Frances Ryan is right to raise the question of just what we can expect from an incoming Labour government (By telling us so little about its policy plans, Labour tells us all we need to know, 13 July). The country clearly needs a radical break from the collective failed policies of five consecutive Tory prime ministers.
When Keir Starmer made 10 pledges during the Labour party leadership campaign in 2020, he said there would be “no stepping back from our core principles” and that he would increase income tax for the top 5% of earners, keep public services in public hands, and support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water.
I think Starmer believes in these principles, but has listened too closely to key strategists who do not. It is not so much that Labour is rowing back from these reforms, but that the strategists have taken the boat out of the water, and the shadow leadership along with it.
To obtain the reforms required to heal this unequal country, we need at least 10 years of a Labour government. If the model is Tory-lite policies, it is difficult to see how the electorate would not vote back in the real thing through sheer disappointment after five years. Starmer had the right pledges in 2020; now he needs to be bold.
Gary Nethercott
Woodbridge, Suffolk
• I commend Frances Ryan’s article about the Labour party’s lack of policy under the leadership of Keir Starmer. When Rishi Sunak dumped the pledge to give £11.6bn to countries tackling global heating, Labour could say nothing as it had already “postponed” its pledge of £28bn a year to help Britain combat the climate crisis. Being against the Tories and on the side of economic growth is not enough, Sir Keir.
Lyn Howard
Bristol
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