Can Keir Starmer keep Labour's new pledges? | UK politics | The New Statesman
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2024
- Keir Starmer has launched six new Labour pledges as the UK gears up for a general election. Can these new promises be kept?
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Flanked by the entire shadow cabinet at an event in Essex, Keir Starmer on Thursday launched the Labour pitch for votes ahead of the next general election. Calling the six promises "my first steps", Starmer outlined his priorities as follows:
1) Deliver economic stability
2) Cut NHS waiting times
3) Launch a new Border Security Command
4) Set up Great British Energy
5) Crack down on antisocial behaviour
6) Recruit 6,500 new teachers
George Eaton and Freddie Hayward join Hannah Barnes on the New Statesman podcast to examine Labour's new pledges and ask - can Keir Starmer keep these promises?
Read Freddie's analysis of the six pledges: www.newstatesman.com/politics...
Read George's feature, What is "Starmerism"? www.newstatesman.com/cover-st...
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Watch next: Keir Starmer is more like John Smith than you think - Andrew Marr czcams.com/video/qBT8K0ejEZ0/video.html
😂
Well let's see how long he got left 😂😂😂😂😂
Nothing on housing, which is a problem which is an emergency in my opinion and solves so many problems in society if sorted. It needed to be one of these key promises. Very disappointing and losing the youth vote if not acknowledged.
It's 9n the website as are other policies
Tories have left them a load of crap to sort...
I'd rather the 5 pledges be undoing some of the Tory crap, you could probably have 500 pledges, sitting under one parent pledge. Let's go back 14 years.
Yup, first five years will be undoing the damage
@@theminisimmer can't undo it in 5 years..
I bloody well hope so! If he can't even keep "one additional appointment a day per GP surgery" and "0.25 new teachers per school" then something has gone VERY wrong...
Calm down mate he's not even in no 10 yet
@@scp_sixtynine4203your right 😂
I have read a few comments of people being underwhelmed by the pledges. I'd rather our next PM makes realistic pledges that are attainable, rather than the populist pie in the sky BS that Sunak gave us. The only one he's managed (halving inflation) has absolutely bugger all to do with the government.
A reminder -
Tony Blair's five pledges
Cut class sizes
Fast-track punishment for young offenders.
Cut NHS waiting lists.
Get 250,000 under 25's off benefits.
No rise in taxes. Cut 5% vat on heating bills and keep inflation interest rates as low as possible.
People have short memories
Well, Blair told a lot more, much larger lies than those. The question is whether Starmer can keep his own promises. And hopefully he will remember to keep Blair as far away from power as possible.
Did Starmer not make pledges when he stood for labour leader? How did he get on with that?
As Sir Keir Starmer is actually promising little, he will keep his promises.
Only a politician as hopeless as Sunak gets caught making promises he can not keep.
Keir Starmer is not populist, so I'm guessing he has a very good chance of meeting them, with the caveat that his party does not descend into a right Tory mess.
He's taken control of party selection for the most part
The one I'm impressed with is the "carrot & stick" or "discipline & nurture" approach in the Antisocial Behaviour pledge. More police and also more youth-clubs. It's nice to see that kind of balance expressed so succinctly in a political platform.
Keep his promises. 😀😀😂😂😂😂
They are mostly deliberately written in a way that will be achievable to keep. I've done a detailed list in a comment to pulls apart the generic, vague and mostly non committal pledges though, so absolutely not defending low ambition Labour/Starmer here.
Kinda boring, Only one that's interesting is nationalised energy company!
I'll give it a go!
1. General reform / Get rid of first past the post / Dismantle the house of lords and replace it with a democratic system
2. Strong focus on affordable home building / utilising experimental home building ideas instead of sticking to just traditional methods / investing in social housing for homeless individuals
3. Address the corruption thats embedded itself in recent politics / setting a reasonable limit to mps expenses and blocking other wasteful uses of money / giving the public the power to call elections & force resignations
4. Nationalise energy with a strong focus on green energy / measures to make electric vehicles viable!
5. Tax the rich while addressing the loopholes! EAT THE RICH! NOM! NOM! 😋
6. Completely legalise cannabis for those over 18 / support systems for those who commit minor crimes instead of serving prison time.
If any form of mass housebuilding ever happens I want new rules for higher quality, stronger homes !
I disagree with dismantle the House of Lords. The problem with the House of Lords is fundamentally the fact that the Prime Minister basically appoints them. If they were appointed more independently it would be better, but an overall reform of the house of lords that didn’t make it elected would look extremely dictatorial, and making it elected would make it redundant. It would just become another commons.
We need wealth taxes. Higher Income taxes for the rich are also needed but fundamentally wealth taxes are what will sort out the housing market and therefore curb inequality. Also rental caps needed. Capital gains should be in line with income tax for a start.
Well we know the Tories can't! Where's the 40 new hospitals?
they tried to buy refurbed ones on backmarket - they didn't realise that was only old iphones etc!
We want Anoosh!
I find the lack of any sort of housing pledge quite disturbing given the current state of things
It's on the website these are just key points for campaigning
@@SlowhandGreg I know they have some policies for it, but it's the lack of emphasis I'm critical of. By not including it in the "key points" they're actively saying it is not a top priority for them. When push comes to shove they would rather do one of these than housing apparently.
@@bl3rune it will have been focus grouped
As someone who works for an Electricity Distributor, I struggle to understand what this Great British Energy firm is set to even be as an organisation? Without a dismantlement of the private ownership of supply and/or distribution of energy it doesn't seem at all likely to change anything in terms of energy related finances for British people as the industry and its grip on the publics purse will remain, ultimately, in the hands of Ofgem regardless. Unless this company is playing by different rules, I can't understand how it shifts the industry in any meaningful way. It feels like a weak, poorly understood political bargaining chip and reminiscent of Victory Energy, which went about as well as me and most of my colleagues with interest in the sector predicted.
If implemeted correctly, it could be miles better than any form of ownership of current electricity generation.
Labour have stated GB Energy will be a generator, meaning the momney spent on buying current energy generation private ownership will be spent on contracting new turbines, shares in nuclear sites, solar ETC, GB Energy, to my understanding, will then pass on energy to distrubors at a lower price, forcing competition between public and private energy for the lowest costs for people like me and you
That's why you work for an Electricity Distributor and not for a government future energy supply planning department. I mean, why are you asking those questions here? "Will remain, ultimately, in the hands of Ofgem", is that your attempt at comedy?
@@iwasborn8470 See this is what I don't understand, generators all come to us distributors to connect to the grid, we're a natural monopoly, so unless policy changes occur they'll be treated the same as any other connectee, one of our license conditions would force us to do so (slc12). The only way to get power from a generator to a customer is through the transmission (dso) or distribution (dno) assets, so unless that changes the benefits would be the same any other connecting customer could offer, the only difference would be the ownership of the company.
@@gio-oz8gf Yea I think you missed my point here, honestly. And no, if that's your idea of comedy I honestly don't know what else to say to you really 🤣
@@mackieincsouthseaI assume the company will just be a political vehicle for any further legislation that moves down the road of publically owned and funded energy suppliers. I’m fundamentally un-knowledgeable in this area but i can see the political appeal of “public ownership” compared to just regulating private suppliers.
He likes making promises, keeping them, not so much.
He hasn't been elected yet so had no chance to keep a promise.
@@TimoDyer He doesn’t need to be elected to break promises, don’t be ridiculous.
@@tatata1543 promises to lower NHS waiting times, clean British energy provision, invest in schools and policing.. Yes, needs to be in government for that.
@@TimoDyer There are many he can break in the meantime, the guy uturns so much he has no idea which direction he’s going in now. He’s going to be a disaster, he’s not liked or trusted (he has a double digit negative approval rating which, under the circumstances, is laughable) now but pretty soon into his time in number ten he will be loathed. At which point the flip flopping will go into overdrive in an attempt to keep his critics appeased. He doesn’t have the guts to be a leader.
@@TimoDyer But you keep the faith as long as you can, he is going to need an increasing amount of unconditional support.
Why question if Labou will keep their promises?
Why not question why the Tories have NOT delivered ANY of their policies over the last 14 years?
I take it you're to young to remember the last Labour Government that had dwindled Britain's finances and left nothing in the coffers and had the cheek to ask the Tories to fix it. Oh yes I remember the last Labour Government, I can see Diane Abbott waiting to unleash her skills on all of Britain. GOD help us
@@tomtresco2952you’re forgetting the 10 years of consecutive growth, NHS waiting lists down (I remember the uproar when people couldn’t pre-book appointments, instead HAVING to have the appointment within 48 hours), lower taxes than now… and the fact a GLOBAL economic crisis caused by the American housing market crippled the majority of 1st world economies for years, that is still being felt today though austerity from that hindered our economy introduced by the Tories…?
@tomtresco2952 In 2010 debt to gdp was 62% and debt was 800 billion, by 2016 it was 82% by 2019 it was 92% and here we are at 100% after Tory borrowing of 1.5 trillion + 8 million people and a knackered economy.
You've got some cheek to start slagging Brown who stopped the banks, pension and mortgage system from going under in 2008
Nothing on housing / renting / homelessness?
He failed to keep his previous promises, and replaced them with vague pledges.
The card said cut NHS waiting TIMES and not waiting LISTS which is what you read out. There's a difference! The Cons said they would reduce waiting LISTs (and failed at that even)
I mean, these pledges aren't exactly difficult. Any normal government would have little trouble implementing them. The only reason this is even up for debate is because we've had a decade under a government which literally can't do fucking anything due to incompetence, corruption, and endless, endless infighting.
Although the New Statesman is hardly likely to spell it out, Sharon Graham completely capitulated on her previous criticism of Starmer's watered down deal. This is good for Starmer because he can claim to have built a broad church from far right (Natalie Elphicke) to faux left (Graham and Burnham).
I sure hate all those faux left people who advocate for workers. Labour is the party of business, not workers. Their beliefs are clearly fake compared to Keir Starmer and his commitment to true left-wing ideals.
She didn’t, Starmer backtracked (again) on watering it down. The guy just says whatever he thinks the person standing in front of him wants to hear. It’s not a good trait in a leader and will eventually bite him on the arse. As will the routine where he denies outright things he is actually on video saying. The guy is a phony.
Can the Tories keep do anything that doesn't involve being monstrous to anyone who doesn't donate directly to them?
Nationalities energy would be amazing. No more greedy profiteering by energy companies exploring and killing poor people during the winter. Plus no more reliance on Russia for gas.
Because Labour ALWAYS have to deliver, as they don’t have a client media to cover for them.
If they want to be re elected they HAVE to deliver, in a way that voters can see and feel that their lives have improved, beyond the counter propaganda from that same Tory client media.
These are pledges to be delivered - the first 6 steps laying foundations to deliver the 5 missions, also acknowledged the need for inclusion of peripheral issues to attain success.
If Labour get in and it all goes down the toilet, He'll be known as Kier Non Starter.
Pledges are so minimal and marginal that it's uninspiring and too close to the Conservatives! It won't frighten the Daily Mail, but that's no vindication.
Promising about pledges only to come to power and once in power nothing will happen.
Has any politicians ever they are not worth the space they take up
There are countless politicians who keep some if not all of their promises. Even the Tories once kept their promises, back in the 20th century when they were a real party instead of a circus like they are right now.
Where on earth is housing?!
On the labour website this is just a campaign brief
Private school move, great move. Don't care if its not enough money, but 2b for state schools will help with RAAC at least!
Its cost the British tax payer £25 million already, think again
@@tomtresco2952 what has, RAAC?
No. And even they lack ambition.
Thank goodness to have a Party speech FOCUSED on the People of the Country, rather than blaming Russia and China. Looking for trouble against two of the most powerful Nations in the World, like Sunak did a few days ago.
Starmer's speech GAVE ME MORE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE than Sunak's FEAR RANT!!!
You poor boy, I take it you're to young to remember the last Labour Government that had dwindled Britain's finances and left nothing in the coffers and had the cheek to ask the Tories to fix it. Oh yes I remember the last Labour Government, I can see Diane Abbott waiting to unleash her skills on all of Britain. GOD help us
@@tomtresco2952 You're living in the PAST!!! Just like your PM Sunak keeps mentioning Jeremy Corbyn- As if he's still in charge of the Labour Party!
I think Labours strength is to continue slagging off the Tories for the first four minutes of their TV interviews and spend the other minute telling Britain their going to fix the same things they said they would fix in 2009. Welcome the return of Diane Abbott,
Can you make a election ASMR video
This is just a wish list
No informatiom on HOW they are going to achieve this. Im sick of every election politicians pontificating on the same subjects. Nhs, crime, immigration , economy are issues that have been raised over the past 60 years. Im fed up with conservatives, but labour still has no idea of what their plans will be. Plan seems to be vote us in and we will make it up once we have power. God help us.
His pledge are junk
No
Under any sort of stress, he'll change his stance. Waste of space.
Keep their promises? They haven’t made any. There is no point in voting.
No. In practice, the current Tory govt prevents onshore wind power and enhancement of power distribution, for the very good reason that their NIMBY base hates such things. So for this reason, and similar issues, simply being able to ignore the Tory heartland is a reason to kick out the Tories. It's just a matter of excluding a tiny bunch of geriatric sociopaths from their malign influence, which for the last 15 years or so has punched so far above its weight in terms of actual damage done.
@@jonb5493 Sorry that’s not enough of a reason to vote Labour
destroying the king's dreams in 2024
Tories have broken every promise in their 2019 manifesto and you ask this question of Labour. Our media smh
Like Blair, Starmer has moved to the centre ground. Why? Because unlike most left-wingers, he understands that the British are, fundamentally, small c conservative, and getting the Middle English vote is the way to gain power. The alternative is more years of the truly ghastly Tories.
Depends what you mean by conservative though. By american standards they’re certainly not.
The Corbyn Clan are actually doing Starmer a favour by labelling him a Red Tory .It makes the labour curious swing voter more liable to vote for a more pragmatic party .If he was labelled Red Labour they would be less inclined to switch their votes .
In a winner takes it all voting system you need to get just most votes and key votes (mots in different areas).
I promise you this, that, and the other thing! Vote for me!🙀
A will give him one stop the child trafficking through social services and family courts judges school leaders
Starmer will get found out
well he did not keep the last pledges so ... no.
Ah yeah all the time Labour have been in government while Starmer has been an MP
@@StyledObject youtube search this video then say sory. Did the MSM just accidentally admit they knew Starmer's 10 pledges were lies?
These are the smartest commentators there are. But on Galloway election night we learned they each live in a closet.
I'm sorry don't do the strong man stuff with a voice like that. It was like listening to David Brent crossed with a marmoset.
no is the answer, obviously
Asking if a politician can keep promises is like waiting for pigs to fall from the sky 🙄 what a dumb question.
deliver economic stability - Rejoin Single Market
cut NHS waiting times - Restore Freedom of Movement
recruit more teachers - Again, Restore Freedom of Movement
set up a state owned energy company - or join the EU Internal Energy Market
tackle antisocial behaviour - Reverse Brexit and the £140 Billion flushed down the toilet so far, and spend the money on communities instead.
Always voted Labour at general election. Not a chance this time round
We already know he can't keep his promises.
No he cannot keep his promises. He is just an empty suit
Im not a Tori, however it need to be acknowledged they have banned no fault evictions, banning leasehold is in progress, they have bought down inflation (more importantly in the housing market).
They are coming down on rogue landlords and putting basic habitability standards in and making landlords sign up to a register.
For Education Tories are bringing in a life long learning fund, a critcal measure for the job displacements to come.
And with current focus on literacy and numeracy in education the Advanced British Standard, ending the artificial barrier between degree/technical.
This is the best way to tackle class barriers.
They are starting to sound like a workers party.
Labour needs to be much more ambitious if they want to win and not just pay lip service to issues and practice weather vein politics going where the wind blows.
Labour, what do you stand for? you break 17-18 of your pre-campaign promises your solution, make more promises to break.
Labour needs to leading
by example, taking initiative. If you are afraid of the Tories then how are you going to deal with Putin? Or Xi jin ping? And possibility of another great power conflict on the European continent.
Want to help the NHS? Make paramedic/nursing training free and subsidise biomedical degrees. Offer free/heavily subsidised rental accommodation to doctors nurses/paramedics so there can be a more fluid labor pool and they can move to work around the country and maybe cheap government backed loans after x amount of years service to help them get into their own property.
Labour needs to put personal ambition aside and show us they can put the country first , otherwise the ' im not them' appoach it not going to work.
Will never forget what Tony Blair did too Britain 🏴🇬🇧
Making big promises and not keeping them is easy. Making reasonable promises and keeping them is harder.
Starmer,plenty of words,he's going to do alot but in the end do nothing,just a Blair mouth piece,not even trust worthy.😣😣😣
'starmerism' lmao... the man stands for nothing and is that weak that mandelson has been able to basically dictate labour policy despite keir not needing him to be ahead in polls.
More U turns than a London cabbie.
Where's the £350 mil weekly for the NHS?
Where's the 40 new hospitals?
That's what you call U-turns (or flat out lies)
@@FranzBieberkopf. Exactly.
I'm not convinced U-turns are such a bad thing. In a democracy, maybe politicians should change their policies to follow public opinion.
@@andybrice2711 Are you serious about “public opinion” ? Surely if one thing we have learnt for the last 14 years, if not longer , is the power of the Tory media to mould public opinion .
@@californiadreamin8423 On that matter I’m going to invoke _“Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.”_ You can’t just dismiss public opinion because you think it’s bad.
And I’m not convinced that the “Tory media” just manufactures conservative opinion amongst Brits. Sure the media affects public opinion (across the political spectrum). But many Brits (like any country) are just quite conservative in their disposition.
6 non specific promises
clearly they’re attacking the middle class
Typical politician
They aren't pledges or promises. They're steps and are completely vapid
What is a pledge? It’s a nice thing to say perhaps since he is already going to be selected. But no guarantee he will do any of it
Well, rejoin the single market by itself is labor friendly.
Starmer the snake in the grass
No he can't be trusted and his so called 5 pledges are crap he is a boring undemocratic hypocrite keep him OUT of number ten seriously OUT.
More false promises. Hope people do not fall for them
Just a couple of public school/oxbridge boys talking about peter mandelsons labour party... not much labour left in the labour party.
I dont see why not he can claim he delivered on them because they are vague enough to ensure nobody knows what they actually are.
STARMER...... WILL..... BE......... REPLACED *
pro jewish not pro british
The question shouldn't be "can he keep is promises" but "who has he made his promises to" vote Galloway or green if you really want change
Keeping taxes as low as possible is going to be a challenge when it comes to spending more money on public services. Taxes have had to go up quite a bit under the Tories to keep up with public spending. And, of course, many on the left still think we're not spending enough money on many things.
Yeah taxes need to rise on wealth and the rich. Capital gains need increasing, mansion tax needs introducing, rental caps needed. New wealth taxes are needed for the super rich. Tax loopholes need closing. Income taxes aren’t even that important though they should also be raised for those earning over £100k and new band should be brought in that pays more. Ridiculous that people earning £150k and people earning £1m pay the same rate.
He has broken many pledges before - lets not forget a pledge is a promise, an oath. There's also the treacherous way he took over the party. Starmer's word is totally worthless.
I'm not really sure why a national energy company is helpful. Why not just continue to tax pollution and subsidise clean energy, and nudge the market into sorting it out?
I suppose it might be useful as a shot across the bow of energy companies, to threatening them into lowering prices.
I guess direct state investment into clean energy is useful. But yes its mostly a political tool rather than a very practical policy.
He can, but he won’t. When in power, he’ll cite ‘circumstances’ and will do as little as possible because that’s what his backers demand
Deliver economic stability - This is the same as the Tory policy. It's vague, a generic statement and non committal. So, as long as he doesn't do a Truss and crash the economy, and we don't go into Recession, he can say mission accomplished. No ambition or optimism here.
Cut NHS waiting times - Well this won't be difficult by current levels. Cut by what, 5%, 20%, or by 1 minute. Low ambition and easy to achieve without any type of target, which they have deliberately excluded. As long as they do better than the Tories, they will declare victory and can push back on any opposition criticism.
Launch a new Border Security Command - Just a statement, no reference of what this is expected to achieve, so as long as they can claim this is more effective than the Rwanda scheme and let's face it, anything would be, then they can claim this to be a success.
Set up Great British energy - What just create the ltd company for Great British Energy, should take all of what, 30 mins? What is it meant to do? What's the objective? What's the ambition?
Crack down on antisocial behaviour - What's be plan, bring ASBO's back and hope for the best? This is so vague, it makes the above statements look unambiguous. They are just going to say we have 12 more police on the streets than last year, so success.
Recruit 6,500 new teachers - At last a number/target and on the pledge that is probably the hardest to deliver a specific target on. Not sure how this slipped into the list, someone was supposed to cut this off, so we had 5 pledges to match the 5 Blair had. Someone has gone rogue! Now, how on earth this will be delivered is well beyond my ken and likely Labour's, though this technically works as a pledge.
What a stupid question! Show me a PM from the last 40 years who as fulfilled ONE manifesto promise.
"Hurr durr, all politicians are bad." Most manifesto policies carry through. Look only back to 2019 election when the Tories promised to get Brexit done. I despise the policy itself, but your ignorance does you no favours, love.
Tomorrow he'll deny ever having said these things.
Listen to the words very carefully. He says nothing new and promises nothing.
Its all waffle, spin, lies, crap!
At least Biden is funny sometimes.
Yes, Keir can.
Starmer can’t even be bothered to wear a suit and tie - it tell you everything you need to know………
What happened to his five pledges? With our current voting system of first post the post, so many of the electorate are excluded. Having voted Labour for 40 years, I couldn't be more disillusioned and disheartened by the prospect of a Starmer led government.
Same government, different name.
who`s priced all this up Dianne Abbott or copy and paste reeves
NO
New Labour now little Isreal.
No, you can't trust Starmer.
These are not new. He has talked about all of them for a while. Here, he was taking the first step of 1000 mile journey ‼️To eat an elephant you have to do it a bite at a time. PLEASE GIVE HIM CREDIT for having the ABILITY to KNOW where to start after Tories BROKE every part of the FOUNDATIONS of our country
voting for starmers do not lift nor remove nuclear threaths to britain,he's pro jewish
I have never heard him promise anything? I only ever heard him complain about the current government. which is the same as the general public?
No hes mr flip flop dont vote for him
Starmer uses his brain, Johnson uses his Johnson .
@@californiadreamin8423 If Starmer had a brain that would be true.
@@ehnowthen …..and your Degree is in what exactly, and if not, why not ?
No