(Bloomberg) — UK opposition leader Keir Starmer pledged to make the UK the highest-growth economy in the G-7 as part of a long-term plan to turn around Britain’s fortunes if the Labour Party wins a general election expected next year.
(Bloomberg) — UK opposition leader Keir Starmer pledged to make the UK the highest-growth economy in the G-7 as part of a long-term plan to turn around Britain’s fortunes if the Labour Party wins a general election expected next year.
Starmer will outline “five bold missions” in a keynote speech in Manchester, northwest England, on Thursday. These will also include making the National Health Service fit for the future, reforming the police and justice system, delivering zero-carbon electricity by 2030 and creating more opportunities for young people.
Each mission will have measurable “goals,” Labour said, with targets to be set out over the coming months. Starmer told BBC Radio 4 that the missions were “ambitious,” saying: “Let’s take that first one. The highest sustained growth in the G-7, that’s going to be tough.”
Riding high in the polls, Labour is increasingly presenting itself as a government-in-waiting after 13 years in opposition. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must call a national vote by January 2025 at the latest, and the opposition is already thinking about its manifesto of electoral promises. The missions will form its “backbone,” Starmer’s office said.
“With missions comes greater stability and certainty — instead of a government chopping and changing all the time, blowing with the wind,” Starmer will say in his speech. “The missions will be anchor points to show clearly the direction of travel.”
The five-mission program is a riposte to Sunak’s own five priorities outlined in a speech last month, which also included growing Britain’s economy and improving health care. Starmer’s office said Sunak’s promises were the “height of sticking-plaster politics, designed to get the Tories through the next few months.”
The Labour leader will pledge instead “an answer to the widespread call for someone that can ‘fix the fundamentals’” and “a long-term plan to unlock Britain’s pride and purpose.”
A Starmer-led administration would aim to properly understand the root causes of problems and work in partnership with business, trade unions and communities, according to the statement.
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“I’m not concerned about whether investment or expertise comes from the public or private sector,” Starmer will say in the speech. “I just want to get the job done. And I mean that — we have to get it done.”
(Updates paragraphs one to four with more detail on pledges.)
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