Keir Starmer has brushed off criticisms from left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn who heckled his conference speech and urged the Labour party to embrace the legacy of Tony Blair.
In a series of studio interviews after his crucial conference speech in Brighton, Starmer said the overwhelming majority of members supported the changes he had made at the conference to move the party onto the centre ground.
Starmer was heckled repeatedly during his 90-minute conference speech but dealt with the protests by asking conference if they wanted to “shout slogans or change lives”?
In a round of morning-after interviews he said: “I have been criticised that the speech went on too long. The speech was actually one hour – the extra half an hour was standing ovations and clapping.
“If you want a sense of where our movement is, they are absolutely behind me in this.”
In his speech, Starmer praised the record of the Blair government without mentioning by name the former prime minister who remains an anathema to many on the left.
But appearing on the BBC Starmer said that it was time for the party to return to winning elections in the way that it did under Blair’s leadership.
He said: “Tony Blair was a three-times winner in the Labour Party and we need to get back to winners in the Labour Party.”
"It was exactly that heckle yesterday – ‘shout slogans or change lives’.
“That is the choice for the Labour Party. We have changed, this is the platform. We have moved forward and we are going to change lives.”
Starmer rejected suggestions that – unlike Boris Johnson, who he dismissed as a “showman” in his speech – he did not have the charisma to lead his party to victory.
He said: “If you want a showman, if you want a prime minister where it is priced in that he’s not really honest, then I think we have to sit back and ask ourselves what sort of politics are we really in.
“I think it is more important for a political leader to have honesty, integrity and trust.”
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