Keir Starmer hit by local weather protest as he launches Labour manifesto
- Follow all the turns of the election rollercoaster in the MailOnline live blog here
Keir Starmer‘s manifesto launch was disrupted by a protester today – as he tried to quell fears of a Labour tax raid.
A woman interrupted Sir Keir as he began laying out the plans, forcing him to stop speaking as she shouted about climate issues. As she was escorted out, he said: ‘We gave up on being a party of protest five years ago. We want to be a party of power.’
Sir Keir is looking to twist the knife on the Tories as he unveils the key document in Manchester, including an NHS overhaul. ‘nanny state’ moves on junk food, a Net Zero drive and VAT on private school fees.
With polls putting the party on track for a landslide, the content is being billed as ‘safety first’. But details show that Labour is proposing to raise £7billion in extra revenue, from policies such as ending ‘Non Dom’ status and increasing stamp duty for foreign buyers.
The Tories immediately claimed that Labour’s own plans implied the tax burden rising to 37.4 per cent of GDP – the highest in history.
Sir Keir said he had dragged his party away from the ‘dead end of gesture politics’ under Jeremy Corbyn and it was now ‘time to change Britain’.
He said that the UK was ‘still a great nation’, but it had lacked a ‘government that can match the ambition working people have’.
Sir Keir sought to make a virtue of his boring image, as he swiped at Nigel Farage‘s brand of politics. ‘If you want politics as pantomime, I hear Clacton is nice this time of year.’
Sir Keir was introduced by his deputy Angela Rayner and Iceland’s CEO Richard Walker – who until recently was trying to stand to become a Tory MP.
The Labour leader is bidding to capitalise after he was seen as coming out on top in a crucial TV showdown with Rishi Sunak last night.
In contrast to the Tory offering on Tuesday – which had no photos at all – it features 34 images of the leader.
Keir Starmer is trying to quell fears of a Labour tax raid today as he launches the election manifesto
A woman interrupted Sir Keir as he began laying out the plans, forcing him to stop speaking as she shouted about climate issues
Sir Keir was introduced by his deputy Angela Rayner – with whom he has had a tense relationship at times
Sir Keir posed for pictures with copies of the party’s election manifesto this morning
The document includes a pledge to cap corporation tax at its current rate of 25 per cent to give businesses long-term certainty.
However, it does not rule out council tax revaluation or raids on capital gains tax – something the Tories have seized on.
Sir Keir said: ‘Wealth creation is our number one priority. Growth is our core business – the end and the means of national renewal.’The mandate we seek at this election is for economic growth. This changed Labour Party has a plan for growth. We are pro-business and pro-worker, the party of wealth creation.’
Labour has already ruled out raising rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.
The increases it is openly committed to are charging VAT on private school fees, abolishing the non-dom tax status and closing ‘loopholes’ in the windfall tax on oil and gas firms.
The party’s first steps also include a pledge to cut NHS waiting lists with 40,000 new appointments a week, setting up a Border Security Command, establishing GB Energy, cracking down on antisocial behaviour and hiring 6,500 teachers.
The manifesto commits to reforming planning rules and building 1.5million new homes.
There are measures to overhaul workers’ rights and a pledge to devolve decision-making away from Westminster.
On foreign policy, Labour has said it will back Ukraine against Russia and support recognising a Palestinian state as part of a Middle East peace process.
The party has also promised that it will aim to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence, without saying when that would happen.
In his foreword to the document, Sir Keir said: ‘We must turn the page decisively on the Conservative ideas that have caused the chaos.
‘The world has become increasingly volatile, with a major war in Europe for the first time in a generation and ever greater threats to the living standards of working people.
‘This ‘age of insecurity’ requires the government to step up, not stand aside.’
Sir Keir said Labour’s task ‘will not be easy’.
‘Not only because there is no quick fix to the mess the Conservatives have made. But also, because their failures have sapped our collective confidence that Britain can still achieve great things.’
Sir Keir rejected that defeatism, saying: ‘We are still a great nation. We can still achieve great things. What we lack as a government that can match the ambition working people have for their family and community, with a credible long-term plan.’
The Labour leader, who took over from Jeremy Corbyn following the 2019 electoral mauling the party suffered, said: ‘The defining purpose of my Labour leadership has been to drag my party away from the dead end of gesture politics and return it once more to the service of working people.
‘I have changed my party. Now I want the chance to bring that change to the country.’
In his launch speech, Sir Keir said Labour had produced a ‘manifesto for wealth creation, a plan to change Britain’, adding: ‘Today we can lay a new foundation of stability and on that foundation we can start to rebuild Britain.’
Sir Keir was roasted during the Sky News programme in Grimsby last night over claims he will hike taxes, and whether he can be ‘trusted’ after previously backing Jeremy Corbyn. He was also berated for his ‘robotic’ manner.
However, YouGov research found viewers through he outperformed the PM by 64 per cent to 36 per cent – after Mr Sunak suffered an even more brutal 45-minute mauling.
The premier was repeatedly battered over leaving D-Day commemorations early, and endured mocking laughter as he tried to defend the Tories‘ record on issues such as immigration.
