Labor won't 'turn on the spending taps', Starmer promises

Sir Keir Starmer will try to fend off Conservative attacks that Labor will be reckless with the public finances. Photo: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA

Sir Keir Starmer will pledge not to “turn on the spending taps” on Monday, sending a clear signal that he will not reverse planned Tory spending cuts.

The Labor leader will insist he is ready for this. to crack down on left-wing MPs in his party after he angered them by praising Margaret Thatcher.

In his speech on the economy, Sir Keir will attack the Conservatives with «high taxes» and promise to be «ruthless when it comes to spending every pound wisely.”

He will try to fend off Tory attacks on the Labor Party idea. It would be reckless with public finances to promise to make higher growth an «obsession.»

The Labor Party leader will accuse Rishi Sunak of presiding over a period “worse than the 1970s” and creating “huge restrictions” on how much money is available.

“Anyone expecting new Labor government will quickly open the spending taps, will be disappointed,” he will say. “Growth is stagnant and public services are on their knees.

“Taxes are higher than ever since the war, which was not the case in 2010. Never before had a British government required its people to pay so much for so little. Inflation, debt, taxes — we face huge restrictions.»

Sir Keir will say that increasing economic growth “must be an obsession for the Labor Party if we are to turn the economy around” and increase public spending.

He will add: “At the same time we will be ruthless when it comes to spending every pound wisely. In difficult times like these, this is the last thing people expect.”

The Labor leader's rhetoric will raise expectations that he is preparing to match Tory plans to rein in public spending.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has outlined proposals to increase department budgets by an average of one per cent a year from 2025. two percent after inflation.

The Labor Party, like the Conservatives, has promised to reduce the level of national debt and has put balancing the balance sheet at the center of its election platform.

Consistent with government spending plans, as Gordon Brown did in 1997, will prevent Conservative attacks that Sir Keir intends to raise taxes. But it also risks further angering left-wing MPs who have been alienated by his approach to the economy and stance on Gaza.

He sparked fresh backlash on Sunday when he wrote in The Telegraph to praise Baroness Thatcher, praising her for making «significant changes» and «unleashing our natural enterprise».

He later insisted that she was one of Britain's most influential leaders and did not claim to support her policies.

Asked about the BBC's remarks, he said mentioning her legacy «does not mean I agree with what she did» while in power.

Left-wing figures have accused Lord Mandelson, a former Blair cabinet minister who informally advised him, of interference.

One Labor MP said: «Really? does he really think Thatcher's followers will be tricked into voting for him? In the meantime, he endangers long-time Labor voters. It is a destructive part of the Mandelsonian fantasy.”

Kim Johnson, MP for Liverpool Riverside, said Baroness Thatcher was “not someone any Labor Party supporter should look up to.”