Keir Starmer pledges to bring hope to an ‘exhausted’ Britain

Keir Starmer will pledge to bring hope to an “exhausted” Britain as he seeks to draw dividing lines with Rishi Sunak – and his party’s own Jeremy Corbyn era – ahead of the general election.

In a speech likely to be viewed as firing the starting gun on Labour’s long campaign, he will say his is no longer a party of “gestures politics” and accuse the prime minister of "pointless populist” gimmicks.

Amid warnings disgruntled voters could sit on their hands this time around, the Labour leader will describe the UK as a nation “exhausted” by "the sex scandals, the expenses scandals, the waste scandals, the contracts for friends”.

But he will pledge to change Britain, adding: “Whether you’re thinking of voting Labour for the first time, whether you always vote Labour, or whether you have no intention of voting Labour whatsoever: my party will serve you.

“That’s who we are now, a changed Labour Party. No longer in thrall to gesture politics, no longer a party of protest, but a party of service.”

Sir Keir will set out his stall on a visit to the west of England at the same time as the Tory leader gives a rival new year stump speech in the East Midlands. It comes as opposition parties increasingly put pressure on Mr Sunak to call a spring election. With the Tories trailing Labour in the polls, the prime minister will hope to narrow the gap before deciding to call a vote. But Tory MPs are increasingly downbeat after a series of announcements towards the end of last year failed to change the dial.

In his pitch to voters, Sir Keir will say he understands why people have turned against politicians, following scandals like Partygate and a ramping up of political attacks between the parties.

The Labour leader will hit out at Mr Sunak’s attempt last year to pitch himself as the “change candidate” in the election, despite 13 years of Tory rule.

“They can’t change Britain, so they try to undermine the possibility of change itself,” he will say, as he urged voters to reject the “pointless populist gestures and the low-road cynicism that the Tories believe is all you deserve”.

He will promise to “clean up politics” of sleaze, adding: “No more VIP fast lanes, no more kickbacks for colleagues, no more revolving doors between government and the companies they regulate.

“I will restore standards in public life with a total crackdown on cronyism: this ends now.”

The opposition leader will also pursue jail sentences of more than a decade for those who defraud the government, saying he helped send Labour and Tory “expense cheat politicians” to jail in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal while he was the director of public prosecutions.

Assuring voters he offers a fresh start as the Conservatives step up their attempts to link him to Mr Corbyn, he will tell the public that “the opportunity to shape our country’s future rests in your hands”.

He will also attack former Tory prime ministers Boris Johnson and David Cameron, saying politics is not a “hobby” for people who “enjoy the feeling of power”.