IT is true that Sir Keir Starmer finished his conference address covered in glitter earlier this week.
But all that glitters is not gold.
PADoctors are calling for the biggest strikes in NHS history[/caption]
AlamyNurses strike outside the The Royal Marsden Hospital in South Kensington, London[/caption]
PAMick Lynch with members of the RMT on the picket line outside Euston station, London[/caption]
And that was clear from what Labour announced in Liverpool.
With the eyes of the country on him, Sir Keir was desperate to appear more in tune with the public than he really is.
He and Liz Kendall, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, even talked about the need to reform welfare and make work pay.
I nearly choked on my coffee when I heard that.
Labour — the party of welfare dependency, of the handout not the hand up — trying to claim it is the party of the striver? Pull the other one.
Sir Keir knows he can only win over the public if he pretends to be something he is not.
He is aping the language of Conservatism. Of common sense.
Downed tools
But the great British public will not be conned by Sir Keir’s fool’s gold.
You only need to look at the handful of real policies Labour actually announced in Liverpool to realise just how stuck they are in the same old, out-of-date politics.
Take Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner’s speech.
She said: “We’ll ensure that unions can stand up for their members.
“We will boost collective bargaining . . . Make no mistake, this is an agenda that we will deliver hand in hand with the trade union movement.”
With these words she is promising the biggest expansion of trade union power for a generation.
At a time when our nation is sick to the back teeth with strikes, Labour wants to make them easier to call.
You only need to open your door to see the misery militant unions are heaping on the country.
Trains stuck because the drivers and station staff have downed tools.
The doctors’ union calling the biggest strikes in NHS history while our hospitals are still recovering from the Covid backlogs.
Labour will take Britain back to the 1970s, and no one wants that.
Sir Keir should be honest about what the public would face under him — vote Labour, get strikes.
What about Sir Keir’s promise to make work pay? Will he really get Brits off out-of-work benefits and into jobs?
As Work and Pensions Secretary, the Prime Minister and I have taken the long-term decisions to reform the benefit system and get more people back to work.
Stay in work
We’re rolling out our new Universal Support scheme and updating the Work Capability Assessment so that the two million-plus people on out-of-work benefits for sickness and disability are given every chance to find and, crucially, stay in work.
This will change thousands of lives for the better.
But where fit and able people repeatedly refuse to get a job, when they could be in work, I am clear: They should face firm sanctions.
Despite the progress we’ve made, there are still too many people on out- of-work benefits.
We need to cut the numbers, not least for the sake of people on benefits, but also for the wider public who are paying the bill.
It is good for someone’s health, wellbeing and life prospects to be in work. All the evidence shows this.
Leaving people languishing on benefits when they could be out in a job — full-time or part-time — is unfair on them and on Britain.
To those, young and old, who have dropped out of work or retired early, I say, please reconsider.
Care homes need carers. Shops need people to work the tills. Pubs need staff to work the pumps.
The Conservatives have put work at the heart of our welfare programme because work is good for people.
It is about more than money. It is about pride.
Life chances
We tore down the “poverty trap” we inherited in the benefits system.
We put an end to the scandal which saw people stay on benefits because they were paid more than if they got a job.
The changes we made under the Universal Credit system made sure that for everyone, work paid.
There are now nearly four million more people in work than in 2010, including around two million more disabled people.
Some 700,000 more children are growing up seeing at least one parent going out to work, transforming their life chances.
And our drive to reverse the pandemic surge in worklessness has already seen as many as 200,000 people move back into the workforce, including many over-50s who’ve found work again.
But I’m just getting started.
We will do whatever it takes to get more people off welfare and into work.
PATeachers take part in a rally during their strike action in dispute over pay[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
