Keir Starmer to speak at lockdown party site to declare end to ‘politics of performance’

Keir Starmer will stand at the site of a notorious Number 10 lockdown party to deliver a speech setting out his plans for two terms of Labour government.

The PM has invited 50 people he met over the course of the election campaign to Downing Street’s Rose Garden ahead of parliament’s return from recess on Monday.

On May 15 2020, the garden was used by Boris Johnson and his staff for a gathering with wine and cheese as the rest of the country was still under lockdown.

Shortly afterwards, the same space was famously used by Johnson’s chief aide Dominic Cummings for a press conference in which he claimed to have driven to Barnard Castle in County Durham to test his eyesight.

In his Tuesday morning speech, Starmer is expected to tell attendees: ‘A garden and a building that were once used for lockdown-breaking parties, are now back in your service.’

Those invited along to the event include apprentices, firefighters, small business owners and public servants.

The prime minister will say: ‘Next week, parliament will return. The business of politics will resume, but it will not be business as usual.

‘Because we can’t go on like this anymore. No more politics of performance, papering over the cracks, or division and distraction.

‘Things are being done differently now.’

But Conservative Party chairman Richard Fuller argued the setting of the speech shows the PM is not beyond theatrics.

He said: ‘This is nothing but a performative speech to distract the public from the promises Starmer made that he never had any intention of keeping.

‘In fewer than 100 days, the Labour Party has dumped its ambition of public service and become engulfed in sleaze, handed out bumper payouts to its union paymasters with “no strings” attached and laid the groundwork to harm pensioners and tax working people.’

While much of the address will focus on setting expectations for Labour’s first few years in power – including a warning that things ‘will get worse before they get better’ – Starmer is also expected to talk about one of the biggest challenges he has faced since the election: the riots of the past month.

He will say: ‘The riots didn’t just betray the sickness, they revealed the cure, found not in the cynical conflict of populism but in the coming together of a country the morning after and cleared up their community.

‘Because that is who we are, that is what we stand for.

‘People who cared for their neighbour. Communities who stood fast against hatred and division. Emergency services who did their duty – even when they were in danger. And a government that put the people of this country first.’

Starmer will add: ‘This government won’t always be perfect, but I promise this: you will be at the heart of our government and in the forefront of our minds, at the centre of everything we do.’

The speech comes towards the end of a shortened parliamentary recess, with little time for the PM or his government colleagues to relax due to a series of crises both at home and abroad.

A flurry of activity is expected to kick off once MPs return on Monday, with two important dates for Labour to focus on: the 100-day mark since the election on October 13, and the first Labour Budget for 14 years on October 30.

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