The opportunity to shape our country’s future rests in your hands, Starmer tells Britain, as Labour leader urges voters to choose Labour
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In a speech today (Thursday 4 January), Keir Starmer will tell the
people of Britain that “the opportunity to shape our country’s
future rests in your hands”, as he urges voters to choose a changed
Labour Party dedicated to serving working people. Speaking in the
West of England this morning, Starmer will say an election year can
bring hope to people across Britain: “The thought of millions of
people, right across our country, putting a cross on that ballot
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In a speech today (Thursday 4 January), Keir Starmer will tell the people of Britain that “the opportunity to shape our country’s future rests in your hands”, as he urges voters to choose a changed Labour Party dedicated to serving working people. Speaking in the West of England this morning, Starmer will say an election year can bring hope to people across Britain: “The thought of millions of people, right across our country, putting a cross on that ballot paper, it’s what we’ve been waiting for, preparing for, fighting for. A year of choice and the chance to change Britain. “If you’ve been breaking your back to keep trading, steering your business through the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the challenge of Brexit and the chaos of Westminster. “If you’ve been serving our country, whether in scrubs or the uniform of your regiment and what you want now is a politics that serves you, then make no mistake - this is your year. “The opportunity to shape our country’s future rests in your hands. “And that is a new year message of hope: the hope of democracy, the power of the vote, and the potential for national renewal.” Starmer will say that Britain will find hope in a commitment to service in politics: “No matter the road the Tories take this year, I believe that if people see the commitment to service is always there in politics, and if they can see that people in power respect their concerns, then a lot of people across this country, after everything we’ve been through over the past 14 years, will find some hope in that. “It will feel different. The character of politics will change, and with it the national mood. A collective breathing out, a burden lifted, and then, the space for a more hopeful look forward. Because the truth is, it’s this kind of politics and only this kind of politics that can offer real change. “So do not listen to the siren voices that say we’re all the same. We’re not, and we never will be. Do not listen when they say we can’t change Britain. We can, and we will.” After 14 years of Tory rule with nothing to show for it, will explain that he understands why people have turned against politics as a force for good, but that this year he will ask people to believe in the power of their vote again: “This year, at the General Election, against the understandable despair of a downtrodden country, I will ask the British people to believe in it again. “You’re right to be anti-Westminster and angry about what politics has become. “But hold on to any flickering hope in your heart that things can be better, because they can, and you can choose it. “You can reject the pointless populist gestures and the low-road cynicism that the Tories believe is all you deserve. That’s all they have left now. After 14 years, with nothing good to show, no practical achievements to point towards, no purpose beyond the fight to save their own skins. “They can’t change Britain, so they try to undermine the possibility of change itself.” Reflecting on his time leading a public service, Starmer is expected to say he came into politics to serve:
“I didn’t come into politics for that. I came into politics to serve and to get things done. To strive, each and every day, to make a difference to the lives of working people… “That’s what gets me up in the morning, and if you can put aside the reality of Westminster for a moment, it’s why I still believe in politics as a force for good.” On how taking tough decisions in his previous career has informed his view that politics is a service not a hobby, Starmer will say: “I had a long career before this. At the Crown Prosecution Service, as a human rights lawyer, in my work with the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I’ve looked into the eyes of people I’ve served or represented and I have seen reflected back the knowledge that government can make or break a life. “Literally, when it comes to work, I’ve done with people living on death row. Life and death decisions – placed in your hands. “There’s pressure that comes with that, but that’s the responsibility of justice and public service. And it’s the responsibility of serious government. “This isn’t a game. Politics shouldn’t be a hobby – a pastime for people who enjoy the feeling of power, and nor should it be a sermon from on high, a self-regarding lecture, vanity dressed up as virtue. No, it should be a higher calling.” The Labour leader will warn against Tory divisiveness, and say his Labour party will fight the politics of divide and decline with renewal and hope: “We’re trying not just to defeat the Tories, but to defeat their entire way of doing politics, a mindset that seeks out any differences between the people of this country. “I have to warn you all, they will leave no stone unturned this year either. Every opportunity for division will be explored for political potential, that is a given. “But we have to bring the country together, and have to earn trust as well as votes. To truly defeat this miserabilist Tory project, we must crush their politics of divide and decline with Labour renewal.” Acknowledging that trust in politics is so low and degraded, Starmer will pledge his Labour Party will clean up politics: “To change Britain, we must change ourselves. We need to clean up politics. No more VIP fast lanes, no more kickbacks for colleague, no more revolving doors between government and the companies they regulate. I will restore standards in public life with a total crackdown on cronyism: this ends now. “I’ve put expense cheat politicians in jail before and I didn’t care if they were Labour or Tory. Nobody will be above the law in a Britain I lead.”
“Britain needs change, wants change, is crying out for change. And yet – trust in politics is now so low, so degraded, that nobody believes you can make a difference anymore. “That after the sex scandals, the expenses scandals, the waste scandals, the contracts for friends, even in a crisis like the pandemic, people have looked at us and concluded we’re all just in it for ourselves. “A nation that is so exhausted, tired, despairing even, that they’ve given up on hope. “So, whether you’re thinking of voting Labour for the first time, whether you always vote Labour, or whether you have no intention of voting Labour whatsoever: my party will serve you. “That’s who we are now, a changed Labour Party. No longer in thrall to gesture politics, no longer a party of protest, but a party of service.” |