Keir Starmer has called on voters to “turn the page” on Conservative “chaos”, with polls set to open on Thursday morning for the local elections.
Voters head to the polls for a range of local council and mayoral elections, as well as a by-election in Blackpool South following the resignation of former Conservative MP Scott Benton.
Ahead of polling day, the Labour leader told voters they have a chance “to vote for change” and “pass a verdict on fourteen years of decline”.
“You can start to rebuild our country and take your community in a different direction”, he said.
He added that a vote for Labour “is for a plan to tilt our economy back towards the interests of working people and restore a sense of service to our politics”.
“A vote for Labour is a vote for getting Britain building again to drive growth, to switch on GB Energy to lower bills, take back our streets with 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs, make our NHS fit for the future with 2m more appointments, and to break down barriers to opportunity for every child with mental health support and free breakfast clubs.
“That change starts today, and you can vote for it. You can vote to stop the chaos, turn the page, and rebuild your country.
“So, head down to the polling station with your ID and choose a decade of national renewal with Labour and together we can get Britain’s future back.”
Starmer clashed with Rishi Sunak at PMQs for the final time before the local elections on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaking then, the prime minister stressed that, “Tomorrow voters will have a choice”.
“It will be a choice between mayors like Andy Street and Ben Houchen, who are delivering or mayors like Sadiq Khan, who just simply virtue signal”, he added.
Elections are taking place in 107 local authorities in England on Thursday, with more than 2,600 council seats and a further 10 mayoralties up for grabs.
Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, both local election gurus, recently wrote for the Local Government Chronicle that Sunak’s party could lose 500 seats if it repeats its poor 2023 local election performance, when its national vote share fell below 30 per cent.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, business and trade secretary insisted that the prime minister is not “under threat” from within his own party — and that he will remain safe regardless of how the Conservatives perform at the local elections on Thursday.
The business and trade secretary said that local elections tend to be “quite different” to general elections, but she was “expecting a good result”.
Pushed on what circumstances Rishi Sunak’s position as Conservative Party leader could be under threat, Badenoch told Sky News: “I don’t think the prime minister’s position is under threat”.
The cabinet minister, who has been tipped by some to succeed Sunak as Conservative Party leader, added that the PM has her “full backing”.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.
The post Local elections: Keir Starmer urges voters to ‘turn the page’ on Conservative ‘chaos’ appeared first on Politics.co.uk.
Voters head to the polls for a range of local council and mayoral elections, as well as a by-election in Blackpool South following the resignation of former Conservative MP Scott Benton.
Ahead of polling day, the Labour leader told voters they have a chance “to vote for change” and “pass a verdict on fourteen years of decline”.
“You can start to rebuild our country and take your community in a different direction”, he said.
He added that a vote for Labour “is for a plan to tilt our economy back towards the interests of working people and restore a sense of service to our politics”.
“A vote for Labour is a vote for getting Britain building again to drive growth, to switch on GB Energy to lower bills, take back our streets with 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs, make our NHS fit for the future with 2m more appointments, and to break down barriers to opportunity for every child with mental health support and free breakfast clubs.
“That change starts today, and you can vote for it. You can vote to stop the chaos, turn the page, and rebuild your country.
“So, head down to the polling station with your ID and choose a decade of national renewal with Labour and together we can get Britain’s future back.”
Starmer clashed with Rishi Sunak at PMQs for the final time before the local elections on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaking then, the prime minister stressed that, “Tomorrow voters will have a choice”.
“It will be a choice between mayors like Andy Street and Ben Houchen, who are delivering or mayors like Sadiq Khan, who just simply virtue signal”, he added.
Elections are taking place in 107 local authorities in England on Thursday, with more than 2,600 council seats and a further 10 mayoralties up for grabs.
Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, both local election gurus, recently wrote for the Local Government Chronicle that Sunak’s party could lose 500 seats if it repeats its poor 2023 local election performance, when its national vote share fell below 30 per cent.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, business and trade secretary insisted that the prime minister is not “under threat” from within his own party — and that he will remain safe regardless of how the Conservatives perform at the local elections on Thursday.
The business and trade secretary said that local elections tend to be “quite different” to general elections, but she was “expecting a good result”.
Pushed on what circumstances Rishi Sunak’s position as Conservative Party leader could be under threat, Badenoch told Sky News: “I don’t think the prime minister’s position is under threat”.
The cabinet minister, who has been tipped by some to succeed Sunak as Conservative Party leader, added that the PM has her “full backing”.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.
The post Local elections: Keir Starmer urges voters to ‘turn the page’ on Conservative ‘chaos’ appeared first on Politics.co.uk.