PRESS RELEASE : Keir Starmer promises to kick of “decade of national renewal” as he sets out plan to “get Britain’s future back” [October 2023]

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 9 October 2023.

Keir Starmer 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 Rishi Sunak 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.”