‘We will get Britain out of endless crises’
STARMER VOWS TO RESTORE TAX RATE AND MAKE LONG-TERM INVESTMENTS
LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday (27) accused the Conservatives of presiding over “endless” crises as he vowed to steer Britain back to long-term prosperity after recent tumult on financial markets.
Noting soaring inflation, imminent recession and a weakening currency, he told the party’s annual conference that the Tories under new prime minister Liz Truss had “lost control of the British economy”.
A Labour government would instead create a publicly owned company to propel a revolution in renewable power – “Great British Energy” – and invest long term in healthcare, education and policing, Sir Keir said.
He added he would start his plan to create one million new jobs in towns and cities, bring down energy bills, raise living standards and start to tackle the climate crisis in the first 100 days of a Labour government.
Sir Keir said a Labour government would control immigration with a points-based system, a policy his spokesperson said would be different to that of the government. The speech was met with standing ovations and fervent applause from the upbeat Labour rank-and-file.
The pound slumped against the dollar after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled a plan last Friday (23) to slash taxes – including for the highest earners – and raise government borrowing, in a bid to kick-start anaemic economic growth.
“Higher interest rates. Higher inflation. Higher borrowing. And for what?” the Labour leader queried. “For tax cuts for the richest one per cent. “Don’t forget, don’t forgive,” he said. “The only way to stop this is with a Labour government.”
Starmer promised that if elected, his party would “get us out of this endless cycle of crisis” with a “fresh start, a new set of priorities and a new way of governing”.
Starmer’s speech came as a new poll gave Labour its biggest lead in two decades over Truss’s Conservatives.
The YouGov survey showed the party 17 points ahead of the Tories, its biggest lead since 2001 and the electorally successful Tony Blair era.
Another YouGov poll found 57 per cent of Britons think the budget measures collectively were unfair – the worst score for any financial statement since the Conservatives took power from Labour in 2010.
In his speech, Sir Keir said Labour was now “the party of the centre ground” and of “sound money” as he took the attack to new prime minister Liz Truss, who succeeded Boris Johnson earlier this month.
Addressing the government’s right-wing shift, he has said he will reverse the government’s abolition of the top rate of income tax and restore it to 45 per cent, and he will recommit to an Office for Value for Money to oversee taxpayers’ money and ensure it is spent in the national interest.
With a new air of confidence, Labour is in a very different place than even a year ago, when battles with leftist supporters of former leader Jeremy Corbyn underscored the debilitating splits in the party after a punishing election defeat in 2019.
Labour MPs are sensing a change in their fortunes, with Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester, saying the annual get-together should be called the “get ready for government conference”.