Labour will 'reverse decade of decline', Starmer pledges

PM will vow to do the hard work’ to root out 14 years of rot

- MILLIE COOKE

In his first keynote speech as prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer will today promise to "get a grip" on the problems facing Britain and "reverse a decade of decline" said to have taken place under the previous Conservative government. Comparing his task as prime minister to the communities that rallied round to clean up in the wake of this summer’s riots, he will promise to do the “hard work” to fix the challenges facing the country.

Speaking about the riots in a speech delivered from the Downing Street rose garden, he will say that they showed “the cracks in our society after 14 years of populism and failure”.

“The riots didn’t just betray the sickness, they revealed the cure, found not in the cynical conflict of populism but in the coming together of a country the morning after and [in those who] cleared up their community. Because that is who we are, that is what we stand for. People who cared for their neighbour.