Sir Keir Starmer promises Blairism 'on steroids' if Labour wins next election
Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to take Labour 'back to where we belong and where we should always have been'
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Sir Keir Starmer has promised a Labour Government led by him will be like Blairism "on steroids".
Vowing radical change, in a speech at the Progressive Britain conference in central London, the Labour leader said the task facing the party was "difficult and enormous".
He said that his plans for the party were far greater than when Blair rewrote Clause Four of Labour's constitution back.
The symbolic move in 1995 signified the birth of the New Labour project that projected the party to power two years later.
Starmer said this morning: "Some people think that all we’re doing is distancing ourselves from the previous regime. We are. But 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 – it’s our DNA. Who are we in it for? Who do we serve?
The Labour leader said he wanted to bring about radical change
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Sir Keir Starmer said a government led by him would encompass the best aspects of the previous three Labour administrations
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"This task is going to be ongoing, difficult and enormous. It is, if you like, Clause Four on steroids.
"Our work is beginning to pay off. It is much easier to lose the trust of working people. Far harder to reconnect."
He added that he wanted a government led by him to encompass the best aspects of the previous three Labour administrations.
The Opposition leader said: "If you think our job in 1997 was to rebuild a crumbling public realm, that in 1964 it was to modernise an economy overly dependent on the kindness of strangers, in 1945 to build a new Britain, in a volatile world, out of the trauma of collective sacrifice, well, in 2024 it will have to be all three."
In local elections last week, the Conservatives lost over 1,000 council seats in England with Labour overtaking the Tories as the largest party of local government.
While he said there is "more work to be done" ahead of the general election, Starmer told the conference this morning that his party was winning "in all four corners of England".
He told the audience of Labour supporters: "The hardest yards come at the end. We are on track, we are on a path towards power. But there is still more work to be done.
“The toughest part lies ahead. The task now is to measure up to the scale of change that Britain needs."