Keir Starmer made another attempt to banish the Corbyn era and woo back Brexit voters today promising that Labour will no longer get out the ‘big government cheque book’ to solve problems.
In a keynote speech to kick off a critical political year, Sir Keir heaped praise on the private sector for ‘creating wealth’. ‘Everything that we say and do will be fully costed,’ he said.
In a nod to fears that he has not ‘sealed the deal’ with voters despite huge poll leads, Sir Keir insisted he will not ‘rest on our laurels’.
The Labour leader, who was a staunch Remainer, also boldly sought to hijack the Leave campaign’s slogan from the EU referendum – pledging a ‘Take Back Control Act’ to devolve power away from Westminster.
One survey this week showed Rishi Sunak has leapfrogged Sir Keir as the preferred option for PM.
In his address in east London this morning – delivered just metres from where the PM gave his own New Year speech yesterday – Sir Keir set out his vision for ‘a decade of national renewal’.
But risking enraging the hard-Left, he refused to stand by the commitment made during the 2020 leadership contest to scrap tuition fees.
‘I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone. But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as that.
‘There is no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.’
Keir Starmer (pictured) vowed to ditch Labour’s traditional ‘tax and spend’ approach in a keynote speech
In his address in east London this morning – delivered just metres from where the PM gave his own New Year speech yesterday – Sir Keir set out his vision for ‘a decade of national renewal’
Despite Labour holding huge poll leads, there are signs that support is ‘soft’ and the public is still unconvinced by the leader
One survey this week showed Rishi Sunak has leapfrogged Sir Keir as the preferred option for PM
Sir Keir’s performance will be closely compared to that of Mr Sunak, who gave his own New Year speech yesterday.
The PM laid out five pledges to judge him by over the remainder of the parliament, including halving inflation, growing the economy and cutting NHS waiting lists.
He also opened up dividing lines with Labour by committing to tough anti-strike laws and stopping the flow of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Sir Keir confirmed that Labour would repeal the anticipated strike legislation if it wins power.
He said he can deliver the ‘economy and the politics Britain deserves’ and end the era of ‘sticking plaster politics’.
In No10 he would introduce ‘a new way of governing’ that will help build a fairer, greener, more dynamic Britain.
Sir Keir told the audience that Mr Sunak had only offered ‘commentary without solutions’.
‘More promises, more platitudes. No ambition to take us forward. No sense of what the country needs. Thirteen years of nothing but sticking plaster politics.’
The Labour leader, whose party would abolish and replace the House of Lords if it wins the next election and replace it with a regionally elected chamber, said that the country needs a new approach to politics and the economy.
Sir Keir said: ‘This year, let’s imagine instead, what we can achieve if we match the ambition of the British people.
‘That’s why I say Britain needs a completely new way of governing.
‘You can’t overstate how much a short-term mindset dominates Westminster, and, from there, how it infects all the institutions which try, and fail, to run Britain from the centre.’
‘I call it sticking plaster politics,’ he said.
‘The long-term cure, that always eludes us.’
However, Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi dismissed Sir Keir’s latest message.
‘This is yet another desperate relaunch attempt by Keir Starmer – his tenth since he became Labour leader.
‘Every week he changes his position depending on what he thinks is popular – from supporting free movement to supporting the unions, he’ll say anything if the politics suits him.
‘He should stop giving cliché-laden speeches, and instead finally unveil a plan for people’s priorities.
‘He’s got nothing to say on how to cut crime, get immigration down, and reduce borrowing – that’s what the nation wants to see.’
It comes amid a split among Sir Keir’s frontbenchers after one refused to endorse a ‘reform or die’ call to the NHS made by shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.
He said he could not understand why the British Medical Association union was ‘hostile’ to the idea that with more staff must come better standards.
And he said that ‘we cannot continue pouring money into a 20th-century model of care that delivers late diagnoses and more expensive treatment’.
But Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour’s mental health spokesman, refused to back the approach three times in an interview yesterday.
Asked if she agreed with Mr Streeting, she would only say that she stood by the commitment to increase staff numbers.
Tory minister Nadhim Zahawi (pictured) branded Kier Starmer’s speech a ‘desperate relaunch attempt’
