Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted his Government to be compared with Clement Attlee’s transformational post-war administration.
The 1945 Labour government set up the NHS and helped rebuild the UK after the devastation of the Second World War.
The Prime Minister told Labour activists he wanted his plans for the country to be viewed with the same sense of pride.
He also joked that since entering No 10 he had bonded with Larry the cat because they both had experience “chasing pests out of Downing Street”.
At a reception at the Labour conference in Liverpool he said: “In less than 14 weeks, we’ve achieved more than the Tories did in 14 years. We’ve ended the strikes in the NHS so our doctors are back in the surgeries, carrying out operations, getting waiting lists down.
“We’ve set up a national wealth fund to get the investment we need into our country. We have launched GB Energy, that publicly owned company.
“We talked about this for years, now we are doing it, to generate the next generation of clean power.
“We have begun to end no-fault evictions.
“We’ve reformed planning, we’ve got rid of the ban on onshore wind, we are moving ahead with solar.
“Buses across the country will be better regulated, with fares and routes regulated by local people and railways are coming back into public ownership.”
He added that Labour had a “10-year plan for the NHS so we get it back on its feet and fit for the future so that people will, in years to come, look back with the same pride at the 2024 Labour Government as they do the 1945 Labour government”.
The Government was also carrying out “the biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in a generation”.
Sir Keir told the reception: “I’ve been getting to know Larry the cat and bonding with him. We’ve realised we’ve both spent 14 years chasing pests out of Downing Street.”
And in a reference to the protester who disrupted his conference speech last year he added: “A little warning: stay off the glitter. It is now treason to throw glitter on me.
“I know we are short of prison places, we do have one or two in the Tower.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel