Starmer: Hardest part lies ahead..
Warning despite election joy
LABOUR leader Keir Starmer will tell his frontbench team that the toughest challenges are still to come if they are to get the keys to No10.
He will issue the warning despite the party’s local elections triumph last week.
At a Shadow Cabinet meeting today, he is also set to say that Rishi Sunak made a strategic error by trying to fight the elections on “woke” issues rather than the cost of living crisis and the NHS.
Mr Starmer will add there is “still more work to be done” and that “the hardest part lies ahead”.
He is also set to tell his colleagues that now is the time “to show that Labour’s serious plans offer not just reassurance, but the hope the country needs, alongside the scale of change Britain needs”. In the coming weeks, he will unveil plans to make the NHS “fit for the future” and a model to improve schools.
Mr Starmer is also set to tell his team today: “The local elections showed that the country was desperate for change.
“The fact that Labour won in all parts of the country was a sign of the strides we have made.
“People who turned away from us during the Corbyn years and Brexit years are coming back.
“But there is understandably a lot of scepticism about politics and now we need to go from reassurance to hope. We need to show we will be a big reforming government bringing hope of a better life for working people.”
He will add: “Labour’s plan to rebuild the NHS will be at the heart of our offer to the British people.
“The Tories are doing too little, too late to repair the damage they have done to the NHS.
“The NHS trumps ‘woke’ every day of the week.”
Labour is now the largest party in local government after gaining over 500 councillors in its best result since 1997.
The Conservatives suffered a hammer blow, losing more than 1,000 seats. But Mr Sunak has refused to apologise to any of the Tory councillors who were voted out. Asked yesterday if he wanted to say sorry, the Prime Minister replied: “It’s always disappointing to lose hard-working Conservative councillors.”
He added on a visit to Hertfordshire: “People want us to deliver for them on their priorities. I know that’s not going to happen overnight but we’re going to strain every sinew to do exactly that.”
He also reiterated his promise to improve the economy, stop small boats and tackle NHS waiting lists.
The Lib Dems plan to table a no-confidence motion in the Government today in the Commons. But it is unlikely to be debated and would probably fail anyway because the Tories have a majority.
Our plan to rebuild the NHS will be at the heart of our offer to Britain
KEIR STARMER GEARING UP FOR GENERAL ELECTION