Sir Keir held a virtual party conference today where he urged Labour supporters who had deserted the party during the last election to return. During his audience-free speech in Doncaster, Sir Keir also pledged to stop “nationalists” from tearing the UK apart. Despite Ms Sturgeon’s repeated calls for Scottish independence, Sir Keir insisted the UK can do more together than apart.
He said during his speech: “We must once again be the party of the whole United Kingdom.
“The party of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“We must make the case much more persuasively that we achieve more together than we do alone.
“To stop the nationalists ripping our country apart by design and to stop the Tories dismantling it by neglect.
“I’m not the sort of leader who wants to turn the clock back.
“Times change – and so do political priorities.”
As well as aiming a veiled slight towards the SNP’s ambitions, Sir Keir also insisted it was now time for the party to become a “credible Opposition”.
Referencing the four successive general election losses to the Tories, Sir Keir also pledged to restore the trust of the public in the party.
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“It’s a betrayal of what we believe in to let this go on.
“It’s time to get serious about winning.
“That means we have to change, and that’s what we’re doing.
“Never again will Labour go into an election not being trusted on national security, with your job, with your community and with your money.”
Also within his speech, Sir Keir also criticised the Government’s handling of coronavirus.
This comes ahead of the introduction of further restrictions in England as the second wave of the virus takes hold.
A 10pm curfew is set to be implemented on all bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues.
Cabinet Office Minister, Michael Gove, also reiterated the Government’s guidance on asking employees to work from home.
These new measure will be put into place as case numbers approach levels not seen since the peak of the pandemic.
On Monday, 4,368 cases were reported taking the overall total to 398,625.
With this in mind, during a press conference yesterday, the Government’s chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance has warned case numbers could rise to 50,000 a day by October.
