FORMER York Labour MP Hugh Bayley says Sir Keir Starmer needs to change what the party stands for 'after a wasted decade in opposition.'

Sir Hugh, who was Labour MP for York from 1992 to 2015, spoke out in a letter to The Press following Sir Keir's election as the party's new leader.

He said Sir Keir needed to 'change what the party stands for, and how it behaves, in order to show its relevance, and rebuild public trust and support.'

He said Covid-19 would be at the top the political agenda for weeks, or months, to come and Labour should support the national effort to beat the virus by:

*Getting a virtual Parliament up and running as soon as possible to question Ministers online, debate the issues, and take evidence in public from experts;

*Highlighting the essential role of both public investment (in the NHS, medical research, social care, the police and army) and private enterprise (pharmaceuticals, engineering, manufacturing, farming and food distribution) in responding to the challenge;

*Pressing the government to publish and act on the lessons learned from its pandemic simulation exercise in 2018;

*Drawing lessons from abroad, and using UK expertise to help other countries with less capacity to fight the disease;

*Preparing credible and affordable plans for after the crisis – to return the NHS to a sustainable footing, help people back into jobs and, over a decade, reduce the deficit as Labour did successfully between 1997 and 2007.

He added: "It won’t be easy. Good politics never is."