KEIR Starmer is set to warn the public that “things will get worse before we get better” in his first keynote speech since becoming Prime Minister.
In a speech on Tuesday, the Labour leader is expected to say the government has also inherited a “societal black hole”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves (below) previously claimed the UK Government had also inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances from the previous Tory administration.
At the end of July, she ordered billions of pounds of spending cuts after a Treasury audit of the UK’s public finances.
Starmer is set to warn: “Things are worse than we ever imagined. And that is why we have to take action and do things differently.
“Part of that is being honest with people – about the choices we face. And how tough this will be.
“Frankly – things will get worse before we get better.”
The Government is in the process of preparing for its first Budget, set to be unveiled on October 30.
It is expected the Treasury will take tough decisions on spending and taxation.
Since coming into Government, Starmer has also faced criticism for refusing to end the two-child cap, having suspended seven of his own MPs for voting for an SNP amendment calling for the policy to be ditched.
Promising to make “unpopular decisions now if it’s the right thing for the country,” Starmer will also accuse the Conservatives of not being honest about the state they left the UK in.
“They haven’t recognised what they’ve cost the country and they haven’t apologised for what they cost you,” he will say.
“When there is rot deep in the heart of a structure, you can’t just cover it up. You can’t tinker with it or rely on quick fixes.
“You have to overhaul the entire thing. Tackle it at the root. Even if it’s harder work and takes more time.”
Starmer will add: “Because otherwise what happens? The rot returns. In all the same places. And it spreads. Worse than before. You know that – and I know that. That’s why this project has always been about fixing the foundations of this country.”
The Prime Minister will further state that “14 years of populism and failure” under the Tories made responding to this month’s far-right riots in England and Northern Ireland harder than riots in England in 2011.
Starmer was the director of public prosecutions at the time of the 2011 riots.
Starmer will say: “When I think back to that time, I see just how far we’ve fallen. Because responding to those riots was hard, but dealing with the riots this summer was much harder.
"Not having enough prison spaces is about as fundamental a failure as you can get. And those people throwing rocks, torching cars, making threats, they didn’t just know the system was broken. They were betting on it. They were gaming it.
“They saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of populism and failure, and they exploited them. That’s what we have inherited.”
Responding, Conservative Party chairman Richard Fuller said: “Just two months in and Keir Starmer has taken winter fuel payments off 10 million pensioners, showered billions of taxpayers’ money on his union paymasters and is now engulfed in a cronyism scandal after parachuting donors and supporters into top taxpayer-funded jobs.
“The soft-touch Labour Chancellor is squandering money whilst fabricating a financial black hole in an attempt to con the public into accepting tax rises, and literally leaving pensioners in the cold.
“The Prime Minister really should tell his Chancellor to reverse course or step in himself to reverse her decision.”
