The Prime Minister spent much of his party conference speech attacking Nigel Farage’s Reform UK
Sir Keir Starmer has declared Britain is at a “fork in the road” as he took aim at Nigel Farage in his keynote speech at Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
The Prime Minister accused the Reform leader of “not liking” Britain as he called for a decade of “national renewal” over Reform UK’s “politics of grievance and chaos.”
Sir Keir said: “When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage say anything positive about Britain’s future?
“He can’t.
“He doesn’t like Britain, doesn’t believe in Britain, wants you to doubt it as much as he does and so he resorts to grievance.
“They all do.”
Mr Farage wants to turn a “proud, self-reliant country” into a “competition of victims,” Sir Keir declared.
“Saying to you, to working people: ‘Don’t trust in each other’, ‘You can’t fix this’, ‘This is not a great country’.
“But it is, conference.
“It is a great country, it will always be a great country.”
Moving on to the situation in Gaza, Sir Keir said, “We must restart the hope of a two-state solution”.
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage speaks during a press conference today. Picture: Alamy
He said he welcomes the plan announced by Donald Trump last night for peace in Gaza.
“I strongly support efforts to end the fighting, release every hostage and urgently scale up aid into Gaza,” the PM told the party conference.
“All sides must now come together to bring this initiative into reality.
“Because we must restart the hope of the two-state solution.
“A safe and secure Israel alongside the long-promised Palestinian state.
“A state that this country now recognises.”
The Prime Minister added Labour must never find itself “defending a status quo that manifestly failed working people”.
He said: “That’s what I say to people who think it would be ‘nice’ if we could just go back to politics before Brexit or the crash.
“And this does go back that far, conference. The global financial crisis is when we were exposed, when a new Britain should have been born.
“Complacent. That’s the only way to describe it – complacent. We placed too much faith in globalisation.”
Britain must control migration or people will turn to Farage, says Mahmood
He added: “We do need to put our security first, we do need to unlock the potential of every community, we do need a more muscular state, freed from the red tape that stops us building, growing our economy from the grassroots, renewing every town and city on these islands.”
He described economic growth as being the “antidote to division” as he continued his pitch for “national renewal” at the Labour party conference in Liverpool.
The Prime Minister told delegates and activists: “So much of it comes back to economic growth.“In fact, I’ll say it now, so there’s no doubt: The defining mission of this Government is to grow the economy, improve living standards and change the way we create wealth.”
Sir Keir later added: “Growth is the pound in your pocket, it is more money for trips, meals out, the little things that bring joy to our lives, the peace of mind that comes from economic security.“But it is also the antidote to division – that’s the most important aspect of national renewal.”
He also said: “The way you grow an economy – not just how much but who and where benefits – that can either build a nation or it can pull it apart.”
Sir Keir called for “an economy that unites” people and communities, able to face down “the threats of a volatile world”.
During his speech, the PM announced Labour will scrap the target of seeing 50% of young people go to university and replace it with an aim of two-thirds doing either a degree or a “gold standard apprenticeship”.
“We will scrap that target,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s right for our times.
“If you are a kid, or a parent of a kid, who chooses an apprenticeship, what does that say to you?
“Do we genuinely – as a country – afford them the same respect?”
Turning his attention back to Nigel Farage and the growing hard-right movement in the UK, Sir Keir said he has “had enough of lectures” from “self-appointed champions of working people.”
He accused those people of wanting to “shred our public services, level-down worker rights” and “crash the economy” like ex-prime minister Liz Truss.
the PM announced Labour will scrap the target of seeing 50% of young people go to university and replace it with an aim of two-thirds doing either a degree or a “gold standard apprenticeship”. Picture: Getty
Starmer added: “Politicians who lied to this country, unleashed chaos and walked away after Brexit.
“Who equivocate on Putin and Ukraine and who even now – go to America and grub around for money – talking this great country down.
“No more lectures from them.”
“Do they want to serve our country – all of it?
“Our beautiful, tolerant, diverse country, every region, nation and city, or do they just want to stir the pot of division.
“Because that’s what works for their interests.”
The PM asked: “When push comes to shove, does Reform really want to fix our problems and renew Britain?
“Or – as we’ve seen time and again, whether it’s the SNP, the extremes of the left, or Reform and the Tories now.
“Do they actually want Britain to fail?”
A person who argues that “people who have lived here for generations” should now be deported is “an enemy of national renewal”, he continued.
“Free speech is a British value and we have guarded it for centuries, but if you incite racist violence and hatred, that is not expressing concern – it’s criminal.
“This party – this great party – is proud of our flags, yet if they are painted alongside graffiti, telling a Chinese takeaway owner to ‘go home’, that’s not pride – that’s racism.
“And, conference, if you say or imply that people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin, that mixed-heritage families owe you an explanation, that people who have lived here for generations, raised their children here, built lives here – working in our schools, our hospitals, running businesses – our neighbours, if you say they should now be deported, then mark my words, we will fight you with everything we have because you are an enemy of national renewal.”
Taking aim at those taking part in right-wing protests, Sir Keir said: “There is a line, a moral line, and it isn’t just (Reform UK leader Nigel) Farage who crosses it.
“There are also people who should know better, sowing fear and discord across our country, and then, when we call that out, they pretend we’re criticising reasonable concerns about immigration.
“We have seen that trick, conference, so let us spell it out, once and for all: Controlling migration is a reasonable goal, but if you throw bricks and smash up private property, that’s not legitimate – that is thuggery.”
What did Sir Keir Starmer say in his Labour conference speech?
- “Britain,” he said, “Stands at fork in the road – choose decency or division, renewal or decline.” He said the fight for the “soul of our country” is needed as much as rebuilding after the war.
- On this subject, he called out Nigel Farage for being negative about Britain and its future. On flags, he said he is “proud,” of the St George’s Cross, but also said it is time to “unite,”
- In Gaza, he strongly supported the efforts to end the fighting, in light of Donald Trump coming up with a plan on Monday, and called for all sides to unite and restart hope for a two-state solution,
- On the budget, he said that tough decisions have been made, but said they have been “Labour decisions,”
- Revealed an ambition for two-thirds of students to go to university or receive gold standard apprenticeships,
- Called out racism about immigration, but added that the crisis must be solved,
- Ended by saying “Britain is not broken.”
By Henry Moore
