Rural communities ‘in my DNA’ and important to Labour, Starmer tells farmers

‘I lived in a rural community, it’s deep in my DNA,” the Labour leader told the National Farmers’ Union conference. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Sir Keir Starmer has told Britain’s farmers that rural communities are “in his DNA”, in an attempt to sway the traditionally Tory voters with a promise to “govern the whole United Kingdom”, not just urban centres.

“I grew up in a rural community, on the borders of Surrey and Kent, I lived in a rural community, it’s deep in my DNA,” the Labour leader told the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham on Tuesday.