Exclusive: Starmer to back away from 2019 Labour manifesto with series of key speeches
Sir Keir Starmer will try to definitively distance himself from Labour’s far-left 2019 election manifesto in a series of key speeches over the next few months.
This will begin next week when the Labour leader makes a speech outlining his stance on some “meaty” economic issues as he sets out “a totally distinct path from 2019”, according to sources close to Starmer.
Starmer’s push is the culmination of his two years moderating the Labour party, after the far-left economic policies of Corbyn and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
He and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves consistently say Labour is now a “pro-business party”, after it was seen as shunning the private sector under Corbyn, with public polling showing that trust in the party’s ability to handle the economy is inching up.
A senior Labour party source told City PM that Starmer is expected to “slaughter the sacred cows of Corbynism” in the lead-up to summer, with speculation this could soon include ditching the former Labour leader’s pledges to nationalise rail, mail, energy and water.
A Starmer ally said the Labour leader had no intention of talking about nationalisation in next week’s speech, but that he would “put more meat on the bones of what a Starmer government will focus on”.
The push will rankle MPs on the left of the party still loyal to the Corbyn agenda, with one saying that an attempt to abandon some of Labour’s more radical policies from the last election would be “nonsensical”.
With just two years until the next election is due, shadow cabinet ministers have become increasingly vocal about the need to definitively drop Labour’s 2019 election offering.
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed told the Mirror this week that Corbyn “cared more about criminals than victims” and that the “2019 manifesto is no longer the Labour party’s policy platform”.
Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds last week told a UK Finance event that a key Labour business policy from 2019, which would have seen 10 per cent of equity in large companies given to workers without compensation, was not “credible” or “realistic”.
A senior Labour source said: “There’s no point wasting political capital on these issues when they’re just not a priority for people and it’s something that we’ll keep getting attacked on.
“When I go out on the doorsteps people aren’t bringing up nationalising water companies or Royal Mail.”
The latest push by Starmer to kill off Corbynism will be greeted by anger from the left of the party as he continues to move away from promises made in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
Starmer signed up to 10 pledges during the contest, which committed him to “common ownership” of utilities, the railways and Royal Mail and to increase income tax for the top five per cent of earners.
A leading left-wing Labour MP said: “At a time when the pandemic has proven that a hyper-free-market economy isn’t fit for purpose and led to the Tories adopting some of Labour’s most popular manifesto commitments such as the furlough scheme, and renationalisation of our railways, it would be incredibly ill-judged if Keir decides to shift away from that path.
“In the middle of a cost of living crisis, alienating huge swathes of the electorate by abandoning commitments to reign in energy and other utility companies, and bringing Britain’s railways into public control to save thousands of pounds for ordinary people, would be nonsensical.”