LABOUR must unite around its core values and bring people back to the forefront of politics in order to “claw” its way back to election success, the party’s shadow Brexit secretary has said.

MP Kier Starmer was speaking to a crowd of around 50 members and supporters at Gloucester Guildhall on Tuesday as part of the launch of the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Gloucestershire County Council elections.

Mr Starmer acknowledged the challenges Labour would face in May’s  elections and said the party must speak in a unified voice for the whole of the country on both Brexit and local issues.

He said the party in Gloucestershire had five key priorities, the first of which were “giving back control” of decision making on the country roads to local communities and investing in a green community transport body.

He also said that if elected Labour would re-invest in early years intervention, work with other authorities to unlock building space for new affordable homes and introduce “outstanding” co-operative community care for all families.

Mr Starmer said at the heart of this manifesto was three core values – equality, opportunity and co-operation – issues that were important on a local and national level as the country moves forward after the UK’s exit from the Europe Union.

He told the crowd that the referendum last year had shown the importance of making sure people were involved with decision making as much as possible so that had the ability to shape their own communities.

“I think that the vote last year wasn’t just a vote about membership of the EU,” he said. “It was vote about the state of the nation as people saw it.

“When asked the underlying question on the ballot paper, which was ‘do you think you have enough choice and control over your own lives?’ the answer came back ‘no’.

“I think the Labour Party needs to analyse and understand that. And that means that we need a radical program of changing things in our own country.”

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To do that he said the party needed to put greater decision making in the hands of the people to give them a voice in shaping their own lives.

“That brings me back to these values, equality, opportunity and co-operation,” he continued. “If we get that right in the UK that will be the groundwork for what we need as we go forward.

“I am absolutely convinced that if the Labour Party can speak again, to and for all the people across the UK, then we will claw our way back to a position where we can win elections and change lives.

“But we must find a way of articulating what the future could look like, how it could be different, and persuade people to vote for a Labour Party that speaks to them about a future that they want to be part of.”

Asked after the speech about whether the party’s message was getting through on the doorsteps of people in Gloucestershire, Mr Stammer told the SNJ: “I think if you look at the main issues there is clarity there is clarity and unity.

“Clearly we need to make sure that we have clarity in all areas and we have three years an one month until the general election so we know the task ahead of us.”

Asked specifically about the party’s immigration policy, he said: “On issues such as immigration I think the Labour Party had not been clear enough in the past.

“But we now have an opportunity to sit down as a party and consider what a principled, fair, human immigration system looks like. Whether we like it or not free movement will end when we leave the EU. This is a good chance to get some real clarity for the party on this issue.”

He added: “A lot of attention has been on international negotiations about the EU that are now taking place. Not enough attention has been on what needs to happen locally to bring communities’ back together, to identify issues of local concern and to provide local answers. That’s why these local elections are so important.”

Polling experts have predicated Labour could lose as many as 125 council seats in next month’s local elections. These results would be the worst local election results for an opposition party for more than 30 years.

Support for Jeremy Corbyn’s party equalled the lowest level it has ever reached in a series of ICM polls for The Guardian dating back to 1983, though it has dropped as low as 24 per cent in other recent surveys by mainstream pollsters.

Speaking during the event Lesley Williams, leader of the Labour group at Shire Hall, admitted the while Labour had a “tough month ahead of us”, it was one they were well prepared for by being “bolder and stronger than ever”.

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“The community is the bedrock of the state,” she said. “Without co-operation between friend families, neighbours and stranger these challenges seem insurmountable. But as history has shown us we are at our best when we are unified.

“It is the story of our nation, it is the story of our party and it is the way we make change happen. For many of us who have been doing this for what feels like a lifetime, we have seen what the collapse of community can mean.

“Successive con government have attempted to divide us. But every time it has been the Labour party which has stood up said no. When the Tories were threatening to bring fracking in by the back door in the Forest of Dean, it was the Labour Party that said no.

“And it was a Labour administration that looked upon the housing crisis in Stroud and said no more. It is in the city chambers, borough councils and shire halls across the country where elected Labour members make the difference that matters. We look to them to be the forward thinking policy makers, delivering the best services in the harshest of times.”

The county councillor for Stonehouse continued: “In the last four years we have not only held the Tories to account, we have brought about real change. Whether it has been the real living wage for the lowest paid, the introduction of the apprentices travel card, or a record investment of £3 million in children’s social work it is, has been, and it will continue to be Labour that makes a difference to people’s lives.”