Sir Keir Starmer positions himself as PM-in-waiting as psychodramas engulf Westminster and Holyrood
As the Conservatives in Westminster tied themselves in knots over whether to back the Privileges Committee condemnation of Boris Johnson and the SNP’s Humza Yousaf sought to revive independence plans with his party still in crisis, Sir Keir Starmer went to Leith in Scotland to set out his mission to turbo-charge renewable energy in the UK should he become PM.
His target is for Britain to produce all its electricity from low-carbon energy sources – nuclear, wind and solar – by 2030. To do it is a bold plan to borrow £100bn+ over the course of the next parliament to transition the country away from fossil fuels to green energy.
By far Labour’s single biggest spending commitment, the party had pledged to borrow £28bn-a-year to fund the flagship green transition programme, but has since scaled back borrowing plans amid growing concerns about taking on debt as the cost of borrowing rises on the back of higher interest rates.
Instead, Labour will gradually ramp up borrowing to that level in the “second half of the parliament” if it wins the next general election.
But the plan is still huge – undoubtedly the single most radical policy of Sir Keir’s Labour government should he win the next election. Labour’s green subsidies amount to more in relative terms than US President Joe Biden’s own green economy plan – the inflation reduction act – which has earmarked $37bn in subsidies.
The money will be used to launch a state-run company GB Energy to invest in renewables, with £2.5bn in direct subsidies to green energy providers who contract to manufacture in the UK – the ‘British jobs bonus’ as Sir Keir puts it. He says it will create nearly 500,000 new direct and indirect jobs.
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Starmer outlines energy plans
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The driving purpose of the plan is to drive down energy bills – with Labour claiming that it will take £1,400 off average bills if it can hit the 2030 target.
It is also about transforming the economy in order to better fund public services.
Sir Keir is clear that this is the sort of “activist industrial policy” Britain needs for the longer term, but for voters looking to Labour to commit money to schools, hospitals and transport in the next election, this could prove a hard sell with the amount Labour is willing to borrow to subsidise green technologies dwarfing other commitments for public services.
“We are going to put money into public services,” explains one senior Labour figure. “But we have to grow the economy as the first step. Being clear about stable finances and sticking to it is the best way to turnaround the country.”
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‘We are doubling down not backing off’
But while the level of borrowing has raised eyebrows, and afforded the Conservatives a “borrowing bombshell” attack line, the plans to block new oil and gas developments in the North Sea as part of the renewables revolution has provoked widespread criticism from industry and union figures fearful of widespread job losses.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, on Monday said Labour’s plans put “tens of thousands of Scottish jobs a risk”.
The criticisms have prompted another policy tweak as Sir Keir promised not to revoke any fossil fuel extraction licenses granted before the next general election, even though it could take years before those new fields begin producing.
This allows the Labour leader to insist existing jobs in oil and gas are not at risk, but there’s no doubt that as production is gradually wound down, this will be a momentous shift for a sector that supports nearly 200,000 jobs in the UK.
There is also the question of whether the Labour leader can actually deliver what he is pledging in this five years. Sir Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at Oxford University, who has advised the government on energy policy over many years, said last week the goal was unlikely to succeed on the current trajectory.
When I pressed Sir Keir in an interview in Leith on Monday if the “clean power by 2030” pledge was a guarantee or a target he demurred, he said it was his “ambition” and he believed to be “doable”. Not an explicit guarantee then, and for good reason.
There is also a question about credibility and commitment after the Labour party U-turned on its promise to borrow £28bn-a-year from the beginning of the parliament in order to scale up renewable industry.
‘Doubling down’
The leadership has insisted it is still totally committed to the plan, but has had to scale back commitments in the near-to-medium term as the high cost of borrowing hits against Labour’s fiscal rules (no borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and net debt must be falling as a percentage of GDP at end of the rolling five-year period).
When I asked Sir Keir on Monday if the U-turn on the financial commitment in the first half of the parliament showed – as with Brexit, tuition fees, and re-nationalisations – that he can’t be trusted to keep his promises, he said it showed the opposite, that he was “doubling down” on the plan.
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“It is a matter of trust,” he told me.
“Rachel [Reeves] – we set out fiscal rules two or more years ago. Inflation is in a completely different place to where it was… but at the same time as we work through our plans and set out what we want to do in years one, two and three, it is clear we can ramp up to that £28bn and when I say to people in the sector, I want clean power by 2030, they don’t say you’re backing down, they say that’s a real challenge.”
On the timing of this announcement, there is of course a risk that Sir Keir’s missions get drowned out by the dramas back in Westminster. There was some discussion about whether to pull the announcement, but in the end Sir Keir decided that he wanted to get on talking about how he might lead Britain than, to quote one ally, get “bogged down in the psychodrama” of what’s going on in Westminster.
“Doesn’t it speak volumes that the Labour Party is today launching a plan for the next generation of jobs, whilst the Tories are squabbling back in Westminster, and the SNP are preaching about promises they’ve broken?” observed the Labour leader when I asked him about the current state of his rivals.
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Sir Keir wants to use these “mission statements” to position himself as a leader-in-waiting as the current prime minister Rishi Sunak finds his agenda hijacked by the failings of his predecessor and party infighting once more.
But the agenda on Monday is very much about parking Labour’s tanks on the SNP’s lawns too, given that there is no route to Number 10 for Sir Keir that doesn’t go through Scotland. Locating GB Energy in Scotland is designed to firmly park his tanks on the SNP’s lawn.
A poll out over the weekend suggested Labour was on course to take 26 seats in the next general election – an incredible change in fortunes from the single seat it picked up in 2019 – as the departure of Nicola Sturgeon and her subsequent arrest (she was released without charge) over the police probe into SNP finance leaves the party battered and bruised.
“Nicola Sturgeon not being first minister obviously provides a space and an opportunity that simply wasn’t there before,” acknowledges one senior figure.
“But there’s no rule that anybody disillusioned with either the Tories or the SNP necessarily swaps columns to us. Anyone who thinks we can flatline is heading for defeat at the next election. We’ve got to go up at the end, which is why we’re going to continue in this way.”
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Conor McGregor has spoken out after losing a civil rape case as a feminist march was held in Dublin.
The MMA fighter was accused of raping Nikita Hand, who was awarded €248,603 (£206,000) in damages on Friday after a jury at Dublin’s High Court found McGregor assaulted her in a Dublin hotel in 2018.
Nikita Hand.
Pic: PA
Posting on social media, the 36-year-old said: “I know I made mistakes”.
It comes as hundreds of people in Dublin staged a demonstration in “utter solidarity” with Ms Hand.
Posting on X, McGregor said: “People want to hear from me, I needed time. I know I made mistakes. Six years ago, I should have never responded to her outreaches. I should have shut the party down. I should never have stepped out on the woman I love the most in the world. That’s all on me.
“As much as I regret it, everything that happened that night was consensual and all the witnesses present swore to that under oath. I have instructed my legal team to appeal the decision.
“I can’t go back and I will move forward. I am beyond grateful to my family, friends and supporters all over the world who have stayed by my side.
“That’s it. No more. Getting back to the gym- the fight game awaits!”
Conor McGregor (centre) and partner Dee Devlin leave the High Court in Dublin after he lost a civil case.
Pic: PA
Speaking outside court after the decision, an emotional Ms Hand said the two-week-long civil case had been a “nightmare” but that “justice has been served”.
“It’s something that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” she added.
In Dublin on Monday night, a march in support of Ms Hand was organised by the socialist feminist movement group Rosa to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The demonstration in Dublin.
Pic: PA
Ruth Coppinger (left) and Natasha O’Brien at the solidarity march.
Pic: PA
Participants chanted “stand with Nikita” and “no more fear, no more shaming, we reject your victim blaming” as they carried signs and banners through the capital’s streets.
Ruth Coppinger, a councillor and general election candidate, and Natasha O’Brien, who became a public figure after a soldier received a suspended sentence for assaulting her, both spoke at the event.
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Ms Coppinger said Ms Hand was “an incredibly brave woman” and that she was watching the event via a live stream.
Ms O’Brien was cheered as she said she’d been “in awe” of Ms Hand’s courage and that Ireland had let out a collective “sigh of relief” after the jury found in Ms Hand’s favour.
McGregor was accused of having “brutally raped and battered” Ms Hand.
She was taken in an ambulance to the Rotunda Hospital the following day where the paramedic who assessed her told the court she had not seen “someone so bruised” in a long time.
Following eight days of evidence, and three days of closing speeches and the judge’s instructions to the jury, the jury of eight women and four men spent six hours and ten minutes deliberating before returning their verdict.
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