By Justin Madders

MP for Ellesmere Port

Two keynote speeches at the start of 2023 highlighted all too clearly the crucial divide between the leaders of our two main political parties. As both Leaders look to the year ahead it is an opportunity for them to set out their vision for the country. Often these speeches are broad in their approach but, probably reflecting the overall political climate they were very different.

One of them – Sir Keir Starmer – looked forward in his National Renewal Speech to a bright future for our country under a Labour Government after more than a dozen years of decline under the Conservatives. This contrasted with the address by Rishi Sunak, the current Prime Minister, who in summary gave modest pledges to the nation – on inflation, the economy, national debt, National Health Service waiting lists and ‘small boats’ – that were so unambitious that he can hardly fail to achieve them. They have been summarised as “all things that were happening anyway, are so easy it would be difficult not to achieve them, or are aimed at fixing problems of the Tories’ own making”. It certainly felt like he had focus-grouped the biggest immediate complaints his MPs were getting and set out his intention to deal with them. Of course, after 12 years in power the Government have difficulty in not sharing a significant portion of responsibility for these issues in the first place and the rather disconnected set of issues, important though they are, did not really amount to a cohesive vision for the future.

We need to do so much better in the future and that is what Keir Starmer tried to set out in his keynote speech last week.The starting point for Keir and his team is to restore Britain’s hope and optimism by starting to deliver on the change that our country has demanded after nearly 13 years of Tory failure.

For too long our economy, our public services and our communities have suffered from the sticking plaster politics that has epitomised the past 12 years of Conservative governments. Indeed, the rather ad hoc and disconnected set of priorities listed by Rishi Sunak epitomised that approach.

With reference to Keir Starmer’s speech was a commitment that in the North West we will no longer have Westminster hoarding power, which means no more holding back this country’s economic potential. By devolving power where it makes sense to do so we will be able to make many more important decisions on a regional basis so that the vital local improvements that we need can be introduced much more easily.Keir Starmer has set out an ambitious, but practical, future for the country based on delivering the change people are crying out for and gave back to the country its hope and optimism.

The general aim will be to deliver a new way of governing that will build a fairer, greener and more dynamic Britain with power closer to people. We need to see a decade of national renewal with higher education alongside research and technology central to our long-term economic growth as well. A sticking plaster approach it is not.