The Prime Minister will attack the Conservatives’ legacy in a major speech on Tuesday
Things will get worse in Britain before they get better, the Prime Minister warned in his first major speech since taking office.
A week before Parliament returns from its shortened summer recess, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to use his speech on Tuesday to step up his attacks on the Conservatives’ legacy.
He will say: “We have inherited not only an economic black hole, but also a social black hole. And that is why we must act and do things differently.”
“This also means being honest with people about the decisions we face and how difficult that will be.”
“Honestly, before it gets better, it will get worse.”
Since Labour came to power in July, the party has sought to emphasise the challenges it faces as a party of government and blame the Conservatives for failing to address these issues before the election.
Finance Minister Rachel Reeves already addressed this issue in her statement before the summer recess, in which she accused the Tories of leaving a black hole of £22 billion in this year’s budget.
Sir Keir is expected to expand this line of attack on Tuesday, declaring things are “worse than we ever imagined”.
He will say: ‘In the first few weeks we have discovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. And no-one should say that this is just an act or a political game.
“The OBR didn’t know anything about it. They wrote a letter explaining it. They didn’t know – because the last government kept it a secret.”
But he will also address the situation in the public sector more broadly, saying that those involved in the recent unrest managed to exploit “the cracks in our society after 14 years of populism and failure”, including the lack of prison space.
One of the first Labour government policies was to reduce the proportion of time offenders have to spend in prison before they can be released on parole. The party argued that under the previous government there had been an almost total lack of capacity in prisons.
He will say: “Not having enough prison space is as fundamental a flaw as you can imagine. And these people throwing rocks, setting cars on fire and making threats – they didn’t just know the system was broken. They bet on it. They took advantage of it.”
The Prime Minister argues that change will not happen “overnight”. She is also expected to say that Labour has “achieved more in seven weeks than the last government did in seven years”. This includes setting up a National Wealth Fund, changing planning policy to build more homes and ending public sector strikes.
Sir Keir’s speech comes ahead of a potentially difficult time for the Government as it prepares its first Budget, due on October 30.
Ms Reeves faces a challenge to deliver on Labour’s tax and spending promises, even as she has said the fiscal situation is worse than expected and some tax rises are increasingly likely.
The government also faces the prospect of another uprising over its plans to limit winter heating subsidies to the poorest pensioners – especially in light of the increase in the energy price cap announced on Friday.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer argues this is necessary to plug the £22 billion hole in this year’s budget, but opposition parties and some Labour backbenchers warned of the impact on pensioners whose incomes are just above the pension threshold.
But given its large majority, the government is unlikely to suffer defeat if the concept comes to a vote in the House of Commons.
Conservative Party leader Richard Fuller said: “After just two months, Keir Starmer has cut winter heating oil benefits for tens of millions of pensioners, showered his union payers with billions of taxpayers’ money and is now embroiled in a cronyism scandal after putting donors and supporters in top jobs funded by taxpayers’ money.
“The soft-spoken Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer is wasting money and creating a financial black hole to get the public to accept tax rises, while literally leaving pensioners out in the cold.
“The Prime Minister should really tell his Chancellor to change course or intervene himself to reverse her decision.”
Published: by Radio NewsHub
