Tories have overseen ‘a decade of decay and decline’ says Labour’s Lisa Nandy

LABOUR’S plans for government will make the country great again and reverse “a decade of decay and decline”, according to Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy.

She told GB News: “I think it’s obvious to people around the country in every part of the country that this country needs a plan. We’ve been drifting. We’ve had a decade of decay and decline.

“There’s hardly anyone in Britain that can honestly say that they and their families are better off after 13 years of Conservative government.

“The next Labour Government will likely inherit one of the worst economic situations since the Second World War.

“And our overriding imperative is going to be to get our economy growing again, by drawing on the contribution, the talent, the assets and potential that exist in every part of Britain.”

In an interview during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he said: “If we get this right, if we have a government that matches the ambition that is found in every community in the country, we could future-proof our National Health Service.

“We could make our streets safe again. We could build an NHS that is fit for the coming century, not just trying to patch up some of the damage that’s been done over the last decade.

“We’re calling time today on the sticking plaster politics that has led us to lurch from crisis to crisis over the last decade.

“And we’re going to share those priorities with the country today to say if you believe that this country can be great again, then please come and work with us.

“We can do this but we can only do it if we do it as a partnership with businesses and communities up and down the country and rebuild this country together.”

She continued: “We’re acutely aware of the challenges. We’ve got an economy that has seen virtually no growth over the last 13 years, and we’ve got public services that have been starved of investment.

“We’ve got communities that have been completely written off by this government and so many town centres have become no go areas.

“We’ve got a million, over a million people on NHS waiting lists and that was true even before the Covid pandemic.

“So we are very, very realistic about the challenges that this country faces. But we also know that there is talent there, assets there is potential in every part of Britain.”

Asked about the migrant boats crisis, she said: “It’s absolutely right that one of our key priorities that Keir Starmer is going to set out today is about making Britain’s streets safer.

“That means taking on some of these criminal gangs. But what we can’t do is what Rishi Sunak did earlier this year, which is just to set out a few priorities over the next few months to try and repair some of the damage that the Conservative Party has done to this country over the last 13 years.

“We need to think seriously about where this country is going and start to match the ambition in every part of the country. And that’s what we’re laying out today. No more sticking plaster politics.”

On Tony Blair’s call for digital ID cards, Ms Nandy said: “I haven’t read the report in full, I’ve seen the headlines and as always with Tony Blair, I think it’s a thoughtful contribution.

“What has become a real problem is that we’re living through a technology revolution. It has huge opportunities for Britain, but it’s also created enormous problems and we’ve got to be able to deal with that.

“But we haven’t committed as a party to supporting ID cards because there is a balance to be struck between the freedoms that people need to be able to exert online without interference from criminal gangs and from others who seek to shut down debate and drive people off the internet and the freedoms that people exert in the real world where ID cards have traditionally been a restriction on civil liberties and handing greater power to the state.”