Keir Starmer has announced five “national missions” for his proposed Labour government in a major speech in Manchester on the 23rd of February. These will form the basis for his proposed “decade of national renewal”, with Starmer arguing that the divided nature of the country under Conservative rule will need more than one parliamentary term to fix.
Calling the current government “divided, weak and clapped out”, Starmer stated that he plans to stay in office for at least 10 years, bringing much needed stability, and continuity. A core component of his five aims is to economically outstrip all the G7 countries, meaning higher economic growth than France, Italy, Germany, Canada, the US, and Japan. Starmer admitted that this endeavour “is going to be tough”.
While highlighting the economic drawbacks of Brexit, he maintained that there had been a large economic decline long before Britain withdrew from the European Union, thus Brexit is not solely to blame. He also laid out a desire for a Labour government to improve UK-EU relations and to implement a more amicable trading rapport, especially regarding the Northern Ireland protocol.
His other five aims revolve around improving the NHS, raising education standards, making Britain a clean energy superpower by removing fossil fuels from all of Britain’s electricity generation by 2030, and reforming the justice system.
His last aim raised more questions to be addressed before the upcoming May elections. Starmer wants to tackle the current justice system’s punishments, echoing Tony Blair’s New Labour mantra: “tough on crime, tough on causes of crime”. Additionally, he has directed attention to tackling violence and aggression against women and girls, aiming to evaluate the system’s approach to this.
Despite his assurance of a potential future government being “mission driven”, he has received backlash from Conservative party chairman, Greg Hands, who accused Starmer of saying anything “if the politics of that moment suit him”. Hands also said he lacked principles and that Labour’s five aims were generic and nothing new.
The left-wing group, Momentum, has also condemned Starmer for abandoning promises he made in the 2020 Labour election, including common ownership of rail, energy, and water. He has also drawn criticism from members within his own party, due to his statement that he would draw from public and private investment, to bring success to the UK.