Keir Starmer in Sussex: Labour leader makes 6 key pledges

He told a packed Lancing Parish Hall that he “detects a yearning for change" in the county.

The Labour leader has been here over the bank holiday weekend and was in Brighton on Sunday evening with the parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion Tom Gray.

A room full of Labour supporters and journalists watched yesterday as the party’s parliamentary candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham Tom Rutland opened the event in South Street, Lancing.

Lancing Parish Hall was packed with Labour supporters and journalists (Image: PA)

The seat has been held by the Conservatives’ Tim Loughton since it was formed in 1997. In April he announced he would be standing down at the next general election.

There were big cheers as Tom Rutland introduced himself and said: “I am welcoming you to Labour Lancing because a few weeks ago we won a Labour majority on Adur District Council for the first time ever.

“People are putting their trust in Keir Starmer’s changed Labour.”

Asked by The Argus why he chose to come to Sussex for the speech, Sir Keir said: “It is important to me on a number of fronts. Firstly, I think we are making real progress here as Tom set out in his speech with the recent results.

“I detect that yearning for change here in Sussex.

“The South East of England is where I grew up and I am determined that we will make progress in the South East of England because I know in my heart from my background what so many people in Sussex want from their lives, for themselves, for their families, for their communities.

“So yes we are here because we want to win but we want to make that positive case for the future of our country and it comes down to this.  It’s a choice really in the election: five more years of chaos with the Tories or turn a page and rebuild our country with Labour.”

Sir Keir Starmer and Labour's parliamentary candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham Tom Rutland (Image: PA)

In his speech, he said the Labour Party is ready to meet the “core tests” the British people set for government.

He added: “The very foundation of any good government is economic security, border security and national security.

“I haven’t worked for four years on this just to stop now. This is the foundation, the bedrock that our manifesto and our first steps will be built upon.”

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Sir Keir Starmer greeted supporters at Lancing Parish Hall (Image: PA)

He announced six key pledges: economic stability, cutting NHS waiting times, a new Border Security Command, a taxpayer-owned Great British Energy, a crackdown on antisocial behaviour and 6,500 new teachers.

Announcing his fifth pledge, Sir Keir said antisocial behaviour “blights communities big and small”.

“I know Worthing well, as I say, my uncle lived here,” he said.

“Three years ago, I walked around with the police there and talked to some of the people on the high street. They told me in no uncertain terms the impact antisocial behaviour was having on them.”

He pledged to tackle this across the country with 13,000 new police officers and PCSOs, which would be paid for by cutting down on “wasteful contracts”.

Brighton and Hove City Councillors and Brighton Pavilion's Labour parliamentary candidate came to support Sir Keir Starmer (Image: The Argus)

Not forgetting his opponents, Sir Keir slammed the recently announced Tory pledge of national service. The audience in Lancing laughed after he called it a “teenage Dad’s Army”.

He said: “The desperation of this national service policy – a teenage Dad’s Army – paid for by cancelling levelling-up funding and money from tax avoidance that we would use to invest in our NHS.”

After his speech, Sir Keir greeted supporters at the community hub in the parish hall.

The 61-year-old was last in Sussex in February when he visited the Siemens Traincare Facility in Three Bridges, Crawley, where he committed to tackling the “awful problem” of homelessness in Sussex and said he would fight for every vote in the county.

But yesterday was very much about Keir Starmer’s Labour and how he has changed the party.

Labour’s opponents responded to the speech.

Richard Holden, Conservative Party chairman, said: “Once again Keir Starmer stood up to tell the country absolutely nothing. In this wearisome and rambling speech there was no policy, no substance and no plan.

“The question remains: will Starmer ever find the courage and conviction to tell us what he would do, or does he simply not know?

“The choice is clear: stick with the plan that is working and take bold action for a safer, more secure future with Rishi Sunak or go back to square one with Labour.”

Sir Keir Starmer at the community hub at Lancing Parish Hall (Image: PA)

Meanwhile, Tom Rutland’s competitor from the Liberal Democrats David Batchelor said: “Labour have no solutions for the real problems in East Worthing and Shoreham.

“There are fewer jobs in the area than almost anywhere else, wages are lower than elsewhere in Sussex and houses cost more.

“We don’t need politics we need practical solutions to generate high quality jobs and solve an urgent housing crisis. We will focus on community-led solutions for this.”