Starmer’s broken vows
Another policy U-turn as Labour says it WON’T scrap Universal Credit
SIR Keir Starmer was accused of breaking yet another of his ten leadership pledges yesterday after it was confirmed the party would not scrap Universal Credit.
The Labour leader has previously admitted that his policy promises – which include climate justice, common ownership of utilities and raising taxes on the most wealthy – may not be feasible due to the state of the public finances after the pandemic.
Yesterday, shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth refused to endorse Sir Keir’s pledge to replace the benefits system, saying that Labour wanted only to ‘fundamentally reform Universal Credit’.
The pledges that Sir Keir made when he was running for the Labour leadership in 2020 are still
‘You can’t trust Labour’s word’
listed on his website. But he has since been accused of abandoning at least four of them, prompting critics to claim this shows Labour cannot be trusted.
Mr Ashworth told the Centre for Social Justice yesterday: ‘We actually agree with the concept behind Universal Credit, which was to bring six different benefits together into a unified system of support.
‘That is the right thing to have done. And actually, towards the end of the last Labour government, we were looking at a way of unifying those different benefits together.
‘I don’t think anybody thinks it’s sensible to go back to those six different benefits today. I think the problem with Universal Credit is both the adequacy of the levels and the levels of complexity that have been added to the system. What we are consulting on at the moment is how we simplify Universal Credit and fundamentally reform it.’
He refused to go into specific Labour policies on the benefit when questioned.
A Tory Party spokesman said: ‘ These are yet more cynical announcements from Labour, a party that has never left office with unemployment lower than it was when they were elected.
‘Once again, Labour have broken more of Starmer’s promises... It just goes to show that you can’t trust Labour’s word.’
On Sunday, Sir Keir struggled to explain major policy U-turns over his pledges to defend EU free movement and ban the NHS from using private sector capacity. He has also retreated from his pledges to nationalise public utilities and abolish university tuition fees – and has warned against tax rises, even on the richest.
In 2020, he said Universal Credit ‘should be scrapped and replaced with a social security system fit for the 21st century’. Some 18 months later, he said his party would ‘replace Universal Credit’ in the long term and bring in ‘something better’.
SIR Keir Starmer likes to paint himself as a politician of impeccable integrity. Yet can a single word he says be trusted?
He back-pedalled on a string of Left-wing pledges made to win the Labour leadership, including nationalising energy companies and scrapping Universal Credit.
He solemnly swore to respect Brexit – then fought tooth-and-nail to overturn it.
And while sounding sincere when condemning Just Stop oil’s road-blocking antics, he’s accepted vast sums from a businessman who bankrolls the zealots.
Floating voters might be tempted to think Sir Keir really has ditched his old hard-Left beliefs. But he has a loose relationship with the truth. If he gulled his party to win power, wouldn’t he gull the nation?