British opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer said on Tuesday it was his party's "moment", championing green policies to spur economic growth and create jobs that he said would open the door to power after 12 years of the Conservative government.
At his party's annual conference, Starmer struck at the heart of Prime Minister Liz Truss's plan to revive growth, saying a Labor government would create jobs, improve skills and tackle climate change rather than cut taxes for the wealthiest.
Trying to capitalize on the divide opened up by the government's so-called mini-budget that saw the Conservatives shift to the right with a return to trickle-down economic policies, Starmer said Labor was once again "the party of the center-ground" ready for an election due in 2024.
"This is a Labor moment," he told a packed auditorium in the northern English city of Liverpool in a speech greeted by several standing ovations rather than the heckling he received last year.
"Britain will deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Britain will get its future back ... That's my commitment to you. The national mission of the next Labor government. And together with the British people - we will do it," he said.
Starmer pledged to stop "this endless cycle of crisis with a fresh start, a new set of priorities and a new way of governing" that would help the lower paid and restore the country's National Health Service.
Starmer said he would start his plan to create one million new jobs in towns and cities, bring down energy bills, raise living standards and start to tackle the climate crisis in the first 100 days of a Labor government.
He also said he would set up a publicly-owned energy company within a year of coming to power and control immigration with a points-based system, a policy that echoes that of the Conservative Party.
PUNISHING DEFEAT
With a new air of confidence, Labor is in a very different place than even a year ago, when battles with leftist supporters of former leader Jeremy Corbyn underscored the deep divisions in the party after a punishing election defeat in 2019.
In a break with the past, Starmer led Labor party members in a rendition of the national anthem at the start of the conference in Liverpool - the first time the song had been sung at such a gathering in recent memory.
Labour lawmakers are sensing a change in their fortunes, with Andy Burnham, mayor of the northern city of Manchester, saying the annual get-together should be called the "get ready for government conference".
"I thought it was a fantastic speech that offered something for everyone," said Liam Challenger, a local Labor councilor in Reading, southern England. "This is a party transformed."
An opinion poll by YouGov for the Times newspaper put Labour 17 points ahead of the Conservatives, its largest poll lead in more than two decades. Another poll, conducted between Sept. 22-25 by Deltapoll put the lead at 13 points.
Many Labor members say the Conservative government has done them a favor by unveiling a "growth plan" on Friday that scrapped the top rate of income tax and canceled a planned rise in corporate taxes, on top of a hugely expensive move to subsidies energy bills for struggling households and businesses.
The plan sent markets tumbling with the pound plunging to a record low and British bond prices collapsing.
Starmer has said he will reverse the abolition of the top rate of income tax and restore it to 45%, and he will recommit to an Office for Value for Money to oversee taxpayers' money and ensure it is spent in the national interest.
"What we've seen from the government in the past few days has no precedent," Starmer said. "They've lost control of the British economy - and for what? ... For tax cuts for the richest one percent in our society."
