Britain’s opposition UK 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.
Mr 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, Mr 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.
The six policies, alongside a picture of a stern looking Mr 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 UK 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 UK Labour still lacked a coherent plan and that the Conservatives would stick to plans to strengthen the economy and tighten border controls.
UK Labour is currently about 20 percentage points ahead of UK 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.
Asked if it was a deliberate strategy to feature Mr 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”.
