'Farage doesn't like Britain and wants you to doubt it'

SIR Keir Starmer put controlling immigration, growing the economy and restoring pride in Britain at the heart of his plan to take on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

- 

The Prime Minister said securing the borders was a “reasonable demand”, but he hit out at people including Mr Farage who cross a “moral line” on the issue.

Sir Keir said Labour was the “patriotic party” and sought to reclaim the UK’s flags after a summer in which they had become the focus of a culture war.

The Prime Minister said he believed in a Britain with “the grit of the Lionesses, the swagger of Oasis, the strength of the Red Roses”.

Sir Keir went into conference with his party trailing Reform in the polls ahead of crunch elections in Scotland, Wales and English counties next year, and with his position in No 10 being questioned.

He used his party conference address in Liverpool to set out his vision for a “new country”, a “land of dignity and respect”.

But that meant addressing the concerns of voters who had drifted to Reform - with economic growth a key “antidote to division”.

The speech comes after a turbulent period which has seen unrest outside asylum hotels and the continued flow of migrants across the English Channel in small boats.

The Prime Minister said there is “a moral line, and it isn’t just Farage who crosses it”.

He added: “Controlling migration is a reasonable goal. But if you throw bricks and smash up private property, that's not legitimate - that’s thuggery.”

Free speech was a “British value” but did not allow people to “incite racist violence and hatred”.

He continued “this party is proud of our flags”, but “if they are painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese takeaway owner to ‘go home’, that’s not pride - that’s racism”.