Keir Starmer has said he will lead from the centre ground if elected prime minister and declared wealth creation to be his “number one mission”. In an interview with the Times, Starmer said the centre ground was “where most people are at”. “As a nation, broadly speaking we’re a pretty reasonable, tolerant bunch but we are in the centre ground of politics. People don’t like the extremes of the right or the left. They are reasonably tolerant. They want themselves, their families and the country to improve and make progress,” he said. Starmer said the ‘“only way our country can go forward” was if people and businesses make money. “I think it’s a good thing that people are aspirational. When I say our number one mission is economic growth, you could say our number one mission is wealth creation. Now that’s an odd thing for the Labour party to say. It might have been in the past.” Asked whether he was relaxed about people making money, he said: “Very. I’m not just relaxed, I’m relaxed as well as being doggedly determined.”
His centrist pitch comes as the party conducts what some see as a purge of Labour’s left wing. Earlier this week, the sitting MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Faiza Shaheen, who had been selected by her local party to run as the Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, were deselected by the party’s national executive committee, where Starmer allies have majority control, and replaced by figures on the right of the party. On Tuesday, the Times reported that Diane Abbott would be barred from standing as the Labour candidate for her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat. The news prompted a backlash from many quarters of the party and Abbott vowed to be the MP “as long as it is possible”. After Angela Rayner threw her support behind Abbott, Starmer said on Friday that she was “free to stand” as the Labour candidate in her seat. Starmer told the Times that the party was not “tribal” under his leadership. He said: “I want it to be wide enough to accommodate people who wouldn’t identify as Labour. They’d vote Labour this time. “Those people are reasonable, tolerant and they do want their families to get on, their communities to get on, their countries to get on. This may reflect the fact that I came into politics late. I’ve never been in a tribe. It has not dominated my life for decades of my career.” The interview comes before the announcement of Labour’s Back to Work plan, which aims to get 2 million more people into work. The initiative would include a combined national jobs and careers service, devolved funding and leadership from mayors to “get more people with health conditions and disabilities into work” and opportunities for 18- to 21-year-olds to access training and apprenticeships. In a statement, Starmer said: “With Labour, those who can work, will work. We want more people into work, to get on at work and to get the benefits bill down. Under the Tories, there are too many people who are not in work, who should be. “Too many people stuck in jobs with no promise of earning a better income. Young people who are yet to experience work, at risk of falling off the radar. We can’t go on like this. It’s time for change.”