Sir Keir Starmer will outline his “first steps” for government at a launch event to kickstart the next phase of Labour’s campaign for the general election.

The party leader will host the event in the potential battleground of Essex, where he will pledge to build on the five “missions” he set out last year.

Among the first steps “to change Britain” will be Labour’s pledge to deliver economic stability, cut NHS waiting times, launch a new border security command, set up publicly-owned energy firm Great British Energy, crack down on antisocial behaviour and recruit 6,500 new teachers.

Sir Keir told his shadow cabinet that, following a successful set of May local elections that saw the party steal the West Midlands mayor title from the Tories, the “next phase” of the party’s strategy was “crucially important”.

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Alongside the launch will be an advertising campaign – described by a party spokesman as the largest spend since the previous general election – that will see the Labour leader appear on ad vans and billboards alongside the six steps.

However, a spokesman stressed the steps will not be the “sum total” of the party’s election offer.

Sir Keir told members of his frontbench that “each of the first steps would chime with voters’ aspirations, show a clear set of priorities and a powerful direction of travel”.

“Stability is change”, he also told them.

The Tories hit out at what they said was Labour’s “sixteenth relaunch”, adding that it “won’t amount to a hill of beans”.

The “steps” will be provided to voters in physical form, but Labour steered away from directly comparing this to the pledge card given out by Sir Tony Blair ahead of the 1997 general election.

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Separate Scottish and Welsh launches are expected in coming weeks with offers aimed at voters in the devolved nations, the party said.

Richard Holden, the Tory Party chair, said: “Sir Keir Starmer’s been Labour leader for four years but still has no coherent plan.

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“Labour’s asylum amnesty, colossal unfunded spending commitments, and higher taxes would take us back to square one and it’s clear his sixteenth relaunch won’t amount to a hill of beans.”

“Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are sticking to the plan which is working to strengthen the economy – with inflation down from 11.1% to 3.2% and £900 back in hard-working people’s pockets – and a fair immigration system with boat crossings down.”

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are both facing a historic lack of popularity among ethnically diverse communities, new polling suggests.

While ethnically diverse community voting trends are incredibly complex and almost always hard to predict, some polling can give useful indications that can speak to the mood of the country.

A comprehensive set of data based on polling by Ipsos and shared exclusively with Sky News gives us a general sense of how the leaders of the two main parties are faring at this very specific time.

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Sunak more popular with white voters

Mr Sunak was named the UK’s next leader on the festival of Diwali, serving as a reminder of the milestone in Britain’s evolution as a multicultural and multi-faith society.

He’s the UK’s first prime minister from an ethnically diverse background and the first Hindu prime minister, but in terms of how much ethnically diverse communities have rewarded him for these historic firsts, it’s a somewhat surprising figure.

Over the past year, his approval rating among ethnically diverse communities is -53.

That figure is historic too – it’s one of the worst of any prime minister in nearly 30 years.

Actually, from these figures, he’s much better liked by white voters – who give him a rating of -41.

This is perhaps unsurprising, given that historically the majority of ethnically diverse communities have voted Labour.

Though support for the Conservatives reached a high of 30% in the first half of 2016 and only falling sharply in the aftermath of Brexit and then in the 2017 general election under a different leader.

Sir Keir behind Blair and Brown

For the Labour Party then, the stakes could not be much higher as they bill themselves as the party of equality and progressive politics and ethnically diverse communities have traditionally rewarded them for it.

The party has consistently held large leads with ethnically diverse community voters over the last few decades and under previous Labour leaders, often given net positive satisfaction levels.

The current leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has a more favourable rating than the current prime minister, with an average satisfaction rating over the past year of -32.

But he is also considerably more popular among white voters.

And when you compare these numbers to previous Labour leaders, it is more stark.

Sir Keir’s standing with ethnically diverse community voters currently is the lowest level a Labour leader has recorded among black and south Asian voters since 1996.

Far worse than the very worst ratings recorded by either Tony Blair (at -11 during the Iraq War) or Gordon Brown (at -13).

‘The Gaza Effect’

Now, there are myriad reasons why individuals and different communities have drifted from the central parties and traditional voting patterns, but Ipsos has outlined one specific thread of dissatisfaction with both parties that they call “The Gaza Effect”.

During by-elections and the recent local elections we saw a wave of independent candidates running on this single issue platform, most prominently George Galloway in Rochdale, but this data shows an indication of how deep that sentiment runs.

When you compare the aggregate satisfactions levels across the year for both leaders, you can see how different ratings become for ethnically diverse communities when compared to white voters.

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For white voters, there’s next to no effect in satisfaction levels towards the two leaders post 7 October.

When you compare that data to the rating ethnically diverse community voters have given the two leaders, there is a noticeable drop in support.

For Mr Sunak the drop is only around 13 points, but for Sir Keir, it is far more significant with a huge fall of 29 points.

The scale of the impact is almost impossible to predict, and the drop in these figures won’t necessarily translate into votes or even seats – but what is clear is these figures show both parties will need to offer ethnically diverse communities much more to win their vote at the next election.