SIR Keir Starmer will try to rebrand Labour as the party of “service and country” today — as he eyes ten years in power.
The Opposition leader will declare: “People are looking to us because they want us to build a new Britain and we are the builders.”
GettySir Keir Starmer will try to rebrand Labour as the party of ‘service and country’ as he eyes ten years in power[/caption]
PASir Keir pictured taking a walk by the Mersey in Liverpool with his wife Victoria[/caption]
In his big address to the Labour conference, he will ask voters to let him lead a “decade of national renewal” after next year’s expected election.
Promising a “big build” for the country, he will say: “What is broken can be repaired, what is ruined can be rebuilt.”
Taking a pot shot at the Jeremy Corbyn-era, he will insist it is time for voters to see “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 claim that Labour is now “a party of service . . . country first, party second.”
He has also inserted a late section into his speech reflecting on the appalling scenes of terror in Israel — in a marked contrast to his predecessor who once called Hamas “friends”.
And in a broadside against 13 years of Tories in power, Sir Keir will promise “a Britain strong enough, stable enough, secure enough for you to invest your hope, your possibility, your future” — where “things will be better for your children”.
He will claim that a Labour victory would give the chance to “turn our backs on never-ending Tory decline with a decade of national renewal”.
It would give the British people the “government they deserve”.
He will say: “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.”
Despite a double digit lead in the polls, last night Sir Keir’s spin doctors said the speech would address the big question of why voters should turn their back on the Tories and pick Labour.
He is buoyed by a major win in last week’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election in Scotland.
And he will say: “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.”
Sir Keir will take a pot shot at Rishi Sunak’s own conference address last week where the PM attempted to cast himself as the candidate for change who makes bold decisions.
The Labour leader will promise a government that “takes care of the big questions” so working people have “freedom to enjoy what they love” with “more time, more energy, more possibility, more life”.
He will say: “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 amid all the change and insecurity find the hunger to win new opportunities and the strength to conserve what is precious.”
Taking aim at No10, he will add: “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.”
In a sign that he will resist further tax rises, he will tell activists: “We should never forget that politics should tread lightly on people’s lives.
That our job is to shoulder the burden for working people — carry the load, not add to it.”
Yesterday in Liverpool, after taking a walk by the Mersey with his wife Victoria, Sir Keir insisted he will have his election machine ready for a May poll.
The Labour boss insists he will not be caught out if Mr Sunak calls a snap poll in the spring.
He said: “I’m not going to predict the outcome of the general election, nor when it will be.
“Though obviously it will either be May or October, and our team is ready for May because I don’t think anybody would rule out May.”
Meanwhile, Shadow Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy told a conference fringe: “We’re going for more than two terms!”
It comes as Labour’s poll lead over the Tories has narrowed to just 15 points.
The Deltapoll survey was conducted in the 48 hours after Mr Sunak made his conference speech in Manchester — when he ditched the HS2 northern leg and vowed to bring in a smoking ban.
Labour were down by a point and the Tories up two points.
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