Keir Starmer used his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference to talk about his affection for the ‘beauty’ of the Lake District.

The speech, which was the first by a Labour prime minister at a party conference since Gordon Brown in 2009, was wide ranging and further set out Labour’s legislative agenda including the nationalisation of the railways and the foundation of GB Energy – a state-owned energy company.

In the speech, Sir Keir talked about his mother’s ‘love’ for the Lake District and regaled the conference with a humorous anecdote about when he took his family to visit the cottage he used to stay in as a child.

“We walked up to the cottage and the couple who live there now came out,” said Sir Keir.

“When we told them why we were there, they said, well, come inside and take a walk down memory lane. So, we did.

“We came back outside and were chatting and then the woman stopped suddenly and said, ‘someone's nicking your car’ and I said, ‘that's the police moving the car’. 

“At this point, her husband comes in and he says, ‘You haven't clocked, have you? He's the leader of the opposition, a politician.’

“She stopped, smiled, laughed and said politely, ‘if I'd known you were a politician, I'd have pushed you down the stairs when I had the chance.’”

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The story played out to laughter in the conference hall in Liverpool with politicians, delegates, party members and journalists in attendance.

Sir Keir said that the story represented “the beauty of the Lake District and the heart of the British people, in a nutshell.”

“When you're walking around in a place like the Langdale Valley, when you can see the grass there every bit as green as it was 14 years ago, it’s a reminder and an inspiration to think that yes, things change, and some things need to change, but some things do not."