Keir Starmer will continue the doom and gloom in his Labour Conference speech today as he warns the future “will be hard”. The Prime Minister will say in his speech at the conference in Liverpool that things “will be tough in the short-term” and that the country needs a “shared struggle”.
He will also warn that public spending will not go up by much as working people’s “pockets are not deep”. Today will be Starmer’s first Labour conference speech since becoming Prime Minister in July.
His first few months have been downbeat and he has been accused of having too much “doom and gloom“. He warned of a painful autumn budget in a speech last month and has also come under fire for stripping the Winter Fuel Payment from millions of pensioners.
Starmer will say in his speech: “The politics of national renewal are collective. They involve a shared struggle. A project that says, to everyone, this will be tough in the short-term, but in the long-term – it’s the right thing to do for our country. And we all benefit from that.”
He will also warn that things will be difficult in the future: “It will be hard. That’s not rhetoric, it’s reality. It’s not just that financial black hole, the £22bn of unfunded spending commitments, concealed from our country by the Tories, it’s not just the societal black hole – our decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than good will – it’s also the political black hole.
“Just because we all want low taxes and good public services, does not mean that the iron law of properly funding policies can be ignored. We have the seen the damage that does, and I will not let that happen again. I will not let Tory economic recklessness hold back the working people of this country.“
He will also suggest that he will be more focused on reform than upping money for public services: “We have to become serious and mission-led, and have to put respect and service deep in the bones of our institutions. That’s not a debate about investment or reform, it’s always been both.
“But again, I have to warn you, working people do want more decisive government. They do want us to rebuild our public services and they do want that to lead to more control in their lives. But their pockets are not deep – not at all. So we have to be a great reforming government.“
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