THE SPEECH

The health emergency meant new Labour leader Keir Starmer had to deliver a victory speech by video yesterday when he spoke of the crisis. This is part of it

We can see so clearly now who the key workers really are.

When we get through this it’ll be because of our NHS staff, our care workers, our ambulance drivers, our emergency services, our cleaners, our porters.

It will be because of the hard work and bravery of every key worker as they took on this virus and kept our country going.

For too long they’ve been taken for granted and poorly paid. They were last and now they should be first.

In their courage and their sacrifice and their bravery, we can see a better future. This crisis has brought out the resilience and human spirit in all of us.

We must go forward with a vision of a better society built on that resilience and built on that human spirit. That will require bravery and change in our party as well.

We created the NHS. We created the welfare state. We passed equalities legislation, the Race Relations Act, we set up the Open University. We built hospitals and schools, established Sure Start and played our part in bringing about peace in Northern Ireland.

But we’ve just lost four elections in a row. We’re failing in our historic purpose.

Be in no doubt I understand the scale of the task, the gravity of the position that we’re in.

We’ve got a mountain to climb. But we will climb it, and I will do my utmost to reconnect us across the country, to re-engage with our communities and voters, to establish a coalition across our towns and our cities and our regions with all creeds and communities to speak for the whole of the country.

Where that requires change, we will change. Where that requires us to rethink, we will rethink. Our mission has to be to restore trust in our party as a force for good and a force for change.

This is my pledge to the British people. I will do my utmost to guide us through these difficult times, to serve all of our communities and to strive for the good of our country. I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and with hope.

So that when the time comes, we can serve our country again in government.”