Category Archives: keir starmer

Keir Starmer Defeats Left-Wing Critics As Labour Rejects ‘Unfunded’ Spending Proposals

Posted on by
Reply

Keir Starmer has defeated his left-wing critics to win backing for his “serious and credible” general election plans.

In a major victory for the Labour leader, the party’s National Policy Forum rejected “unfunded” proposals by the Unite trade union and pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group Momentum.

A party spokesperson said: “Labour’s democratic policy-making body has endorsed Keir Starmer’s programme, his five missions for government, and the fiscal rules that he and Rachel Reeves have set out.

“This is a serious, credible and ambitious policy programme that lays the groundwork for an election-winning manifesto and a mission-driven Labour government that will build a better Britain.

“There are no unfunded spending commitments in the document.

“This weekend is another proof point that shows that Keir Starmer has changed the Labour Party and is ready to change the country in government built on the rock of economic responsibility and strong fiscal rules.”

The GMB union said the plans “would make a real difference for workers and industries they work in”.

But Unite refused to give the policy document their backing, claiming it “clearly crossed the union’s red lines including around workers’ rights”.

“As the general election draws nearer, Keir Starmer has to prove Labour will deliver for workers and we need clear policies on this,” the union said.

Momentum said it was “a missed opportunity for Labour to lay out real solutions to the Tories’ broken Britain”.

They said: “Unions and members proposed urgent, popular policies like a £15 minimum wage, workers’ rights and free school meals. But Starmer’s fiscal conservatism put paid to hope.

“Worse, the leadership’s steadfast refusal to commit to scrap heinous Tory policies like the two-child cap and anti-protest laws means that an undemocratic and unequal status quo risks being left in place under a Labour government. Britain deserves better.”

Share Button

Exclusive: Defeated Labour Candidate Launches Bitter Attack On Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ Expansion

Posted on by
Reply

Labour’s defeated candidate in the Uxbridge by-election has launched a vicious attack on Sadiq Khan’s controversial expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

Danny Beales said the policy had “cut us off at the knees” and handed the seat to the Tories.

In a surprise appearance at Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF) in Nottingham this morning, he declared: “ULEZ is bad policy. It must be rethought.”

His comments are a further sign of the bitter Labour civil war that has erupted since Conservative candidate Steve Tuckwell defied the odds to win Uxbridge and South Ruislip by just 495 votes.

The result was a major boost for Rishi Sunak on the same night the Tories suffered seismic losses to the Lib Dems in Somerton and Frome and to Labour in Selby and Ainsty.

Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has insisted he will not scrap the ULEZ expansion, which takes place next month and will see drivers of cars that don’t meet strict environmental standards charged £12.50 a day.

But Beales told the NPF: “Our relentless focus on the cost of living hammering voters across the country should have been enough to win my home seat. But it wasn’t.

“Because – let me be frank – a single policy cut us off at the knees. This isn’t complicated. You cannot tell working people you are laser-focused on the cost of living, on the difficulties facing them, on making life easier and then also penalise them, simply for driving their car to work.

“ULEZ is bad policy. It must be rethought.”

He added: “There were people in Uxbridge desperate for change, sick of the Tories, complimentary about our changed party, about our leadership, about our plans.

“But a single policy – one that felt like a grotesque unfairness to many who might otherwise have voted for us – acted as a dead-weight, one that we were forced to trudge around with on our backs, all day, every day, from one door to another.”

Beales said Labour must use the NPF gathering to learn the lessons of the Uxbridge defeat and focus its policies on helping ordinary people currently struggling with the cost of living.

He said: “We can continue to drive our party back into the arms of working people, as we are doing under Keir’s leadership, by focusing entirely on their priorities, their needs and their desires.

“Or we can spend this weekend focused on the hobby horses, the ideological obsessions and – ultimately – the damaging policies that cost us dear in Uxbridge.”

Keir Starmer yesterday called on Khan to “reflect” on the part ULEZ played in Labour’s by-election defeat.

But the mayor vowed to press on with the controversial policy, saying clean air is a “human right, not a privilege”.

Share Button

Labour Blame Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ Scheme For Failing To Win Boris Johnson’s Old Seat

Posted on by
Reply

The Labour mayor of London’s decision to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover the whole of the capital dominated the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.

Speaking shortly after the result was announced, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed suggested Khan should consider ditching the ULEZ expansion – which is due to kick in next month – in light of the result.

He told the PA news agency: “I think the winning Conservative candidate just said it, didn’t he? He said that if it wasn’t for ULEZ, he believes Labour would have won this by-election.

“Clearly, it did resonate with a lot of people. They didn’t like the fact that ULEZ was going to cost people more to drive around at a time when there’s a cost-of-living crisis going on. That’s exactly what [Labour candidate] Danny Beales was saying all the way through the campaign.

“But I think when the voters speak, any party that seeks to govern has to listen. So that’s what Labour will be doing after this.”

A Labour source told HuffPost UK: “If Uxbridge helps us junk more crap then good.”

Share Button

Major Boost For Rishi Sunak As Tories See Off Labour Challenge In Uxbridge

Posted on by
Reply

The Conservatives have narrowly beaten Labour to retain Boris Johnson’s former seat following a bitter by-election campaign.

In a major blow for Keir Starmer, Steve Tuckwell beat Tory candidate Danny Beales by just 495 votes to become the new MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

The by-election was called following Johnson’s dramatic resignation last month after he was found guilty by the privileges committee of repeatedly lying to parliament over partygate.

The former prime minister retained the seat with a majority of 7,210 at the 2019 election.

Tuckwell received 13,965 votes to Beales’s 13,470 to claim the constituency for the Tories once again.

The Conservatives effectively turned the by-election into a referendum on Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to expand London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across the whole of the city from next month.

The result of a huge boost for Rishi Sunak, who had been braced for the Tories to lose the seat, given the unpopularity of the government and Labour’s commanding lead in the national polls.

A Labour spokesperson said: “This was always going to be a difficult battle in a seat that has never had a Labour MP and we didn’t even win in 1997. We know that the Conservatives crashing the economy has hit working people hard, so it’s unsurprising that the ULEZ expansion was a concern for voters here in a by-election.”

Elsewhere, Labour have won the Selby and Ainsty by-election after toppling one of the safest Tory seats in the country.

And in the third by-election of the night, the Lib Dems pulled off a stunning victory in a previously safe Tory seat of Somerton and Frome.

Despite the Conservatives avoiding a three-nil defeat, the swing in the vote went away from the Tories in every seat.

Share Button

Keir Starmer Says Labour Will Keep The Tory Two-Child Benefits Cap

Posted on by
Reply

Keir Starmer has said he would keep the Conservative government’s controversial two-child cap on benefits if Labour win the election.

The announcement is likely to anger many within his own party as the policy has been condemned for “pushing families into deep poverty”.

Under the cap, parents are not able to claim child tax credit or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.

It was designed to try and force parents of larger families to fin new jobs or work more hours.

The policy was described just last month by Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth as “heinous”.

In February 2020, Starmer said in a tweet he wanted to “scrap” it in order to “tackle the vast social injustice in our country”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme this morning, the Labour leader was asked if the cap would be removed.

But Starmer said: “We are not changing that policy.”

Later in the interview he said that “of course” it was worth him angering people on the left of Labour if it was necessary to win the election.

“The Labour Party was created to give working people not just representation in parliament but a government in parliament that can govern on their behalf and change the lives of millions of people for the better,” he said.

“I have been changing the Labour Party to put us in a position where we are now credible contenders for the next election.”

The Child Poverty Action Group (Cpag) has warned the cap is “pushing families into deep poverty”.

According to the charity, it affects 1.5 million children including 1.1 million children growing up in poverty, with their families are missing out on up to £3,235 a year.

“The impact of growing up in poverty can be lifelong,” it warned. “Abolishing the two-child limit is the most cost-effective way of reducing child poverty.

Cpag said scrapping it – at a cost of £1.3bn – would lift 250,000 children out of poverty, and a further 850,000 children would be in less deep poverty.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror on June 3, Ashworth said the cap was “absolutely keeping children in poverty”.

“At this stage we are not outlining our full universal credit reform policy but we are certainly determined to tackle child poverty,” he said.

“We are very, very aware that this is one of the single most heinous elements of the system which is pushing children and families into poverty today.”

During a debate in parliament last week, Labour MP Kim Johnson joined with many Labour MPs to call for Starmer to commit to ditching the cap.

“We need to end this horrendous two-child policy and ensure all children have the opportunity to thrive and grow and not live in poverty,” she said.

“The cap has done immeasurable damage to so many families in this country, impacting poverty and driving more families into poverty.”

Humza Yousaf, the Scottish first minister, said: “Poverty experts say scrapping the two-child limit would lift up to 15,000 children in Scotland out of poverty.

“Why on earth is Starmer committed to keeping this cruel Tory policy? Only the SNP offer real change and the chance to escape Westminster control with independence.”

Share Button

Tory Party Chair Leaves Twitter Bewildered With His Attempt To Mock Keir Starmer

Posted on by
Reply

Greg Hands left people scratching their heads when he posted a video on Twitter trying to show up Keir Starmer – and failed, miserably.

The Conservative Party chair shared a 14-second video on Twitter on Thursday lunchtime showing the Labour Party leader arriving to campaign in the Selby and Ainsty by-election.

It comes after the Tory MP Nigel Adams resigned earlier this month. As a long-standing ally of Boris Johnson, he was expected to received a peerage in the ex-PM’s resignation honours but didn’t make the final cut.

When Starmer, deputy leader Angela Rayner and their team arrived at Selby train station, Conservative campaigners appeared to have arranged an ambush for them.

″Welcome to Selby, Sir Keir,” the Tories cheered, laughing and clapping as they spotted him.

But, the Labour leader looked far from taken aback. He just walked over to greet them, and the two groups seem to have an amicable exchange.

When Hands shared the footage on Twitter, though, he said: “North London Leftie lawyer and top flip-flopper Sir Keir is one of the Conservatives’ trump cards in the Selby By-Election!”

Understandably, Twitter was pretty confused over the point of the tweet, noting there didn’t seem to be any “gotcha” in the video (or the caption) at all…

Others reminded Hands that he, too, is a London MP…

And plenty said it just showed Starmer in an even better light.

Other people just joked that this was a sign the seat was going to be passed over to Labour.

Share Button

‘The NHS Trumps Woke’: Keir Starmer Slams Tories Over Culture Wars

Posted on by
Reply

Keir Starmer has declared that “the NHS trumps woke” as he slammed the Tories for focusing on culture wars rather than public services.

The Labour leader will on Tuesday address his shadow cabinet for the first time since last week’s local elections, in which they gained more than 500 councillors and take control of 22 more local authorities.

At the same time, the Tories lost more than 1,000 seats and 48 councils on a disastrous night for Rishi Sunak.

However, polling experts said that if the results were replicated across the country at a general election, Labour would fall short of winning an overall majority.

Starmer will tell his frontbench colleagues that while the party has “started to earn back voters’ trust” after Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, it still has more to do to convince the public that it deserves to be in government.

He will say: “The local elections showed that the country was desperate for change.

“The fact that Labour won in all parts of the country was a sign of the strides we have made. People who turned away from us during the Corbyn years and the Brexit years are coming back.

“But there is understandably a lot of scepticism about politics out there and now we need to go from reassurance to hope. We need to show that we will be a big reforming government bringing hope of a better life for working people.”

Starmer believes the Tories made a strategic blunder in believing that so-called “woke” issues like the trans debate were more important to voters than the cost of living crisis and the state of the NHS.

He will say: “Labour’s plan to rebuild the NHS will be at the heart of our offer to the British people. The Tories are doing too little, too late to repair the damage they have done to the NHS.

“The NHS trumps ‘woke’ every day of the week.”

His comments echo the views of many Tories, who have criticised the “non-existent” campaign by the party’s HQ.

One told HuffPost UK: “Nobody cares about all of the culture war stuff – what they really want is the potholes to be fixed.”

One local Conservative association chair also wrote to colleagues saying the local election results were “not a reflection on us, it was part of the national picture”.

Share Button

Sue Gray Refused To Co-Operate With Inquiry Into Job With Labour, Government Says

Posted on by
Reply

An inquiry into Sue Gray’s proposed move to the Labour Party has been put on hold after the partygate investigator refused to take part in the probe, a government minister has said.

Her appointment as the Labour leader’s chief-of-staff proved hugely controversial among Tory MPs given that she led the official government probe into Downing Street rule-breaking during lockdown.

Some reports suggested she could have breached the civil service code with her job move.

According to an update on a review into the appointment, Gray declined to make representations into the inquiry looking into her discussions with Labour about the senior party role, Oliver Dowden has said.

In a written statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday, cabinet office secretary Oliver Dowden said his department has made a “confidential assessment” to the anti-corruption watchdog and will not provide further information on Gray’s departure “whilst we consider next steps”.

As well as a cabinet office probe, the anti-corruption watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), is reviewing the terms of Gray’s departure.

It can set recommendations for when senior people leave government, including calling for a cooling-off period to avoid any conflict of interest.

Who Is Sue Gray?

The senior civil servant was thrust into the limelight when she took over the probe into coronavirus rule-breaking at No 10 in 2021.

She stepped in to lead the investigation after cabinet secretary Simon Case – her boss – recused himself following allegations that his own office held a Christmas event amid a lockdown.

An initial dossier, published in January 2022, included several strong criticisms of Downing Street’s drinking culture, but was short on details about the parties as it was hampered by an investigation launched by the Metropolitan Police.

But her full report in May 2022 proved to be a bombshell. It detailed events at which officials drank so much they were sick, sang karaoke, became involved in altercations and abused security and cleaning staff at a time when millions of people across the country were unable to see friends and family.

She criticised “failures of leadership and judgment” in No 10 and said “the senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility”.

Six weeks later, Johnson was forced out of office by his own cabinet and Conservative MPs.

While Gray, in her mid-60s, is said to shun the media spotlight, some politicians have gone so far as to suggest the former publican is the “real leader” of the UK.

In her former role as director-general of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office from 2012 to 2018, she is said to have overseen cabinet reshuffles, served as a guiding hand in compiling honours lists, and even signed off political memoirs before their publication.

In the statement, Dowden said Gray was “given the opportunity to make representations as part of this process but chose not to do so”.

He added that “in order to maintain confidentiality towards an individual former employee, I am unable at this stage to provide further information relating to the departure of Ms Gray whilst we consider next steps”.

Dowden also highlighted sections of the civil service code relating to the political activity of civil servants, adding: “The impartiality and perceived impartiality of the Civil Service is constitutionally vital to the conduct of government.”

Earlier in the day Starmer insisted he had no discussions with Gray while she was investigating Boris Johnson and he was “confident” she had not broken any rules.

“Firstly I had no discussions with her while she was investigating Boris Johnson whatsoever, I don’t think anyone is suggesting that’s the case,” the Labour leader told BBC Breakfast ahead of an expected update later from the Cabinet Office on the circumstances of her departure.

He went on: “I’m confident she hasn’t broken any of the rules.”

Starmer claimed the government was trying to resurrect a story about Gray, because they do not want to talk about the cost of living crisis.

Share Button

Diane Abbott Questions Labour Attacking ‘Indian-Heritage PM’ In Controversial Ads

Posted on by
Reply

Diane Abbott has attacked Labour’s controversial adverts attacking Rishi Sunak in the latest sign of internal party disquiet.

The initial ad, which accused the prime minister of not wanting child sex abusers to go to prison, caused unease among the shadow cabinet with shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell declining to endorse it.

On Monday, Abbott, who was shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, responded to a tweet from Shabana Mahmood, the party’s national campaign coordinator who defended the aggressive ads.

Mahmood wrote: “People don’t want more excuses from politicians – they want answers. Labour is the party of law and order.”

In response, Abbott said: “But do people want a party that posts pictures of an Indian-heritage PM claiming he does not want sex offenders put in prison?”

She said in an earlier tweet: “Starmer stands by his ad. Does he also stand by suggesting Indian-heritage PM won’t put sex abusers in prison, when right wing says most sex abusers are from Indian sub-continent?”

Abbott has recently criticised home secretary Suella Braverman for rhetoric claiming most child sex abusers are Pakistani.

Others on the Labour left have expressed their unease with the tactics. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour is “better than this” and Corbyn – who has been suspended from the parliamentary party – has hit out at “dog-whistle politics”.

Starmer has dismissed criticism of the advert, saying he made “absolutely zero apologies” for the campaign regardless of how “squeamish” it made people feel.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the Labour leader said he refused “to just stand by or avoid calling this what it is”.

Senior party figures including former home secretary Lord David Blunkett called for the ad to be withdrawn, arguing that Labour is better than the “gutter” politics.

Further adverts scheduled to drop ahead of the May local elections are to include one suggesting Sunak thinks it is right that the public is paying for the “Conservatives crashing the economy” through higher housing costs.

<img class="img-sized__img landscape" loading="lazy" alt="Labour’s two attack adverts following the same format.” width=”720″ height=”478″ src=”https://www.wellnessmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/diane-abbott-questions-labour-attacking-indian-heritage-pm-in-controversial-ads-2.jpg”>
Labour’s two attack adverts following the same format.

Labour Party

The row centres on a tweet in which Labour highlighted analysis of official data and said that under the Tories “4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under-16 served no prison time”.

Alongside a photo of the prime minister, it read: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”

Judges and magistrates, rather than the prime minister of the day, are responsible for handing out sentences.

The figures Labour highlighted cover the period since 2010, five years before Sunak entered parliament. He did not become prime minister until October last year.

Share Button

Pressure Builds On Keir Starmer As Crunch Local Elections Loom

Posted on by
Reply

Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s elections co-ordinator, had a simple message for the shadow cabinet last Tuesday.

“The polls have tightened and so discipline is key,” she told them in her latest presentation ahead of the local elections on May 4.

With Rishi Sunak having enjoyed the best month of his premiership following the passing of his Brexit deal, a disaster-free Budget and the introduction of his plan to stop small boats crossing the Channel, the pressure is suddenly on Keir Starmer to respond.

Mahmood told her frontbench colleagues that Labour will focus relentlessly on three areas in the run-up to polling day – the cost of living, crime and the NHS.

“We must have confidence to stick to the issues we want to talk about, confidence that they are the issues the voters want to hear about and resist being led away by the Tory pied piper,” she said.

Two days later, Starmer was in Swindon to formally launch Labour’s election campaign.

The choice of location was significant. Although Labour has never controlled the local council, its two parliamentary seats are key targets for next year’s general election.

It is further evidence that May 4 is being seen by party bosses as a dry run for 2024.

“Two months ago, those around Keir were saying that Swindon will be the barometer,” one senior Labour insider told HuffPost UK. “I think we’re looking good there, but they’re not leaving anything to chance.”

In all, 8,141 seats and 230 councils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are up for grabs next month.

The Tories currently hold 3,290 of them, with Labour on 2,062 and the Lib Dems on 1,205. Independents and others make up the remaining 1,600 seats.

One source said: “People probably have their expectations in the wrong places. They expect this to be a complete bloodbath for the Tories, with Labour hoovering up hundreds of seats.

“But the key thing to look out for is where Labour is winning and what our vote share is compared to the 2019 general election.”

No Labour supporter will need reminding of what happened in 2019, when Jeremy Corbyn led the party to its worst defeat since 1935.

With Corbyn now blocked from standing as a Labour candidate next year, Starmer wants to convince voters that it will be a very different party next time round.

Keir Starmer takes a selfie with shadow cabinet members and Labour members at the party's local election launch in Swindon.
Keir Starmer takes a selfie with shadow cabinet members and Labour members at the party’s local election launch in Swindon.

Stefan Rousseau via PA Wire/PA Images

One shadow cabinet member pointed out that the last time these council seats were contested four years ago, the Tories did so badly that it cost Theresa May her job.

“A lot of Tories went independent in 2019 and the chances are they will switch back this time,” he said.

“The narrative for us has to be what Labour does nationally and how we perform in they key seats we need to win next year. We’re concentrating our resources there.

“If we wake up on May 5 and the BBC story is ‘Tories lose 100 seats and Labour win 200 so the general election is too close to call’ we’ll have done a bad job of managing people’s expectations.”

Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s campaign director, reinforced that message in his own address to the shadow cabinet.

“He said that the Tories and us are going to be campaigning in different places,” a source told HuffPost UK. “So just because the response we get on the door will feel good, the Tories will be relentlessly working the areas they lost in 2019 and will win some of them back.”

Nevertheless, the mood among Tory MPs remains gloomy. One minister, having seen the returns from Conservative canvassers around the country, recently told a Labour colleague: “You’ll have my job next year – we are fucked.”

Starmer hopes that the local elections are indeed a stepping stone on his road to 10 Downing Street.

Share Button