Tag: Keir Starmer

Part of the article by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, published in the Guardian on 1 May 2024.

One of the most important decisions taken tomorrow will be who leads our nation’s capital. Labour’s candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan, knows what it is like to inherit a Tory shambles. His predecessor spent eight years wasting £53m, £43m of it taxpayers’ money, on a garden bridge to nowhere, burying a report about the appalling state of London’s air and squandering taxpayers’ money on unusable water cannon.

I have known Sadiq for many years, and I am proud to call him a friend and a colleague. He is someone driven by the principle of giving people the same opportunities he had, which allowed him to go from a council estate in Tooting to leading our capital. During his tenure, Sadiq has transformed the mayoralty from a laughing stock to showing leadership. Every pupil in every London state primary school now receives a free school meal. The capital’s air is cleaner to breathe. The Hopper bus fare, allowing unlimited journeys within one hour for one price, the Superloop express bus routes and the Elizabeth Line have all been delivered. Overall housing completions recently hit their highest level in London since the 1930s and more new council homes are being built now than at any time since the 1970s. And 330,000 good jobs have been created through City Hall initiatives. This is the power of Labour in government. And let us not forget that Sadiq has managed all of this in the teeth of a Tory government; just imagine what could be achieved working with a Labour one.

The statement made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 7 April 2024.

Lord Doug Hoyle was Labour through and through. A distinguished parliamentarian and a tenacious campaigner, serving as both as Member of Parliament for Nelson and Colne, and then Warrington.

He was greatly respected, being elected as chair of the PLP, before being elevated to the House of Lords.

A Trade Unionist, co-founder of Labour Friends of Israel and Warrington Wolves fanatic, he had a long standing commitment to the Town, but above everything, he was a family man.

We will truly miss him. All of our thoughts are prayers are with Mr Speaker, Catherine, Emma and his family.

The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Labour Party, in Dudley on 28 March 2024.

Thank you Ange, thank you Richard, we’re all excited for the vision you have for the West Midlands.

It’s great to be here in Dudley to launch Labour’s local election campaign, the path to changing Britain, to national renewal – starts and begins here.

And you can take it from me, we’re not playing for a draw. We’re looking to win in Dudley, looking to win in the West Midlands, right across the country: from Hastings to Hartlepool, a changed Labour Party. On the march, on your side, returned to the service of working people.

Look, I do have to be honest, I was hoping we’d be launching a different election campaign here today. But the Prime Minister bottled it. He wants one last, drawn out summer tour with his beloved helicopter. And so – we need to send him another message. Show his party – once again that their time is up, the dithering must stop, the date must be set. Britain wants change, and it’s time for change with Labour.

Because the choice at these elections is exactly the same as it will be later this year. Stability with Labour, or more chaos with the Tories.

Unity or division. Renewal or decline. A changed Labour Party ready to serve the interests of working people, or a Conservative Party that has forgotten how to serve anything other than itself.

We can all see the consequences. Their failure is visible in every community in Britain. The sewage in our rivers. The ambulances that don’t come. The schools crumbling over our children’s heads. Mortgage and rent payments – through the roof.

And now on top of this, this year, your council tax – rising. A new Tory stealth tax coming soon to your letterbox. £300 per household and they hope you don’t notice. In fact, they tell you they’re cutting your taxes. While at the same time, they’re rifling through your back pocket. Give with one hand, take even more with the other.

On and on and on – it goes. Say the right thing and do the exact opposite. Say – “we’re all in this together”, but decimate your public services. Say there’s no downsides for business, but rush through a careless Brexit deal. Say – this is for “ordinary people”, but crash the economy to give tax cuts to the richest one per cent. A party that is now so desperate, so broken by its failure to address your problems, that it has completely cut itself adrift from the responsibility of service. Reduced – with no record to defend – to exploiting Britain’s problems for the politics of division.

But look – here’s the good news. They don’t get to choose. You don’t have to take it anymore. You can stop them.

That’s the beauty of democracy, the power of the vote rests in your hands. And on 2 May, you can reject the chaos, you can reject division, you can reject decline, and vote for national renewal with Labour.

Because make no mistake – Labour has a plan to get Britain’s future back. A plan to drag politics in this country back to service, tilt our economy back towards the interests of working people and get us building again, working again, growing again by unlocking the pride and potential of communities like Dudley.

That’s what we’ll be campaigning on during these elections. And look – I know some of you may have heard this kind of thing before.

In fact, as Ange said – that is one reason why we came to Dudley to launch this campaign, because of course it was right here that the former Prime Minister, or former, former Prime Minister to be accurate, gave his big “levelling-up” speech.

A project he said would turn the tide on regional inequality in this country and give a fair share to towns like Dudley. You know, people say to me, the worst thing you can do in politics is to prey on peoples’ fear.

Yet in some ways, preying on their hopes is just as bad. And that’s what the Tories did with levelling-up. Of course it struck a chord. Of course – a town like Dudley wanted that hope to be real. Not just the promise of a better future – we all need that.

It’s also how that project knowingly spoke to what towns like this have lost, the way of life that disappeared when the factories or pits closed. The community, the security, the ‘chest-out’ pride that grows when you are certain your contribution is respected.

That what you do, what you make, matters. Not just for your family, but for your community, your country, and even beyond our shores. A pride that looked out to the world and said: this is our place, this is who we are.

It was steel here, but the same is true of shipbuilding in towns like Hartlepool, car manufacturing across this region. Mining, everywhere from the chalk and clay of Essex, to the coal seams of the Midlands and the North.

I mean, just look at the names of our football clubs. Stoke City: the Potters. Stourbridge just down the road: the Glassboys. Ange’s Stockport: the Hatters.

Now, that pride is still there, of course it is, and why not if you’re gunning for promotion like Stockport.

But over the years it’s a pride that’s become a little less sure of the ground beneath its feet. In need of a stronger foundation. A government willing to see communities like this, not as a charity case or a political client, but as a source of growth and dynamism ready to be unlocked. A partnership where politics offers you service rather than turning its back once it has counted your vote.

We understand that in the Labour Party – trust me. What towns like this have been through over the decades. It’s our history, our communities, in many cases, the story which has shaped our families.

My dad was a toolmaker, he worked in a factory. He always felt, particularly in the 80s, that he was looked down on. Disrespected. But equally, my sister is a care worker now, so I will never accept that it’s only the work of the past which deserves our pride and respect.

That was the great lesson of the pandemic. It showed exactly who made up the backbone of Britain. The carers, the couriers, the drivers, the teaching assistants, the warehouse workers, the supermarket staff, the nurses and paramedics. The working people of this country, my Labour Party stands with you.

That’s my biggest frustration with these 14 wasted years. It’s not just the stagnation, not just the price working people have paid. It’s also the countless missed opportunities to give working people the power to drive our country forward.

To bring people together, outside of crisis. Unlock that pride people have for their community and harness it to change our country.

Levelling-up is a good ambition for Britain. Taking back control, if it means control for communities, not politicians in Westminster, that is absolutely essential for growth. But moving forward requires, not just a new plan, but also a fundamental shift in how we govern. Britain has an economy that hoards potential and a politics that hoards power and it’s no coincidence – no accident – that this leaves us with more regional inequality than anywhere else in Europe.

So if we want to change our economy, we must also change our politics, and both these goals require things we know the Tories will never deliver.

Economic stability. A commitment to service. A recognition that the sticking plaster approach to investment costs Britain more in the long-run. And that economic growth is not something those at the top hand down to the rest of the country.

And that a more dangerous world needs a more dynamic government, prepared to step in – alongside business and communities – to deliver the security that working people need.

But perhaps most of all, it needs an end to politics that is done to communities, not with them.

No more political hero complexes, no more fantasies, no more easy answers that require nobody – politicians or people – to lift a finger.

Change comes from us all. I mean that. The Tory era of politics as performance art is coming to an end.

But to get Britain out of this hole, we all need to roll up our sleeves, national renewal is a partnership. I’m not here to tell you everything will be easy. That’s what happened four years ago.

Labour will give you a plan. We’ll give you new powers to make a difference in your community. But look around your country, we need you.

After everything you’ve been through in the past 14 years, I know that this is a hard request to make.

I know how little faith there is in politics to make a difference. But in your heart of hearts, I expect you know that this is what Britain needs right now. A coming together, after all the chaos and division, behind a credible long-term plan. A plan to back your potential, match your ambition, unlock your pride, so together, we get Britain’s future back.

So here’s what voting Labour means this year, the change we offer for your community and our country.

The new foundation we lay together that will give your family more security, unlock your community’s potential and generate economic growth from the whole country.

It’s a plan that starts, as it must – with economic stability. I mean – just look at the Tories now. Once again, in desperation, committing to the madness of unfunded tax cuts. £46 billion to abolish national insurance with no way of funding it other than risky borrowing or cutting your pension and our NHS. They are the only choices whether they admit or not.

It’s like they think Liz Truss never happened. And maybe for their bills, for their mortgage, for their cost of living, it didn’t. But out here, beyond the walls of Westminster, working people have paid an enormous price.

No – policies have to be paid for. Every pound is precious. And this Labour Party, with Rachel Reeves as Chancellor, will value every pound as if it’s yours, because at the end of the day, it is.

And on that rock of economic stability, we lay our new foundation.

Five national missions. Five new priorities to turn the page on Tory decline and walk towards national renewal.

One – higher growth. With a reformed planning system, no longer blocking the homes, the infrastructure, the investment this country needs.

Two – safer streets. With 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers cracking down on the anti-social behaviour which blights too many of our town centres.

Three – cheaper bills, with GB energy. A new publicly owned company, harnessing clean British power not foreign oil and gas.

Four – more opportunities for your children, more mental health support in our schools, expert teachers in every classroom, new technical excellence colleges, training our kids in the skills they need and businesses want.

And five – our NHS back on its feet. Two million extra appointments every year, a plan to cut the waiting lists, start clearing the backlog, rescue NHS dentists, and end the 8am scramble at your GP surgery.

And written through every one of these priorities, a new purpose. The fundamental mission of this changed Labour Party. To tilt this country back towards the service of working people.

A return, not just to the traditional Labour deal, but also the shift we need in the way this country creates wealth, a Britain that serves the interests of working people, as they drive this country forward.

And so, when we look at the opportunities clean energy and new technology can bring, we do so with a national wealth fund, that stands with business, invests in the critical infrastructure our future growth needs, creates 650,000 new jobs – over 60,000 in the East and West Midlands – a plan that will relight the fires of renewal in communities like this.

It used to be called industrial strategy – didn’t it? And it’s not an old-fashioned idea. In most countries similar to Britain – it’s seen as the bread and butter of responsible government. Because in a world as volatile as ours, with new technologies – in life sciences, in clean energy, in artificial intelligence all on our horizon, it is our job to make sure regions like this are backed with the investment that they need.

The gigafactories that will make electric car batteries across the Midlands. The renewable ports ready for the off-shore boom in the North Sea. The clean steel that can bring the next generation of jobs to Scunthorpe or Sheffield. And – when we create jobs in communities like this, we do so with a new deal for working people.

Not just because work should always provide dignity, but also – because a labour market riddled with insecurity is bad for productivity and bad for growth.

And so we scrap zero-hour contracts, we end fire and rehire, make work pay with a real living wage, and say unambiguously – this is good for growth.

And on top of this new foundation, as we deploy the full power of government to deliver security for working people, but we also give power away and put communities in control.

A new Take Back Control act with new powers for mayors over transport, skills, enterprise, energy, planning, rejuvenating our high streets, and new powers to generate growth in every town and city.

Local Growth Plans – that’s the commitment we make today, a full-fat approach to devolution.

But with that, an expectation that those powers will be used to grow the local industries that are so important to unlocking pride. The argument is simple: devolution is absolutely essential for taking on regional inequality. Democratic decisions are better made by local people with skin in the game. I’ve always believed that.

Because it wasn’t some central planner who built the old Round Oak Steel Factory all those years ago, it wasn’t a big politician who made Stourbridge famous for glass production or the Black Country and Birmingham – the workshop of the world.

No, that sort of pride is not in the gift of politicians, it’s built up over the decades by the people, the businesses and the workers of a community in partnership with government, absolutely, that is vital.

Levelling-up doesn’t happen by magic. But the energy and the drive must also come from a place itself. So, when communities across Britain ask – what is our future in the modern economy, I say – Labour will always respect your contribution.

We will give you the tools you need. We will get the country’s future back. But your destination, your decisions, the pride that defines who you are, that belongs to you.

And there is a power in that, a power which I believe can change this country.

Let me put it this way: at some point in your life, many people in here will have heard a doubting voice inside saying “no, this isn’t for you, you don’t belong here, you can’t do that”.

Working class people certainly hear that voice, trust me. And in a strange way, perhaps it’s that kind of insecurity, industrial communities feel when they look to the future.

But imagine if instead a whole country said “you do belong”.

Imagine if a whole country said: we back your potential. Imagine if a whole country commits, properly to unlocking the pride you have for your community, then look what we could build: a Britain where every contribution is equally respected, where you don’t have to change who you are just to get on, where whatever your background, you can feel certain that your effort will be rewarded, and the future will be better for your children.

A Britain strong enough for you to invest your hope, your potential, your pride, a country we can build together. That is the change we offer. That is Britain’s future. To get it back, vote Labour on 2 May.

Thank you.

The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 4 January 2024.

Thank you Claire, you will be a great candidate for Filton and Bradley Stoke, and in time I hope, an even better MP.

And it’s great to be here again looking at the next generation of aircraft wings. You can see some of the instruments behind me. This is the third time and I love it, and it features quite heavily in a number of my speeches.

On behalf of the Labour Party – thank you for being here this morning and Happy New Year.

Now – as a politician, you’ve got to be a bit careful with these new year messages.

We all remember Boris Johnson’s prediction of a “fantastic year ahead”. That was in 2020.

Then, last year, I stuck my neck out and occasionally predicted glory for Arsenal, so I’ll pass on that one today.

But look, there is one thing that we can be sure is coming this year and I’m ready for it. 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.

A chance to change Britain. A clock that is ticking on this government, because whether it’s in the spring or later in the year, the moment when power is taken out of Tory hands and given, not to me, but to you. That moment is getting closer by the second.

So, if you’ve spent the last 14 years volunteering to keep your park clean, your library open, for children to have opportunities. 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. The potential for national renewal. The chance, finally, to turn the page, lift the weight off our shoulders, unite as a country, and get our future back.

Four years, I’ve been working for this. Four years, working for the chance to tilt this country, firmly and decisively, back towards the interests of working people.

It’s been a long, hard slog, and I won’t lie, I’ve hated the futility of opposition.

The powerlessness and yes, the pain, that comes from watching the Tories drive the country I love into the rocks of decline.

I didn’t come into politics for that. I didn’t expect a front row seat on this Tory performance art, a song and dance for your political attention, because they find performing so much easier than the hard graft of practical achievement.

No. I came into politics to serve, 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 just for a moment, it’s why I still believe in politics.

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 and 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 on death row. Life and death decisions, in your hands.

Now there’s pressure that comes with that, of course there is. 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 power of the vote. The hope of change and renewal, married to the responsibility of service, that’s what I believe in.

And yes, I believe it’s still the best way to change our country for the better.

Its success or failure, written into the walls of every community in this country.

The hospital your children were born in, the home you live in, the wage in your pocket, the opportunities in your town, the sense of pride – or unease – when you walk down your street. That’s all politics.

So, this year, at the General Election, against the tide of cynicism in Westminster, the gauntlet of fear the Tories will unleash, and most of all – the understandable despair of a downtrodden country, I will ask the British people to believe in it again.

I will say, you’re right to be anti-Westminster, right to be angry about what politics has become. But hold on to the flickering hope in your heart that things can be better, because they can.

You can choose it. You can choose the hope of national renewal, the responsibility of service, what politics can and should be, and you can reject the pointless populist gestures, and the low-road cynicism that the Tories believe is all you deserve.

That’s all they’ve got 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, this is their only project.

They can’t change Britain, so they will try to undermine the possibility of change itself. Take Britain down to their level, kick the hope out of us all.

But I believe in this country, I believe in its spirit, I believe in its people, in its businesses, in its communities, and most of all, I believe that if the British people see respect and service in their politics – if they see a plan which matches the ambition and pride they have for their community, a path, finally, to an economy that rewards and respects their efforts – then yes, they will commit to the mission of national renewal, and will believe that Britain can get its future back.

But I am under no illusions. This is a huge test. 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, and, like weeds between the paving stones, will pull apart the cracks, so ultimately, they can divide and rule.

I have to warn you all, they will leave no stone unturned this year. Every opportunity for division will be exploited for political potential. That’s a given. But do not doubt for a second that we’re ready for it, do not doubt that we will show the British people that the real risk is five more years of a Tory Government that would be even more entitled, even more self-serving, even more complacent that your vote can be taken for granted.

And yet, at the same time, we have to bring the country together, have to earn trust as well as votes, nurture a spirit of national unity. This is what’s distinctive about our job this year. To truly defeat this miserabilist Tory project, we must crush their politics of divide and decline with a new Project Hope.

Not a grandiose utopian hope. Not the hope of the easy answer, the quick fix, or the miracle cure. People have had their fill of that from politicians over the past 14 years.

No – they need credible hope, a frank hope, a hope that levels with you about the hard road ahead, but which shows you a way through, a light at the end of the tunnel. The hope of a certain destination.

That’s why the national missions we’ve set, the measurable goals. Whether it’s the highest growth in the G7, halving violence against women and girls, clean power by 2030 – they are unapologetically ambitious.

I know they will take hard-work, determination, patience – a true national effort. And for many people that invites a sharp intake of breath, a raised eyebrow, a question – can this really be done?

But look, what really keeps me up at night is a different reaction altogether, the biggest challenge we face – bar none. The shrug of the shoulder.

Because this is the paradox of British politics right now. Everyone agrees we are in a huge mess. Services on their knees, an economy that doesn’t work for working people even when it grows, let alone now when it stagnates like right now.

Everyone agrees as well – that it’s been like this for a while. That 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.

Also, that after the sex scandals, the expenses scandals, the waste scandals, the contracts for friends, even in a crisis like the pandemic, some 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. A national mood which, if we aren’t successful with our Project Hope, the Tories will subtly seek to exploit.

Seriously, after failing to deliver change, after ludicrously pretending that they could represent change, they now sense the opportunity of a new strategy, an attempt to take the change option off the table altogether.

And not just at the next election. No – their strategy also has one eye on salting the earth of Britain’s future, a plan to make sure that if Labour does earn the right to serve, we will find it harder to bring our country together for the common good.

So I say to every voter in this country: know that all this is coming your way. Know that if we are to heal the wounds of the past 14 years and move forward, Britain must come together.

And that means we will need you. But also know that 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 party. No longer in thrall to gesture politics, no longer a party of protest, a party of service.

Rebuilt, renewed, reconnected to an old partnership, a Labour partnership, that we serve working people as they drive Britain forward.

So this is what I promise – my side of the deal, the answer to the question why Labour?

I promise a new purpose. To drag politics in this country back to service, tilt our economy back towards the interests of working people. Reward their efforts fairly, once again.

I promise a new plan with new priorities, five national missions that will sweep away the era of Tory division, a plan for the long-term.

With higher growth, a reformed planning system no longer blocking the homes, infrastructure and investment we need.

Safer streets, more police in your town, cracking down on anti-social behaviour.

Cheaper bills, with GB Energy, a new public company, using clean British power not foreign oil and gas.

More opportunities for your children, new technical excellence colleges training our kids in the skills they need and businesses want.

Better mental health support in schools, expert teachers in every classroom, paid for – by removing tax breaks on private schools.

And our NHS back on its feet, with a plan to cut the waiting lists, paid for by removing the non-dom tax status. Two million more appointments every year in an NHS clearing the backlog, seven days a week.

And written through this new plan, I also promise this: a total overhaul in how we approach the economy and government.

On government, it means a new level of ambition and focus. I ran a public service for years and the clue is in that word – service.

What the Tories have done to our public realm over the last 14 years, not just the cuts, also the denigration of the people who serve this country, the total lack of respect, honestly there are no words.

But I also have to say this, I don’t see our job as going back to some kind of golden age, I don’t think that’s how working people look at things at all. Government in this country is too centralised and controlling, and because of that, too disconnected from the communities it needs to serve.

And yet despite hoarding all that power, it also lacks ambition. A view of the potential of government that is content just to mop up problems, after the fact, armed only with a big state cheque-book.

We have got to change this. It is vital for taking on the profound challenges of our era: the rising geopolitical temperature, climate change, terrorism, securing our borders, the revolutions in science, energy, technology that are reshaping everything we know about our world.

So I promise this: a new mindset – Mission Government. An understanding at the core of everything we do, that it is our job to tackle tomorrow’s challenges – today.

On the economy it means a deeper argument about who growth should serve, where it comes from, who it comes from, where is the great untapped potential?

And the answer to every one of those questions, the Labour answer, working people. Communities casually ignored and disregarded, passed over as sources of economic dynamism, subjected to the Tory argument that thinks growth comes from driving down their wages and security, while they, in turn, should be grateful for anything handed down from those at the top.

I’ve read that the Tories want to fight the election on this terrain, that they think their economic comfort zone still has some purchase.

But let me tell you, what used to be their strength is now their weakness. The so-called party of business which now hates business, that boasts about tax cuts, while raising taxes higher than any time since the war, that claim, even now, to be the party of sound finance, but that crashed the economy and made you pay.

They have nothing left on this anymore. Their credit rating is zero, and we have turned the tables with a plan for the growth Britain needs.

Only Labour will deliver a proper industrial policy and higher investment.

Only Labour will bulldoze through planning red tape and get Britain building.

Only Labour will transform our labour market with stronger workers’ rights.

We don’t just expect an election on the economy, we want an election on the economy, we’re ready for that fight, ready to close the book on their trickle-down nonsense, once and for all.

And finally, I promise this. A determination to bring our country together, not exploit its divisions. An understanding that Britain’s standing in the world can never be taken for granted, and a politics of respect and service that shows zero tolerance towards the darker side of Westminster.

Don’t get me wrong, there are good people in Westminster. People who love their country and want to change it for the better. And yet a basic principle of any organisation I’ve worked in outside of politics, that you should follow the rules you set for others, uphold the values you advocate, this just doesn’t seem to be followed or understood in Westminster.

Honestly, what does anybody think it looks like to the people of this country, to see people rewarded, honoured, for crashing the economy under Liz Truss?

If your mortgage is going up this year and you see those people swanning around the House of Lords, what do you think?

No. I say to all my fellow politicians – Labour and Tory – to change Britain, we must change ourselves.

We need to clean up politics. No more VIP fast lanes. No more kickbacks for colleagues. No more revolving doors between Government and the companies they regulate. I will restore standards in public life with a total crackdown on cronyism.

I’ve put expense cheat politicians in jail before and I didn’t care if they were Labour or Tory.

And I grew up working class, so spare me the self-serving excuses, they just won’t wash. This ends now. Nobody will be above the law in a Britain I lead.

But with respect and service I also promise this: a politics that treads a little lighter on all of our lives.

Because that’s the thing about populism, or nationalism, any politics fuelled by division.

It needs your full attention. It needs you constantly focusing on this week’s common enemy. And that’s exhausting, isn’t it?

On the other hand, a politics that aspires to national unity, bringing people together, the common good, that’s harder to express, less colourful, fewer clicks on social media. And, in some ways, it’s more demanding of you.

It asks you to moderate your political wishes out of respect for the different wishes of others. 45 million voters can’t get everything that they want, that’s democracy.

So no matter the road the Tories take this year, I believe that if people see the commitment to service is always there in politics. If they can see that people in power respect their concerns, then I think a lot of people across this country, after everything we’ve been through in the past 14 years, will find some hope in that.

It will feel different, frankly. 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. The energy needed for divisive politics is a distraction. You can see that with the SNP in Scotland or the Tories here in England.

I learnt this first-hand in Northern Ireland. Before the Police Service of Northern Ireland was set-up, the idea that the nationalist community would buy into it in any way was utterly unthinkable.

Now, there’s always more work to do on that, peace in Northern Ireland has to be won every day. And yet, with patient listening, with determination, with the people of Northern Ireland coming together, not only with those different to them.

Not only with those who disagreed with them, but who even took up arms against the, the unthinkable happened. Catholic men and women did step-up to serve.

So don’t listen to the siren voices that say we can’t change Britain. We can, and we will. Don’t listen when they say we’re all the same. We’re not, and we never will be. And don’t listen when they say politics makes no difference – because it does.

If you can’t get an affordable home in your town, but with Labour you can, that’s a difference worth fighting for.

If you can’t get a job with regular hours that will let you look after your family but with Labour you can, that’s a difference worth fighting for.

If you’re a care worker who saved lives during the pandemic and has been rewarded with poverty wages, but with Labour you can get a fair pay agreement, that’s a difference worth fighting for.

The same is true for our NHS. For our schools, climate change and energy security, securing our borders, restoring Britain’s standing, crime and justice.

Only Labour will make a difference.

Only Labour will drag our politics back to service.

Only Labour can lead Britain towards national renewal.

And you have the power to vote for it.

A party of service with a plan, versus a party with nothing to offer because it only cares about itself?

Hope or cynicism?

A new politics or the same old Westminster? Continued decline with the Tories, or national renewal with Labour?

Nobody in Britain thinks the years ahead will be easy. But this year is the chance, the only chance, to change our course.

The future of Britain in your hands, the power of the vote in your control, and we will fight every day to earn it.

Why Labour? Because we serve your interests.

Why Labour? Because we will grow every corner of our country.

Why Labour? Because we have a plan to take back our streets, switch on Great British Energy, get the NHS back on its feet, tear down the barriers to opportunity, and get Britain building again.

A partnership with you in pursuit of a new Britain with foundations built to last.

The value of hard work – restored.

Sticking plasters – rejected.

The Tory era of division – over.

A Britain standing tall again, looking forward again, believing again, that tomorrow will be better for your children.

That is our future. And this year, we get it back.

Thank you.

The message issued by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 1 January 2024.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

And I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

2023 has been a year of pride and achievement.

For the Lionesses – yet again – so close to doing an unprecedented double.

And of course a year when our country stepped into a new era.

With a new King – King Charles III – crowned in the spring.

It has also, for millions of people, been another tough year economically.

And, beyond our shores, a time of great insecurity.

With war still raging in Ukraine.

And enormous suffering in Israel and Gaza.

In the Labour Party we will do everything we can in 2024 to push for a political solution to that conflict.

A secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state.

A hope that maybe fragile, but that must be kept alive.

Because there is always power in that word – hope.

It is the fuel of change.

The oxygen of a better future.

And this year, in Britain, the power to shape the future of our country will rest in your hands.

In the Labour Party – we’ve been building to this for four years.

We’re confident we have a plan that will move our country forward.

End the cost-of-living crisis.

Take back our streets.

Get the NHS back on its feet.

Cheaper energy bills for your home.

More opportunities for your children.

But most of all – I’m ready to renew our politics so it once again serves our country.

I know that politics isn’t held in particularly high regard in Britain.

But I have spent four years bringing the Labour Party back to service.

And in 2024 – we can do the same for politics.

So wherever you are, however you are celebrating: Happy New Year.

Let’s make sure this is the year where together, we get Britain’s future back.

The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 3 November 2023.

Thank you, Andrew.

It’s such a pleasure to be here in such magnificent surroundings.

And a privilege to have the opportunity to share our plans for growth with you.

This is not the first Chamber of Commerce speech I’ve made this year.

But it is the first time I’ve addressed the reigning UK Chamber of the year.

So before I go any further – I’d like to congratulate you all on that.

Because it’s no exaggeration to say that Labour’s ambitions for government, our most important mission.

To get Britain building again.

Grow our way out of the suffocating cost-of-living crisis.

Will depend on your future success.

Now, before you pulled up that fantastic palatial drive, some of you may have travelled here today along the A1, a road that is absolutely critical to doing business in this region – indeed for the whole the east side of England.

But, as many of you will know, a little further up from here, between Morpeth and Ellington.

There’s a stretch of the A1 that the Prime Minister has recently promised to upgrade. But there’s a catch.  Because he announced he would upgrade it in 2020, when he was Chancellor.

Just like Theresa May’s Government did in 2017.  Just like David Cameron did in 2014. Just like the Conservative manifesto promised in 2010.

It’s a metaphor for how our country’s been run for the past thirteen years. The cameras get called, the press releases written.

All smiles for the photos, and then it’s back to Westminster.  Job done. Rinse and repeat.

It’s a story you see right across Britain.

Infrastructure projects – some with billions already committed. Businesses planning around them. Strategies – developed in rooms like this.

But the projects and investment get stuck. Blocked, by objections, consultations, legal challenges, ballooning costs. Delays, delays, delays.

Until in the end, it’s easier just to pack up and move on.

We all know about HS2, a project the Conservatives couldn’t get built, even at the cost of £400 million per mile.

That’s the most expensive railway in the world – ever.

And I’m afraid to say that all the hallmarks of that project: the waste, the stagnation, the short-term sticking plaster politics. An inability to roll our sleeves up, and get things done that will actually grow our economy. Can be seen right across the country.

I mean – right now, the number of businesses going under has soared to its highest level in years.

And as you will all appreciate, every one is a personal tragedy.

An ambition, a dream, an investment in a better future. Gone.

Now I’m not here today to hit you over the head about this.

You can see the country just as clearly as me.

But next week is the King’s Speech. And we can already see that it will only bring more of the same.

A manifesto for the 14th year of Tory failure.  And the starting gun fired on the next general election.

A choice, between a Conservative Party with no plan for the future. Hurtling down the only high-speed project it’s ever managed to build: the highway to British decline.

Or the Labour alternative. A party that understands the potential that lies in regions like this. That has a plan to grow every corner of this country.

Will work with you to get the North East building again.

Get our future back, with a decade of national renewal.

Because mark my words, Britain needs this King’s Speech to kickstart a big build.

We need to focus on the real problems that face the businesses and communities of this region.

That’s why a Labour King’s speech would rip up the red tape in our planning system that stops us building the infrastructure you need.

Would establish a new generation of technical colleges – a plan for the higher skills you need.

And would bring forward a modern industrial strategy. Work hand in glove with the private sector. Invest in the potential of regions like this. And win the race for the jobs of the future.

That is the job of government as I see it.

We have to provide the businesses, communities and people of this nation, with the conditions to succeed.

A fundamental deal.

That we serve the country, while you drive it forward.

The Tories can’t do this.  Rishi Sunak is too weak to stand up to the blockers on his backbenches. Too haunted by the ghosts of Conservative imagination to see the country’s problems as you see them.

So, if you’ll indulge me, I want to set out exactly how our plan would benefit your business.

And grow the economy of this proud region in three steps.

Step one, we will get the North East building again.

We will take on the blockers that hold a veto over British aspiration.

We will build one and a half million homes right across our Britain. With opportunities for first time buyers here in the North East.

New infrastructure to support businesses, families and communities to grow. Roads, warehouses, grid connections, labs – all built quicker and cheaper.

And with all that – a prize for your business.  A path to a stronger skills base, a happier workforce, more dynamism, more demand, more growth.

I mean – let me just give you a couple of examples.

The Thames Tunnel in East London. A project with a planning application thirty times longer than the complete works of Shakespeare. Sixty thousand pages.

£800 million worth of taxpayers money spent without even breaking ground.

Or take Sizewell C. A next generation nuclear power station in Suffolk. A £20bn project of national importance. Vital for British energy, security and independence.

This one had forty-thousand pages of its planning application devoted to data on the environment.

And yet it’s been held up in the courts on account of a ‘failure to assess the environmental impact’.

I could go on and on and on. The examples are countless.  But as a country we can’t afford to go on. Not like this.

Because the challenges this inertia creates for businesses and communities like yours, they’re enormous.

It’s why our roads are so congested compared to other countries.

Why millions are denied the security of home ownership.

Why you can’t take up the opportunity of clean British energy.

The cheaper bills that would reduce your cost base and protect us from the whims of tyrants like Putin.

And yet, back in the 50s and 60s, we built the backbone of our entire motorway system, in less time than it’s taken to talk about the turning of that stretch of the A1 into a dual carriageway.

The national grid was completed in about eight years.  Less time than it takes some entrepreneurs to get a grid connection, today.

But you don’t even have to go back that far.

The last Labour Government delivered High Speed One on time and under budget.

So I have no time for Tory excuses – politics is about choices.

Do you face up to tough decisions, or do you duck them?  That’s always been the test.

So if you take only one thing away from here today.

Let it be this. Wherever we find barriers to British success – we will bulldoze through them.

New development corporations, new planning regimes for national infrastructure.

Consequences for councils that drag their feet.

Reforms to judicial review.

Whatever it takes – we will find a way.

No stone unturned. No detail overlooked. No fight ducked.

Step two – a new direction for skills.

Because a future must be trained as well as built.

And the generation of young people that sacrificed so much during the pandemic – their potential must be backed.

Seriously – the cost of inaction on this cannot be overstated.

£120bn worth of economic output could be lost by 2030 if the needs of businesses are not met.

So we will transform our further education system. With Technical Excellence Colleges. Colleges that will have a stronger link to their local economies.

More connections to Local Skills Improvement plans.

Universities, businesses, rooms like this, all around the table and setting the direction.

And in doing so, grounding our education system more firmly, not just in young peoples’ aspirations, but also in the pride, the pull on the badge of the shirt.

The ambition you feel, when building a lasting legacy for your community.

So here in the North East, for example it could mean Technical Excellence Colleges that specialise in construction, health and social care, the clean energy revolution we want to see up and down the East Coast.

Welders in the Tees Valley – I know there’s a skills shortage for precision welders here.

And I’ve seen that in the Local Skills Improvement plan this Chamber wrote.

I know you don’t want that plan gathering dust.

You want it to drive the courses delivered at your local FE colleges.

And that is exactly what we will guarantee.

Because we want to end the years of businesses feeling hopeless about missing skills. Give you the tools to do something about it.

You should have more say over how you invest in your workforce.

And at the moment – as you well know – the Apprenticeship Levy simply isn’t flexible enough.

Your hands are tied.

Unable to deliver the full breadth of skills that you need.

So we’d transform it into a new Growth and Skills Levy.

Giving you more power over the training your money can buy.

But it’s not just on you.

Government has to step up as well.

Too many young people are leaving education without basic skills…

Maths, digital skills, communication and teamwork.

Skills we know every business needs.

So Labour would deliver higher standards in our schools.

Every child taught by expert teachers…

A broader curriculum.

Real world maths from an early stage.

Preparing the next generation.

To make sure that they are ready for work and ready for life.

That’s what ending the tax breaks on Private Schools will deliver.

Opportunity for all.

Skills for business.

Growth for the nation.

Finally – step three.

A modern industrial strategy. On a statutory footing.

Free from the whims and wreckage of Westminster.

An emblem of our determination to move away from the stand-aside state that fails to set direction.

If you go to the government website to find out about their industrial strategy.

Scratched across the top is one word.

I kid you not, ‘archived’.

‘Archived’.

Doesn’t that just tell you everything?

They think Britain’s days of high growth are over. But they’re not.

Labour will get Britain growing again.

Bring back industrial strategy.

Provide the institution, the incentives and above all, the stability you need to invest in our future.

Because in a world as riven with insecurity as ours, with challenges like climate change.

Technologies like artificial intelligence. Scientific advances like gene editing. Constantly overturning the economic apple-cart.

You need a government that gets involved. That rolls up it sleeves.

That offers the hand of partnership in pursuit of the national interest.

With clear fiscal rules – sound and followed rigorously.

A British jobs bonus that will attract new investment to our industrial heartlands.

Relight the fire of renewal in communities like this.

And a new national wealth fund – that will stand with business.

Work together to invest in the crucial infrastructure the North East desperately needs.

The battery gigafactories that will protect electric car-manufacturing in Sunderland.

The hydrogen and carbon capture technology that can provide an industrial future for Teesside.

And the ports that can finally handle large industrial parts. So the East Coast can lead the world in offshore wind.

This is what the King’s speech should be about.

A national mission to get Britain building again. And grow our country from the grassroots.

Because Britain needs a new business model.

And, you will know, changing a business model is hard.  But this is our plan.

A plan to expand the country’s productive capabilities. But at the same time, to change who benefits.

A Britain where growth comes from regions like this.

A Britian where growth serves regions like this.

With infrastructure – built more quickly.

Young people’s potential – backed.

The jobs of the future in your town.

The backbone of this country, once again, powering us forward towards national renewal.

A Britain with its future back.

Thank you.