‘Huge difference’ between Labour and Tories, Starmer declares as he rejects ‘cautious’ criticism
Sir Keir Starmer has rejected claims he is being too cautious and timid in his offer to the public – and insisted there is a “huge difference” between Labour and the Conservatives.
Setting out his stall at the start of a year that is likely to see voters go to the polls, the Labour leader said the “clock is ticking” on the Tories’ time in power and his party is “ready” for a general election whenever it comes.
Politics latest: Sir Keir Starmer makes direct appeal to voters in major speech
In a new year’s speech, he set out his vision for change in politics to disillusioned and disaffected voters.
He told them “things can be better” and promised them a “politics that serves you” – and the chance to “turn the page” on the Tory government.
Sir Keir said “the moment power is taken out of Tory hands and given, not to me, but to you, that moment is getting closer by the second”.
“We don’t just expect an election on the economy,” he said. “We want an election on the economy and we’re ready for that fight.”
On the prospect of tax cuts, Sir Keir said he wanted people to “have more money in their pocket”. But he stressed his priority before that will be getting the economy growing again.
His critics, including within the party, have warned Labour against being “too timid” and “limping into Number 10”.
Asked by Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby whether his pitch to vote Labour is simply to see the back of the Tories, Sir Keir said the “change that we are offering, the difference that we want to make, between 14 years of decline and a decade of national renewal, they are fundamentally different things”.
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Will Starmer turn voters off?
“Underpinning the decade of national renewal, these are not just words. I’ve set out over the last few months five national missions that we will seek to achieve over the period of the next Labour government,” he said.
“They are really ambitious,” he continued, adding there is a “huge, huge difference” between Labour and the Tories.
Asked whether he will be willing to take part in TV debates with Rishi Sunak when the general election is called, Sir Keir said reports he will “duck them” are “nonsense”.
“I’ve been saying bring it on for a very long time, I’m happy to debate anytime,” he said.
“I don’t think anyone can accuse me of ducking scrutiny and debate. As I’ve said many times – just bring it on.”
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‘Starmer quiet on tax cuts’
In his speech at a research centre near Bristol, Sir Keir urged voters to reject “pointless populist gestures” and pledged to crack down on cronyism as he sought to outline the dividing lines between Labour and the Conservatives.
He said: “I don’t see our job as going back to some kind of golden age, I don’t think that’s how working people look at things at all. Government in this country is too centralised and controlling, and, because of that, too disconnected from the communities it needs to serve.”
He accused the Tories of “denigrating the people who serve this country” and said there has been “a total lack of respect” for public sector workers.
Sir Keir promised to “clean up politics” of sleaze, adding: “No more VIP fast lanes, no more kickbacks for colleagues, no more revolving doors between government and the companies they regulate.
“I will restore standards in public life with a total crackdown on cronyism: this ends now.”
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‘May election the worst kept secret in Parliament’
He pointed to his legal career as a record of his anti-sleaze zeal, claiming he helped send both Labour and Tory “expense cheat politicians” to jail in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal, while serving as the director of public prosecutions.
Sir Keir also set out to highlight the differences between the Labour Party under his leadership – and that of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
He said it was longer “a party of protest” but a “renewed” Labour with a distinctive target – to “defeat this miserabilist Tory project” and “crush their politics of divide and decline” with a new “Project Hope”.
The Labour leader used the word “hope” 18 times during his speech.
“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,” he said.
“It should be a higher calling, the power of the vote, the hope of change and renewal married to the responsibility of service. That’s what I believe in.”
Looking ahead to the pending election, which could see his party sweep to power, Sir Keir added: “Nobody will be above the law in a Britain I lead.
“But with respect and service, I also promise this: a politics that treads a little lighter on all of our lives.”
Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.
While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.
“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.
“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”
Read more: Sir Jim’s mission to succeed at ‘the one challenge the UK has never brought home’
Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.
“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.
“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.
“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.
“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.
“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
UK needs to get ‘sharper on the business front’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.
“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.
“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?
“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.
“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”
‘We’re apolitical’
Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.
“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”
Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.
Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP
Push for stadium of the North
He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.
“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.
“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.
“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he won’t be standing at the next general election but will keep campaigning for the Conservative Party.
In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which he posted on X on Saturday night, Mr Heaton-Harris said after 24 years in politics, it had been an “honour and a privilege to serve”.
He thanked the people of Daventry, Mr Sunak and former Tory leaders, including Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, “for putting their trust in me”.
Mr Heaton-Harris, who has been serving as Northern Ireland secretary since September 2022, said: “I started as a campaigner and I’ll be out campaigning for @Conservatives at the next election because we are the only party that has and can deliver for the whole of the United Kingdom.”
He joins an exodus of Tory politicians who have announced they will be leaving Westminster at the next general election.
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More than 100 MPs from across the Commons have said they will not be standing.
Those who have announced their intention to leave parliament range from the longest-serving female MP, Labour’s Harriet Harman, to one of those only elected at the last election in 2019, Conservative MP Dehenna Davison.
Of the more than 60 Tory MPs stepping aside, high profile names include former cabinet ministers Ben Wallace, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Kwasi Kwarteng.
Back in March, Mrs May, 67, said she too had taken the “difficult decision” to quit the Commons after 27 years representing her Maidenhead constituency.
The last possible day for a general election is Tuesday 28 January 2025.
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