Keir Starmer opportunity mission speech: I will shatter the “class ceiling”

Keir Starmer will vow to shatter Britain’s “class ceiling” in his fifth and final ‘mission’ speech on “opportunity” on Thursday.

He will flesh out details of the missions that will underpin a Labour government’s programme in Gillingham in south-east England. He will vow to “fight – at every stage, for every child – the pernicious idea that background equals destiny”.

The Labour leader is expected to announce policy designed to bolster opportunity, spanning from planning reform to new early years development targets, provisions to tackle the teaching retention crisis to curriculum reform, and a drive to increase the numbers of people undertaking vocational training.

Starmer will draw on his working-class background – his father worked in a tool factory and his mother was a nurse – to discuss the “class ceiling”, which he will say is about “economic insecurity, structural and racial injustice”, but also “snobbery” and “a fundamental lack of respect”.

He will condemn an alleged “sheep and goats mentality” towards education, attacking “‘academic for my kids; vocational for your kids’ snobbery” and saying it has “no place in modern society”.

The Labour leader will further argue that for children to succeed, they need “skills and knowledge. Practical problem-solving and academic rigour. Curiosity and a love of learning too – they’ve always been critical”.

He will state that to meet the challenges of the future, Britain will “also need a greater emphasis on creativity, on resilience, on emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt. On all the attributes – to put it starkly – that make us human, that distinguish us from learning machines”. 

In February, Keir Starmer announced that he would launch a series of missions which would form the “backbone” of a future Labour government. The missions focus on growth, crime and public safety, health, the green transition, and opportunity.

His final mission speech in Gillingham is within the Medway council area, where Labour won control of the council in May. The area currently has three Conservative MPs, but all the seats are considered competitive for Labour.