Labour kicks off its first virtual conference on Saturday with a promise to offer the country “the leadership it needs at this time of national crisis”.
Deputy leader Angela Rayner said the party understood it had “a mountain to climb” to regain power at the next election, but said it aimed to show that Boris Johnson’s Conservatives were “holding Britain back” and restore voters’ trust in Labour as a party of government.
The first annual conference under Sir Keir Starmer was due to take place in Liverpool this weekend, giving the new leader an opportunity to dominate the news agenda with his vision of the party “under new management” after the Corbyn years.
But the coronavirus crisis forced the cancellation of the annual gathering of activists, MPs and trade unionists, which is replaced with a four-day Labour Connected event, taking place completely online and devoted largely to training sessions and members-only policy discussions.
After a behind-closed-doors women’s conference on Saturday, Sir Keir will welcome members to the main event on Sunday with opening comments ahead of a speech by deputy Angela Rayner.
And he will deliver his keynote address – normally a highpoint of the leader’s year, delivered to a crowd of thousands and picked over in forensic detail by the media – to an online and TV audience only on Tuesday.
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LIfting the curtain on the event, Ms Rayner said Labour aimed to show voters “what we can achieve with a new leadership for our party and for our country”.
She said: “At this time of national crisis, we are offering the country the leadership it needs. We will act in the best interests of the British people, and in our shared mission to defeat this terrible virus.
“And we will call this failing Conservative government out for its serial incompetence that is holding Britain back.”
In a clear attempt to draw a line under the double election defeats under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership – which saw Labour slump to its worst result since 1935 last December – she said: “We know that we have a mountain to climb to win the next election, but we are determined to climb it.
“We must – and we will – restore the British people’s trust in Labour as a party of government.”
Ms Rayner, who was a social care worker before becoming an MP, paid tribute to the key workers who have “kept us all cared for, fed and connected” during the coronavirus crisis and said that the country cannot go back to “business as usual” once the disease is defeated.
“This crisis showed us that the people our economy and our country cannot survive without are our key workers,” she said.
“The NHS and social care staff who have put their lives on the line to save others. The posties, the bus drivers, the shop workers, the delivery drivers and so many others who have kept us all cared for, fed and connected.
“Your service, your sacrifice and your bravery will never be forgotten. Our whole country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude. After all the sacrifice and hardship, we can’t go back to business as usual”.
She said: “The coronavirus crisis has changed everything for all of us, for our country and for our party. But our values haven’t changed. “And it is those values of fairness, compassion that are seeing our country through this crisis. These are our values, Labour values, and they must be the foundation of our country’s recovery.
“Out of this crisis, we can build a better, fairer, more equal society”.
