Keir Starmer to accuse Tories of taking away people’s hope and say the public want change – UK politics live | Politics

Keir Starmer is regularly accused of not setting out a clear vision of what Labour would do in governmen. But this morning Pat McFadden, the party’s national campaign coordinator, who was doing a media round, said this was unfair. He said Labour had set out more policy then it had ahead of general elections in the past, including ahead of the 1997 election. He told the Today programme:

If I compare the list … which will be in Keir Starmer’s speech today with the pledge card that we produced in the run up to the 1997 election, I would say we’d set out more policy in advance of this election than we did in the past.

(It’s worth pointing out that complaints about Labour not having an agenda for government are often, on closer inspection, complaints about Labour’s agenda for government being not sufficiently radical. That is a different charge, and one that is easier to sustain. Labour has announced a lot of policy, much of it set out in the 116-page national policy forum report.)

In his speech this morning Keir Starmer will also promise that Labour will clean up politics. He will say:

To change Britain, we must change ourselves. We need to clean up politics. No more VIP fast lanes, no more kickbacks for colleague, no more revolving doors between government and the companies they regulate. I will restore standards in public life with a total crackdown on cronyism: this ends now.

I’ve put expense cheat politicians in jail before and I didn’t care if they were Labour or Tory. Nobody will be above the law in a Britain I lead.

Kiran Stacey wrote about this aspect of the speech on Tuesday.

Good morning. Keir Starmer is marking the start of the new year with a major speech which he will be delivering at 10am. He did the same thing last year, with a speech that was heavy on policy, but this one is different because, judging by the fairly lengthy advance briefing given to journalists, it’s not about policy, and it’s not even mainly about positioning, or philosophy. It seems to be more basic than that, because it’s about mood: “hope”.

The word appears eight times in the Labour press release with extracts from the speech sent out overnight (or nine, if you include “hopeful”). Starmer will say that it’s an election year, that people want change, and that this should be a moment for hope.

This year, at the general election, against the understandable despair of a downtrodden country, I will ask the British people to believe in it again.

You’re right to be anti-Westminster and angry about what politics has become.

But hold on to any flickering hope in your heart that things can be better, because they can, and you can choose it.

He will argue that the Conservatives has governed so badly that people no longer believe a change of party will make a difference, or provide grounds for hope.

Britain needs change, wants change, is crying out for change. And yet – trust in politics is now so low, so degraded, that nobody believes you can make a difference anymore.

That after the sex scandals, the expenses scandals, the waste scandals, the contracts for friends, even in a crisis like the pandemic, people have looked at us and concluded we’re all just in it for ourselves.

A nation that is so exhausted, tired, despairing even, that they’ve given up on hope.

He will insist that hope is merited, because Labour will govern differently.

We’re trying not just to defeat the Tories, but to defeat their entire way of doing politics, a mindset that seeks out any differences between the people of this country.

I have to warn you all, they will leave no stone unturned this year either. Every opportunity for division will be explored for political potential, that is a given.

But we have to bring the country together, and have to earn trust as well as votes. To truly defeat this miserabilist Tory project, we must crush their politics of divide and decline with Labour renewal.

And he will argue that he personally can ensure that Labour governs differently because of his commitment to public service.

I had a long career before this. At the Crown Prosecution Service, as a human rights lawyer, in my work with the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I’ve looked into the eyes of people I’ve served or represented and I have seen reflected back the knowledge that government can make or break a life.

Literally, when it comes to work, I’ve done with people living on death row. Life and death decisions – placed in your hands.

There’s pressure that comes with that, but that’s the responsibility of justice and public service. And it’s the responsibility of serious government.

This isn’t a game. Politics shouldn’t be a hobby – a pastime for people who enjoy the feeling of power, and nor should it be a sermon from on high, a self-regarding lecture, vanity dressed up as virtue. No, it should be a higher calling.

The line about politics as a hobby seems to be a clear refence to Tories like Boris Johnson, George Osborne and David Cameron. But the reference to politics as “vanity dressed up as virtue” seems to be a dig at his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

It remains to be seen how convincing, or powerful, people will find this. The main news today is likely to emerge from the Q&A, and the interviews Starmer is giving later. But elections are often seen a contest between hope and fear and, other things being equal, optimism is normally more appealing. That is why Starmer, who is not often mistaken for a shaft of sunlight, must be attracted to depicting Labour as the party of hope.

Here is Kiran Stacey’s preview, with more from the speech.

And here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Keir Starmer gives a speech at a venue near Bristol, and then holds a Q&A with journalists. He is then doing interviews with the main broadcasters.

10.15am: Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, speaks at the Oxford Farming Conference. Steve Reed, his Labour shadow, is also speaking.

Morning: Rishi Sunak is going a visit in Nottinghamshire, where he is due to speak to regional reporters.

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