Sir Keir Starmer set his sights on becoming one of Labour’s great reforming prime ministers on Tuesday as he sought to supplant the Tories as the party of aspiration, home ownership and growth.
The Labour leader shrugged off a protest at the start of his keynote speech to the party’s annual rally in Liverpool, when a young man shouting slogans stormed the stage and hurled glitter over him before security guards pounced.
Sir Keir was forced to take off his jacket and deliver his speech in rolled-up shirt sleeves, and used the incident to stress the authority he has stamped on the party after the left-wing activism of the Jeremy Corbyn years.
“If he thinks that bothers me, he doesn’t know me. Protest or power, that’s why we changed our party, conference,” he told the Labour faithful in a packed hall, drawing a standing ovation.
Turning to the substance of a speech brimming with hope, determination and ambition, he told thousands of delegates that the party must deliver a “new era of growth” to create a “Britain built to last”.
Recalling the governments of Tony Blair, Harold Wilson and Clement Attlee, he said: “If you think our job in 1997 was to rebuild a crumbling public realm.
“That in 1964 it was to modernise an economy left behind by the pace of technology.
“In 1945 to build a new Britain out of the trauma of collective sacrifice. Then in 2024 it will have to be all three.” Sir Keir did not announce any eye-catching new policies but his speech was charged with emotive rhetoric and interspersed with more personal sections as he sought to present himself as a future PM to lead the nation in recovery from the “age of insecurity” to “get our future back”.
Tearing into 13 years of Tory rule dogged by political turmoil, the cost-of-living crisis and pandemic, he said: “Today we turn the page. Answer the question ‘Why Labour?’ with a plan for a Britain built to last.”
He planted Labour as a “party of service” not protest, firmly in the centre ground of British politics just four years after Mr Corbyn led the party to election disaster.
Business
Labour was unafraid to “hold out the hand of partnership to business”, Sir Keir insisted, as he outlined plans for a public-private National Wealth Fund to invest in electric battery giga factories, clean British steel and a new generation of ports. His vision was not “state control, not pure free markets... but a genuine partnership” as he told how company chiefs had bemoaned the “chopping and changing, the sticking plaster politics, the chaos, that is holding back investment in our country”.
Homes
Sir Keir vowed to free up development in areas of the country that he said were mislabelled “green belt,” as part of plans to build 1.5 million new homes so the “dream of home ownership” did not increasingly become a “luxury for the few not the privilege of the many”. He announced a blueprint for a “new generation” of towns and to “bulldoze” through barriers in the planning system to speed up key infrastructure projects.
The NHS
A backlog of 7.5 million people waiting for NHS treatment under the Tories was an “outrage”, the Labour leader said, highlighting the case of Hendon FC footballer Hamza Semakula who is having to crowd-fund £15,000 for private care after he tore his knee ligaments. “The whole point of our NHS is to be the crowd-funded solution for all of us,” Sir Keir said, pledging to get the service “back on its feet”.
Families
Highlighting economic woes of many families, Sir Keir said his sister, a care worker, had struggled “just to make ends meet” during the cost-of-living crisis despite having worked “14-hour shifts” throughout the pandemic. “I grew up working class,” he added, stressing the “pebble-dashed semi was everything to my family”. He said: “I’ve felt the anxiety of a cost-of-living crisis before. And until your family can see the way out, I will fight for you.”
The Tories
In a direct appeal to Conservative voters to join Labour, said: “If you look in horror at the descent of your party into the murky waters of populism and conspiracy, with no argument for economic change.”
However, he also predicted the Tories would be “up for the fight” at the next election and claimed they would be “dangerous”, ready to “cross the line” to stay in power.
Critics, though, may say Sir Keir is yet to flesh out what Labour stands for, and that more policies should be unveiled to cut through to voters.
Crime
Sir Keir also sought to seize the issue of law and order back from the Tories, with a new Community Policing Guaranteem to ensure more town centre patrols through 13,000 extra neighbourhood officers and Police Community Support Officers on the streets.
Israel
On foreign affairs, he stressed Labour’s staunch backing for Ukraine and said he was “shocked and appalled by events in Israel”. “I utterly condemn the senseless murder of men, women and children — including British citizens — in cold blood by the terrorists of Hamas,” the Labour leader said.
Scotland
Sir Keir said Labour’s storming victory in the recent by-election for Rutherglen and Hamilton West showed “a tide that is turning” for Labour in Scotland.
