Labour leader Keir Starmer will appeal directly to British voters on Tuesday, saying his revamped opposition party is best placed to boost economic growth and offer the country the hope that “things will be better for your children”.
In a speech to his party’s conference, possibly his last as opposition leader as an election looms next year, Starmer will make his pitch fully aware that, while voters are angry with the ruling Conservatives, they might not yet be enamoured with Labour despite its hefty lead in opinion polls.
Aides say Starmer knows he must try to convey a sense of reassurance that Labour can get to work on fixing a multitude of problems from poor public services to sluggish growth.
“What is broken can be repaired, what is ruined can be rebuilt,” he will tell hundreds of the party faithful at the conference in the northern English city of Liverpool.
He will promise “a Britain strong enough, stable enough, secure enough for you to invest your hope, your possibility, your future”, one where there is certainty “that things will be better for your children”, according to excerpts of his speech.
After becoming leader in 2020 following Labour’s worst election defeat for 84 years under veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer will say the party is now ready to govern with a programme for two five-year terms or a “decade of renewal”.
He will say his programme, delivering on infrastructure, rebuilding the state-run National Health Service and attracting investment, will be “totally focused on the interests of working people” – a message to ease concerns on the left of the party that Labour has become too close to big business.
Buoyed by a victory in an election for a parliamentary seat in Scotland last week, Starmer and his party are increasingly confident of their chances at the next election, but the message from Labour lawmakers is still one of not becoming complacent.
“We have to be a government that takes care of the big questions so working people have the freedom to enjoy what they love,” he will say.
“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.”
(REUTERS)
