will today promise to get
Britain its future back, saying that his five missions will usher
in a decade of national renewal “totally focused on the interests
of working people.”
The Labour leader will draw a contrast between his plan and the
last 13 years of Tory rule, saying that with his leadership
Labour will “turn our backs on never-ending Tory decline with a
decade of national renewal” and give the British people the
“government they deserve.”
The speech will answer the question 'why Labour?’, explaining how
economic growth, safer streets, cheaper homegrown British power,
better opportunities, and a rejuvenated NHS will get Britain its
future back.
Starmer will warn that the path back from 13 years of Tory
decline will be hard. But he will speak with optimism and hope
about Britain’s future, saying: “What is broken can be repaired,
what is ruined can be rebuilt.”
He will promise that Labour will “get Britain building”,
unleashing a “big build” that ensures “the winner this time will
be working people, everywhere.” He will contrast this with going to Manchester last week
to scrap Manchester’s train line and the failure of successive
Tory governments to plan for Britain’s future.
He will also commit to fighting the next election on economic
growth, saying: “An economy that works for the whole country,
will require an entirely new approach to politics: mission
government, ending the Tory disease of ‘sticking plaster
politics’ with a simple Labour philosophy that together we fix
tomorrow’s challenges, today.”
The focus on growth, building and national renewal stands in
marked contrast not just to the Tories but to the way Labour has
talked in the past. Starmer will tell party conference that the
sweeping changes made to the Labour Party under his leadership
mean it is, “a changed Labour Party, no longer in thrall to
gesture politics, no longer a party of protest… Those days are
done. We will never go back.” Instead, he will say, Labour is
now, “a party of service… country first, party second.”
The Labour leader will also talk about the importance of
the Union, saying that the result in Rutherglen has proven
that Labour is the party that can unite all the nations of
Britain, “reigniting the flame” to “face a modern age of
insecurity” together.
Starmer will say: “There’s nothing more important. The
Scottish people are not just looking at us, they’re also looking
at Britain. For the first time in a long time we can see a tide
that is turning. Four nations that are renewing. Old wounds of
division – exploited by the Tories and the SNP - beginning to
heal. Let the message from Rutherglen ring out across Britain:
Labour serves working people in Scotland because Labour serves
working people across all these islands.”
Speaking about how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted
families across the country, Starmer will say that “we should
never forget that politics should tread lightly on peoples’
lives, that our job is to shoulder the burden for working people
- carry the load, not add to it.”
He will say that the test of success will be giving working
people their futures back by making their lives easier, freer and
more secure: “We have to be a government that takes care of the
big questions so working people have the freedom to enjoy what
they love. More time, more energy, more possibility, more life.
We all need the ability to look forward, to move forward, free
from anxiety. That’s what getting our future back really means.”
“It boils down to this: can we look the challenges of this age
squarely in the eye and amidst all the change and insecurity find
the hunger to win new opportunities and the strength to conserve
what is precious.”
Summarising the challenge facing Britain and Labour’s response to
it, Starmer will promise: “A Britain strong enough, stable
enough, secure enough for you to invest your hope, your
possibility, your future”, and one where people can be “certain
that things will be better for your children. ”
“People are looking to us because they want our wounds to heal
and we are the healers. People are looking to us because
these challenges require a modern state and we are the
modernisers. People are looking to us because they want us to
build a new Britain and we are the builders.”
