THE Labour party launched their manifesto for change in the South East yesterday.

Former Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer set out the party’s plans to invest in public services, tackle the climate emergency, create jobs and improve living standards.

Ahead of the manifesto launch Mr Starmer visited Three Bridges in Crawley.

He said: “The South East has been held back by Tory and Lib Dem cuts for ten years.

“Since 2010, the South East has grown 40 per cent slower than London, and weekly wages are now £120 less than in the capital.

“Lib Dem and Tory cuts are why so many of us, or the people we love, have had to wait weeks in pain and worry for cancer treatment.

“They are why every Christmas, more and more people are sleeping on the pavements in the cold.

“They are why we are still not combatting the climate emergency. “They’re even part of why our trains are crowded and late.

“This has to end. The South East, and the whole country, needs real change.”

Mr Starmer said Labour would build 24,000 council and social homes per year in the South East to solve the housing crisis.

The manifesto was launched alongside details of Labour’s £250 billion Green Transformation Fund, which the party describes as “an investment blitz to kickstart a green industrial revolution”.

From this fund, Labour says £19 billion would be invested in the South East, with plans to expand Southampton Port and upgrade its fabrication yard, as well as increasing offshore and onshore wind in the area.

The party is promising to create 110,000 well-paid, green jobs in the region, including construction jobs to insulate homes.

Other proposed measures in the manifesto include an immediate pay rise for 915,000 workers in the South East who are 16 and over, and plans to connect 3.9 million households and businesses to full-fibre broadband.

Mr Starmer said: “We’ll also ramp up South Coast rail capacity improvements.

“We need a South East for the many, not the few.

“This is the plan to make that happen.”