Sir Keir Starmer pleaded for patience over his drive to improve living standards, warning it “will take some time” for people to feel the benefits.
The Prime Minister hopes changes to planning rules, reforms to regulations and the use of technology and artificial intelligence could help boost sluggish economic growth.
But he told senior MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee that he would not repeat the mistakes of the Tory years and promise quick solutions.
The Prime Minister’s appearance came on the day the Bank of England held interest rates at 4.75% and warned of “heightened uncertainty in the economy” following the UK Budget and US presidential election.
Inflation has also increased, with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rising to 2.3% in October and 2.6% in November, while the UK economy unexpectedly contracted in October, marking two months in a row of negative growth for the first time since the pandemic.
Sir Keir said: “We’ve had a decade – slightly more – of stagnant growth or low growth and we’ve got to turn that around.”
The Budget was intended to “stabilise the economy” and create the conditions for investment, he said.
“We’ve obviously got to carry out reforms – to planning in particular, to regulation in particular – to drive the growth that we need.”
In his first appearance before the panel of senior MPs who are the chairs of the Commons select committees, Sir Keir said some people were already feeling the benefits of Labour’s reforms.
The increase in the national living wage was a “pay rise for the three million who are the lowest paid” and public sector workers were also feeling the benefit of pay deals.
“In addition to that, the measures that we put in place will improve living standards,” he said.
“It will take some time, of course it will.
“One of the biggest mistakes, I think, in the last 14 years was the idea that everything could be fixed by Christmas. It can’t.
“The planning will take time. The change in regulation will take time, we’ve got a national wealth fund which is investing, getting record investment into the country, that will take time.
“But already some of the lowest paid are already feeling the benefits of a Labour government through what we did in the Budget.”
