Sir Keir Starmer is to pledge that a Labour government would not “spend our way out” of recession, in his firmest pitch yet for the political centre ground.
In a new year speech to be given today, the Labour leader promises that there will be no return to “big government”, declaring instead that a “robust private sector” will secure a “decade of national renewal”.
Starmer will speak, as Rishi Sunak did yesterday, from the Olympic Park in east London. In an optimistic message, he pledges to bring back “the hope we used to take for granted, that you can build your future around”. He says that Labour “can give people a sense of possibility again” and “show light at the end of the tunnel”.
In a clear statement of economic intent that is likely to frustrate some on the left of his party, Starmer continues: “Let me be clear — none of this should be taken as code for Labour getting its big government chequebook out again.
“Of course, investment is required — I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone. But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess — it’s not as easy as that. There is no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.”
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Starmer’s speech is the latest example of Labour attempting to assert itself as the party of fiscal responsibility. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said that Labour will follow fiscal rules including promises to borrow only to invest, and to reduce the national debt as a share of the economy.
The shrinking economy and the fallout of Liz Truss’s mini-budget have led some in Labour to question whether they may need to constrain their spending ambitions still further.
Addressing the challenges in the health service, Starmer argues that it was as foreseeable as “an iceberg on the horizon — time and again it’s the same pattern”. The government, he argues, has followed an approach of “sticking-plaster politics”, which Starmer promises to end by stopping “Westminster hoarding power”.
Starmer says that a Labour government would be “more relaxed about bringing in the expertise of public and private, business and union, town and city”, and would be “dynamic, agile, strong and, above all, focused”.
He adds: “Britain needs a completely new way of governing. You can’t overstate how much a short-term mindset dominates Westminster. And from there, how it infects all the institutions which try and fail to run Britain from the centre.”
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The theme of decentralisation was a big part of the constitutional review launched by Starmer and Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, last month, in which they proposed the abolition of the Lords.
The Conservatives accused Starmer of a “desperate relaunch attempt”. Nadhim Zahawi, the party chairman, said: “Every week he changes his position depending on what he thinks is popular. From supporting free movement to supporting the unions, he’ll say anything if the politics suits him. He should stop giving cliché-laden speeches, and instead finally unveil a plan for people’s priorities. He’s got nothing to say on how to cut crime, get immigration down, and reduce borrowing — that’s what the nation wants.”
Yesterday Lord Mandelson, the New Labour-era cabinet minister who informally advises Starmer, praised him for having “sorted out the extremists” but said he still had “more to do” to show his party has changed.
Mandelson told Times Radio: “Labour is back in the mainstream centre, led by a strong and assertive leader in Starmer and that’s basically the story of British politics since the 2019 election. I mean, essentially, Starmer has sorted out the extremists on his left, while the Tories are still trapped by theirs on their right.” Mandelson added: “What he’s got to do now is to take it all forward. I mean, we face new challenges in our country, in this century. He’s got to build and adapt, take New Labour forward, reinvent New Labour in a sense for a new century, not just sort of reheat what we did in 1997. I don’t want to see that.”
Leaders take Blairite route in pitch for centre ground
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The race to win next year’s general election looks set to be defined by a man who is not even taking part (Oliver Wright, Steven Swinford and Henry Zeffman write).
Both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer appear intent on adopting the politics, policies and even some of the rhetoric of Tony Blair as they make their pitch for the centre ground of politics.
For Sunak yesterday that meant seizing on the Blairite themes of patient choice within a state-funded NHS, radical education reform and a zero-tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour as he set out his vision for government under his leadership.
Britain would be a place, he declared, where “if you work hard and play by the rules you should be rewarded” — a phrase used by Blair almost 20 years ago.
For Starmer, that means replicating Blair’s caution. Before the 1997 election, Blair pledged to stick with Conservative spending plans despite a clamour from within his party for immediate increased investment in public services.
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Today Starmer will echo that, promising that Labour will not “spend our way out” of the economic crisis and that there will be no return to the extravagant spending commitments made by his recent predecessors.
What both men are attempting — as Blair successfully achieved — is to triangulate their message to voters by addressing their weaknesses with policies normally associated with the opposing party.
For Sunak that was clearest in his emphasis on increased investment in the NHS and schools and the focus he gave to his family’s own involvement in the NHS.
“We will always protect the founding principle of an NHS free at the point of use,” he declared.
In Blairite terms he added that patients would be “in control, with as much choice as possible”.
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Sunak also subtly altered the government’s emphasis on levelling up, admitting that boosting investment in local areas would not “mean anything” unless people felt safe in their communities. In particular he cited antisocial behaviour, saying that it should not be treated as “inevitable or a minor crime”. He also replicated Blair’s pledge to focus on tackling drug addiction to reduce crime.
For Starmer triangulation means putting economic conservatism at the heart of the party’s offer at the next election. Starmer’s aides fear that the party’s commanding poll lead is fragile and unless Labour can demonstrate that it will spend sensibly in government then many people may hesitate before backing the party at the ballot box.
With both sides competing to be the competent technocrats, the contest is likely to look much more like the politics of two decades ago than the chaos of recent years.
