Sir Keir Starmer has vowed that Labour’s far-reaching proposals for devolution would allow people to “take back control” of their communities in an audacious pitch to Brexit voters.
The Labour leader said his party must turn the message, which was used by Vote Leave during the EU referendum, “from a slogan to a solution” by spreading power beyond Westminster.
He said that if Labour won the next election it would present a Take Back Control Bill to devolve power to local areas on employment support, transport, climate change, housing, culture and childcare provision. He also suggested that councils would be given more flexibility over their finances.
In his speech Starmer acknowledged criticism that he had failed to set out a coherent vision for what the party would do in power. He said that although people knew that Labour “cares”, it also had to prove that it could be a “bold, reforming government”.
He said: “It’s not unreasonable for us to recognise the desire for communities to stand on their own feet. It’s what Take Back Control meant. The control people want is control over their lives and their community.
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“So we will embrace the Take Back Control message. But we’ll turn it from a slogan to a solution. From a catchphrase into change. We will spread control out of Westminster. Devolve new powers over employment support, transport, energy, climate change, housing, culture, childcare provision and how councils run their finances.”
Starmer said councils would be given a right to request more powers from government, with a presumption that they would be granted.
Examples of the powers that local government could request include licensing systems for holiday lets to prevent areas being overcome by second homes or tourists, and the ability to impose a levy on hotel stays to raise revenue.
Communities could also be given control of skills policy so they could ensure that the provision met the needs of employers.
Starmer said more devolution was an opportunity to move past the “short-term mindset” and “sticking-plaster politics” that dominated Westminster. “You know, sometimes I hear talk about a ‘huge day in Westminster’ but all that’s happened is someone has passionately described a problem and then that’s it,” he said.
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“Nothing has changed, but the circus moves on. Rinse and repeat. Honestly — you can’t overstate how much a short-term mind-set dominates Westminster. And from there, how it infects all the institutions which try and fail to run Britain from the centre.”
• The Times view on Keir Starmer’s speech: Blair Necessities
Starmer said there would be no return to “big government” under Labour, declaring instead that a “robust private sector” would ease the path to a “decade of national renewal”. Labour, he said, would not “spend our way out” of recession.
In a sign that he is preparing to go further than before in drawing a line under the promises of the Jeremy Corbyn era, he refused to recommit to abolishing university tuition fees. Abolishing fees was not only part of Corbyn’s 2019 general election manifesto but also featured in the ten pledges that formed the heart of Starmer’s victorious leadership campaign the next year.
However, asked whether he stood by the pledge, Starmer said: “University tuition fees are not working well. They burden young people going forward.
“Obviously we have got a number of propositions in relation to those fees that we will put forward as we go into the election.
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“But I have to be honest about it, the damage that has been done to our economy means that we are going to have to cost everything as we go into that election and we will do that with discipline.”
Starmer did promise to repeal anti-strike laws passed by Rishi Sunak. Before the government formally announced its plans, Starmer said he thought the legislation would “make a bad situation worse”. He said: “I don’t think this legislation is going to work. I am pretty sure they have had an assessment that tells them that it is likely to make a bad situation worse.”
Starmer added that his party would look at what proposals the government brought forward but added: “If it’s further restrictions, then we will repeal it.”
One of Labour’s biggest trade union backers warned Starmer not to embark on “another round of austerity”.
• Quentin Letts: Starmer’s vision of the future pixillates and freezes
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said: “Right now our NHS is being deliberately run down and workers and communities are being lined up for another round of austerity. So I want to hear Labour make it abundantly clear that the choices it will make will not lead to austerity, that we will not be getting some new buzzword that amounts to continued cuts to services and pay.
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“They cannot afford to tinker around the edges. We are a wealthy country and the money is there. We now need a government that is committed to making different choices.”
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said that a Labour government would use spare capacity in the private sector to reduce hospital waiting lists.
Reeves said it was unfair that wealthier patients could bypass waiting lists by going private but that people with less money were left in pain.
She told Today on BBC Radio 4: “When people are waiting in pain and when people with money can short cut the system, that’s not right. It’s not fair that if you don’t have the money and resource, you’re waiting for months and months, sometimes years — to get hospital operations. I won’t allow that. I won’t allow my constituents and people around the country to be in agony waiting for cancer treatment.”
Labour is split over the issue. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a shadow health minister and hospital doctor, repeatedly refused to endorse the idea of using spare capacity in the private sector.
Analysis
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The most visible sign yesterday of the confidence with which Sir Keir Starmer has bounced into the new year was the fact that he left his suit jacket backstage (Henry Zeffman writes).
The Labour leader is commonly seen in a blue suit and red tie, but, speaking at a University College London campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, he was in shirtsleeves and was noticeably more animated behind his lectern than usual. For a man who hopes to be Labour’s first election-winner since Tony Blair, he was more reminiscent of David Cameron.
Confidence is also the best explanation for Starmer’s provocative attempt to appropriate the Vote Leave slogan of “take back control”. He made a spirited argument that the slogan had caught on because people saw in it their “desire for communities to stand on their own feet” and a wish for “control over their lives and their community”.
No doubt, for some Leave voters, that was part of it. For many, though, taking back control was clearly about immigration, which Starmer did not mention in his speech and is not terrain on which he is likely to fight the next election. Clearly, using the phrase was irresistible because it was a reminder to the Conservatives of Labour’s commanding position in the polls: we are stealing your voters, and we’ve adopted your slogans, too.
Of course, this was more than high-level trolling. The meat of Labour’s devolution package was there in the constitutional review conducted by Gordon Brown and published last month. Back then, it came as part of a 155-page, 40-point plan overshadowed by a vow to abolish the House of Lords and muddied by promises to create an assembly of the nations and regions, a council of the nations and regions, a council of England and a council of the United Kingdom — all separate entities.
Yesterday this was deftly repackaged as something that Labour might actually be able to sell in a few sentences and cast as part of a cogent case that Britain is too centralised.
Is that enough? Even the most ardent devolutionist presumably would balk at the idea that localism is a silver bullet solution to the various crises gripping Britain, which Starmer spoke about only in general terms yesterday. He used the word “hope” nine times but also emphasised repeatedly the fiscal constraints. In some ways, this was a realistic speech dressed up in optimistic rhetoric.
The Labour left might see Starmer scaling back his agenda, but allies would say he is setting out the parameters for the government he believes he will lead next year.
Labour ‘would repeal Sunak’s anti-strike laws’
Labour would repeal any anti-strike laws passed by Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer has said (Henry Zeffman writes).
The Times revealed this morning that Sunak was preparing minimum service rules for six sectors including the NHS and the railways.
Speaking after his speech in east London today, Starmer said that the legislation would “make a bad situation worse”.
He said: “I don’t think this legislation is going to work. I am pretty sure they have had an assessment that tells them that it is likely to make a bad situation worse.”
Starmer added that his party would look at what proposals the government brings forward, but added: “If it’s further restrictions, then we will repeal it.”
Government is spinning web of lies, union boss says
Britain’s two biggest unions have joined criticism of Rishi Sunak’s plans for anti-strike legislation before its expected publication later today (Steven Swinford writes).
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said: “Yet again, Rishi Sunak abdicates his responsibility as a leader.
“Instead of silly posturing and game playing, he should step up to the plate, act as a leader and start negotiating to resolve the crises his government has created.
“The game is up — every day people can see through the Tories’ web of lies. They can see that this government is not interested in ensuring that workers and communities get their fair share. This is a government for the rich and powerful.”
Sarah Gorton, Unison’s head of health, said: “The public and health staff would welcome minimum staffing levels in the NHS every day of the week. That way, people wouldn’t be lying in agony on A&E floors or dying in the backs of ambulances.
“But limiting legal staffing levels to strike days and threatening to sack or fine health workers when there are record vacancies in the NHS show proper patient care isn’t what ministers want.”
Labour refuses to commit to tuition fee pledge
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to stand by his pledge to abolish university tuition fees because of the “damage” done to the public finances by the Conservatives (Henry Zeffman writes).
Starmer won the Labour leadership with a pledge to abolish the fees, which was also a manifesto commitment at the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
However, asked if he would reiterate that commitment today, Starmer instead suggested that there were “a number of propositions in relation to those fees” which will come under consideration as he draws up Labour’s election manifesto.
While he said that “university tuition payments are not working well” and “burden young people going forward”, Starmer stressed “the damage that’s been done” to the public finances. “It means that we are going to have to cost everything as we go into that election,” he said. “We will do that with discipline”.
We have no time for sticking plaster politics, Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer has promised that Labour will use this year to unveil a series of “national missions” that will form the basis of the party’s manifesto in the run-up to the next election (Oliver Wright writes).
Attacking what he described as “sticking plaster politics”, Starmer said that Labour would take a “new approach” to government bringing in external expertise and setting “clear, measurable objectives” to the challenges facing the UK.
Laying out one of his so-called missions, Starmer said that Labour would commit to a plan to produce all electricity from green energy by 2030.
Attacking the government’s energy price freeze, he said that it had been “necessary” but “an expensive, last-minute fix, papering over cracks in our energy security that have been on display for years”.
He said that Labour’s plan would free the UK from reliance on “tyrants like Putin forever” and give every community across the UK a “shot at the green jobs of the future”.
“That’s just one example,” he said. “But it shows our recipe for taking on sticking plaster politics. It’s new technology, unleashed by public investment and private enterprise, tackling a huge social challenge, that then provides a new foundation for long-term prosperity. Which — crucially — communities can then build on themselves.”
Almost no trains to Scotland as strikes continue
Cross-border rail services between Scotland and England are severely disrupted due to strike action by members of the Aslef union (Peter Chappell writes).
Train drivers from 15 train companies who are members of the union have walked out today in an ongoing dispute over pay.
Almost no services are running between Scotland and England as the action affects Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express and CrossCountry services. LNER is running a reduced service and tickets are almost completely sold out.
Picket lines are being manned at Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and the Polmadie rail depot in Glasgow.
Mick Whelan, the Aslef general secretary, told the PA news agency it was “inevitable” that further strikes would be held unless there was a breakthrough to the long-running row.
He said: “The situation is getting worse and my members now want to go harder and faster because of the lack of progress.
“We are in a weird world where the government will do anything to keep private companies in the industry. It is inevitable that more strikes will be held and probably escalate.
“The train companies say their hands have been tied by the government. While the government — which does not employ us — says it’s up to the companies to negotiate with us.
“We are always happy to negotiate — we never refuse to sit down at the table and talk — but these companies have offered us nothing, and that is unacceptable.”
Rishi Sunak is poised to announce legislation to enforce “minimum service levels” in six sectors, including the health service, rail, education, fire and border security.
The laws, which will be announced as soon as tomorrow, will require a proportion of union members to continue working to retain a “minimum level” of service. Labour has announced that it is opposed to such government plans.
Analysis: Today marks a new phase for Labour
Today marks the beginning of a third phase to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership (Henry Zeffman writes).
First, he repudiated the legacy of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. Having won over Labour members on a platform of Corbynism without Corbyn, and initially appointed a unifying shadow cabinet, Starmer increasingly defined himself against his predecessor — something the ex-New Labour staff who now surround Starmer see as a prerequisite for victory.
Second, Starmer established credibility among the general public. He and Rachel Reeves, his shadow chancellor, have repeatedly sought to reassure voters that theirs would not be a profligate government. Clearly, they were helped in this task by the economic and political chaos of 2022, the year of three prime ministers.
The combination of clear, ruthless definition against the left and vast poll leads has helped Starmer to cement total political control over his party.
But today begins a third phase in which he needs to seal the deal with the British public. How best to do that is an open question at the top of Labour. Some believe Starmer needs to advance a detailed, bold vision that voters can positively embrace. Others believe that a safety-first approach is adequate when the Conservatives are in such a perilous position.
The pre-briefing of Starmer’s speech suggests that he is prioritising caution and reassurance by promising no return to big government spending. But he will have to explain how he would improve public services if money is not the solution. If the answer is reform, that may in fact presage a bolder programme than many expect.
Labour will restore hope in UK, Reeves says
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, told Times Radio that Labour will restore hope to Britain (Steven Swinford writes).
She said she did not disagree with Rishi Sunak’s five policy pledges, including halving inflation, growing the economy and stopping small boats, but suggested it was not ambitious enough.
“I don’t disagree with it. But is that the summit of our ambition? Basically what Rishi Sunak is saying is we’ve made a total mess of things, we’ve got loads of people waiting for NHS operations, we haven’t got any growth. And we’ve got the worst cost-of-living crisis probably our country’s ever faced. But don’t worry, we’re going to make things a little bit better by the next election. And then he expects people to applaud him and thank him for his work.”
She added: “This year is absolutely crucial for Labour setting out that vision and that difference that Labour will make because for many people, there’s no hope anymore. People just feel, oh, it’s just going to carry on like this, nothing can be done. You know, we’re in decline as a country. That’s not how Keir feels.
“It’s not how I feel. You know, you go around the country, you see so much potential, you see so much innovation and ingenuity, and we need to see that and to make something of it. And we believe we can do that, and that our best days are ahead of us and that we can give the country the hope back that we desperately need.”
Anti-strike laws ‘are unworkable and illegal’
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef union which represents train drivers, said that Sunak’s new anti-strike laws are unworkable and will be subject to legal challenge (Steven Swinford writes).
He said: “We already have the most draconian and authoritarian strike laws and trade union laws in Europe . . . we have seen our counterparts in Europe introduce minimum strike levels that are unworkable.
• When are the train strikes? Full list of dates
“The idea then that in companies that don’t fully employ enough people that people could be forced to come to work when they legitimately and legally should be on strike would be difficult to see how it could be done.”
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow trade secretary, also confirmed that Labour would not back the plans. “It’s a mistake from the government,” he told the BBC’s Newsnight. “What the government needs to be doing is sitting down around the table and doing the hard work of finding solutions. That’s the way forward.”
Starmer: Labour won’t spend way out of recession
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 (Steven Swinford writes).
In a new year speech to be given today, the Labour leader will promise 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. Read the full story here.
Wealthy shouldn’t skip queue for treatment, shadow chancellor says
Labour will use spare capacity in the private sector to bring down waiting lists, the shadow chancellor has said (Steven Swinford writes).
Rachel Reeves said it was unfair that wealthier patients can bypass waiting lists by going private while people with less money are left in pain.
She told Today on BBC Radio 4: “When people are waiting in pain and when people with money can shortcut the system that’s not right. It’s not fair that if you don’t have the money and resource you’re waiting for months and months sometimes years — to get hospital operations. I won’t allow that. I won’t allow my constituents and people around the country to be in agony waiting for cancer treatment.”
Labour is split over the issue. Rosena Allin-Khan, a shadow health minister, repeatedly refused to endorse the idea of using spare capacity in the private sector.
