Keir Starmer has vowed to “turn the page for ever” on held-back potential as he put wealth creation and economic growth at the heart of Labour’s manifesto. The Labour leader unveiled his plans for government, targeted at winning over former Tory voters, at an event at the Co-op headquarters in Manchester. He said: “The way we create wealth is broken. It leaves far too many people feeling insecure. Wealth creation is our number one priority. If you take nothing else away from this today, let it be this. We are pro-business and pro-worker. A plan for wealth creation.” Starmer said he saw “potential held back” everywhere he went by lack of housing, the cost of living crisis, low wages and children with rotting teeth. “Britain has lost its balance. It is too hard for people to get on. Opportunity is not spread evenly,” he said at his manifesto launch in Manchester. “The toxic idea that economic growth is something handed out by the few to the many. Today we turn the page on that for ever.
“Redistribution can’t be a one-word plan for our poorest towns and regions.” Starmer stressed that a Labour government would not be able to turn things around immediately, saying: “We don’t have a magic wand.” Asked why there was no new policy in his manifesto, Starmer said: “It’s not about rabbits out of a hat, not about pantomime. I’m running as the candidate to be prime minister, not to run the circus.” The pared-back manifesto focused on the party’s five missions of economic growth, clean energy, halving crime, reforming childcare and education, and building an NHS for the future. The document, which contained no big policy surprises, was a deliberate contrast to the Conservatives’ more policy-heavy offering earlier this week. It reflects Labour’s cautious approach to the election, and a desire not to give the Tories any opportunities to derail its campaign or dent its 20-point poll lead. Turning on the Tories, Starmer said it did not matter how many policies they “throw at the wall hoping some of them will stick”, Rishi Sunak’s plans would not address the UK’s problems. In a dig at Nigel Farage, who is standing for Reform UK in Essex, he said: “If you want politics as pantomime, I hear Clacton is nice.”
Early in his speech, the Labour leader was heckled by a protester who accused him of bringing in the “same old Tory policies” and letting young people down. “We may have been a party of protest five years ago – we want to be a party of power,” Starmer responded. The manifesto was also intended to be business-friendly, targeted at former Conservative voters and aimed at restoring the party’s economic credibility. It promised not to raise corporation tax and to launch an industrial strategy with clean energy at its centre and enact rapid planning reforms to incentivise developers to build new infrastructure.
It also stressed that Labour would set the highest standards in public life, with a new ethics and integrity commission. The party would immediately legislate to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit in the second chamber and bring in a mandatory retirement age of 80. It would also bring in a new requirement for peers to participate and make it easier to remove disgraced peers. Starmer had previously said he wanted to abolish the “indefensible” House of Lords and replace it with a second chamber. The manifesto said he was still committed to an alternative second chamber in the future without giving a timescale.