The Labour movement is – and always has been – in my blood. I have spent my entire life campaigning for fairness and for the rights of working people, first as a constituency activist, then as a councillor and through 22 years working for a union before I became an MP and a Cabinet Minister.

My time with ASTMS and MSF in the Thatcher years, when we struggled to survive, showed me what a difference trade unions make to people’s lives. But it also showed why unions need support from a Labour government. Union members want to be listened to – and rightly so – and the best way to ensure this is to show the potential unions have to change our society for the better.

And that’s what I have done. The Union Learning Fund which I helped establish with David Blunkett now helps more than 100,000 people each year to get the training they need to get on at work. The DFID-TUC forum I created as Secretary of State for International Development and the £750,000 partnership agreement I signed with the TUC has made sure that union voices get heard where decisions about international development are made, and it’s helping us to tap the potential of unions in the developing world to fight poverty.

That’s my past. But politics is about the future and this election should be about what we are going to do. Britain is no longer the divided country we were in 1997, in which unions had been systematically excluded. But we cannot afford to be content with what we achieved. For the first time in our movement’s history, we now have the chance to put Labour values firmly at the centre of our public life. I want to be Deputy Leader to help the Party to make this happen.

I want a politics in which we ask people to give something back, as well as asking things of others; a country which acts on its concern about poverty, whether in Africa or at home; a society that places as much importance on our children and on how we relate to one another as it does on economic stability; a culture which celebrates what people do to contribute, whether in public service, business, a union or in their local community; and a Labour Government which doesn’t just redistribute wealth, but which also redistributes power and opportunity to make society fairer. Trade unions, whether representing people in the public sector, manufacturing or companies can assist by recruiting members, supporting them in improving their skills and being that helping hand at work that is the heart of union values.

We should be optimistic. But we should also be honest and recognise that we need a more straightforward politics if we are to continue to shape Britain into the society we would wish it to be. We have to acknowledge that the biggest problems we face are cynicism and lack of trust on the one hand, and a party and union membership that feels excluded and ignored on the other. That’s why tackling these – through a more open, straightforward approach to politics and a real partnership with unions – would be my first priority.

Read my statement on why trade union members should vote for me

Read my biography

Read my responses to the UnionsTogether Election Survey

View my UnionsTogether TV Interview