Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled the long-awaited Labour manifesto outlining the key policies for his plan to deliver “create more wealth”, including raising £8.6 billion in new taxes.
With his jacket off and sleeves rolled up, he pledged to make wealth creation the “number one priority”, with a leadership that is “pro-business and pro-worker” in an effort to win over disaffected Tory voters angry at a flatlined economy under prime minister Rishi Sunak.
Sir Keir warned voters that “challenges don’t disappear overnight if Labour wins” as he claimed the manifesto he was presenting today was not a quick fix but a “long-term plan” for change.
Labour’s pledges include keeping tax inflation low, curbing NHS waiting lists, implementing a border security command, creating Great British Energy and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.
But the Tories have slammed the manifesto labelling the fiscal policies a “tax trap”, with the Mr Sunak branding it the “highest taxes in history”.
Labour manifesto at a glance
NHS and healthcare: Cut waiting lists, 40,000 more NHS appointments each week, ban branded vapes, double cancer scanners numbers, 8,500 additional mental health staff, bring back the “family doctor”, create new “Dentistry Rescue Plan”.
Economy: £1.8bn to upgrade ports and build supply chains, £1.5bn to new gigafactories, £2.5bn to rebuild the steel industry, reduce energy, food and house prices.
Foreign policy and defence: Keep Nato committment, recognise Palestinian state, rebuild UK-EU relationship, mantain current support to Ukriane.
Energy, environment and climate: Set up a new Great British Energy to “cut bills for good”, £1bn to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture, £500m to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen, £6.6bn investment to energy efficiency in homes.
Tax, pay pensions and benefits: No increase to National Insurance, income tax or VAT. Raise £8.6bn in tax revenue by closing non-dom loophole, status will be abolished. Corporation tax capped at the current level of 25 per cent.
Housing: To build 1.5m new homes over the next five years. Deliver the “biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation”
Immigration: Create new Border Security Command to crackdown on small boats and people smugglers. Labour also vowed to “reduce net migration”.
Crime: Introduce a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to restore patrols in local communities.
Education: Recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects. Free breakfast clubs. High-quality apprenticeships and specialist technical colleges.
Starmer ‘ready to deliver change’
Economists: Labour ‘relief’ for markets but Tories ‘risk’ for the British pound
Economists and investment experts have giving their veredict on how would the market react to the Tory and Labour proposals.
A chief of FX at investment platform Saxo has predicted that a large stable majority for Sir Keir Starmer could bring further GBP resilience, while a Conservative win, or even a Labour minority government, could “signal a weak policy framework” and bring “risks for the British pound”.
Charu Chanana, has said: “A Labour win could be positive for the pound, given their pro-growth stance and the potential to maintain smoother EU-UK relations.
“However, spending concerns could limit room for gains given the lack of fiscal space. A Conservative win, or even lack of a Labour majority, could signal a weak policy framework and risks for the British pound.”
Head of equity Peter Garnry added: “As we saw with the unfunded tax cuts in 2022 it caused a run on the pound and significantly increased the volatility in UK gilts which sparked a crisis in the UK pension system.”
Labour ‘undermining its own credibility’, says Institute for Government
The think tank has criticised the Labour party and said the manifesto should have done more to prepare voters for “difficult trade-offs”.
Programme director Nick Davies said Sir Keir Starmer “acknowledges the scale of the challenges facing public services” but he has not offered big enough soultions.
Mr Davies said: “Oppositions understandably only focus on detailed policy development once they are in government, but the manifesto should have done more to prepare the public for difficult trade-offs that will be required.”
Dr Gemma Tetlow, the chief economist at the IfG, added: “Like the Conservatives, Labour has done little to row back on the spending cuts already pencilled in for the next parliament.
“This, coupled with its pledge not to raise any of the main taxes, undermines the credibility of its promise to address failing public services.”
Farage asks why his Labour opponent likes ‘drinking the tears of white people’
Nigel Farage has hit back at Keir Starmer’s jibe that Clacton is a “pantomime” by demanding he takes action against Labour’s candidate there for an anti-white comment, David Maddox reports.
During his manifesto launch, Sir Keir addressed the fact that he was not revealing any “rabbits out of the hat” with no new policies revealed. He said: “If you want politics as pantomime, I hear Clacton is nice this time of year.”
The Reform UK leader’s team has unearthed a now deleted social media post from 2019 by Labour’s Clacton candidate Javon Owusu-Nepaul agreeing with a US student’s post about racism.
The original post read: “Going into 2020 I’m going to continue to be vocal about how to tackle racism and the fact I drink white man tears on a regular basis.” Mr Nepaul replied to the post saying: “My favourite drink”.
According to official statistics, the Clacton constituency in Essex has one of the highest white populations in the UK, with 93 percent registered as white British. This compares to a UK national average of 82 percent white and 89 percent in the county of Essex.
Mr Farage said: “If Starmer thinks that the race in Clacton is a pantomime, perhaps he should look no further than his own candidate.” He added: “I’m shocked that this man is an official candidate for a Labour Party that says it has changed”
In the last election Labour came second with 6,736 but a long way behind Tory MP Giles Watling who had a majority of 24,702. But this time Mr Farage believes he can take the seat from the Tories although the election will see nine candidates standing in the constituency.
Labour have declined to comment.
Sketch | Slippery Starmer took a bruising – but the real loser was Snippy Rishi
“In the TV head-to-head a week ago, Sir Keir Starmer barely got a word in,” says Murphy, “But, in the latest event, he wouldn’t shut up. Whatever Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor, asked him he would pick a seemingly random portion of his stump speech and start reciting it like a robot. Rigby is famously no shrinking violet, but she ended up pleading with Starmer to let her ask some questions. Her first blood was drawn on whether he had thought in 2019 that Jeremy Corbyn would make a good PM. It totally floored him, prompting a long series of evasions and detours.
Rishi Sunak: ‘Labour manifesto means highest taxes in history’
Nigel Farage mocks Rishi Sunak after appearing on Tory leaflet
Pictured: Meanwhile Sir Ed Davey is in the forest toasting marshmallows
Tory minister defends government amid hospital waiting lists rise
Conservative minister Laura Trott has defended the government over NHS waiting lists despite rise in recent figures.
Asked about the waiting lists for routinge hospital treatment, the Treasury minister replied: “Look, we all know, everyone at home who’s got a family on waiting lists, we want them to come down, and we’re desperately working hard to make that the case.”
She said waiting lists have gone down “overall over the past seven months”, and the government is “throwing everything at it to try and make them come down further”.
Ms Trott added that waiting lists in “Labour-run Wales” are “even higher”, and accused the opposition of “just carping from the sidelines about a problem rather than trying to fix it”.
