UK party leaders kick off election year
CHANGE?
He told voters the poll would be a choice between “14 years of decline” and “a decade of national renewal”.
“This is your year. The opportunity to shape our country’s future rests in your hands,” Starmer said.
“The chance, finally, to turn the page, lift the weight off our shoulders, unite as a country and get our future back,” Starmer added.
Starmer’s speech was thin on policy detail but he repeated existing pledges to spur higher growth, put more police on Britain’s streets and create a publicly owned clean national energy company.
Labour has enjoyed double-digit poll leads for over a year now, putting it on track to become the largest party in parliament, with Starmer as prime minister.
He said that voters were right to be “anti-Westminster”, referring to the UK parliament in London, and “angry about what politics has become” following three Conservative prime ministers in little over a year.
But he warned against apathy.
“The biggest challenge we face, bar none, (is) the shrug of the shoulder,” said Starmer, urging Britons to “reject the pointless populist gestures” and “low-road cynicism that the Tories believe is all you deserve”.
Johnson won a landslide victory for the Tories at the last election in December 2019, on a pledge to “get Brexit done”.
Source: CNA