A new dawn has broken, has it not? The sun has set on the Tories. That’s for sure.

Let’s not pretend that this is anything but a good thing. The Tories being removed from power, taking their class and culture wars with them, can signal the start of the healing for workers and their families.

When the history books are written about their time in office, especially over the past 14 years, words cannot convey the depths of anguish caused to working families by this now-defunct administration.

From foodbank use skyrocketing to stagnant wages; from workers’ rights being restricted to public services being ransacked. What we’ve witnessed – and opposed at every step – is the concerted breakdown of the social cohesion of our communities, aided and abetted by a Tory Government inching closer and closer to the right over the years. Courting the charms of those would-be Reform voters has seen those inside the Conservatives push an ever more divisive policy platform that has othered those most in need and blamed those most in want.

A policy platform that has, through the ballot box, been widely rejected. Not a moment too soon.

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As the light breaks through and we consign the Tories to the darkness of the past, we must hold Labour to account for their promises to our movement and the hope they have pledged. The margin of victory for Labour may have been well trailed but, even for the most optimistic of pollsters or supporters, they will still be in awe of the final tally. What comes with such a stonking rout is a majority so overwhelming that any hope of consensus or coalition politics may soon disappear like the crumbled Tory leaflets and rosettes that lie abandoned across the land.

Now, of course, Westminster isn’t really designed to do coalition politics. Theresa May doing a desperate, grubby multi-billion pound deal with the DUP in 2017 was in the self-interest, not the national interest. The coalition government of 2010-2015 ushered in the age of austerity that we have rallied against each and every turn.

Politicians can talk about consensus, by all means, but in reality with a majority so large and so unassailable, Starmer can start to lay the roots of a Labour Government shaped and moulded by his principles, whatever they may be. He has the power and numbers to do so.

What now matters is how the new Prime Minister uses the mandate given to him. If wielded on behalf of working people, we could start to see the shoots of recovery spring up across the nation and lightness shine.

Not only just for our communities, who have faced too many broken promises by political elites but for workers engaged in the same fight for fairness and dignity in their workplace.

Roz Foyer says Labour must deliver for workersRoz Foyer says Labour must deliver for workers (Image: free)

It’s why, starting now as the ink goes dry on this paper, Starmer is on the clock to deliver his New Deal for Working People. That’s not just pressure from us, albeit unions from every corner of the UK have pushed for this New Deal to be delivered in full without equivocation; it’s self-imposed pressure from the Labour Party. They’re the ones who have promised that legislation will be laid before Parliament on the New Deal within the first 100 days of office. That starts now.

In truth, the clock started for working people years ago. Union members and reps have been engaged in years of struggle, more prominently in recent years, to fight and win for their members.

Despite the restrictions placed on us, with a Trade Union Act and a Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Act curtailing our ability to organise – Acts which, by promises made to our movement by the Labour Party, should now be ripped up and tossed into the fire - workers in Scotland have delivered over £4 billion worth of pay rises during the cost-of-living crisis.

That work continues. As we speak, members of the GMB union in Dunfermline will be outside Amazon showing solidarity with their colleagues across the country as the GMB seeks to make history in gaining union recognition within the company.

Never doubt the power that ordinary working people possess when they come together and fight as a collective. Whether that be at the ballot box or the union negotiating table, collectivised workers bring with them the voices of their families and communities.

If they can take on Amazon, then they can take on anyone. No politician, government nor employer can hope to hold a candle to those who seek to better their working conditions and have an organised union behind them.

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Amazon has deployed every union-busting, dirty trick in the book to try and disrupt their workforce from banding together. They’ve made the same, fatal mistake that many others, including governments, do when trying to curtail workers; they underestimate their resolve.

Yes, as a collective, we’ve suffered setbacks over the years. But as a swathe of Prime Ministers over the past 14 years should now know, it’s far better to be on the side of working people than against them. We’ve seen the Tory Government off. We’ve seen Cameron, May, Johnson, and Truss, with Sunak shortly joining them, sail off into the sunset, write their memoirs and cash their cheques from the lucrative speaking circuits, all the while unions are still providing an outlet for working people to better their working lives.

We’re the ones who, come hail, rain or shine, have been on picket lines or within Parliament taking our cause directly to the decision-makers. The task now for Starmer is to ensure that, whilst it cannot always be sunshine and rainbows, he doesn’t deviate away from what he has promised the nation. He has our support in delivering a progressive, radical agenda that puts workers first.

Should he fall short, it's only two years until the Scottish Parliament elections after all. Maybe then we’ll find out whether this is a new age of politics to be delivered by Labour or just another false dawn.

Roz Foyer is general secretary of the STUC