Offering a vision of a brighter future, UK’s Starmer appeals for patience

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By Elizabeth Piper, Alistair Smout, Andrew MacAskill

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a personal appeal to Britons on Tuesday to support his sometimes difficult plans to rebuild the nation, promising he could deliver a brighter future with higher living standards, safer streets and better services.

Addressing his first Labour Party annual conference as prime minister, the sometimes stiff Labour leader tried to lighten the mood with anecdotes about his use of music to relieve stress and offered a more optimistic view of the future, a step change to his government’s gloomy tone since taking power in July.

Starmer, 62, acknowledged Britons might doubt his government after ministers cut winter fuel payments to some pensioners, but he said he would not baulk at taking “unpopular” decisions if they were necessary to spur economic growth.

“So I know, after everything you’ve been through, how hard it is to hear a politician ask for more,” he told the conference in the northern English city in Liverpool.

“And the truth is that if we take tough long-term decisions now … then that light at the end of this tunnel, that Britain that belongs to you, we get there much more quickly.”

It was a marked change in tone from the government’s narrative since Labour won a landslide election against the once-dominant Conservatives in July, when the new government’s ministers repeatedly said their inheritance meant they had little room for manoeuvre to fix Britain’s many problems.

Starmer again listed what he described as the Conservatives’ legacy, failing to increase the number of prison places, failing to build new homes or controlling immigration and for leaving a 22 billion black hole in the public finances – an allegation the now opposition party denies.

“Do not forget what they did and do not let them attempt to shift the blame because the state of our country is on them,” he said.

‘CHANGE HAS BEGUN’

A day after his finance minister Rachel Reeves also expressed optimism in the future, signalling she may revise her fiscal rules to allow for greater public investment, it was clear that the Labour government was keen to change the mood.

But he said Britain needed to go along with him to bring the change needed to spur growth and people must sometimes accept they might need to live near prisons or new homes and welcome pylons in their towns to have cheaper electricity.

“Change has begun,” Starmer repeated, announcing a crackdown on benefit fraud and offering housing to all military veterans.

After criticism over the winter fuel payments cuts and over the use of donations, Starmer wanted to reset a conference which has not been the celebration supporters had expected.

The Conservatives criticised Starmer for offering few new ideas to take Britain forward, but the head of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, said Starmer had showed “he’s determined to deliver that change for communities across Britain”.

After moving the Labour Party towards the centre of British politics following a move to the left under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer swiftly dealt with a heckler who demanded to know what he was doing to help children in Gaza.

“While he’s been protesting, we’ve been changing the party, that’s why we’ve got a Labour government,” he told the heckler, whose protest was drowned out by applause.

He won the loudest applause when he attacked those who he said had tried to justify riots that erupted across Britain this summer as a legitimate response to concerns about immigration.

“To those who equivocate about this, I simply say the country sees you and it rejects you,” he said.

Repeating that his party would be “unashamed to partner with the private sector”, Starmer added that a more interventionist government would be needed to reform services and the population would need to stomach some painful decisions on the way.

Calling for patience in front of a Union Jack flag, he said: “I will not do it with easy answers. I will not do it with false hope … Make no mistake, the work of change has begun … And we’re only just getting started.”

(Reporting by Elizabeth PiperEditing by Mark Potter, Alexandra Hudson)