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Sir Keir Starmer will warn that difficult times lie ahead for the UK as he tries to tackle an array of deep-seated challenges facing his government, but will insist that tough decisions taken now will lead to “national renewal”.
He will say on Tuesday there are “no easy answers” and “no false hope” as he issues a stern message in his first speech as UK prime minister to the annual Labour party conference in Liverpool.
Starmer will describe a country in which there are “decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than goodwill”.
But he will argue that despite tight public finances his government can deliver a brighter future and “open the door to national renewal”, enabling the rebuilding of Britain.
Starmer has enjoyed only a brief honeymoon as the UK’s first Labour prime minister since 2010 and now faces falling poll ratings and infighting within his administration.
Last week saw damaging revelations about donations of clothing worth thousands of pounds made to Starmer, his wife, deputy leader Angela Rayner and chancellor Rachel Reeves during a cost of living crisis.
Starmer will try to reassure Labour delegates in Liverpool — and the wider public — that the government is already taking steps to change the country.
He will cite planning reforms, settling the NHS doctors’ strike, new solar projects and offshore wind farms, an end to one-word Ofsted judgments, a ban on MPs’ second jobs, a new “border security command”, a prohibition on no-fault tenant evictions and legislation to nationalise the railways. “And we’re only just getting started,” he will say.
The Labour leadership is drawing up a Budget and spending review next month, which are likely to include tax rises and continuing constraints on public spending given the country’s high levels of debt.
Starmer will say that ministers will have to rely on innovative reforms rather than turning on the spending taps.
“I have to warn you, working people do want more decisive government. They do want us to rebuild our public services and they do want that to lead to more control in their lives. But their pockets are not deep — not at all,” he will caution. “So we have to be a great reforming government.”
Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves have been walking a tightrope between warning that public finances are eye-wateringly tight while also offering a glimmer of hope for the future.
Ministers have claimed to have found a fiscal “black hole” of about £22bn that needs to be plugged — leading to predictions of tax rises and spending cuts.
“The politics of national renewal are collective. They involve a shared struggle. A project that says, to everyone, this will be tough in the short term, but in the long term, it’s the right thing to do for our country. And we all benefit from that,” Starmer will say.
Labour delegates will on Wednesday vote on a motion calling for the government to reverse its cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance, an issue that has prompted criticism from unions, charities and many of the party’s own MPs.
The prime minister will repeat his five priorities of higher economic growth, a better NHS, stronger borders, more opportunities for children and clean energy from low-carbon sources.
He will also touch on how he dragged Labour towards the political centre ground from its previous, more left-wing incarnation under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“I changed the Labour party to restore it to the service of working people. And that is exactly what we will do for Britain. But I will not do it with easy answers. I will not do it with false hope,” he will say.
