Another day, another @guardian article that minimises the achievements of the Blair/Brown Labour government. I've never understood the strategy behind talking down your party's last government - it hardly inspires people to vote for you in the future https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/18/keir-starmer-britain-brexit-pandemic

Immediately after losing power, the next Labour leader opted to rubbish the record of the government he had served in. It has been a long time but that Labour government was transformational - and it's worth reminding people of the highlights

Introduced and raised the #minimumwage, oversaw the shortest #NHS waiting times in history, 44,000 new doctors, 89 more nurses, tripled spending on #NHS, #cancer guarantee, tax cuts that benefited 22m people, increased #winterfuel payments for 12m pensioners,

took 900,000 pensioners out of #poverty, lifted 1m children out of child poverty, free TV licenses for over 75s, #NewDeal put 2m people back to work, 3m parents started child trust funds, opened 3,000 #SureStart centres supporting 2m kids and their families, 42,400 more #teachers

and 123,000 teaching assistants than in 1997, 3,700 rebuilt & refurbished #schools, free nursery places for every 3 + 4yr old, doubled #childcare places, record numbers of young people going to #university, doubled number of #apprenticeships, best ever results in English & Maths

Peace in Northern Ireland and the #GoodFridayAgreement, banned smoking in public places, drastically reduced greenhouse emissions to beat #Kyoto targets, invested £20bn in #socialhousing, rough sleeping dropped by 2/3rds and #homelessness dropped to its lowest level since 1980s

Free off-peak bus travel for over 60s and disabled, cut crime by 36%, banned handguns, boosted #police numbers by 16,000 with 16,000 #PCSOs and introduced #neighbourhoodpolicing teams.

Equalised the age of consent, scrapped #Section28 and introduced #civilpartnerships. Doubled overseas age budget, lifting 3m people out of poverty every year. Cancelled 100% of debt for the world's poorest countries, helped 7m sub-Saharan Africans access clean water & sanitation

Banned #foxhunting, bid for and won the #London2012 Olympic Games, offered under 16s & over 65s free #swimming, free access to national museums & galleries & created the right of pedestrian access to the English coast.

Signed #SocialChapter, introduced four weeks paid holiday, right to parental leave, extended maternity leave, right to flexible working & equalised protections for part-time & full time work & introduced Equality & Human Rights Commission & #FreedomofInformationAct.

Led the campaign for global convention to ban cluster bombs and introduced the first British #ArmedForcesDay and #Veterans Day. Not a bad record - thanks for all you did @InstituteGC & @OfficeGSBrown

Twitter debates are often toxic, but my experience of knocking doors is that most people remember something positive that a Labour government did. There are plenty of reasons to proud. We should embrace the record & look to build on it.

Rather embarrassingly, I omitted the #devolution agenda that delivered the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and power sharing in Northern Ireland as well as a mayor for London and other city regions. Apologies.