By Andrew MacAskill
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer will set out six priorities for his party if it wins power, including economic stability and fixing the health service, in a challenge to the governing Conservatives ahead of an election later this year.
Starmer, who has dragged his party towards the centre ground of British politics after it pursued left-wing policies under his predecessor, is offering a vision more reminiscent of Labour under former prime minister Tony Blair, who won three elections for the party a generation ago.
In a speech in Essex on Thursday, Starmer will say that if his party wins power, he will focus on growing the economy while keeping tax, inflation and mortgage rates as low as possible; reducing waiting times in the state-run National Health Service and cracking down on gangs who bring asylum seekers to Britain.
The other priorities will be setting up a publicly owned clean power company, tackling antisocial behaviour with more neighbourhood police, and recruiting thousands of new teachers paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools.
“What is crucial about these commitments is that they are part of a long-term plan to get Britain back on its feet,” Starmer said after a meeting with his senior team to decide the priorities that will form a key part of their pitch to voters.
The six policies, alongside a picture of a stern looking Starmer with his sleeves rolled up, will be put on billboards, vans and published in regional newspapers in the party’s biggest advertising campaign since the 2019 general election.
With an election due in the second half of the year, Britain’s main parties are setting out their solutions to issues including a healthcare system in crisis, years of slow growth, and rising threats from authoritarian states.
Conservative Chairman Richard Holden said Labour still lacked a coherent plan and that the Conservatives would stick to plans to strengthen the economy and tighten border controls.
Labour is currently about 20 percentage points ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in opinion polls and the party is increasingly looking beyond the election to how it would deliver its priorities in the early days of government.
The party announced five “national missions” last year. But the six priorities announced on Thursday are slightly different, including how the party would tackle illegal immigration – an issue that is set to be a major battleground in the election.
A spokesperson for Labour said the policies would also be distributed to candidates in a format about the size of a credit card, reminiscent of a tactic used by Blair in the run up to his first election victory in 1997.
Asked if it was a deliberate strategy to feature Starmer alone on the poster in an almost presidential-style campaign, the spokesperson said: “yes, we made that choice…he is the party leader and the candidate to be prime minister”.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by William James and Kirsten Donovan)
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