Keir Starmer has said he has turned the Labour Party “inside out” since Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry conference on Tuesday morning, Starmer said the party had “changed” since he took over in April 2020.
“We’ve turned the Labour Party inside out and that’s particularly significant when it comes to the way we’re working with business,” he said.
“There is no going back and it is united behind what we’re trying to achieve.”
He added the party’s annual conference earlier this year was “the best” gathering “since 1996″, held before Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide election win.
Labour has held a consistent poll lead for some time, with Rishi Sunak failing to secure a significant bounce in the polls for the Conservatives since taking office.
But Starmer said many Labour ideas would have to be ditched if the party won power as a result of economic problems.
“We will inherit an economy that’s been damaged by the last 12 weeks and the last 12 years, and we need to fundamentally accept that as an incoming government,” he said. “Restoring stability is key.”
“Do I accept there are good Labour things that as an incoming government we won’t be able to do as quickly as we’d like? Yes I do accept that.”
It came as Starmer used his speech to say “low pay and cheap labour” must stop and called for an end to “immigration dependency”.
His intervention drew a response from Corbyn, who said: “Without immigration, the trains wouldn’t run, businesses wouldn’t function and the NHS wouldn’t exist.
“We will not end cheap labour by dividing workers and belittling migrants’ contribution. We introduce a £15 min wage, end zero-hours contracts & back striking workers instead.”
In a sign of how the left of Labour is struggling under Starmer’s leadership, the pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum has warned it is running out of money.