Keir Starmer warns ‘hardest mile’ ahead as he tries to rally Labour activists for final push
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner (left) with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)
Keir Starmer has warned Labour activists the “hardest mile” is still ahead as he attempted to rally his troops for a final push towards polling day.
The Labour leader told an event in central London: “This is the final furlong. This is the last push. The last mile, the hardest mile”.
He asked them to imagine waking up to a Tory government on 5 July, saying that the millions of undecided voters means “it could happen”.
At the same event his deputy Angela Rayner had an equally tough message for the invited audience, telling them: “Right now we have won nothing”.
Even as it unveiled star-studded endorsements from the likes of Sir Elton John, Labour is desperate to convince voters, as well as its own activists, the election is by no means in the bag.
It follows fears that it could lose votes to the Greens or Lib Dems if too many believe a Labour government is guaranteed.
The Conservatives have also tried to peel away Labour votes, warning the party is set to win a ”supermajority” at Westminster.
It follows a series of opinion polls which show the party on course to win by a bigger landslide than Tony Blair in 1997.
On Friday, Wes Streeting the shadow health secretary said: “Complacency about the inevitability of a Labour win terrifies me.”
He argued that in many seats where the race is between Labour and the Conservatives “a vote for smaller parties is a vote that helps the Tories.”
With just around 400 activists packed into the Royal Horticultural Halls in the capital, the event was in marked contrast to the 1992 rally that ruined Neil Kinnock’s final week of campaigning.
Then a reported 10,000 people filed into the Sheffield Arena to hear the Labour leader, widely seen by many as the UK’s next prime minister, shout “We're all right!" a moment that has gone down in history as a sign of overconfidence.
At his rally, Sir Keir called for voters to give him a “clear mandate” to govern next Thursday as he warned apathy could hand the Conservatives another five years in power.He stressed a large majority would give him the authority to implement his agenda.
He said: “We’ll need a clear mandate for this change, don’t doubt that. And if you don’t believe me, take a good look at the Tories. Chaos under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, two politicians who never had a clear mandate.”
In an emotional moment, he also urged the public: “Don’t forget what they have done, don’t forget Partygate, don’t forget the Covid contracts, don’t forget the lies, don’t forget the kickbacks, don’t forget the cronyism, don’t forget the division, the scapegoating of minorities, the failure to invest, the trips to the bookies, the decimation of your public services.
“Telling working people ‘we’re all in it together’, the people who hurt your family finances, swanning around the House of Lords, after giving tax cuts to the richest 1% that crashed our economy. Don’t forget any of it.”
He was accompanied by his wife Victoria, after questions about her non-appearance on the campaign trail.
As well as Sir Elton other celebrity endorsements, in video clips played to the audience included James Norton, Beverly Knight, Georgia Harrison, Kit Harrington, Deborah Meaden and Jason Manford. The comedian Bill Bailey was one of a number of speakers, who acted as a warm up to the Labour leader.
Earlier Sir Keir hit out at “desperate” and “ridiculous” attempts by the Tories to cast Labour as a risk to national security.
On a campaign visit in Hampshire, he told reporters that, as he had been granted access to sensitive intelligence by the government, it was wrong of ministers to claim he would be a danger to the country.
He also said he shared Rishi Sunak’s disgust after a canvasser from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK used a racial slur to describe the prime minister.
He criticised Mr Farage saying the leader sets the “tone, the culture and the standards” of a party.