Keir Starmer applauded for savage Tory put-down – ‘they’re in no place’
Labour leader Keir Starmer was applauded as he claimed the Tories are in “no position” to lecture on tax rises.
Mr Starmer accused the Government of doing “huge damage” to the economy as he distanced himselves from previous Labour leaders. Facing a grilling on his tax plans by Sky News’ Beth Rigby, he said: “The first thing I’ll say is the Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises.”
And he told voters: “It’s up to you, I think working people shouldn’t pay more tax and we will not raise their tax.” He went on: “There’s a reason that tax has gone up in recent years and that’s because the economy is flatlining.”
Asked if he’d be prepared to pay more tax he replied: “Yes of course.” He reiterated that Labour won’t put up income tax, National Insurance or VAT if he becomes Prime Minister. He said: “Our manifesto comes out tomorrow. It’s a very forward looking manifesto, but there’s nothing in our manifesto that requires us to raise tax.”
Distancing himself from previous Labour leaders, Mr Starmer said: “I want to do things differently. I want to grow our economy.
“I accept that previous Labour leaders have sort of pulled the tax lever every single time and driven up spending. I want to grow our economy. The manifesto tomorrow will be a manifesto for wealth creation. You may not hear a Labour leader say that very often, but for me that is the most important thing.
“I’m not going to do what other Labour leaders have done.” The Labour leader’s comments came as he faced a grilling on his support for his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn as he was quizzed on Sky News’s Battle for No10.
Pressed on his previous support for the former Labour leader, Mr Starmer said: “I was certain that we would lose the 2019 election. I did campaign for Labour, of course I did, I will openly say I campaigned for Labour, I wanted good colleagues to be returned into the Labour Party.”
He was also asked if there was a trust issue with voters given his U-turns on pledges from the 2020 Labour leadership race.
Mr Starmer told the Sky News leaders’ event in Grimsby: “No because what I would say is this – I decided it must be country first so every decision after that I judged previous decisions, previous positions and I said ‘Is this truly country first, party second’; if the answer to that was ‘no’ then I changed the position and dragged my party back to the service of working people.”
But he also received applause from the studio audience as he hit back at Rishi Sunak’s tax attacks, saying: “The Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises”. And he claimed he had “dragged” Labour back to the service of working people.
The Labour leader’s appearance comes just three weeks before the country heads to the polls and as he prepares to launch his party’s election manifesto on Thursday in Manchester.
Speaking to Sky News, he said the blueprint for government would set out Labour’s plans for “growth creation”.
