By Elizabeth Piper, Alistair Smout and Andrew MacAskill
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Prime Minister Keir Starmer appealed directly to working class voters on Tuesday, calling on Labour’s traditional supporters to reject the “snake oil” peddled by the populist Reform UK party and back his vision of “a Britain built for all”.
In the most passionate defence of his premiership since he won a landslide election in July last year, Starmer attacked veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage and his Reform party, saying they were only interested in fomenting division.
Under threat from Reform on the right and a nascent leftist party under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer called on voters to be patient with his government, which he said was taking its first steps along the path to “renew Britain”, and to join forces to “fight for the soul of our country”.
STARMER CALLS FOR FIGHT FOR ‘SOUL’ OF BRITAIN
“No matter how many people tell me it can’t be done, I believe Britain can come together,” Starmer told his party’s second annual conference in the northern English city of Liverpool since winning power last year.
“We can all see our country faces a choice, a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road. We can choose decency, or we can choose division. Renewal or decline,” he said in a challenge to increasingly restive lawmakers who question his leadership after falling behind Reform in the polls.
In a nod to the difficulties he has faced in the first year of his premiership, Starmer again committed to raising living standards and putting money in the pockets of voters.
But he also sought to convince them that Labour is a patriotic party, with officials handing out Britain’s flags to an audience to wave during several standing ovations.
“For me, patriotism is about love and pride, about serving an interest that is more than yourself, a common good,” he said. “And the question I ask seriously of Nigel Farage and Reform is, do they love our country … or do they just want to stir the pot of division, because that’s worked in their interests.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Alex Richardson and Kate Holton)
