(Bloomberg) — UK opposition leader Keir Starmer set out five long-term “missions” for Britain if his Labour Party wins power, but faced repeated questions over whether voters could trust him after changing his mind on key policies since the last general election.
(Bloomberg) — UK opposition leader Keir Starmer set out five long-term “missions” for Britain if his Labour Party wins power, but faced repeated questions over whether voters could trust him after changing his mind on key policies since the last general election.
Starmer pledged to secure the “highest sustained growth” in the G-7, ensure the ailing National Health Service is fit for the future, and make Britain a “clean energy superpower.”
In a speech in Manchester, northwest England on Thursday, he likened the approach of Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government to temporarily using a small dressing on a wound, calling it “sticking-plaster politics,” and vowed to fix “the fundamentals” over the long-term.
But the Labour leader was also forced to defend his own record after a number of journalists at the event asked why voters should believe him after a string of U-turns in recent years.
Starmer was a senior figure in the Labour Party under the leadership of left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, who was roundly defeated by Boris Johnson’s Tories in the 2019 election. When Starmer was running to replace Corbyn in 2020, he promised to bring utilities back into public ownership, end outsourcing in the NHS, and abolish university tuition fees — all of which he has since rowed back on.
Once an ardent remainer, Starmer has also changed his stance on Brexit — saying a Labour government would not try to take the UK back into the European Union’s single market or customs union.
“The Labour Party now is unrecognizable from the Labour Party of 2019,” Starmer said, defending his record. “I recognize that the electorate delivered their verdict on Labour in 2019 — you don’t look at the electorate and say: ‘What are you doing?’; you look at your own party and say it’s us that’s got to change.”
Riding high in the polls more than 20 points ahead of the Tories, Labour is increasingly presenting itself as a government-in-waiting after 13 years in opposition. Sunak must call a national vote by January 2025 at the latest, and the opposition is already thinking about its manifesto of electoral promises.
Starmer is eager to win over disaffected Conservative voters, while holding onto his core Labour vote. He believes that focusing on long-term solutions, at a time when Britain’s hospitals, schools and transport providers are struggling to provide basic levels of service, is key to convincing people he should be in Number 10.
Under his program for government, Starmer — a former Director of Public Prosecutions — said he would reform the police and justice system and create more opportunities for young people by overhauling childcare and education.
But he will face ongoing questions over the detail of his pledges. He vowed that the UK would have the highest sustained economic growth by the end of his first term, due around 2029, and that he would deliver zero-carbon electricity by 2030.
Timescales for the other pledges, however, are yet to be unveiled. Each will be given measurable “goals” to be announced in the coming months, Labour said.
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.
Britain’s Cherished NHS Wrestles With Its ‘Reform or Die’ Moment
“We lurch from crisis to crisis,” Starmer said. “Always reacting, always behind the curve. A sticking plaster, never a cure.”
A Labour administration would aim to properly understand the root causes of problems and work in partnership with business, trade unions and communities, he said.
“I’m not concerned about whether investment or expertise comes from the public or private sector,” Starmer said. “I just want to get the job done. And I mean that — we have to get it done.”
(Updates with quotes and context throughout.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.