As he outlined his five “national missions,” which will serve as the cornerstones of Labour’s upcoming election manifesto, Keir Starmer acknowledged that he is already organizing his second term in office.
Sir Kier Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party (Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)
After 13 years of the Conservatives in power, the Labour leader said he was “not going to shy away” from saying that it would take time to “fix the fundamentals” of the nation, including the economy and public services.
The G7’s highest sustained growth would be achieved by a new Labour government by the end of its first term, Starmer promised in a major speech on Thursday in Manchester, but he provided few specifics on how he would accomplish this.
“We’ve said that we’ll have a decade of national renewal because the problems need long-term solutions, Starmer added. He also acknowledged that problems of 13 years cant be fixed right away because fundamental changes take time. As he outlined his goal to spur growth—which he called “the oxygen for our ambitions”—across the nation and achieve it by creating secure, well-paying jobs, the Labour leader urged people to “judge us on our plan.”
However, Starmer urged people not to “fixate laser-like” on Brexit, despite the fact that it has reduced economic growth by billions of pounds since 2016.
According to Starmer Brexit cannot be the sole cause of our economy’s slow growth. Since around 2010, our economy has struggled to grow. After the speech, he told the Guardian, “We would be making a big mistake if we get fixated on Brexit as the only issue when it comes to growth”.
“I’m not trying to hide the fact that the agreement we have with the EU needs to be improved. The Brexit agreement needs to be improved, in my opinion. It’s clearly not functioning very well. It wasn’t even partially baked in the oven. We need to improve our overall trading relations more so than just the protocol in Northern Ireland” he added while addressing concerns raised by opponents.
Starmer stated that he would take a “single-minded” approach in his speech.
Countries “are preparing for an enormous race for the opportunities of tomorrow all over the world,” he said. “Britain must start running now, not back in the locker room tying laces”.
He asserted that the country needed a “serious plan” to provide more stability after years of the Tories “blowing with the wind” rather than addressing root causes. ” One crisis after another lurch toward us. Always reacting, always being late. He asserted that a bandage is never a cure.
“There is a massive role for the private sector in mission-driven government, but if the aspiration is merely to replace the public sector while extracting a rent to privatize the profits while socializing the risk, that takes us nowhere,” he continued.
The economy, the NHS, crime, the climate crisis, and education are among the five overarching topics covered by Starmer’s “missions.” Instead of consumer pledges, they will be long-term goals that are “measurable” so that voters can compare performance.
Although Starmer and his shadow cabinet ministers will be working with experts to flesh out their plans in the coming months, there was little information about the timeline for when his “missions” would be delivered in the speech.
It will then elaborate on how a Labour administration would turn Britain into a world leader in clean energy, create an NHS that is “fit for the future,” and remove obstacles to opportunity for all children by reshaping the systems and giving them better prepared for the workforce.
Earlier, Starmer had defended breaking important promises he had made when running for Labour leader in 2020, claiming that rather than being abandoned, his 10 promises had been modified in light of unprecedented global events.
Despite criticism from the left, he insisted they were still “important statements of value and principle,” but he wouldn’t say whether he still supported some of them, such as the public ownership of utilities and rail services and the elimination of university tuition fees.
