Keir Starmer delivered a savage response to a protestor who interrupted him during the launch of Labour’s general election manifesto.
Shortly after the party leader took to the stage, a woman stood up in the middle of the crowd and held aloft a banner which read ‘Youth Deserve Better’.
The disruptor directed a tirade towards Starmer, exclaiming: “My generation is being let down by the Labour Party, and this manifesto.
“You say that you’re offering change but it’s the same old Tory policies. We need better. The cimate can’t wait.”
That’s as far as she got until members of the politician’s staff dragged her out of the crowd and pulled her towards the exit.
As she was being forcibly led away, the Leader of the Opposition said aloud: “We gave up on being a party of protest five years ago. We want to be a party of power.”
After the protestor was removed from the room, Starmer continued outlining his plans for the party.
In his manifesto, Starmer promised not to raise income tax, national insurance, VAT or corporation tax, while proposing a £8.6bn tax plan to fund the NHS and teachers.
He also pledged to give 16-year-olds the right to vote, and made wealth creation the “number one priority” for the party going forward.
In his speech, the 61-year-old said: “The way we create wealth is broken. It leaves far too many people feeling insecure. Wealth creation is our number one priority. If you take nothing else away from this today, let it be this. We are pro-business and pro-worker. A plan for wealth creation.”
Starmer said he saw “potential held back” everywhere he went by lack of housing, the cost of living crisis, low wages and children with rotting teeth.
“Britain has lost its balance,” he added. “It is too hard for people to get on. Opportunity is not spread evenly. The toxic idea that economic growth is something handed out by the few to the many. Today we turn the page on that for ever.”
Labour has faced repeated protests from young people at campaign events over its stance on climate change and on Gaza over the past year.
Back in April, an offshoot group of Just Stop Oil sprayed red paint on the Labour Party’s head office in central London in protest against the war in Gaza.
Youth Demand sent five activists to target the exterior and lobby of the building in Southwark, and a representative of the group told the media: “Labour has blood on their hands. They are complicit in the murder of Palestinians, and millions of people around the world, as they continue to drive genocide.”
In early May, a group of vicars from Christian Climate Action occupied and held a church service inside the Labour Party headquarters in order to protest against Labour’s refusal to cancel the Rosebank oil field licence.
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