Keir Starmer has urged former Labour voters to return to the party promising to fight the next election with a serious plan for running the country.
In a powerful speech to his party’s conference in Brighton, the Labour leader faced down left-wing hecklers and closed the door firmly on the Jeremy Corbyn era.
He reached out to voters who switched to the Tories at the last election telling them Labour would again be a patriotic, pro-business party that took care with taxpayers’ money.
In a sign of the changing direction of the party, he praised Tony Blair ’s record in office. “You want levelling up? That’s levelling up,” he told them.
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There were big new policy pledges on mental health treatment, school standards and £60bn over ten years on home insulation and double glazing saving families £400 a year on bills.
And he dismissed Boris Johnson as “a showman with nothing left to show” as he contrasted his values with those of the Prime Minister.
Putting the Government on notice, he told the PM: “Either get a grip or get out of the way and let us clear up this mess”.
Mr Starmer’s first conference address, billed as the most important of his political life, sought to define the future of Labour under his leadership.
It ended a week in which he forced through rule changes to strengthen his own grip on the party and saw the departure of the last Corbynite in his shadow cabinet.
The Labour leader faced down protesters chanting “oh Jeremy Corbyn” and calling for the national minimum wage to rise to £15.
“At this time on a Wednesday it’s normally the Tories who are heckling me [at Prime Minister’s Questions]. It doesn’t bother me then, doesn’t bother me now,” he told them.
After yet more heckles he said they had a choice between “shouting slogans or changing lives”.
To the anger of the Left, he promised to never again to go into an election “with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government”.
In a frank admission of the party’s failings under his predecessor, he admitted voters who abandoned Labour in 2019 thought it was “unpatriotic or irresponsible” .
His summer tour round the country had shown him some people “reluctantly chose the Tories because they didn’t believe our promises were credible”.
He told the voters: “It will not take another election defeat for the Labour party to become an alternative government in which you can trust.
“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.”
And he told his own party: “If the (Tories) are so bad, what does it say about us? 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.”
In his 90-minute address, Mr Starmer contrasted his own seriousness and competence in his former role as Director of Public Prosecutions with Boris Johnson’s frivolity.
“I don’t think Boris Johnson is a bad man. I think he is a trivial man. I think he’s a showman with nothing left to show,” he said.
He said the PM assumed that he didn’t need to stick to the same rules as everybody else - highlighting his defence of Dominic Cummings ’ visit to Barnard Castle.
Later, he joked: “My dad was a toolmaker. Although in a way, so was Boris Johnson’s!”
Mr Starmer, 59, opened up about his upbringing, including how he was the first member of his family to go to university.
He became a lawyer and rose to become the Director of Public Prosecutions before being elected as an MP in 2015.
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John and Penny Clough, who he met while they campaigned tirelessly for justice for their murdered daughter Jane, struggled to contain their emotions as they watched his speech.
The Labour leader credited them with teaching him “how to keep your dignity under severe pressure”.
Watched by his wife Victoria from the front row, Mr Starmer gave a deeply personal speech in which he described how his toolmaker father had given him respect for the dignity of work.
He opened up about the death of his mum Josephine, describing the moment he saw four nurses rushing to save her life.
“The NHS that had been her livelihood became her lifeline,” he said.
Mr Starmer, the former shadow Brexit secretary who pushed for a second referendum which turned many voters away from Labour, tackled the thorny issue head-on.
“The economic inheritance from the Tories will be appalling: A botched Brexit followed by Covid has left a big hole,” he said.
“The Government is learning that it is not enough to Get Brexit Done. You need a plan to Make Brexit Work.”
He also reclaimed the mantle of patriotism with praise for NATO and the armed forces - but also for footballer Marcus Rashford who campaigned for free school meals and took the knee.
“I couldn’t believe it when Rashford and the England team took the knee to highlight and condemn the racism they have had to endure, the Home Secretary encouraged people to boo.
“Well, here 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.”
