“Labour will restore hope across the country by being an ‘agent of change’ for working people,” Keir Starmer will tell the Progressive Britain Conference

Following local elections results that showed Labour on track to form the next majority government, having ‘won in all four corners of England’, Keir Starmer will address the Progressive Britain Conference today (Saturday) with a pledge to ‘go deeper and further than New Labour.’

In a speech emphasising that his personal values are at the heart of his work, Keir Starmer will say:

“We are on a path towards power, but there’s still more work to be done, and the toughest part lies ahead.

“The task now is to measure up to the scale of change that Britain needs, to demonstrate we can be the hope – the light at the end of the tunnel – working people need.

“Restoring hope for working people - this is my politics. This is my project.”

Acknowledging the ‘revolutions’ his incoming Labour government would inherit, Starmer is expected to say:

“We’ve got to navigate our way through revolutions in technology, in energy, in medicine and, with an ageing society, even in who we are. Climate change is a recipe for global instability. The global economy, the shape of power in the world, is changing. There is war on our continent. And then there’s the state of our country after 13 years of shambolic Tory government.

“If you think our job in 1997 was to rebuild a crumbling public realm, that in 1964 it was to modernise an economy overly dependent on the kindness of strangers, in 1945 to build a new Britain, in a volatile world, out of the trauma of collective sacrifice, in 2024 it will have to be all three.”

Calling out the Tories’ broken promises, economic failure and rule breaking, Keir Starmer will assert they have chosen the ‘terrain of decline’ and promise that there is an alternative. He will say:

“The Labour Party will only restore hope in the country, if we once again become the natural vehicle for working people, an agent for their hopes and aspirations, a party of the common good.

“Some people think that all we’re doing is distancing ourselves from the previous regime – that totally misses the point. This is about taking our party back to where we belong and where we should always have been… back doing what we were created to do…

“That’s why I say this project goes further and deeper than New Labour’s rewriting of Clause Four… This is about rolling our sleeves up, changing our entire culture – our DNA. This is Clause Four – on steroids.

“A party that speaks for, fights for, wins for working people.”

Keir Starmer will say that the party must show it understands how a changing world is ‘producing levels of insecurity that are hard to endure’. He is expected to say:

“If work doesn’t pay, if living standards are falling, bills are rising, holidays start to feel out of reach… family life does feel more fragile. When you look out your window and you see your community changing, see your high street boarded up, fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour, drugs, crime, that does gnaw away at your confidence in the future.

“If you see an economy which hoards power and potential, where the South East creates the wealth and we all see redistributing the crumbs as the ultimate progressive test, that isn’t treating our communities with the dignity or respect they deserve.”

Keir Starmer will offer a deeply personal view of what he considers patriotism, explaining how it drives his politics and his party. Starmer is expected to say:

“Patriotism is about putting the country first, about serving your country, not just parading its symbols like the Tories do, but that working people do need to see your commitment to service.

“Not some kind of patronising contempt for those who fly our flag. It’s a project that comes from my values, from my political core, that depends on understanding the true worth of service, respect and stability, gets how these three values are the precondition for hope and unity, for reconnecting with working people, and meeting their aspirations in a more volatile world.

“People think politics is about vanity or self-enrichment. We’ve got to show them the country always comes first.”

Calling out the Tories’ divisive politics and stoking of culture wars, Keir Starmer will say:

“People want a politics that is done with them, not to them, that is about lifting people up, not punching down.

“I have never believed there was an appetite for culture war politics in this country. You don’t need to humiliate people to move our country forward – you need to bring people together.

“Business and worker. Public and private. Politics and people. Four great nations all pulling together. All united in a collective mission.

“A mission with priorities that are contested, debated, negotiated – absolutely. But where politics has a higher purpose that we never compromise on. Where we understand that a nation is not just a country, but a community. Not just a collection of individuals, but a cause.”

Reflecting on his dad’s experience, Starmer will outline why joining in a collective mission benefits our country. He is expected to say:

“We all owe things to one another. Dignity. Understanding. And most of all respect.

“This is everything to me – I saw how feelings of disrespect weighed my father down, chipped away at his esteem.

“I want Britain to be a country where people don’t have to change who they are, just to get on. Whatever your circumstances, however you contribute, whoever you are, everyone deserves respect.

“I also believe that coming together is a force far more powerful than division. Because when people are fully respected, when they feel their contribution carries weight, that they can bring their whole self to their work, their shoulders lift up. Their belief comes back.”

Keir Starmer will say that their divisive attacks on our nation means ‘the Conservatives can no longer claim to be conservative’.

“We can seize the opportunities of tomorrow and make them work for working people. But this ambition must never become unmoored from working peoples’ need for stability, for order, security.

“We must understand there are precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve and to pass on to future generations.

“And look - if that’s sounds conservative, then let me tell you: I don’t care. Somebody has got to stand up for the things that make this country great and it isn’t’ going to be the Tories.

“That in the end is one of the great failure of the last 13 years. A Tory Party that in generations past saw itself as the protector of the nation and the union has undermined both. They’ve taken an axe to the security of family life, trashed Britain’s reputation abroad, and totally lost touch with the ordinary hope of working people.

“The Conservative Party can no longer claim to be conservative.

“It conserves nothing we value – not our rivers and seas, not our NHS or BBC, not our families, not our nation.”

Keir Starmer will say that his mission led government will ‘chart a new course, a break not just from Labour arguments of the past, but also from the traditional Westminster model. The Labour leader is expected to say:

“Growth that truly serves working people comes from the grassroots. Productivity in every community, not just redistribution. It puts communities in charge of their own destiny.

“This is what I mean by mission-led government. And it’s why I’m not afraid to use the language of take back control. There’s no hope in these times for a stand-aside state.

“But we need to accept that nobody is going to unite behind the traditional Westminster way of doing things. Seriously - walk round any working class community and you will be hit over the head by this. The people we need to serve no longer have faith in an unreformed state, and that speaks to the bigger truth.

“The British people need a politics which gets the value of respect and service, and uses it to deliver stability and change. Security and hope. That is why I’m here, that is my project.

“A new partnership between politics and working people. A new Labour project for our times. A changed Labour Party for a changed Britain.”