Starmer will vow to get Labour ‘back in business’ in conference speech
Sir Keir Starmer will today vow to get Labour “back in business” while rejecting the Jeremy Corbyn era in his make-or-break party conference speech today.
The Labour leader will use the speech to attack the Conservatives by claiming the government is “lost in the woods” and announce a string of new policies, including a teacher recruitment drive.
Today’s speech will be Starmer’s first at an in-person party conference, with Labour figures from both sides of the party stressing the importance of it to reset his leadership.
Labour has trailed the Tories in polling for most of the year, despite a series of crises and disasters for the government, with critics complaining the party has been directionless under Starmer.
A Labour source told the Guardian: “The speech will be a demonstration of the way the Labour party has changed. It will be a clear indication that Labour will never again go into an election with a manifesto that isn’t a serious plan for government.”
Starmer will use his speech to tell the party to unite under his leadership to win the next election, while also promising to fix “the chronic problems revealed by Covid”.
The Mirror reports that he will also use the speech to say “Labour will launch the most ambitious school improvement plan ever” if elected by hiring thousands more teachers.
He is expected to say: “I want every parent in the country to be able to send their child to a great state school.”
This year’s conference has been largely framed around factional infighting between left-wingers and the leadership, with Corbyn and his allies speaking to packed venues across Brighton over the last five days.
Andy McDonald, a Corbynite, quit Starmer’s shadow cabinet on Monday in anger of the direction of the party and the fact he was told by the opposition leader he could not publicly support a £15 an hour minimum wage.
It came after the party passed changes to party rules on Sunday that will make it far harder for a left-wing candidate, like Corbyn, to become leader again.