Last week, I attended Labour Conference in Liverpool, which brought together thousands of party members, supporters, trade unions, businesses, including of course a number of Feltham and Heston members and delegates, to take part in many events and discussions.

It was the first time I was able to attend Labour Conference as a government minister under a Labour government.

In just a matter of weeks we are taking steps that are bringing real change, and a stability to government.

At this conference, cabinet ministers laid out the work that we are already doing, and made some important announcements, including:

• Ronan’s Law – a law in memory of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda who was murdered in 2022 with a weapon ordered online. The law will ban ninja swords, as part of our mission to halve knife crime in a decade.

• A Hillsborough Law – a duty of candour for public authorities, so that the injustices of the Horizon scandal, infected blood scandal, Windrush and Grenfell Tower are never repeated.

• Roll-out of breakfast clubs in primary schools – starting in April, with hundreds of schools set to become early adopters.

• Raneem’s Law – a law in memory of Raneem Oudeh, who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2018. The law will put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms.

As the prime minister said in his speech to conference, this will be a government of national renewal. We will break down the barriers to British prosperity by growing the economy, building the infrastructure we need, switching to clean energy and mending our public services.

We also know that reforming our skills system is absolutely vital to achieving our core mission of economic growth.

That’s why, at conference, the prime minister announced new foundation apprenticeships – the first step to a youth guarantee that will ensure every young person is learning or earning.

It’s also why in July, the prime minister and the Education Secretary, Bridget Philipson, introduced Skills England. This body will bring businesses together with trade unions, mayors, universities, colleges and training providers to deliver the opportunities that our young people need to progress, and the highly-skilled workforces that businesses need.

As a Home Office minister, I was pleased to be a part of many valuable discussions at conference on industry, growth and skills, and to lay out our plans to reform the immigration system so that it is properly working for our economy.

Sectors such as IT and Engineering, which are vital to the UK’s economic growth and national infrastructure, should be drawing from a growing pool of homegrown talent. But our young people have been let down by over a decade of decline in training opportunities which has let them down, and made Britain poorer.

We will task the Migration Advisory Committee with monitoring and assessing where skills shortages have led to surges in overseas recruitment. The assessments that they make will help industries to invest in the training, workforce plans and higher quality jobs that we need.

It is vital that the Migration Advisory Committee, Skills England, and the government are all working together to ensure our policies and decisions on immigration, skills and growth are all properly intertwined.

It is only this way that we can break down barriers to opportunity, both for our young people and those already in the workforce, and achieve economic growth in every part of the country.

Labour conference was an important time for laying out Labour’s plans for government and for conversation with businesses, delegates, charities and visitors about how we are working in partnership with industry and the country to renew our economy, rebuild our public services and invest in our communities. Change cannot come fast enough.