Keir Starmer vows to build new towns across country in Labour conference speech
Labour will build new towns across the country, Keir Starmer said today as he made housebuilding the centrepiece of his party conference speech.
The party chief told delegates in Liverpool that Labour will need to be healers, modernisers and builders if they oust the Tories and enter power. Outlining plans for a series of new towns in England, he said: "Sometimes the old Labour ideas are right for new times. So where there are good jobs, where there is good infrastructure, where there is good land for affordable homes, then we will get shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, and build the next generation of Labour new towns."
He confirmed the party would build on green belt land - but insisted the party would not target fields and hills as he said the ambitious programme did not require “tearing up the green belt". He said: "Labour is the party that protects our green spaces - no party fights harder for our environment. We created the national parks, created the green belt in the first place; I grew up in Surrey.
"But where there are clearly ridiculous uses of it - disused car parks, dreary wasteland; not a green belt, a grey belt, sometimes within a city's boundary - then this cannot be justified as a reason to hold our future back. We will take this fight on. That's a Britain built to last."
Delivering what could be his final conference speech before a general election widely expected next year, the party chief said Labour would have to confront the challenges of a new "age of insecurity" and "find the hunger to win new opportunities".
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His address was delayed for several minutes after a protester stormed the stage and showered the former Director of Public Prosecutions with glitter, in a major security breach. Shedding his suit jacket and rolling up his white shirtsleeves, Mr Starmer composed himself while the invader was bundled from the conference hall in Liverpool.
A protester stormed the stage and threw glitter over the party leader (Getty Images)Making his address, the Labour leader outlined what voters would expect from his party if it is propelled to power next year. He said: "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 to build a new Britain, and we are the builders."
Mr Starmer, 61, said Labour would "fix tomorrow's challenges, today". The party leader told grassroots activists: "Today we turn the page, answer the question 'Why Labour?' with a plan for a Britain built to last, with higher growth, safer streets, cheap British power in your home, more opportunity in your community, the NHS off its knees - a Britain with its future back.
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"It will require an entirely new approach to politics - mission Government, new priorities, totally focused on the interests of working people, five national missions all fixed on a single-minded purpose to govern for the long-term; end the Tory disease of 'sticking plaster politics' with a simple Labour philosophy that together we fix tomorrow's challenges, today."
He admitted the "way back" from 13 years of Conservative Government would be hard, comparing Tory rule since 2010 with Labour’s 13 years in power from 1997 to 2010. Tony Blair won a landslide victory 26 years ago following a campaign to the soundtrack of Dream’s Things Can Only Get Better song.
Mr Starmer told the Liverpool gathering: "Thirteen years of 'things can only get better' versus thirteen years of 'things have only got worse'. Conference, this is what we have to fight - the Tory project to kick the hope out of this country."
He added: "I have to warn you, our way back from this will be hard. But know this - what is broken can be repaired, what is ruined can be rebuilt. Wounds do heal. And ultimately that project - their project - will crash against the spirit of working people in this country. They are the source of my hope."
Mr Starmer won a heartfelt standing ovation from delegates as he referenced Hamas’ weekend terrorist attacks on Israelis and asserted Jerusalem's right to self-defence.
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"I utterly condemn the senseless murder of men, women and children - including British citizens - in cold blood by the terrorists of Hamas,” he said. "This party believes in the two state solution - a Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.
"But this action by Hamas does nothing for Palestinians, and Israel must always have the right to defend her people.” And conference, these events, the war in Ukraine, they show precisely the test of our era. The world is becoming a more volatile place."
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