There was a largely lukewarm reaction to Sir Keir Starmer’s speech today after he called for a “new chapter” in the country’s history and laid bare the nation’s “fragilities”.
Caroline Lucas tweeted that we are “in more trouble than I thought” after the address, while Grace Blakeley said the Labour leader “pales in comparison to the post-war social democrats” he was comparing himself to.
It comes as Sir Keir likened Britain’s pandemic recovery to the post-war period, saying there is an “opportunity” to think creatively and to “forge a new contract with the British people”.
In response to the Bank of England suggesting the “vast majority of savings built up during the pandemic won’t be spent”, he said: “If I were prime minister, I would introduce a new British recovery bond.
“This could raise billions to invest in local communities, jobs and businesses. It could help build the infrastructure of the future – investing in science, skills, technology and British manufacturing.
“It would also provide security for savers and give millions of people a proper stake in Britain’s future.”
But Ash Sarkar hit out at the proposals, saying they don’t address the needs of much of Labour’s base, namely those of working age, tenants or city-dwellers.
In a nod to late Labour former prime minister Sir Harold Wilson, who said the party is “a moral crusade or it is nothing”, Starmer said: “Our moral crusade now is to address the inequalities and injustices that this crisis has so brutally exposed – and to build a better, more secure future.”
He said there is a “mood in the air” that Britain’s “collective sacrifice must lead to a better future” – akin, he said, to 1945 after the sacrifice of war.
It wasn’t a line that everybody could get on board with. Here’s the best of the reaction so far:
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