UK general election : ‘no magic wand’ to fix public services, says Starmer but Labour has ‘serious plans for growth’

Keir Starmer says there is ‘no magic wand’ to fix public services

Good morning, and welcome to the live coverage of the run-up to the UK general election

Labour leader Keir Starmer has told ITV’s Peston that there is “no magic wand” to fix the public services: “And nobody would believe us if we said there is. What we can have is a serious plan for growth. And we can start on that on day one.”

Also overnight: Rachel Reeves, in an interview with the Guardian, has promised to close the gender pay gap.

The Health Foundation, a think tank, has found that the NHS funding pledged by leading political parties “falls well short” of what is needed to make improvements to the service.

The Scottish Conservatives released their rural manifesto at midnight. Farmers have been told the Scottish Conservatives will be “on their side”, PA reports.

More on these stories soon.

It is now just before 6am. Here is what is coming up today:

08.30am: Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves are at the Times CEO summit in London. The Chancellor will be speaking at 08.30 and the shadow chancellor at 11.20.
09.30am: Scottish Greens General Election manifesto launch in Edinburgh. With co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie.
10.30am: Alliance Party manifesto launch. Leader Naomi Long will outline her party’s Leading Change manifesto in Carryduff.
12pm: Bank of England interest rate decision.
8pm: Rishi SunakKeir StarmerEd Davey and John Swinney will be on Question Time

Michael Gove has also told the BBC that Labour could install “yes men and women” in public bodies if it wins a large majority at the election.

Arguing Labour would use a large majority to “rig the system” and ensure it remained in power, the cabinet minister told the BBC, per PA:

My concern is that Labour would use whatever tools they have, if they have that sort of level of unchecked power in the Commons, to entrench it.

I think there are a number of other things that they would seek to do as well, for example make sure that many of the public bodies that we all rely on to help to run our lives, instead of having a balance of people from across the political spectrum with real skills that will help, I think there may be a tendency for them to put people who will be yes men and women in.

That is certainly a concern that I’ve heard from voters in some of the conversations that I’ve had and I do think that it is a factor.”

Labour under pressure to be more radical about reforming private renting

Back to housing: Labour is facing pressure to deliver more radical reforms of private renting amid fears landlords will find new ways to evict tenants despite the party confirming it would end no-fault evictions, ban bidding wars and introduce time limits to fix potentially lethal mould.

In a campaign push aimed at the “rip-off private rented sector”, Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, claimed private renters would be £250-a-year better off under a Labour government after it forces landlords to improve the energy efficiency of leaky rental homes.

Private landlords would no longer be able to auction rented homes to the highest bidder and requests for upfront rent will be capped, although it is not clear at what level. Labour has reiterated its pledge to “immediately ban no-fault evictions” and said it will “crack down on unscrupulous landlords ripping off tenants with extortionate rents and lurid living conditions”.

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *