Thank you all for being here today for our annual conference.
It’s a time to come together and discuss the issues we care so deeply about…
And to recognise the work of our team, and our hopeful and ambitious vision for the future.
Over the last year we’ve been focused on getting the basics right - on our message, on delivering effective opposition. On visibility in communities.
I know it hasn’t all been easy – we’re asking more of our team, asking more for our voters. And it’s working. Today marks the start of our next phase, ready to seek out new members and new candidates, fresh voices to represent their communities in councils and in the Assembly.
So, to the many of you who have dug deep, picked up the call, thank you. Thank you for the time and the effort you put into the SDLP and our shared goals. Your passion, your activism, is the fuel the party fires on.
We’re hard at work as Stormont’s Opposition with our team led by the unwavering Matthew O’Toole. I even have a tiny bit of MLA-FOMO these days.
Matthew, thank you sincerely for your determination and your ideas …and I promise I didn’t write my speech using ChatDUP.
I’ve loved being out and about with you all over the last year, racking up the miles, meeting so many people who believe in the SDLP.
Our councillors out walking the walk – like Adam Gannon, fighting and winning for services in Fermanagh.
Aurla King picking up the baton from Gareth Sharvin - two solid voices for Downpatrick and Strangford.
Pete Byrne and Lilian Seenoi-Barr leading through their mayoral years. Here in Belfast, our own Paul Doherty showing the best of us to the whole city.
And Conference, we think about who isn’t here too. We think about Oisín Johnson. Denise, Paul, you’re on our minds every day. We’re thinking of you and here for you…
Party conference is more than a moment.
What begins in this room flows out into the work we do every single day.
In the year since you gave me the honour of leading the Social Democratic and Labour Party, we’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the kind of politics that’s needed today.
And we know, the space for our values has never been clearer.
We’re centre left, we’re anti sectarian and we’re proudly for progress and a New Ireland.
Put simply, that means fairness, respect for everyone and improvement in their lives.
We’re a party with a history of bringing people together and moving things forward in difficult times.
Of listening, empowering, persuading. Of seeing difference as a strength, and not a dividing line. Of letting in light where there has only been heat… Well we’re ready to do that again.
Throughout my time as a councillor, MLA, MP and now SDLP Leader, I’ve had the chance to see the best of what our region is.
Neighbours stepping forward to support those in need…
Communities standing up against hatred…
The spirit, the talent the, belief of people shining through…
Athletes who inspire us, business leaders out on the world stage, artists who capture what it means to be human…
From Nobel Prize winners to those quietly serving noble causes…
This is who we are.
This is the Northern Ireland I know and love.
But politics here holds our people back…
Successes are in spite of government - certainly not because of it.
Yes, we have peace - but we don’t have reconciliation.
Yes, we have equality in law - but not all have the chance to succeed.
Yes, we have North South structures - that are just going through the motions.
Yes, we have power shared out - but no one can call it good government.
The result?
Marathon waiting lists,
a housing crisis,
public services people can no longer rely on.
Our most precious natural resource - polluted.
A home for the GAA in Ulster – unbuilt.
A safe A5 - stalled.
Confidence draining in politics. An Executive that kicks big decisions into the long grass and that never seems far from collapse.
In Government, but not truly in power.
Two big parties with neither in the driving seat, allergic to responsibility. And a third, along for the ride, no matter the destination.
They have the tools, but not the will to use them.
By every meaningful metric, a child born here has worse outcomes than a child born in Dublin, London or Edinburgh.
I firmly believe that it doesn’t have to be this way
Conference, that’s the driving cause of the SDLP – to fight for opportunities for everyone.
Good jobs to help support families…
Affordable childcare that makes work worthwhile…
Access to health services when and where they’re needed…
The chance to enjoy life, not just to get by…
And if the Executive is judged on these tests, it must be judged a failure.
In our role as the Official Opposition, we’re driving forward accountability from the 4 parties in the Executive…
To show that people are allowed to expect something better.
We don’t just oppose – we offer.
We don’t just describe the problem, we find the answers too. On Lough Neagh, on housing, on childcare, on Europe, on making Stormont actually work.
We’re creating a culture of accountability. To draw some lines between actions,
inactions,… and their consequences in people’s lives. That government has to do more than just exist.
None of this is about political games - When we speak up there, we’re speaking up for you.
The change and the reform, we heard so much about at the last election has barely moved an inch…
Power, won by promises at the ballot box, neglected to actually use.
Devolution was meant to show the possibility of power in local hands, to build a case for the future by delivering in the here and now.
That’s the SDLP’s job right now - to force the Executive to do what it can…
What it’s meant to do, what it said it would do!
Challenging failure when we see it- but also driving new ideas.
Showing that politics is about lifting people up, not driving them apart…
As I speak to you today, our purpose has never been clearer.
Across the globe and here at home things feel fragile, and frightening.
Divisive rhetoric has been normalised - fuelling division and fear.
Every day on our screens we’re confronted with unbearable human suffering. Like many of you, I pick up my phone in the morning and somehow the news seems even worse than the day before… A strange and confusing time.
Trump in the White House,
power amassing to tech bros,
rising inequality,
genocide in Gaza… all run deep in our minds…
Deep in our souls.
And perhaps most dangerously of all, a sense of hopelessness is taking hold - as if the future can only ever be worse than the past.
Solving the challenges before us needs depth, honesty and courage
But what we get are hollow slogans:
Stop the boats
Ireland is full
Take back control.
Those peddlers of myths and misinformation don’t want solutions…
They want profit from the divisions they create
They are stripping away optimism, vision and hope.
But that’s exactly what so many people want and need most right now.
Conference, remember - after the darkness, comes the dawn.
Leanann an gile gach dorchadas…
We know better than most that even in our darkest days, hope survives
Our ideas, our energy, can let in light to lift the gloom…
If history shows us anything… it’s that we have to fight for hope in every generation.
The SDLP will fight for hope and work to create a better future.
And conference - Stormont ‘ticking over’ is far from the limit of this party’s ambition.
We have make it work while pushing further, creating what comes next.
Because as things are now, the potential of this place is just so limited.
That doesn’t mean we stop trying to make things better right now. While some of us aspire to a different future, that doesn’t mean Stormont can’t address the problems of now.
It doesn’t mean you can’t do both. We have to do both.
And Conference, there are some who say that having our view on our future is tribal… that you can't deliver good outcomes for people today, while designing something better for tomorrow.
Well, this party has its feet on the ground, but its eyes on the horizon too.
And the truth is, events beyond this island are shaping how people think about their future…
Today’s Britain is more and more at odds with our values…
Politics there doesn’t have much to say about the people who live here. It barely has the energy to care.
And looming it over it all, Nigel Farage. He has never hidden his complete disinterest in this place.
The high priest of Brexit, who was only too happy to burn our Agreement.
An architect of chaos who is forcing people to question where they belong.
A man who’ll wrap himself in a Union flag but still do you an ‘Up the RA’ video for 50 quid.
The UK is changing, no matter what we do.
I know there are parties here who’ll tell you just how awful it all is… but who seem happy to sit back and let the future sort itself out.
*People* can be overwhelmed watching the politics evolve. But political parties are supposed to find the paths.
From some, it’s starting to look like Boris Johnson with his two versions of the article, waiting to see how the wind blows.
Electoral calculations put ahead of values and courage.
Conference the choice is simple: we shape the future - or we become its passengers.
And if the SDLP was to sit back, if we’re not there, there will be no real conversation about where our interests are best served.
And that real discussion won’t be put off any longer.
A New Ireland is not just about removing a border. It can’t just be about reversing partition.
It is about so much more…
A time for real reconciliation.
Not just a photo-op, a handshake, a soundbite.
We’re talking about a way of life in a complex place.
A way of living defined by empathy, restraint and reflection.
Not always scoring the point, not always seeing the worst.
The journey itself shaping the destination. The courage to have the hard conversations, to talk past the holding lines, to find a better way forward, together.
For those who say it’s too soon, what exactly are we waiting for? What’s about to come in year 27, or year 30, of Agreement that suddenly offers a better plan? You tell us how this arrangement is somehow better for reconciliation…
A New Ireland brings a focus on opportunity.
Deeper economic integration – wider horizons, innovation.
The opportunity to redesign public services, the best of both systems for the benefit of all.
A cultural superpower. Being proud of what’s done in our name on the world stage.
Thinking beyond the next election.
The chance of a new shared identity - outward-looking and compassionate, soulful and robust, forged from history, ready for the future.
The chance to move beyond the dusty labels of unionism and nationalism, to embrace the real diversity of colour, creed, idea, belief in 2025.
And when I speak about a New Ireland, I don’t just mean new to us.
The Republic is not a utopia.
It has had dark episodes in the past too.
Systems that don’t work for all the people.
But more than almost any country in the world, it has shown a true capacity for
transformation.
So this isn’t just the chance for change for the North, this process can drive what needs to be new in all of Ireland.
A brand-new nation. A social democracy.
With public wealth and not just private.
And one which that can know the north not as the troubled and distant cousin but as a sister, a brother. The fiery northern star that is so much more than the sum of our broken parts.
We understand that for many, big change feels daunting.
I respect those who disagree, just as I understand those who remain unsure.
In a place shaped by history and scarred by division, those feelings must never be dismissed.
And that is why the journey really matters. How we have this conversation really matters.
A road where fears and doubts are addressed and overcome…
Where both opportunities and challenges are faced squarely and truthfully…
Hopes voiced honestly and concerns addressed with respect.
And for those who see a different future… tell us, show us, let’s have that conversation too.
But let’s stop doing nothing.
Frozen in a stale status quo.
A political Hotel California –
where the past is ever present, and the future never arrives.
Only by facing all the futures is the choice made real.
And at its heart, the idea is so simple and so exciting: people here, in all our difference and diversity, coming together to write our own future.
We know that no party alone can deliver a New Ireland.
But this one has an enormous part to play.
I don’t think that anyone who wants to see that future can honestly say we’ll get there better without the SDLP…
We can’t answer every question, but we put forward our arguments with substance and good faith.
We’ll be, as so often in the past, trustworthy partners, pathfinders. Putting the people first, making the case for a better future for everyone.
And this means a challenge, especially to the Government in the South.
The shifting nature of politics means they cannot afford to be caught off guard.
They can’t keep denying responsibility for planning for constitutional change.
We’re not just a peace project to be managed and soothed.
Many across this island are looking to Dublin for leadership that they have yet to provide.
This is not about an arbitrary deadline for a border poll. It never has been for this party.
But it is about doing the work, the how and the why - so that when the time does come, we are prepared. We’re calm, we’re confident.
Free beer tomorrow isn’t a manifesto.
But neither is waiting endlessly for the fruit to ripen.
So, my call is simple.
To the Irish and British Governments – now is the moment to begin real planning.
Give a New Ireland the focus it deserves with a new Ministry in the South:
- Create a defined structure for all island dialogue.
- Open minds, clear eyed.
- Where it doesn’t have to derail work on the every day.
A forum where all voices are welcome, but no one view can stop play…
Preparing for a future which might be closer than many think…
Conference, let us leave here determined to Build Something New - Reconciled, confident, and ready for the world.
A New Ireland and a new Northern Ireland along the way.
And to neighbours and friends beyond this room. If you know that this isn’t as good as it gets, take another look at the SDLP.
If you want to write the chapter of something bigger and better, the SDLP is the party for you.
We’ve faced moments like this before, then politics was broken and people felt there was no clear way forward.
The SDLP showed that progress is possible.
We’re ready to do that again, and we want you with us on that journey.
Let’s Build Something New.