Keir Starmer says Labour is the party of the Union as he attacks SNP, Tories and Jeremy Corbyn

Keir Starmer has insisted Labour is the party of the Union and accused both Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson of “exploiting the constitutional divide for their own ends”.

In a lengthy speech to members at the party’s conference in Brighton, his first since becoming leader 18 months ago, Starmer also tried to make a break with the past, criticising Jeremy Corbyn, though not mentioning him by name.

The 2019 election manifesto was, he said, unrealistic, and the scale of the defeat damning.

He was heckled throughout the address by a handful of protesters sympathetic to the previous leadership. However, the crowd in the hall were far more supportive of Starmer, clapping constantly.

Towards the end of the 80 minutes speech, Starmer paid tribute to Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, and accused Boris Johnson of placing the Union “in peril”. 

He told delegates: “Scotland is in the unfortunate position of having two bad governments: the Tories in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood. 

“When Nicola Sturgeon took office she said she wanted to be judged on her record. Well these days with the poorest in society less well educated and less healthy, and with the tragedy of so many drug-related deaths, we hear rather less about the SNP's record.

“The SNP and the Tories walk in lockstep. They both exploit the constitutional divide for their own ends.

“Labour is the party that wants to bring our nations together. Under the fantastic leadership of Anas Sarwar, Labour is the party of the Union.

“Because it's not just that divorce would be a costly disruption. Though that's true. But it's not just that our union is in all our economic interests. Though that is also true. It's that we're more progressive together. We are more secure together, we're a more bigger presence in the world together.

“We are greater as Britain than we would be apart. 

“As Gordon Brown said recently, when a Welsh or Scottish woman gives blood she doesn't demand an assurance that it must not go to an English patient.”

He then accused the Tories of engaging in a divisive culture war, and suggested they were unpatriotic. 

“When the government ignored Marcus Rashford's campaign on school meals I was shocked. But I couldn't believe it when Rashford and the England team took the knee to highlight and condemn the racism that they had had to endure, the Home Secretary encouraged people to boo. Well, in this conference hall we are patriots. 

“When we discuss the fine young men and women who represent all our nations, we don't boo, we get to our feet and we cheer.”

The leader’s speech came at the end of what, even by Labour’s standards, had been an angry, fraught and inward-looking conference. 

At the start of the week, frontbencher Andy McDonald resigned in a row over raising the minimum wage to £15 per hour, and accused Starmer of leaving the party "more divided than ever".

Hecklers in the hall shouted out references to the wage row, and called for Jeremy Corbyn to have his party membership reinstated.

Others called for Julian Assange to be released while one asked “Where’s Peter Mandelson?” That was likely a reference to a comment made by the former Blair-era minister, who reportedly told Corbyn adviser Seamus Milne, “we’re back in control.”

As he was heckled, Starmer told delegates they had a choice between shouting slogans or changing lives. 

He said: "This is our first full conference since the 2019 general election in which we suffered our worst defeat since 1935. To our devoted activists and loyal voters I want to say loud and clear - you saved this party from obliteration and we will never forget it. Thank you.

"But my job as leader is not just to say thank you to the voters who stayed with us. It is to understand and persuade the voters who rejected us.

"To those Labour voters who said their grandparents would turn in their graves, that they couldn't trust us with high office, to those who reluctantly chose the Tories because they didn’t believe our promises were credible.

"To the voters who thought we were unpatriotic or irresponsible or that we looked down on them, I say these simple but powerful words. We will never under my leadership go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government.”

He criticised the Tories, but said it would wrong to think of Boris Johnson as a “bad man”.

“I think he is a trivial man. I think he’s a showman with nothing left to show. I think he’s a trickster who has performed his one trick.

"Once he had said the words 'Get Brexit Done' his plan ran out. He has no plan."

In what was perhaps the best-received section of the speech, Starmer praised the record of the New Labour governments under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - the only two former Labour leaders he mentioned by name.

His two predecessors could, he said, give the Tories “a lesson in levelling up.”

But, he later admitted, if the Tories were so bad, it reflected poorly on Labour. 

“Because after all in 2019 we lost to them, and we lost badly. I know that hurts each and every one of you. So, let's get totally serious about this - we can win the next election.

"This government can't keep the fuel flowing, it can't keep the shelves stocked and you've seen what happens when Boris Johnson wants more money - he goes straight for the wallets of working people. “

Starmer ended saying that "in a few short years" he wants to be at a Labour conference "talking about the difference we are making, the problems we are fixing as a Labour government".

Responding to the speech, Oliver Dowden, the Conservative Party chairman said Labour was clearly “more divided than ever”.

"Labour spent five days talking to themselves about themselves instead of to the country.

"From resignations in the middle of their own conference, to their union backers deserting them, to disrupting their leader's speech, Labour are too preoccupied fighting amongst themselves to put forward a plan for our country.

"Only the Conservatives are getting on with the job to build back better.”