It’s 1997 in Essex today as Keir Starmer unveils six election pledges. In a nod to Tony Blair’s election pledge card from that year, the Labour leader has announced key commitments that he wants to ‘put up in lights’ as his party’s promise to the electorate should they (as expected) win the general election later this year. The commitments are designed to be retail friendly measures that would improve the day-to-day lives of voters.
Starmer was keen to talk about Liz Truss
Starmer’s promises range from stabilising the economy to cracking down on antisocial behaviour and recruiting 6,500 new teachers. He has also vowed to cut NHS waiting times, set up Great British Energy and launch a new border security command. That sixth pledge shows how Starmer is increasingly confident in fighting the Tories on the issue of small boats. Taken together, the pledges were picked with the aim of appealing to swing voters in the key battlegrounds need to win a majority. Or as Starmer put it in his speech: ‘One card, six steps – in your hand a plan to change the country – this is a message we can take to every doorstep across the country’.
Notably, these pledges are less of a word salad that Starmer’s original five missions. While they correspond to Starmer’s missions on the economy and green energy, they are clearly more retail focussed. They are also less ambitious than the five missions. Rather than going for the fastest growth in the G7, Starmer is now simply going for growth. However, the Labour leader argues this is just the first step and the missions remain.
Speaking at the event today in Purfleet with his whole shadow cabinet present, Starmer began his ‘first steps’ launch by talking on one of his favourite themes: a new Labour party: ‘We have changed the Labour party to put it back in the service of working people and what we seek, humbly, is the opportunity to change our country and put it back in the service of working people’.
Starmer was also keen to talk about Liz Truss. He told the story of a couple he had met who were about to buy a larger house and have a second child. However, then the mini-budget happened and the mortgage rates soared so they had to cancel their plans – including expanding their family. Starmer said a Labour government would never do this to working people. He also raised the case of a woman who had stopped him to show her medical issue involving her eye – as her surgery to fix it keeps being delayed.
These stories helped to make Starmer’s stump speech sound more personal, spirited and, at times, even angry. This anger came across when Starmer criticised the Prime Minister for going on about the need for more maths in schools when, as the Labour leader argued, there are not enough maths teachers as it is.
So what will the impact of this speech be? Rishi Sunak began the week with his own election-style speech in which he tried to move the focus to security, arguing that the UK would be less safe under a Labour government. In contrast, Starmer wants to frame the choice at the election as time for a change – one which Labour can be trusted with as they now reflect the country and the concerns of voters. While there is no election date in sight, the battle lines are already being drawn.
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