Starmer fighting ‘tooth and nail’ for mayoral win
LABOUR LEADER’S PLEDGE DURING TRIP TO YORKSHIRE
SIR Keir Starmer has said he is fighting “tooth and nail” to win the West Yorkshire mayoral election for Labour, as he acknowledged the battle the party faces to win back voters’ trust.
At Labour’s local election campaign launch little more than three weeks ago Mr Starmer downplayed suggestions the party could pick up a lot of seats in the May local elections.
He admitted the polls were going to be “tough” after Labour’s general election disaster in December 2019 and with Covid hampering door-to-door campaigning.
Asked yesterday whether he would see a failure to pick up any seats in West Yorkshire as a failure of his leadership, Mr Starmer replied: “Well, look, we’re fighting for every vote here. If you look at some of our brilliant candidates, we’re making a very positive argument.
“There’s the West Yorkshire mayoral elections, I’m with Tracy Brabin today, out across West Yorkshire – she’s an excellent candidate and we are going to fight tooth and nail for her to become the mayor here.
“We’re here, we’re fighting hard for every vote and I’m very pleased to be in Yorkshire. I lived in Yorkshire for a number of years and when I was director of public prosecutions I had staff in Yorkshire working with our local communities.
“So it is fantastic to have the opportunity to be here today to make the argument going into these local elections.”
Mr Starmer was speaking from the campaign trail in Leeds just days before the anniversary of his election as leader.
He met Sarah Lloyd, whose son was the victim of a vicious knife attack, as well as Leeds United Foundation to talk about its work to reduce violent crime.
Putting law and order at the centre of his pitch to West Yorkshire’s voters, Mr Starmer said rates of serious crime had gone up on the Conservatives’ watch.
“The last few years of the Conservative government have seen the figures all go in the wrong direction so the number of crimes, particularly serious crime, has gone up, and yet the number of convictions has gone down dramatically – in some places a 50 per cent-plus tumbling of conviction rates,” he said.
“The argument we make on behalf of the Labour party is that we will stand up when it comes to criminal justice, we believe in