LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday it would take a long time to rebuild Britain and rid it of the rot he says took hold under the previous Conservative government, warning “things will get worse before they get better.”
Starmer, elected in a July landslide election victory, has vowed to rebuild the fabric of British society, saying this month’s anti-migrant riots reflected the divisions that built up during the Conservative Party’s 14 years in power.
He made his speech in the Rose Garden at Downing Street, where former prime minister Boris Johnson held one of many parties during COVID lockdowns, events that Starmer said shattered the trust between the public and its politicians.
“We have inherited not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole and that is why we have to take action and do things differently. Part of that is being honest with people about the choices we face and how tough this will be,” he said.
“Frankly, things will get worse before we get better.”
Addressing an audience of people he met during this year’s election campaign such as apprentices, teachers, nurses and small business owners, Starmer said change would not happen overnight.
But, speaking a week before Britain’s parliament returns from a summer break, he said his government was determined to tackle a multitude of problems ranging from overflowing prisons to a shortage of housing and long waiting lists for health services.
The former director of public prosecutions was forced to cancel his summer holiday this month to tackle far-right riots that targeted Muslims and migrants. The riots began after the killings of three young girls in northern England was wrongly blamed on a Muslim migrant based on online misinformation.
Starmer said the Conservative government’s failure to tackle problems, and its focus on the “snake oil” of populism, had widened cracks in society, divisions that would take time to heal.

MOSCOW: The head of Russia’s western Belgorod region said the situation on the border with Ukraine was “difficult but under control” after reports of a Ukrainian attack on Tuesday.
Belgorod and other border areas have been on high alert since Ukraine launched a lightning attack on neighboring Kursk region three weeks ago and carved out a slice of territory from which Russia is still fighting to eject it.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov issued a brief statement after Russian Telegram channels reported an attempted attack on Belgorod region on Tuesday morning.
“There is information that the enemy is trying to break through the border of the Belgorod region,” Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
“According to the Russian defense ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult, but under control. Our military is carrying out planned work. Please remain calm and trust only official sources of information.”
SHOT, a Telegram news channel, said earlier that Ukrainian forces had attacked a border checkpoint at Nekhoteyevka but been pushed back after suffering losses.
Mash, another channel with links to the security services, said a total of about 500 Ukrainian troops had attacked two Russian checkpoints at Nekhoteyevka and Shebekino, but SHOT said there had been no clashes at Shebekino.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.
A Russian military blog with nearly 1.6 million subscribers, “Operation Z — military correspondents of the Russian Spring,” said there had been no major attempts to pierce the border.
“There were clashes with (Ukrainian) sabotage and reconnaissance groups and (Russian) artillery is working. No large-scale attempts to break through have been recorded,” it said.
Three weeks ago, Russia was caught by surprise in neighboring Kursk region when thousands of Ukrainian soldiers punched through the border in the biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two.
Russia says Ukraine sent in thousands of troops along with sabotage units, swarms of drones, heavy artillery, dozens of tanks and heavy Western weaponry, which it says it will eject from Russian territory.
Since then, neighboring Russian regions have been braced for the possibility of further attacks.
Belgorod governor Gladkov said in separate messages that authorities were making arrangements to resettle residents of a group of villages near the border and pay compensation to them.
“Our situation continues to remain difficult,” said Gladkov, who also reported shelling and drone attacks on three local settlements overnight.