Sir Keir Starmer has batted away hecklers as he used his personal experiences to show off his human side in his Labour Party conference speech.

Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, introduced Sir Keir by thanking the Labour leader for helping prosecute his murderers when he was a barrister.

After hitting out at the government for the current fuel crisis, Sir Keir outlined why he went into politics in 2015: “family and work”.

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He spoke of not being from a privileged background, of his father being a tool maker in a factory and his mum being a nurse in the NHS and her getting a rare arthritic disease for which he could “hardly convey to you the emotion of seeing your mum in that condition”.

For a leader who has often been accused of failing to show off his personality and any emotion, it appeared important for him to connect on an emotional level with Labour members, who listened intently.

He also spoke of being a lawyer and chief prosecutor and how that has helped his approach to politics.

After being heckled, the Labour leader appeared confident as he said to cheers from the audience: “Shouting slogans or changing lives, conference.”

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John and Penny Clough, the parents of murdered nurse Jane Clough, were in the front row of the audience and Sir Keir told of them coming to him to get justice for her and how they changed the law – and how crime “will always be a Labour issue”.

Sir Keir said Labour would fast-track rape and serious sexual assault cases and toughen sentences for rapists, stalkers and domestic abusers.

Recognising he came into politics “late in life”, the Labour leader said he was not a career politician and said he was nothing like Boris Johnson, who he said was waging war on traffic cones while he was prosecuting Stephen Lawrence’s murderers.

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