UK leader Starmer aims to shed gloomy image with a key speech stressing change

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Some members of the center-left party say Starmer has made that dark tunnel longer by delivering downbeat messages about the economy since becoming Britain's first Labour prime minister for 14 years in July. "I know that the cost-of-living crisis drew a veil over the joy and wonder in our lives and that people want respite and relief.” He said the government will deliver positive change, but won’t offer “false hope.” “Just because we all want low taxes and good public services, does not mean that the iron law of properly funding policies can be ignored,” Starmer said. Starmer won the election on a promise to banish years of turmoil and scandal under Conservative governments, get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service. “But nor am I going to allow them to define the government.” International challenges The clothes episode, and another over the salary of Starmer’s top aide, are unwelcome distractions for a government taking office as tensions spiral in the Middle East and the 2 ½-year-old war in Ukraine.