'It is a test, a fight for the soul of our country'

PRIME MINISTER MAKES VOW TO TACKLE RACISM AND DIVISION IN ΚΕΥΝΟTE SPEECH

- By LIAM THORP, LOTTIE GIBBONS AND DAN HAYGARTH

SIR Keir Starmer vowed to stand up to racism and hatred as he delivered the keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

In a speech which lasted around an hour yesterday, the Prime Minister told the main hall at Liverpool Exhibition Centre that his government will “fight” those who spread division.

The Prime Minister was introduced by Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James was unlawfully killed at Hillsborough in 1989 and has campaigned for the Hillsborough Law, which was finally laid in parliament earlier this month.

Sir Keir paid tribute to the campaigners’ work and described the law as being part of “national renewal” as he opened his speech.

He continued: “Government and working people, working together to drag us out of decline - building a new Britain.

“Now, it’s an urgent task. We can all see the country faces a choice - a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road. We could choose decency or we could choose division.

“Renewal or decline. A country - proud of its values, in control of its future, or one that succumbs, against the grain of our history, to the politics of grievance - it is a test, a fight for the soul of our country, every bit as big as rebuilding Britain after the war, and we must all rise to this challenge.”