RUSHES: Coronavirus: Sir Keir Starmer speech and press conference

Coronavirus: Sir Keir Starmer speech and press conference; ENGLAND: London: INTSir Keir Starmer MP (Labour Leader) speech SOT (Part 2 of 6). - The first baby born in the NHS – Aneira Thomas – was born in South Wales and named after the great Nye Bevan. Our welfare state was born out of the struggles of early Scottish activists who fought against the Scottish Poor Laws. Britain’s great achievements in science, innovation and discovery are all the greater because they drew on all our talents.The Open University was founded by a Scot, Jennie Lee and we’re a world leader in education, research and knowledge because of our great universities and our shared tradition of learning. The Labour Party was first led by Keir Hardie – a Scot – who ended up representing a Welsh constituency and such was the influence of that boy from Lanarkshire, that many years later a family in Oxted, East Surrey, decided to call their son Keir too.My point is this: Our nations are bound by our history, our values and our identity. Our families live across borders, Our businesses operate across borders, We’re interconnected and we’re interdependent. That’s not just a precious inheritance, or a description of the past, it’s what we are. It’s what I want for our children, for the next generation.I don’t believe in putting up borders across any part of our United Kingdom, in dividing people, communities, and families who have stood together for so long. It’s not, England, or Scotland, or Wales, or Northern Ireland, I’ve had enough of hearing that. It’s England, and Scotland, and Wales, and Northern Ireland, together.I believe in that core Labour principle: that we achieve more together than we do alone. All four nations working together to build a more open, more optimistic and outward-looking country. A United Kingdom that’s a force for social justice and a moral force for good in the world And that’s why I’m so determined to preserve and to renew the United Kingdom....