The people of Selby and Ainsty have sent a resounding message to this failing government: time’s up.
After 13 years of broken promises, neglected public services and economic chaos, they have turned to a Labour Party that offers a new way of doing things. We will repay their faith in us.
The missions I have set the next Labour government are ambitious but credible. Each one is laser-focused on delivering on the desires of working people in Selby and beyond.
Homegrown clean energy that will bring down bills and create jobs; a plan to restore economic prosperity; an NHS fit for the future; safer streets; smashing the class ceiling that holds back too many people in Britain today.
Through those five missions, we will build a better Britain and bring an end to the sticking plaster politics that has held our country back for too long.
But we will only be able to do that if everything we do is built on the foundation of rock-solid public finances. The Tories have shown what happens when a government loses control of the economy – working people suffer. We will never allow that to happen.
Our National Policy Forum at the weekend showed the strength of conviction the entire party has around this approach. And while, as the old truism goes, democracy can be messy, the truth is anyone watching saw a Labour Party united and ready to deliver.
The policy programme that has emerged is serious, credible and ambitious. Every spending commitment within it is fully funded. It lays the groundwork for the manifesto we will take to the country at the next general election, whenever Rishi Sunak finally plucks up the courage to call it.
That manifesto will set the foundations of strong public finances and then build a better future on top of them. The British public will be able to decide which party offers a vision and a plan for a Britain that delivers for them and their families.
As the dust settles on last week, the Tories are gleefully saying the quiet bit out loud to anyone who is still listening.
Devoid of any positive vision of what our country can be, their grand plan is to divide the British people from one another. The party of Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher reduced to hoping they can pointlessly cling to power through a campaign of fearmongering and deceit.
The reason they have to resort to this is because they can see what everyone else can. The Labour Party has changed and is busy answering the big questions facing the country.
“The party of Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher reduced to hoping they can pointlessly cling to power through a campaign of fearmongering and deceit.”
We have shown we will take the tough decisions necessary in pursuit of a government that will give working people their hope and their future back. The Tories have nothing to offer but more of the same, failed approach that got us in our current mess.
Last Thursday, the voters of Selby rewarded us for our approach. At the weekend we were able to show that we mean every word of it through our actions rather than just words.
No resting on our laurels, no thinking the job was done. Instead, we doubled down on our commitment to delivering on the plans we have set out. It was the clearest sign yet of what I never tire of saying: you will find no complacency in this Labour Party.
We are relentlessly focused on delivering for Britain, giving it its future back and improving the lives of those who make it great.
Keir Starmer is leader of the Labour Party