and on those utility monopolies. As First Secretary, I am taking responsibility for that in our public sector.

So when existing contracts end in 18 months’ time we will begin bringing more than a thousand outsourced cleaning, catering and security jobs across Whitehall back in-house. That is just the start.

We will establish a dedicated Insourcing Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to work across departments, share best practice and accelerate the insourcing of thousands more jobs across Whitehall because the Government must lead by example and good jobs are the foundation on which good growth is built.

They are at the heart of our own procurement process, at the heart of our new expectations for utility companies and at the heart of how the Government hires, trains and looks after the people who keep this country running.

We are ready to put the full weight of the state behind the world-leading industries and capabilities that have the potential to reindustrialise our country.

Take our shipbuilding industry - skills and expertise from the Clyde to the Mersey, in Appledore and Belfast - they are the envy of the world.

Instead of being a passive observer to their decline, watching contract after contract move overseas, and with them the good jobs and opportunities they support, this Government is stepping up.

We are strengthening our National Shipbuilding Office so it takes responsibility for the procurement of all civil ships across Government.