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Sir Keir Starmer has unleashed his most powerful attack on Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing him of leading “the most incompetent government I can remember.”
On the second day of his own isolation, the Labor leader bitterly condemned the prime minister in COVID-19 death rates, job losses, shortage of PPE for workers, negligence and coronavirus failure tests.
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Sir Keir’s attack came in a forceful video-linked speech to the TUC conference, in which he offered to join the prime minister in a “national plan” to create jobs, and courted the unions with a new commitment on the workers’ rights.
His speech immediately won rave reviews from the leader of the giant Unite union, Len McCluskey, who was Jeremy Corbyn’s main cheerleader and has been viewed by some in the Labor Party as a skeptic of Starmer.
“Keir’s speech showed that he was absolutely on the side of the workers,” McCluskey said in a series of tweets.
“A tsunami of unemployment is coming and I very much welcome the Labor Party’s campaign to save workers from the scourge of mass unemployment.”
Opening his speech attacking the prime minister for the coronavirus, Sir Keir told the TUC: “Britain should not have one of the highest death rates in the world. And one of the deepest recessions.
“We shouldn’t have left our workers without protective gear. We shouldn’t have failed the most vulnerable in our nursing homes.
“And people shouldn’t have to go half the country looking for a COVID test when they’re sick.”
On his own isolation, Sir Keir said: “Yesterday my family was able to get tested quickly when we needed it.
“But only because my wife works for the NHS in a hospital that offers tests for staff and their families.
“For thousands of people across the country it is a very different story. And after six months of this pandemic, that is completely unacceptable.”
He continued: “What Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock can say: it is not the British people who are to blame for these mistakes.
“It is not civil servants, residential workers or mutant algorithms. It is this government. It is the government that is holding Britain back. And we should never let them forget it.”
Sir Keir added: “At the very least, the prime minister should have spent the summer getting the basics right.
“A testing system that works. An effective track and trace system – We don’t need to be outclassed around the world, we just need troops. A plan to protect nursing homes this winter. An examination system where parents And young people can trust in all respects.
“And as infection rates rise and our testing system collapses, what’s your priority? Reopening old wounds in Brexit. Shattering Britain’s reputation abroad. And making it harder for us to get the trade deal we all want. “
“My message to the prime minister is simple: set your priorities right. Go ahead with defeating this virus. And get the Brexit deal you promised.”
Stating that the UK is facing “the greatest economic, health and social challenge of a generation”, Sir Keir said the UK was “on the brink of a Thatcher-era return to unemployment”.
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On the leave plan, he asked the government to work with labor, companies and unions to create “specific support”, seeking options that include plans from Germany, France and Denmark “to avoid mass unemployment.”
He said: “At this time of national crisis, we must draw inspiration from our past, be willing to put partisan differences aside and work together in the interest of the country.”
“So, I make an open offer to the prime minister: work with us to keep millions of people working. Work with the unions and work with the companies.”
And, probably more with hope than expectation, he told the prime minister: “My door is open.”
On workers’ rights, Sir Keir called on the government to outlaw “fire and rehire” tactics, in which thousands of workers had been issued layoff notices and offered new contracts with worse pay and conditions. , said.
Naming and shaming BA and British Gas, he said: “The firing and rehiring tactics are wrong. They are against British values. They should also be illegal.”
In his tweets praising Sir Keir’s speech, McCluskey said: “Fighting for a new sector-supported labor protection scheme aimed at those industries that need it most.
“Not to do so is to let the historic investment in saving jobs made by UK taxpayers go to waste and working communities to decline.
“I also welcome Keir’s condemnation of the increasing use of fire and rehire tactics to hammer down wages and conditions, and his call today for this to be outlawed by the government. It is a despicable and immoral practice.
“I call on employers’ organizations and parliamentarians of all parties to work together to pressure the government to defend our workforce in the way that Germany, France, Spain and other countries are doing. UK should not be treated as second class again and forced to pay for this crisis. “
Conservatives responded by accusing Sir Keir of “stoking people’s fears about his future” and called on him to “start supporting the government.”
President Amanda Milling said: “While criticizing from the sidelines, this administration is delivering on the people of this country as we rebuild better against the coronavirus.”
