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Keir Starmer is set to address the discontent within the Labour Party today, emphasizing that the UK’s political future is a choice between his leadership or Nigel Farage’s influence.
The PM will use his keynote speech to party conference in Liverpool to talk up the threat posed by Reform – which is streets ahead in the polls.
He will argue that the UK ‘stands at a fork in the road’ and can move towards ‘decency or division’, urging Labour to ‘fight’.
The premier will also give a tough message that left-wingers must accept tougher policies in areas such as immigration to appeal to voters.
Sir Keir has endured a devastating month, plumbing record lows for popularity while fears mount about a massive new tax raid in the Budget.
Keir Starmer will use his keynote speech to party conference in Liverpool to talk up the threat posed by Reform – which is streets ahead in the polls
Government officials are tactically avoiding any definitive statements about breaking Labour’s pledges to refrain from raising income tax, national insurance, or VAT, as Rachel Reeves confronts a potential £30 billion fiscal shortfall.
However, Health Secretary Wes Streeting did move to quash suggestions that VAT could be added to private healthcare costs this morning.
Supporters are underscoring Sir Keir’s position as the only viable leader following the faltering of Andy Burnham’s leadership bid and Angela Rayner’s compelled resignation.
Sir Keir will tell conference: ‘We can all see our country faces a choice, a defining choice.
‘Britain stands at a fork in the road. We can choose decency. Or we can choose division.
‘Renewal or decline. A nation – proud of its principles and in control of its destiny, or one that gives in to a politics of grievances, which contradicts our historical character.’
Sir Keir will draw parallels between Labour’s current challenges and those faced by Clement Attlee’s government in 1945 when it was tasked with rebuilding the UK in the aftermath of the Second World War.
The Prime Minister will proclaim: ‘This is a test. A battle for the soul of our nation, as significant as the post-war reconstruction of Britain, and we must all rise to meet this challenge.’
‘And yet we need to be clear that our path, the path of renewal, it’s long, it’s difficult, it requires decisions that are not cost-free or easy. Decisions that will not always be comfortable for our party.
‘Yet at the end of this hard road there will be a new country, a fairer country, a land of dignity and respect.
‘Everyone seen, everyone valued, wealth creation in every single community, working people in control of their public services, the mindless bureaucracy that chokes enterprise, removed – so we can build and keep on building.’
Sir Keir believes Britain can ‘unite around a common good’.
‘That’s my ambition, the purpose of this government,’ he will say.
‘End decline, reform our public services, grow our economy from the grassroots.’
Rebuking those trying to lurch Labour to the Left, Sir Keir will say some of his policies might not be ‘comfortable’.
‘Controlling who comes here is an essential task of government and there’s nothing compassionate or progressive in a vile trade that loads people on to overcrowded boats, puts them in grave danger in the Channel and ultimately exploits human desperation,’ he will say.
Fresh divisions have been emerging at the top of Labour over the PM’s claim that Mr Farage’s immigration plans are ‘racist’.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said he would not use the ‘really loaded word’ about Reform, adding: ‘I don’t call the followers of Reform racist, I don’t call Nigel Farage racist.’
But Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, asked whether she thought Mr Farage was racist, said: ‘It’s hard to escape the conclusion that because many of the things that he does and says, I think, drift into racism – it’s hard to escape that conclusion.’
Sir Keir will promise a technological revolution for the NHS, with a new ‘online hospital’ for patients in England aimed at cutting waiting lists and providing quicker treatment and advice.
The scheme, which will begin operating in 2027, will deliver up to 8.5 million extra NHS appointments in its first three years, Labour claimed.
Those who use the service will be able to access and track prescriptions, be referred for scans and tests, and receive clinical advice on managing their condition.
Patients who require a physical test or a procedure will be able to book them on the NHS app at a nearby hospital, surgical hub or community diagnostic centre.
Sir Keir will describe it as ‘a new chapter in the story of our NHS, harnessing the future, patients in control’.
