KEIR Starmer will say he does not care if he “sounds conservative” in a speech in which he will pledge to be “on steroids” in his mission to reform Labour.
The Labour leader will draw a link to Tony Blair’s momentous 1995 decision to ditch the party’s Clause Four constitutional commitment to “common ownership of the means of production”.
Ditching the clause was a clean break between the old Labour Party and Blair’s vision of “New Labour”, and Starmer is expected to stress that his vision for the party is more than just moving on from the Jeremy Corbyn era.
But the SNP said Starmer’s “lurch to the right” showed there was little difference between what he and Rishi Sunak’s Tory Party have to offer.
In a speech at the Progressive Britain Conference in central London on Saturday, the Labour leader will say: “The Labour Party will only restore hope in the country if we once again become the natural vehicle for working people, an agent for their hopes and aspirations, a party of the common good.
“Some people think that all we’re doing is distancing ourselves from the previous regime – that totally misses the point.
“This is about taking our party back to where we belong and where we should always have been … back doing what we were created to do.
“That’s why I say this project goes further and deeper than New Labour’s rewriting of Clause Four … This is about rolling our sleeves up, changing our entire culture – our DNA. This is Clause Four – on steroids.”
And Starmer (below) will accuse the Tories of failing to be “conservative”, saying they would not “stand up for the things that make this country great”.
He will say: “We must understand there are precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve and to pass on to future generations. And look, if that sounds conservative, then let me tell you: I don’t care.
“Somebody has got to stand up for the things that make this country great and it isn’t going to be the Tories.
“That in the end is one of the great failures of the last 13 years. A Tory party that in generations past saw itself as the protector of the nation and the Union has undermined both.
“They’ve taken an axe to the security of family life, trashed Britain’s reputation abroad, and totally lost touch with the ordinary hope of working people.
“The Conservative Party can no longer claim to be conservative.
“It conserves nothing we value – not our rivers and seas, not our NHS or BBC, not our families, not our nation.”
Obviously. British people should care though.
He’s already gone back on most of the pledges that got him the leadership. Nothing this ball less cretin says is worth believing. Until the Labour party gets cleaned up and goes back to its roots of being the working class party, not this Tory-lite, chinless shite it is now.
As usual, the headline is riling up all the usual sorts choosing to willfully misinterpret it as aligning to their preconceptions.
Checking his actual words, it’s clear he’s mocking the general meaning of the word ‘conservative’ and how it relates to the Tory Party — or rather, how it doesn’t seem to anymore:
>And Starmer (below) will accuse the Tories of failing to be “conservative”, saying they would not “stand up for the things that make this country great”.
>He will say: “**We must understand there are precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve and to pass on to future generations**. And look, if that sounds conservative, then let me tell you: I don’t care.
>**”Somebody has got to stand up for the things that make this country great and it isn’t going to be the Tories.**
>“That in the end is one of the great failures of the last 13 years. A Tory party that in generations past saw itself as the protector of the nation and the Union has undermined both.
>“They’ve taken an axe to the security of family life, trashed Britain’s reputation abroad, and totally lost touch with the ordinary hope of working people.
>**“The Conservative Party can no longer claim to be conservative.**
>**“It conserves nothing we value – not our rivers and seas, not our NHS or BBC, not our families, not our nation.”**
The rest of the speech excerpts sound terribly exciting. Returning the party to what it’s *always* been (save for two notable aberrations when it was taken over by nutters) and amalgamating the party’s focuses from 1945, 1964, and 1997 sounds genuinely excellent — and just what the moment calls for after the disaster of 2019 and the Tory devastation enabled by it.
I don’t care if conservatives sounds conservative either. I vote for the alternative
That’s quite a normal thing for conservatives to say
Well at least he’s upfront about it, I suppose. It cuts out any further need for discussing what he really meant by x or y. Cheers, Kier, that’s a timesaver.
Vote for me to find out what I really believe…Kieth Starmer.
Absolutely hilarious that the only attack line that Tories have against Starmer is that he’s similar to them.
Cause he is conservative- I’ve allways voted Labour, but not this time
This is how a Labour leader gets elected in a country whose natural governing party is the Tories.
Corbynites take note and weep.
From the man worth over £7.5m, he will never understand the problems of working people.
12 comments
By Hamish Morrison
KEIR Starmer will say he does not care if he “sounds conservative” in a speech in which he will pledge to be “on steroids” in his mission to reform Labour.
The Labour leader will draw a link to Tony Blair’s momentous 1995 decision to ditch the party’s Clause Four constitutional commitment to “common ownership of the means of production”.
Ditching the clause was a clean break between the old Labour Party and Blair’s vision of “New Labour”, and Starmer is expected to stress that his vision for the party is more than just moving on from the Jeremy Corbyn era.
But the SNP said Starmer’s “lurch to the right” showed there was little difference between what he and Rishi Sunak’s Tory Party have to offer.
In a speech at the Progressive Britain Conference in central London on Saturday, the Labour leader will say: “The Labour Party will only restore hope in the country if we once again become the natural vehicle for working people, an agent for their hopes and aspirations, a party of the common good.
“Some people think that all we’re doing is distancing ourselves from the previous regime – that totally misses the point.
“This is about taking our party back to where we belong and where we should always have been … back doing what we were created to do.
“That’s why I say this project goes further and deeper than New Labour’s rewriting of Clause Four … This is about rolling our sleeves up, changing our entire culture – our DNA. This is Clause Four – on steroids.”
And Starmer (below) will accuse the Tories of failing to be “conservative”, saying they would not “stand up for the things that make this country great”.
He will say: “We must understand there are precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve and to pass on to future generations. And look, if that sounds conservative, then let me tell you: I don’t care.
“Somebody has got to stand up for the things that make this country great and it isn’t going to be the Tories.
“That in the end is one of the great failures of the last 13 years. A Tory party that in generations past saw itself as the protector of the nation and the Union has undermined both.
“They’ve taken an axe to the security of family life, trashed Britain’s reputation abroad, and totally lost touch with the ordinary hope of working people.
“The Conservative Party can no longer claim to be conservative.
“It conserves nothing we value – not our rivers and seas, not our NHS or BBC, not our families, not our nation.”
Obviously. British people should care though.
He’s already gone back on most of the pledges that got him the leadership. Nothing this ball less cretin says is worth believing. Until the Labour party gets cleaned up and goes back to its roots of being the working class party, not this Tory-lite, chinless shite it is now.
As usual, the headline is riling up all the usual sorts choosing to willfully misinterpret it as aligning to their preconceptions.
Checking his actual words, it’s clear he’s mocking the general meaning of the word ‘conservative’ and how it relates to the Tory Party — or rather, how it doesn’t seem to anymore:
>And Starmer (below) will accuse the Tories of failing to be “conservative”, saying they would not “stand up for the things that make this country great”.
>He will say: “**We must understand there are precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve and to pass on to future generations**. And look, if that sounds conservative, then let me tell you: I don’t care.
>**”Somebody has got to stand up for the things that make this country great and it isn’t going to be the Tories.**
>“That in the end is one of the great failures of the last 13 years. A Tory party that in generations past saw itself as the protector of the nation and the Union has undermined both.
>“They’ve taken an axe to the security of family life, trashed Britain’s reputation abroad, and totally lost touch with the ordinary hope of working people.
>**“The Conservative Party can no longer claim to be conservative.**
>**“It conserves nothing we value – not our rivers and seas, not our NHS or BBC, not our families, not our nation.”**
The rest of the speech excerpts sound terribly exciting. Returning the party to what it’s *always* been (save for two notable aberrations when it was taken over by nutters) and amalgamating the party’s focuses from 1945, 1964, and 1997 sounds genuinely excellent — and just what the moment calls for after the disaster of 2019 and the Tory devastation enabled by it.
I don’t care if conservatives sounds conservative either. I vote for the alternative
That’s quite a normal thing for conservatives to say
Well at least he’s upfront about it, I suppose. It cuts out any further need for discussing what he really meant by x or y. Cheers, Kier, that’s a timesaver.
Vote for me to find out what I really believe…Kieth Starmer.
Absolutely hilarious that the only attack line that Tories have against Starmer is that he’s similar to them.
Cause he is conservative- I’ve allways voted Labour, but not this time
This is how a Labour leader gets elected in a country whose natural governing party is the Tories.
Corbynites take note and weep.
From the man worth over £7.5m, he will never understand the problems of working people.