Jeremy Corbyn wound up the Labour conference in Liverpool by saying that the movement must now focus on forming the next government.
After months of splits, divisions and in-fighting, he said that socialism was “about campaigning, it is about protest, but it is also about winning power.”
He said: “We need to rebuild the trust and support we need to win the next election.”
Corbyn paid tribute to failed leadership rival Owen Smith, and quoted murdered Labour MP Jo Cox: “We all have more in common than the things that divide us.”
Corbyn also accepted that, on social media at least, there has been cases of misogynism and anti-semitism. “Both are evil,” he said, “and have no place in our party.”
Earlier the Leader pledged that Labour will not “fan the flames of fear” by offering “false promises” on immigration numbers. A new fund for high-migration areas will address “the real issues of immigration.”
His speech followed his overwhelming re-election and the prospect of a deal in the coming weeks to bring back elections to the shadow cabinet, a key demand for many of the MPs who walked out in the summer sparking the leadership election.
Deputy leader Tom Watson told the party that “it can’t carry on like this”. A Corbyn spokesman said a “not insignificant number” of MPs would return to the shadow cabinet next week, including some “surprising names”.
Corbyn agreed that the party has a responsibility to act like a government-in-waiting, especially given the “growing prospect” of premier Theresa May calling a snap election next year.
“The central task for the whole Labour Party is to rebuild trust and support to win the next general election and form the next government,” he said. “That is the government I am determined to lead, to win power to change Britain for the better. But everyone knows that we will only get there if we accept the decision of the members, end the trench warfare and work together to take on the Tories. Anything else is a luxury that the millions of people who depend on Labour cannot afford.”
He reiterated that he is committed, if he becomes prime minister, to measures to help relieve some of the pressures on “hard-pressed public services” such as health, housing and education exacerbated by migrant inflows. Levels of funding will be linked to local authorities’ needs, to be paid for in part from money raised from visa applications to enter the UK and a new levy on citizenship application fees.
Corbyn has been under pressure to address the reasons why so many people in Labour heartlands in northern England – areas where UKIP has made gains in recent years – voted for Brexit.
In a pre-speech interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg he acknowledged that in some parts of the country voters have concerns about how fast their communities are changing but said the “crucial” issue was the undercutting of wages and not the numbers of migrants.
The goals of full employment, a publicly-owned NHS, a national education service, action to reduce income inequality and other pledges announced during his leadership campaign will form the basis of Labour’s campaigning and its programme in the event of an early general election.
“The Tory government is taking the country backwards and failing to meet the challenges of our time. Labour is now setting out its alternative,” he said.
He went on: “Over the past year, we’ve shown what Labour can do when the party stands together. At conference a year ago, I launched our campaign against cuts to tax credits and we succeeded in knocking this government back.
“This year, three million families are over £1,000 better off because Labour stood together. In the Budget, the government tried to take away billions from disabled people but we defeated them …
“We have won all four by-elections we’ve contested. In the May elections, we overtook the Tories to become the largest party nationally. We won back London with a massive win for Sadiq Khan the first Muslim mayor of a western capital city. And we won the Bristol mayor for the first time, Marvin Rees, the first black mayor in any European city. And of course we also won the mayoralty in Salford and here in Liverpool.
“That’s the road of advance we have to return to if we’re going to challenge the Tories for power and turn the huge growth in the Labour party into the electoral support we need across Britain.”
Corbyn concluded :”Everyone here and every one of our hundreds of thousands of members has something to contribute to our cause. That way we will unite, build on our policies. Take our vision out to a country crying out for change.
“There are half a million of us, and there will be more, working together to make our country the place it could be. Conference, united we can shape the future and build a fairer Britain in a peaceful world.”