Speaking from the Labour Party’s Conference in Liverpool following Sir Keir Starmer’s speech (today Tuesday, 10th October), the West of England’s Metro Mayor Dan Norris said: “Keir is calm and collected - whatever is thrown at him. He’s shown true leadership and integrity. Today he set out a serious, credible and future-focused plan to rebuild the country after 13 years of Conservative chaos, and broken promises.

“I welcome the plan to give more powers to Mayors including on super-specialist training colleges that will boost the work I'm already doing through things like my £2 million Mayoral Priority Skills Fund, and other programmes, to plug skills gaps in key priority areas for our West of England region.

“And by pledging to invest in those projects generating cheap, clean energy locally, and then sending the profits back to mayoral combined authorities, this will put rocket boosters under my green plans like my £1.5 million Turbine Plan to create more Lawrence Weston success stories across the West.

“This was a serious speech that spoke to the West of England, and people across the country. There's obviously a long way to go until the General Election and Labour will continue to work hard to earn peoples' trust.

"But what this speech did show is that, with the country desperate for a change, this is a changed Labour Party - a party of service, led by a Prime Minister in waiting, ready to give the country its future back. I’m leaving Liverpool feeling energised.”