Prime Minister's message to Liverpool after incredible Zoe's Place campaign

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has paid tribute to the monumental efforts of Scousers to save Zoe’s Place in just a matter of weeks. It was announced earlier in November that after a month-long campaign, the money required to keep the vital baby hospice open was secured following extraordinary efforts from every corner of the city and beyond.

Comedy shows, charity walks and countless donations helped bring in the £5m required to allow for the building of an essential new home for the centre that provides vital services for families across Liverpool and the North West. A huge £2.5m was donated by the owners of Home Bargains, TJ Morris, going a long way to providing hope of saving the hospice.

Speaking as part of a series of regional interviews, Sir Keir told BBC Radio Merseyside funding settlements for hospices like Zoe’s Place were being looked at and he would “love to” visit the West Derby site. At the heart of the campaign was Ian Byrne, MP for West Derby, who the Prime Minister suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party earlier this year for voting against the government over the two-child benefit cap.

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The hospice wrote an open letter to the city after the remarkable efforts throughout the autumn confirmed a new organisation would be able to be set up to keep the vital hospice in the city. It praised the efforts of every corner of the community who came together to donate what they could.

These efforts were heralded by the Prime Minister earlier today. He said: “Let me pay tribute to all those who took part in raising that amount of money, it’s a huge amount of money and would have been a huge amount of work.”

Sir Keir said funding arrangements would be set out “pretty shortly” for the next “year or two.” Acknowledging the sector sometimes faced “a shortfall,” the Prime Minister added: “I’m very grateful to those that have raised money in this particular case for what is a very important children’s hospice.”

Asked if he would visit Zoe’s Place, Mr Starmer said: “Of course, of course I would, I’d love to.” Staff members from the hospice were notified they will not be losing their jobs two weeks ago.

Mr Byrne has been working with the charity's trustees on plans to build what he says will be "one of the finest children's hospices in the world, a facility built by the people of Liverpool, for the people of Liverpool." Plans are also being put in place so that the Liverpool hospice will be ran by a new group of local trustees.