Lower taxes possible under Labour but first aim is higher growth – Starmer
The Labour leader on Thursday used a new year’s speech to insist he was ‘ready’ to take on Rishi Sunak at the polls.
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Your support makes all the difference.A Labour government would want to cut taxes, Sir Keir Starmer has said, but he insisted that reversing flagging growth would be the first priority if he takes power at the next general election.
The Labour leader also conceded his planned £28 billion-a-year green energy investment could shrink depending on economic conditions, but hit out at Tory attacks on the plan as “misconceived”.
Sir Keir on Thursday used a new year’s speech in Bristol to insist he was “ready” to take on Rishi Sunak at the polls, but he faced questions about the policies his party was offering voters.
The party’s tax offering to voters heading into an election year has been the subject of speculation in recent days and weeks, but Sir Keir insisted that his priority was growing the economy to the benefit of voters.
“I do want more people to have more money in their pocket. That’s a fundamental principle we start with.
“Now, the question is how do we get to that? I’m challenged on tax all of the time.
“The first lever that we want to pull, the first place we will go, is growth in our economy because that’s what’s been missing for 14 years.”
We don’t just expect an election on the economy. We want an election on the economy and we’re ready for that fight, ready to close the book on the trickle-down nonsense once and for all
He added: “Any tax cuts have to be fair and affordable, and we have to be realistic about that.
“But I think the place to go is to growth on this.”
The Labour leader also responded to Tory attacks on the flagship £28 billion green plan, which has already been watered down from the original ambition.
But he also acknowledged that his party’s fiscal rules would take precedence over the policy.
Labour had originally promised in 2021 to invest £28 billion a year until 2030 in green projects if it came to power.
But last year shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figure would instead be a target to work towards in the second half of a first parliament.
Sir Keir said: “The money that is needed for the investment that is undoubtedly needed, saying that the £28 billion will be ramped up in the second half of the Parliament, that it will be subject of course to any money that the Government is already putting in, and it will be subject to our fiscal rules.
“That means that if the money is from borrowing, which it will be, borrowing to invest, that the fiscal rules don’t allow it, then we will borrow less.
“It is very clear and that is why this attack is utterly misconceived on this,” Sir Keir said.
The Labour leader did however spell out that he was “fundamentally opposed” to axing or reducing inheritance tax, a move some Tory MPs are lobbying Jeremy Hunt to take at the spring Budget.
His address came exactly a year since Rishi Sunak unveiled his five priorities, promising to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut NHS waiting times and stop small boat crossings.
But the Prime Minister has struggled to meet his own goals, with Labour still far ahead in the polls and many activists buoyant with an election less than 12 months away.
The Labour leader sought to draw a clear line between his party and Mr Sunak’s divided Conservatives, while also attempting to set the battleground for the upcoming election campaign.
Shadow Cabinet teams and officials are believed to have been been given until early February to finish manifesto preparations.
“We don’t just expect an election on the economy. We want an election on the economy and we’re ready for that fight, ready to close the book on the trickle-down nonsense once and for all,” he told the audience.
Sir Keir repeatedly stressed the need to unite the country and reverse the disillusionment with Westminster, as he called the “the shrug of the shoulder” towards politics the biggest challenge his party faces.
“This isn’t a game. Politics shouldn’t be a hobby or a pastime for people who enjoy the feeling of power. Nor should it be a sermon from on high, a self-regarding lecture, vanity dressed up as virtue.
“We are trying not just to defeat the Tories, but to defeat their entire way of doing politics, a mindset that seeks out any differences between the people of this country, and like weeds between the paving stones will pull apart the cracks so ultimately they can divide and rule.
“I have to warn you, they will leave no stone unturned this year, every opportunity for division will be exploited for political potential.”