Labour leader Keir Starmer chats to the Express & Star during his visit to GTG, Willenhall.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Good morning Sir Keir. Mark Andrews, Express and Star. You may be aware that in the

00:08election, the Mayoral election, it was quite close and partly some of that might be attributed to the

00:13independent candidates who stood on the Don't Vote Labour platform and you might have heard the

00:17stories today that the independents are talking, sort of forming a new grouping. How concerned

00:22are you about this situation with the independents? Could it cost you a lot of seats in this area?

00:28I think it's very important to be clear about what the choice is at the next election.

00:32It's a clear choice between five more years of chaos, of division and of failure under the

00:41Conservatives or a Labour Party coming in with a laser focus on the priorities of working people

00:50across the country, a Labour Party that can take our country forward and renew our country. That

00:56is the point. And I meet so many people in the West Midlands who say to me, I want change,

01:02I want things to change, I'm fed up, I can see this failure and it's costing me. And my message

01:08is if you want change you have to vote for change and that means voting Labour. That is going to be

01:14the central divide, the central choice at this upcoming election. Does it cost seats there,

01:20marginal seats? Well in the end I say strongly to people if you do want change you've got to vote

01:28for change. Of course both Andrew and I humbly want to earn as many votes as we can. This is

01:35a changed Labour Party. We take absolutely nothing for granted. We must win the trust and confidence

01:42as we showed we can in that West Midlands mayoralty. That was a very significant victory for

01:47the Labour Party. But we need to press on from there and we do it humbly knowing we have to

01:53earn those votes, listen to people, hear what's being said. But in the end it comes down to the

01:59choice of next election and it will be a straight choice between continuing with the failure of the

02:04Tory party or an incoming Labour government that is there to serve all of our communities.

02:09Would you support him not to take lovely council? I think you know wherever we need to go on and we

02:16need more votes we will continue to do so. But we do so with the same argument, the same mindset,

02:23which is we take nothing for granted. Not a single vote has been cast in the general election. We

02:29have to show we're a changed party. We have to show that the priorities of people in Dudley are

02:34the priorities of the Labour Party and that we will earn the votes we need going into that election.