UK

NOT EVEN A RED TORY BUT A PINK ONE

SIR Keir Starmer  says he’s happy to be branded a ‘fiscal conservative’ as he refuses to commit to greater public spending

JEREMY CORBIN THOU SHALL BE AVENGED

Adam Forrest
Sun, July 16, 2023 

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is happy to be branded a “fiscal conservative” as he repeatedly refused to commit to greater spending on the NHS and other public services.

The Labour leader was called “delusional” by the Labour left – but Sir Keir insisted that he did not mind “ruffling feathers” and argued that his party could not win power by offering reckless spending pledges.

Sir Keir is also facing a row over his party’s benefits policy, after he revealed that a Labour government would keep the controversial two-child cap on benefits devised by austerity architect George Osborne.

His shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth had signalled an end to the two-child benefit cap only last month, calling the policy “heinous” and arguing that it was “absolutely keeping children in poverty”.

But asked on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg if he would scrap the cap, which means support is only provided for the first two children in a family, Sir Keir said: “We’re not changing that policy.”

The Labour leader repeatedly refused to say whether his party would spend more on public services in government, stating only that “a Labour government always will invest in our public services. The way to invest in our public services is to grow our economy.”

Urging “reform” of the NHS rather than committing to providing it with more money, Sir Keir said: “If all we do is simply patch up and keep going, then we won’t fix the fundamentals, and that’s why reform is so important.”

Asked if he was happy to be known as a “fiscal conservative”, Sir Keir said: “I don’t mind what label people put on me.”

Sir Keir is thought to want a Labour government to follow the Tories’ tax and public spending levels until growth returns to Britain’s juddering economy.

The Labour leader has acknowledged frustration with his plan for fiscal restraint. “Taking seriously the foundations of economic responsibility may not set people’s pulses racing – but the new country we can build on top of them will do,” Sir Keir wrote in The Observer.

Keir Starmer is under pressure to spend more on public services (PA Wire)

Andrew Fisher, who was policy chief for Jeremy Corbyn when he was leader of the party, said it was “delusional” to refuse to commit to extra spending on the NHS and public services. “Reforms are necessary, but they’re not an alternative to spending more,” he tweeted.

Mick Lynch, the firebrand leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said people cannot “spot the difference” between Labour and the Tories. “He’s got to show that he’s on the side of working people,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

“Keir Starmer and his team have got to show some clear water, some red water, between themselves and the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and themselves and the Conservatives.”

The left-wing campaign group Momentum said Sir Keir was “siding with the Daily Mail” when it comes to the “cruel” two-child benefit cap, and called for “real investment” in public services and infrastructure.

But Sir Keir took on his critics on economic policy. “Frankly, the left has to start caring a lot more about growth, about creating wealth, attracting inward investment and kickstarting a spirit of enterprise,” he said – calling it “the only show in town”.

Keir Starmer with Keir Mather, the Labour candidate in next week’s Selby by-election (Getty)

Grilled on deselections, suspensions, and the blocking of left-wing candidates – including the North of Tyne mayor, Jamie Driscoll – Sir Keir said he “rejects” the idea that he is ditching people and policies.

Asked by Laura Kuenssberg if he is happy to “ruffle feathers” in order to win power, Sir Keir said: “Of course” – before suggesting that he would be happy with even a one-seat Labour majority in 2024.

“The biggest danger is complacency,” he said on the chances of a Labour government. “I remind myself every day ... that to get from where we landed in 2019 to a one-seat majority at the next election will be a bigger swing than Tony Blair got in 1997.”

Deputy leader Angela Rayner said a Labour government will not nationalise industries if it will cost “a load of money” to do so. She told The Observer: “With the rail companies, we have said that once their contracts are up we’d bring them back into public ownership, and that’s a way of doing it. It’s pragmatism, not ideology. It’s about asking, ‘Will it improve people’s lives?’”

Asked about Sir Keir’s treatment of figures on the left of the party, she insisted that Labour needs to remain a broad church. “It has to be, because it’s not just about the party, it’s about voters,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir wouldn’t say if he would keep negotiating on current public-sector pay disputes, describing it as “the government’s mess” in his BBC interview. He also refused to put an “arbitrary” target on housebuilding – saying only that he wants to see “hundreds of thousands more houses” built.

Sir Keir did not rule out changing the Bank of England’s 2 per cent inflation target under a Labour government. Asked if he would look at changing the target, he said: “That’s something, I think, for us to address closer to the election.”

Starmer Faces UK Labour Backlash Over Bid for Fiscal Restraint



Alex Wickham
Mon, July 17, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- UK opposition leader Keir Starmer faced criticism from across his own Labour party over a pledge to keep a controversial limit on child benefits brought in by the governing Conservatives.

Four Labour mayors, including London’s Sadiq Khan, are opposing Starmer’s announcement that he would keep the two-child cap on benefits, according to people familiar with their thinking. They add to several members of Starmer’s top team who strongly criticized the Tory policy before their own leader’s reversal on the matter.

The push-back highlights the tricky balance Starmer is trying to strike as he bids to lead Labour back to power after more than 13 years in opposition. The Labour leadership is seeking to convince voters that the party will not be reckless with public spending if it wins a general election due by January 2025. But that comes at the price of abandoning previous Labour promises of largess and riling both the party’s members and its traditional supporters.

The Child Poverty Action Group charity estimates that scrapping the current Conservative policy that prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for their third child would cost the exchequer some £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) a year — while lifting 250,000 children out of poverty and benefiting another 850,000 children still in poverty. But Starmer told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that Labour was “not changing that policy” if it gets into power.

Traditionally, the Conservative Party has sought to portray Labour as reckless with the public finances during election campaigns, a charge Starmer is determined to counter. But that also risks alienating his own party.

Khan, along with Liverpool City Mayor Steve Rotheram, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin and Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol, all think the cap should be scrapped, the people familiar said.

The backlash extends further than that, from lawmakers who are concerned that Labour’s focus on fiscal restraint means they are not offering voters enough hope or change from the status quo.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told the Daily Record newspaper Monday that his regional party will “continue to oppose the two child limit.” Meanwhile, Rosie Duffield, a Member of Parliament on the right of the party, and Zarah Sultana, a left-wing MP, both opposed Starmer’s position on Twitter.

Several members of Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet, including Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, have previously strongly condemned the two-child cap.

Separately, Jamie Driscoll, another regional mayor who is also on the left of the party, resigned from Labour on Monday after he was blocked from standing for the party.

--With assistance from Kitty Donaldson and Emily Ashton.