LONDON — Keir Starmer will on Thursday promise to set out a “serious plan” for government as he pitches five “national missions” if Labour wins the next election.
Speaking in Manchester this morning, Starmer will spell out five key goals for a Labour administration, according to extracts of his speech released by the party overnight, and accuse the governing Conservatives of short-termism.
Work to drive economic growth will be the first of a set of “clear, measurable outcomes” fleshed out in the coming months, the opposition party said.
Current U.K. polling suggests Labour is comfortably on course to win the next general election after more than a decade out of power.
Starmer’s five goals also echo five pledges Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made at the start of 2023, which included halving inflation and reducing NHS waiting lists.
In his speech the Labour leader is set to argue Sunak’s own goals represent a short-term fix, and claim his own proposals will come with hard metrics.
“The more I delve into these challenges, the more I can see things that are simply not working,” Starmer will say, adding: “Things that could be sped up, joined up, given direction, made to work better. This is at the core of my politics.”
Hitting out at Labour ahead of the speech, Tory Party Chairman Greg Hands argued Starmer would “say anything if the politics suit him.”
“He lacks principles and has no new ideas — and that is how we know a Starmer Labour government would just revert to the same old Labour habits of spending too much, raising taxes, and increasing debt,” Hands argued.
