Sir Keir Starmer said his background had also shaped his politics “in a deeper way”.
“Politics has always been something that happens far away, and yet something more profound has changed during the last 14 years of Tory government. People now feel more and more of the decisions that affect their community are not only taken by people who live miles away, but have little empathy for their challenges.
“A politics that at best is doing something to people not with them, and at its worst, as we saw in horrifying detail in Westminster last week, those twin injustices – Horizon and infected blood scandals – is something much, much darker even than that.
“It’s about respect, or to be precise the lack of it… For a long time now working people have believed opportunity in Britain is stacked against them. But now we’re at a dangerous U-point, close to crossing a Rubicon of trust not just in politics but in many of the institutions that are meant to serve and protect the British people.”
Sir Keir added: “When you put that alongside a Government that over 14 years has left living standards in this country worse than when they found them, that has torched any semblance of standards in public life, Westminster parties that broke the rules they put in place to save lives, and expected you to follow, then you get a crisis in nothing less than who we are as a nation. The values that have held us together, that have driven us on through hard times towards our greatest achievements, taken to the edge by these Tories.
“Healing these wounds is what national renewal means. Politics has to be about service. Britain must be a country that respects your contribution. Everyone, not just those at the top, deserve the chance to get on. Now these are the ideas that I’m fighting for. This is my project, a Britain once more in the service of working people, country first, party second.”