KEIR Starmer has said fears Labour would preside over major spending cuts in office are “defeatist” – as he insisted his party would go for growth.
Austerity concerns hung over the Labour manifesto launch in Manchester after experts said that the party would likely have to either raise taxes or introduce cuts – with Labour pledging neither.
But on Thursday morning Starmer repeated the mantra that Labour had a plan for growth that would be a boon for the public purse.
He said: “This manifesto is a total rejection of that defeatist approach that the only the only levers are tax and spend.
"It’s a total rejection of that, it’s a plan for growth. I accept that there’s no magic wand, I accept that you don’t get growth without a plan. That’s what all the forecasts are based on, that things won’t change, can’t change, will flatline.”
Starmer said that he had “absolute confidence in the plan for growth that we’re putting before the country”.
And he added: “I will not accept the defeatism that says all that we can hope for in this country is to flatline.”
He insisted the UK would not return to an austerity era under his watch, but Starmer’s claims have not assuaged fears among his left-wing critics that Labour are signed up to major spending cuts.
Kate Dove, chair of the left-wing Labour pressure group Momentum, welcomed some of the “progressive” commitments in the manifesto, including ending tax breaks for private schools, public ownership of rail and the repeal of anti-union laws.
However, she added: “It is no coincidence that Labour’s most popular policies take on the few on behalf of the many.
“Nonetheless, it is clear that Labour’s current commitments fall short of what is needed to fix the Tories’ broken Britain.
“If elected, Labour must go much further to fulfil its promise to the British people of change.
“That means bold policies like investment in our struggling public services, NHS and schools, renationalising our water and real action to end child poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap and introducing free school meals for all. And it means taxing the wealthiest to help pay for it.
“The public are sick and tired not just of the Tories, but of Tory policies – if Keir Starmer continues down their path, he risks the same fate.”
Unite, the only Labour-affiliated union not to sign off on the party’s manifesto because of broken promises on workers’ rights reforms, issued a similar warning.
General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our public services have been driven into the ground and are underfunded to the tune of tens of billions of pounds. Workers faced with plans to cut fossil fuels need new jobs to stop their livelihoods being lost. And we have an investment gap compared to our competitors that will require billions more to fill.
“We will have to start facing up to the truth. To fix Britain after years of Tory neglect is going to need more money and there are clear choices to be made. Whilst we all want growth and Labour's proposed changes may move the dial somewhat – that alone is not likely to be enough.”
She said that Labour had to make being in government “count”.
Starmer’s speech was interrupted early on by a 27-year-old climate protester who gave her name only as Alice, who accused the Labour leader of peddling “the same old Tory policies”.
