'Massive task' for Labour to win next election, Keir Starmer says, but challenge is 'doable'

Speaking in a virtual event yesterday, Sir Keir said he knew the challenge ahead of him but said he did think it was “doable” for him to reach Number 10 Downing Street in 2024.

He said “there’s no pretending otherwise” that it will not be difficult, and added: “But I don’t think it’s possible if I don’t do what I’m doing now, which is to listen to people first and get that firsthand experience of what people want to tell me about what needs to change in the Labour Party.”

He said: “I‘m deeply conscious that as the incoming leader of the Labour Party, I am the leader of a party that’s not just lost an election badly in December, but the last four elections in a row.”

Doncaster was one of the areas where Labour lost to the Tories in the 2019 election as the so-called ‘red wall’ crumbled, specifically the constituency of Don Valley where Conservtaive Nick Fletcher took the seat from Caroline Flint.

Members of the public submitted questions ranging from coronavirus to the European Union and Brexit, as well as on local representation.

Referencing the Brexit debate, something which he was told came up repeatedly on the doorsteps in Doncaster, Sir Keir said it had been about people not feeling like they could influence the decisions made about then.

“But it’s much, much deeper than that,” he said. “This sense that people say ‘decisions about me should be made closer to me and in a way that I can influence them’. And I just don’t think that’s happening. So actually, I’m a big advocate of moving power and decision-making actually out of Westminster altogether.

“So where we can we should be putting decisions closer to people, decisions about Doncaster should be taken in Doncaster.”

Doncaster councillor Jane Nightingale question Sir Keir's commitment to driving through with Brexit after he previously pushed for a second referendum

She said: "We are now moving forward obviously in unprecedented times. I work in the community in Doncaster and when the Brexit process starts moving forward again, will you now honour the people's vote of Doncaster North which voted 69 per cent to leave and work with the Government as we should do to get the deal that would be good for our communities up in Doncaster?"

Sir Keir said: "Let me be straightforward about it. The transition period is [until] the end of this year, but we've already left.

"We left at the end of last year, we are now outside of the EU, and therefore it's important for me to say to you, and everybody in the same position as you that in my opinion, the leave/remain divided is over. That is gone, and I'm not going to revive it."

He said the debate was no longer "relevant" and added: "We've got to make the best of it. You know, for yourself ,for people in Doncaster, in Yorkshire, for people whichever way they voted, frankly, we've got to make the best of it."

Conservative voter Kelley Tennant told Sir Keir she felt let down by the party over the coronavirus response.

She said she trusted politicians before the crisis but now had lost her faith.

"I've always been Conservative," she said. "I did vote for Boris and I voted for Brexit, however this pandemic has completely changed my mind and I don't feel I trust any of the Conservative Party now."

She said: "Boris has disappeared as far as I'm concerned. I've not seen him for a good month. I don't know where he is.

"And if you'd asked me if I was going to be on a phone call with you [Sir Keir], I'd say no chance. However, I'm quite interested to see what you would what you would have done."

Sir Keir said: "I don't think there's any getting away from the fact that the Government's been slow. They cannot grasp this in the way that they should have done.

"I do want to be fair to them, because I think the idea that any Government would have just sailed through this, and it wouldn't have been a problem, is nonsense. Anybody would have struggled."

But he said there had been issues and Ms Tennant indicated she would watch the Labour leader's response closely.

Sir Keir was asked by former police officer Andrew Thompsett, another lifelong Conservative who once voted for Labour, how he had pushed for more support for the self-employed during the coronavirus crisis.

He said: “I think there’s a bit of a sense that the self employed always sort of seemed to come as a bit of an afterthought in all of this. And so we’ll raise that again with him, Andrew and see whether we can get some movement on it.”

He also hit out at the response to the flooding in Doncaster last year.

Speaking to journalists after the event, he said: “We are still in the place of reacting to floods every time they happen rather than now accepting that we’re in a stage where flooding is likely and it should be properly risk assessed as an ongoing strategy going forward.”

He added: “It’s intolerable for people to be left, essentially in a position where they can’t be insured and we know there is the risk of flooding in the future. So we need to find a solution.

Addressing the saga engulfing the Prime Minister's aide Dominic Cummings' trip to Durham, Sir Keir said: "The inquiry into what he may have thought about his own family is secondary.

"The only question that would have mattered to me as Prime Minister is, is this going to make it less likely that other people will comply with the rules? And if the answer is yes.

"Then I, as Prime Minister, would have got rid of him. And I think the fact that Boris Johnson hasn't has I think it's weakened him. I think even a strong Tory supporter and voter would accept this has significantly weakened him as a result of the position he's adopted."