Sir Keir Starmer fails to rule out tax burden rise under Labour

Published

8 months ago

September 17, 2023

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Sir Keir Starmer has refused to guarantee the tax burden – currently the largest since the Second World War – would not increase under Labour.

While the opposition leader told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme he wanted it to come down “for working people”, his “laser focus” was on growing the economy.

Sir Keir, along with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, have sought to stress the party’s plans for fiscal prudence in the face of difficult economic conditions.

In the exclusive interview, he also dismissed Conservative Party claims about Labour’s immigration plans as “complete garbage” – after the Tories argued the Opposition’s proposals would increase asylum seeker numbers.

Pressed over the tax burden, Sir Keir declined to give an assurance it would reduce under a Labour government.

He said: “I want it to come down for working people.

“But also, I’m absolutely focused on growing the economy.

“If the economy in the last 13 years had grown at the same rate as the last Labour government, we’d have tens of billions of pounds to spend on our public services without raising a penny more in tax.

“And that’s where I want that laser focus.”

‘The government has been pumping out complete garbage’

Sir Keir also rejected accusations levelled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman that Labour was planning to let the UK become a “dumping ground” for 100,000 migrants from the EU each year.

The political row flared after the Labour leader indicated he could be prepared to do a deal with Brussels which would involve the UK taking a quota of asylum seekers who arrive in the bloc in exchange for the ability to return people who cross the English Channel.

Labour has proposed speeding up data and intelligence sharing with Europe as part of a new post-Brexit security pact and strengthening powers to restrict the movement of those suspected of organised immigration crime.

Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Sir Keir called Conservative claims about his plans “complete nonsense”.

He said: “Let me be absolutely crystal clear about this, because the government has been pumping out complete garbage this week in terms of the numbers that they are suggesting.

“There is obviously an EU quota system for EU members. Well, it’s obvious we are not an EU member.

“We will not be part of that. We are not an EU member. This is why what the government’s saying, it’s been complete garbage.

“And even that scheme within the EU is not working.

“I’ve been discussing that with EU leaders up here.

“That scheme itself isn’t really working very well.

“So the idea that we’re going to join the EU scheme on quotas is complete nonsense.

“We’re not an EU member and that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

The opposition leader also brushed off Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt’s Barbie-based jibe that – like Beach Ken – Sir Keir has “zero balls”.

“I just think when a government has completely run out of energy and ideas and the ability to shape or change anything, they go down this rabbit hole of ridiculous insults.

“It’s water off a duck’s back to me,” he said.

Politics

Bitfinex database breach ‘seems fake,’ says CTO

Published

13 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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<div>Bitfinex database breach 'seems fake,' says CTO</div>

Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino explained that if the hacking group was telling the truth, they would have asked for a ransom, but he “couldn’t find any request.”

Politics

Labour taking ‘Tory crown jewel’ feels like a momentum shift

Published

15 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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Labour taking 'Tory crown jewel' feels like a momentum shift

It was a wafer-thin victory, but a huge win.

The symbolism of Labour taking the West Midlands mayor, a jewel in the Tory crown, could be felt in the room as Labour activists gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the win with their new mayor Richard Parker and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

There are moments on election journeys when the momentum shifts – and this win felt like one of them.

“We humbly asked [the voters] to put their trust and confidence in a changed Labour Party and they did. And that is a significant piece of political history that we’ve made here today,” said Sir Keir at his victory rally.

“So the message out of these elections, the last now the last stop before we go into that general election, is that the country wants change.

“I hope the prime minister is listening and gives the opportunity to the country to vote as a whole in a general election as soon as possible.”

This win gave them the boost that was missing when they won the Blackpool South by-election on a massive 26-point swing, but then failed to pick up the hundreds of council seats they were chasing.

This win, on just 1,508 votes or 0.25 per cent of the vote, was a body blow for a Conservative party that believed they could just about cling on. Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, is now the last Tory standing.

For Labour, then a moment to bookmark.

Just as Boris Johnson’s Hartlepool by-election win in 2021 was a low point for Sir Keir – he told me this week that he considered resigning over the loss because he thought it showed he was the barrier to Labour’s recovery – this too will feel devastating not just for Andy Street but for the PM too.

Labour has beaten him in a street fight. He’s bloodied with Sir Keir now emboldened.

“This was the one result we really needed,” said one senior Labour figure. “It’s been our top focus for the past week and symbolically a very important win.”

And Labour needed the boost, because, as Professor Michael Thrasher pointed out in his Sky News’ national vote share projection calculated from the local election results, Sir Keir was not picking up the sort of vote share that Tony Blair was winning in the run-up to the 1997 Labour landslide.

His latest calculation of a 35% vote share for Labour and 26% for the Tories, put Sir Keir winning a general election but short of a majority.

What the West Midlands mayoral win did for Sir Keir was to give him a clear narrative that he is coming for the Tories and will do what he needs to take them down.

It raises inevitable questions about what is next for Rishi Sunak. The prime minister had nowhere to go today, not one win to celebrate. The worst performance in council elections in 40 years, was already pretty much as bad as it gets before the loss of Andy Street. The former Conservative mayor was magnanimous towards the prime minister, saying the loss was his alone.

But colleagues will not be so generous. One former cabinet minister said this loss was “devastating”. “We’re done and there’s no appetite to move against him,” said the senior MP. Many Tories tell me they are now resigned to defeat and believe Mr Sunak and his team needed to own it, rather than the rest of the party.

The coming days might be bumpy, the mood will be stony. But Tories tell me not much will actually change for them.

For Sir Keir, he now needs to sell not the changed Labour Party, but his vision for changing the country. The West Mids mayor’s win was dazzling, but it could have so easily gone the other way. And as Mr Sunak fights to survive, Labour still has to fight hard to win.