Starmer meets Macron on first day of Paralympics

Sir Keir Starmer: In 2012 was the first time I saw Paralympics live in London, and we were there to watch the blind long jump, and it was just incredible because I didn’t quite know what to expect. The whole stadium went completely silent and then there was the clapping in of the athletes, you know, clap by clap, stride by stride, to make sure that they hit the board exactly at the right time. And for me, that was a real moment because I really began to understand all of the training, all of the discipline, all of the thinking and the fact that the whole crowd wanted and were willing on the athletes and doing their bit as well was really fantastic.
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan: Former Paralympic legend Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, she spoke earlier this week about a very humiliating experience that she had earlier this week, when she was coming into London on a train. There was no assistance, there was no help to get her off the train. She had to get out of her chair, crawl on the floor to get off the train. You want to bring National Rail back under Labour’s control. Can you guarantee that when that happens, that experience, very embarrassing, would never happen again for a disabled person.
Sir Keir Starmer: Disgraceful. Unacceptable. I’m glad she spoke out because I know that for that one example, there are many, many other examples where people with disabilities have not been able to access transport, or other facilities frankly. We’ve got to stop that. So as we reform the railways, yes, of course that will be in our sights. But I don’t wait that long. I think that this should be a basic requirement. I’m very pleased and happy to go out and make that clear. Whether it’s trains or other forms of transport, you shouldn’t be able to carry people from place to place if you haven’t got the facilities to ensure everybody can get safely on and off the train or plane or whatever it may be.
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan: Prime Minister they’re up to 32,000 young disabled children who are not getting access to activities and sports that’s required. What are you going to do to ensure that the necessary and the requisite enforcement of the national curriculum is enforced to ensure that every young disabled child does get access and is included in all PE lessons in schools?
Sir Keir Starmer: I think this is really important. I think that the curriculum needs to be broad enough for sport and culture to be a central part of growing up for every single child, whether they’re a child with disabilities or not, and the number of children who can’t get the access that they need in relation to physical education, to sport is unacceptable. We need to address that. We’re looking at the curriculum. And the way I would put it is this, there will be young people and children who are going to be watching over the next few days, the Paralympics, children with disabilities, and they’re going to get that spark. They’re going to begin to think, that could be me, and they will have that ambition. We have to match that ambition by making sure they have access to the sport that they need. And I’m absolutely determined that we will do that.
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan: And your speech this week, you mentioned that it’s going to get harder for everybody before things get better. There are disabled people across this country who are paying more for their fuel bills per month. When you talk about things getting harder for everybody, did you include those disabled people who are already struggling, and would you be in favour of a discounted tariff for those disabled people?
Sir Keir Starmer: Where people are struggling, we obviously want to put support in for them. But what I was saying earlier this week on Tuesday, my speeches, that we’ve inherited a broken economy, broken public services, and if we’re going to fix it and we will, we have to fix it, we promised change and will bring about change. But if we’re going to bring about change, we have to get rid of the rot completely before we do so. Yes, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to take longer and I need to level with the public on that. This is going to be really hard. But the promises, the rebuild, the hard work will be repaid with a much better country, much better public services for people with disabilities but for everybody across the country.