Watch live: Keir Starmer speaks at Global Progress Action Summi
Sep 28, 2025 #Keirstarmer #Politicians
In the next week and the months ahead, how will the Prime Minister prove that progress
means delivery and not just office?
Prime Minister Sturmer, welcome to the stage.
Good morning and really good to see you and Alita, thank you very much for that introduction.
Thank you to all of you here for joining us today and can I take this early opportunity
to thank all of those that work behind the scenes to bring this event together and allow
us this opportunity to discuss, so thank you very much to them.
Now this is a gathering of people bound by a common cause, the patriotic renewal of our
nations that is underpinned by the values of dignity and respect, equality and fairness
and the belief that social democratic means are the best way to pursue that goal.
But it's also a room that puts paid to a story we often hear in the press these days, that
somehow our politics is dying out.
Now yes, we are in an era of huge challenge, but we can take heart when we look around
the world.
In fact, we only need to look around this room, Kristrun from Iceland, Pedro from Spain,
Mark Carney who stormed to victory in Canada at the beginning of this year, followed by
Albo in Australia and I called Jonas in Norway just a few weeks ago.
So in fact, pitted against our right-wing opponents, I'd say centre-left parties are
having quite a year so far and not forgetting, good morning Pedro, we're just hailing you
being here, but not forgetting of course the Labour Party's victory in July of last year,
getting a landslide victory here in the United Kingdom.
So I'm sorry, I don't accept that argument that somehow our politics is dying out, but
I do accept that it is now time for social democrats to confront directly some of the
challenges and some of the lies, frankly, that have taken root in our societies.
Because we don't just hear these stories about our politics, we also hear stories about our
great countries, our communities, our cities, that simply do not match the reality that
we see around us.
And it's very good to have you here in London, I hope you've enjoyed yourself here in our
capital city, maybe gone out for breakfast this morning, popped into the pub for a pint
last night, maybe enjoyed the last rays of sunshine in our beautiful parks, and if you
have done any of those things, or other brilliant things in London, you may have noticed that
this city isn't the wasteland of anarchy that some would have you believe.
But that in a sense captures what we're up against, doesn't it, and the reversions in
all of your countries, where places, institutions, communities are portrayed in a way that is
a million miles from reality, a sort of industrialised infrastructure of grievance, an entire world,
not just a world view, created through our devices, that is miserable, joyless, and demonstrably
untrue.
And yet, in another way, and this is the challenge, also totally cohesive, because it preys on
real problems in the real world, identifies clear enemies, that's us, by the way, and
at its heart, its most poisonous belief, and this was on full display here in London just
under two weeks ago, that there's a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle
for the nation, for all of our nations, and you don't have to be a great historian to
know where that kind of poison ends up, and you can just feel it, in a language that is
naked in its attempt to intimidate, because it's not careless or accidental, it's part
of a strategy. They want politics to be a choice between globalists and nationalists,
to draw a dividing line between the elites and the people, in which somehow our rich
story of patriotism and pride, our common cause with working people, our deep roots
in the trade union movement and our communities, the desire and demand of working people for
a voice in their future, is claimed by those who have nothing in common with them or their
values, only a cynical intent to exploit their fears to benefit themselves. That is
what we're up against. So we must show our politics resolutely opposed to a status quo
that doesn't deliver for working people. The worst thing we can do is to defend the status
quo, it hasn't worked for working people. We must be determined to deliver change in
their interests, patriotic renewal, rooted in our own national stories, restoring pride
where people live and work. We fight for our values, decency, tolerance, respect, and most
importantly we focus on the countries we can become through renewal, national renewal.
Now that's not a new argument for social democrats, but it is the beating heart of
our politics, the nation state, harnessing the potential of the whole country, providing
security and opportunity for working people, together squaring up to the challenges of
a world that is frankly more dangerous, less secure, than many of us have known in our
lifetimes. We have to respond to that, not by turning inward, but with even deeper solidarity,
alliances and partnerships built upon common values, the rules based order that has kept
the peace in our world since the last century. The coalition of the willing, strong not just
because of the depth of our shared beliefs, but because we recognise that the security
and safety of the people that we serve depends on our relationships, our willingness to stand
up together across our different political traditions and not be cowed by tyranny. But
to protect strength abroad you do need security at home, economic stability, an approach to
economic growth that can create wealth more fairly in the first place. Proud working class
towns and cities, so often disenchanted with mainstream politics because the economy does
not work for them and because that's been true for a very long time. And they're losing
trust in our ability to deliver the change that they want to see. They don't want handouts
or help, they want to stand on their own feet. I'll give you an example from the United Kingdom,
yesterday we announced £5 billion to be spent by local people, however they see fit,
in their communities, restoring a pub, reviving a community hall, reopening a youth club. But
the important thing is not coming cap in hand to Whitehall to get the green light on a project,
but actually allowing control to be with the communities where the funding is going so they
can choose what it's spent on, because those with skin in the game know what's best for their
communities. It's about restoring control and agency, having the respect for working people
to choose what's right for them. And that is how they stand proudly as partners in a social
democratic nation. So our approach to the economy, investment yes of course, in everything from
defence to energy, creating good well-paid jobs, industrial policy yes of course, our proud
heritage of making things, relighting the fires and the factories across the country, in public
services absolutely for all of us, from healthcare to transport and financial prudence which is
non-negotiable. But it does also mean stripping out regulation so we can build more and build
more quickly and the private sector can create wealth in every community. Now some people call
this approach abundance, I have a different phrase for it, social democracy. But the way I see it,
this is the defining political choice of our times, a politics of predatory grievance,
preying on the problems of working people and using that infrastructure of division
against the politics of patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country brick
by brick from the bottom up, including everyone in the national story. Difference under the same
flag. Because wherever you are in the world, we all have our different national symbols
and what I'll say is this, we must fight for them, stand up to those who tell us that there's a
tension between our symbols of pride and symbols of inclusion, our multi-ethnic modern nation
and our history and heritage. There is not, they are one and the same thing. That's the
social democratic argument, it is a powerful one and we must never surrender it.
But of course you need more than symbols for nation building, you also need renewal
and it's important to be really clear on this. Renewal is not just fixing problems in some
managerial sense, that is important, of course it is. People are very disappointed with the pace
of change in government, it's so much slower than almost every other facet of their lives,
so we do have to speed up. Poor delivery is a threat to mainstream politics but renewal
is a deeper argument. It means demonstrating to working people that as well as the economy,
the state is being run in their interests and that does mean we've got to look ourselves
in the mirror and recognise where we've allowed our parties to shy away from people's concerns
and let the politics of purity patronise people. Now you will all have issues in your own countries
but in Britain it's illegal migration and I suspect that may be the same in a number of
other countries. For too many years it's been too easy for people to come here,
slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally because frankly we've been squeamish
about saying things that are clearly true. It's not just that it's not compassionate
left-wing politics to rely on Labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages,
but the simple fact that every nation needs to have control over its borders. We do need to
know who is in our country. Our immigration system does need to be fair if we want to
maintain that binding contract that our politics is built on, otherwise it undermines trust,
undermines people's faith that we're on their side and their belief that the state can and will
work for them and that is why today I am announcing this government will make a new free of charge
digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this parliament. Let me spell that out,
you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It's as simple as
that because decent, pragmatic, fair-minded people they want us to tackle the issues that they see
around them and of course the truth is we won't solve our problems if we don't also take on the
looking upstream to tackle poverty, conflict, climate change, issues that aren't just intolerable
for those of us who care about inequality and injustice wherever it's found in the world,
but which have clear consequences for our own citizens. Take Russia's aggression in Ukraine,
we all have a responsibility for the future of our continent to stand tall where oppression and
violence rears its head, but it is also about energy security because Putin and other tyrants
have used their control over energy supplies as a threat. They've pushed up energy bills,
threatened to keep doing so unless they get their way and that's why we're investing in our own
energy, sovereign control over our own future, whether that's nuclear, wind, solar power. Now
this will create good jobs but it will also take the boot of tyrants like Putin off our throat.
So our mission to become a clean energy superpower is about future-proofing energy supply,
bringing energy bills down and protecting the planet that we all live on, doing right by our
values and by our countries and our citizens, because in this era we must be the nation builders,
we must be the patriots in our countries, we must show working people that we and only we
can deliver the pride and belonging they seek, their communities strong, cohesive,
change for the better, taking control of our future, tackling the big challenges,
whether that's climate change or illegal migration, not shying away from them. That is how we win,
that is how we rebuild, that's how renewal defeats grievance. Thank you very much for listening,
thank you very much for being here, I really appreciate it, thank you very much.
Thank you so much, my name is Neera Tanden and I'm the president of the Center for American
Progress Action Fund and we are so excited to co-host this day and really thrilled to be here
with such incredible leaders from around the world. I want to thank Prime Minister Starmer for
his

