From Keir Starmer’s address on the day that his victory was announced “Coronavirus has brought normal life to a halt. Our cities, our towns and our villages are silent, our roads deserted. Public life has all but come to a standstill, and we’re missing each other. People are frightened by the strangeness, anxious about what will happen next. And we have to remember that every number is a family shaken to its foundation. It reminds us of what really matters: our family, our friends, our relationships. The love we have for one another. Our health. Our connections with those that we don’t know. A greeting from a stranger, a kind word from a neighbour. These make up society. They remind us that we share our lives together. We have to trust one another and look after one another. And I can see this happening, people coming together to help the isolated and the vulnerable, checking on their neighbours. Our willingness to come together like this as a nation has been lying dormant for too long. When millions of us stepped out on to our doorsteps to applaud the carers, visibly moved, there was hope of a better future. In times like this, we need good government, a government that saves lives and protects our country. It’s a huge responsibility and whether we voted for this government or not, we all rely on it to get this right. That’s why in the national interest the Labour party will play its full part. We will engage constructively with the government, not opposition for opposition’s sake. But we will test the arguments that are put forward. We will shine a torch on critical issues, and where we see mistakes, or faltering government, or things not happening as quickly as they should, we’ll challenge that and call that out. We will get through this. But when we do get through this we cannot go back to business as usual. This virus has exposed the fragility of our society. It’s lifted a curtain. Too many will have given too much. Some of us will have lost too much. We know in our hearts, things are going to have to change. We can see so clearly now who the key workers really are. When we get through this it’ll be because of our NHS staff, our care workers, our ambulance drivers, our emergency services, our cleaners, our porters. For too long they’ve been taken for granted and poorly paid. They were last and now they should be first. We must go forward with a vision of a better society built on that resilience and built on that human spirit. That will require bravery and change in our party as well… We have to face the future with honesty. Antisemitism has been a stain on our party. I have seen the grief that it’s brought to so many Jewish communities. On behalf of the Labour party, I am sorry. And I will tear out this poison by its roots and judge success by the return of Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us. The Labour party is an incredible and powerful force for good. But we’ve just lost four elections in a row. We’re failing in our historic purpose. We’ve got a mountain to climb. But we will climb it, and I will do my utmost to reconnect us across the country, to re-engage with our communities and voters, to establish a coalition across our towns and our cities and our regions with all creeds and communities, to speak for the whole of the country. Our mission has to be to restore trust in our party as a force for good and a force for change.”