Starmer says ‘it will take some time’ before living standards improve

Published

5 months ago

December 19, 2024

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Sir Keir Starmer has said “it will take some time” before living standards improve in the UK as he faced a grilling from senior MPs.

The prime minister said “we want people to feel better off” but warned his government could not fix everything “by Christmas”.

He was facing the chairs of several parliamentary committees in his first appearance in front of the powerful liaison committee.

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Sir Keir said the increase in the national living wage was a “pay rise for the three million who are the lowest paid” and public sector workers were also feeling the benefit of pay increases.

“In addition to that, the measures that we put in place will improve living standards,” he said.

He added: “It will take some time, of course it will.

“One of the biggest mistakes, I think, in the last 14 years was the idea that everything could be fixed by Christmas. It can’t.”

He said planning how to fix things “will take time”, as will changing regulations to ensure growth can happen.

The prime minister said the October budget, which has been criticised by several sections of society, was about “stabilising the economy”.

But the prime minister added more needs to be done to grow the economy, with planning reforms a key concern.

The government’s plan to build 1.5 million houses over the next five years will happen, he said.

“I accept it’s difficult, I accept its stretching. But it’s hugely important,” he added.

Sir Keir also defined “blockers” after he pledged to “back the builders, not the blockers”.

Blockers are those who say the UK “shouldn’t have targets” for housebuilding and those who argue “we shouldn’t build here”, he added.

The prime minister gave an example of wind turbines taking 13 years to be installed due to planning objections and delays connecting them to the energy grid.

Sir Keir was also asked about foreign affairs and defence, including on the possibility of tariffs being introduced by Donald Trump.

He said he is “not a fan” of tariffs but thinks he can make progress on trade with the US, and added he does not accept the UK can only be close to the EU or the US.

On defence, the PM was asked by Labour MP Tan Dhesi, chair of the defence committee, what keeps him up at night.

He said he is not kept awake because he is confident in the UK’s defence and security, adding we have “first class personnel here and across the world”.

However, he said he accepts we are “living in a more volatile world” and his government has doubled down on support for NATO.

On migration, Sir Keir said the UK will always need overseas skills but the levels are too high.

“Obviously what I don’t want to do is to choke off businesses that are thriving at the moment by cutting their legs off and say ‘you can’t have inward migration’,” he said.

Sir Keir was thanked by the liaison committee chair Dame Meg Hillier for his “commitment to transparency and scrutiny”.

The PM appears in front of the committee roughly twice a year so the next time could be next summer.

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‘No doubt’ UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

Published

3 hours ago

May 31, 2025

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'No doubt' UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.

John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.

This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.

Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”

A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.

The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.

This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.

The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.

While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.

A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.

The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.

“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”

Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.

The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.

On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.

Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.

He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.

“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.

“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”