Starmer woos Middle England saying he has ‘modified Labour completely’

Keir Starmer made a major pitch to win over suspicious Middle England today as he vowed Labour can be trusted with the UK’s ‘money, borders and security’ at the next election.

In his first major speech of the campaign the opposition leader waxed lyrical about ‘this England’ outside of his party’s typical urban strongholds. 

Speaking on the Sussex coast he referenced his own upbringing and the hardship his family faced growing up, saying they had their phone cut off when they decided it was the one bill they could live without paying.

In a village hall in Lancing – a Tory seat – he said the transformed Labour Party is ready to meet the ‘core tests’ that voters set for government – ‘economic security, border security and national security’.

Earlier this year a poll revealed that almost a third of voters were undecided about who is best to lead the country out of Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak, while another survey suggested a fifth of those who plumped for the Conservatives in 2019 were not sure who to vote for this time.

Despite Labour’s consistent polling leads of 20 points or more in recent months, Sir Keir will acknowledge there are ‘countless people who haven’t decided how they’ll vote in this election’.

‘They’re fed up with the failure, chaos and division of the Tories, but they still have questions about us,’ he said. 

‘Has Labour changed enough? Do I trust them with my money, our borders and our security? 

‘My answer is, yes, you can – because I have changed this party. Permanently. This has been my driving mission since day one. I was determined to change Labour so that it could serve the British people.’

He also threw shade at the ‘politics of protest’ espoused by his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, who has since been expelled from Labour and will run against it as an independent at the election. 

But in a tweet, PM Rishi Sunak said: ‘Not a single plan for the future. Our country needs bold action, not waffle.’

In his first major speech of the campaign the opposition leader waxed lyrical about ‘this England’ outside of his party’s typical urban strongholds.

In a village hall in Lancing he said the transformed Labour Party is ready to meet the ‘core tests’ that voters set for government – ‘economic security, border security and national security’.

Despite Labour’s consistent polling leads of 20 points or more in recent months, Sir Keir will acknowledge there are ‘countless people who haven’t decided how they’ll vote in this election’.

Pictured: Migrants crossing the English Channel on a small boat in March

The Labour leader this month unveiled the party’s ‘first steps’ to change in government. They included slashing NHS waiting lists, recruiting 6,500 teachers and economic stability (stock image of NHS waiting room)

Sir Keir said 14 years of Conservative ‘chaos’ had damaged trust in politics and British institutions, and led to a ‘crisis’ about ‘who we are as a nation’.

‘For a long time now, working people have believed opportunity in Britain is stacked against them,’ he said.

‘But now we are at a dangerous new point, close to crossing a Rubicon of trust, not just in politics but in many of the institutions that are meant to serve and protect the British people.

‘A moment where people no longer believe their values or interests carry the respect of those in power.

‘When you put that alongside a Government that over 14 years has left living standards in this country worse than when they found them, that has torched any semblance of standards in public life, Westminster parties that broke the rules they put in place to save lives and rules they expected you to follow but ignored themselves, then you get a crisis in nothing less than who we are as a nation.’

The Labour leader this month unveiled the party’s ‘first steps’ to change in government. They included slashing NHS waiting lists, recruiting 6,500 teachers and economic stability. 

But Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden said: ‘He has been Labour leader for four years but has failed to set out a clear plan to secure Britain’s future. 

‘All he has managed is to break the ten promises he made when he ran for the leadership and create a £38.5 billion black hole in his spending promises, meaning Labour would have to put up taxes by £2,094 on every hardworking family.’

Yesterday Labour’s Rachel Reeves raised questions over how the party plans to fund its plans for power after ruling out tax rises while vowing not to ‘bring back austerity’.

The shadow chancellor made the pledge after saying both she and leader Sir Keir Starmer want taxes on working people to be lower, although she noted she would not put forward ‘unfunded proposals’.

Speaking to BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Reeves also said she did not want to make any cuts to public spending but was unable to give cast-iron guarantees and instead pointed to the need to conduct a spending review if she was in the Treasury.

She later also declined to put a timeline on when a Labour government would increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy. The Conservatives have recently committed to reaching 2.5 per cent by 2030.  

Ms Reeves also said there is ‘not going to be a return to austerity’ under Labour with commitments to boost frontline services a ‘down payment on the changes that we want to make’.

She said: ‘But in the end we have to grow the economy, we have to turn around this dire economic performance.’

The shadow chancellor added: ‘I don’t want to make any cuts to public spending which is why we’ve announced the immediate injection of cash into public services.

‘So that money for our NHS, the additional police – 13,000 additional police and community officers – and the 6,500 additional teachers in our schools, they are all fully costed and fully funded promises because unless things are fully costed and fully funded, frankly, you can’t believe they’re going to happen.’

After being pressed repeatedly on her tax plans, Ms Reeves said: ‘What I want and Keir wants is taxes on working people to be lower and we certainly won’t be increasing income tax or national insurance if we win at the election.’

She added: ‘We opposed the increases to national insurance when Rishi Sunak put those forward as chancellor.