#043 Starmer Steps Back From Core Principles
Comparing Labour’s 2024 Manifesto with Keir Starmer’s 2020 Leadership Pledges
In early 2020 Keir Starmer made ten leadership pledges, these pledges can be broken down into twenty one concrete policy promises he made to Labour members (to get elected as leader).
His first pledge notably underlined his (supposed) commitment to these pledges by stating [there would be],
“No Stepping Back From Our Core Principles”.
In June 2024 the Labour Party released its 2024 General Election Manifesto,
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf
Here we compare how these original pledges (and associated policies), made to Labour members, compare to the party’s latest manifesto.
- “Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.”
2) “Reverse the Tories’ cuts in corporation tax”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - “Labour will cap corporation tax at the current level of 25 per cent, the lowest in the G7”
3) “Clamp down on tax avoidance, particularly of large corporations”
[PLEDGE KEPT]
Manifesto - “We will modernise HMRC and change the law to tackle tax avoidance”
4) “Abolish Universal Credit and end the Tories’ cruel sanctions regime”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - “Labour is committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty.”
5) “Set a national goal for wellbeing and make health as important as GDP; invest in services that help to shift to a preventative approach”
[PLEDGE KEPT]
Manifesto - “we must take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers and support people to live longer, healthier lives.”
6) “Support the abolition of tuition fees and invest in lifelong learning”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
(Starmer explicitly stated that scrapping university tuition fees would be in his manifesto)
7) “Green New Deal at the heart of everything we do”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
[£28billion 2021 policy pledge, developed from it, also ditched]
Manifesto - “At the heart of our approach will be our Green Prosperity Plan where, in partnership with business through our National Wealth Fund, we will invest in the industries of the future”
(This policy was hugely downgraded from £28billion investment in 2021 to £4.7billion in 2024)
8) “A Clean Air Act to tackle pollution locally”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
9) “Demand international action on climate rights”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
10) “No more illegal wars. Introduce a Prevention of Military Intervention Act and put human rights at the heart of foreign policy”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
11) “Review all UK arms sales and make us a force for international peace and justice”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
12) “Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders. Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
13) “End outsourcing in our NHS, local government and justice system”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
14) “Full voting rights for EU nationals”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
15) “An immigration system based on compassion and dignity”
[PLEDGE KEPT]
Manifesto - “A fair and properly managed immigration system”
16) “End indefinite detention and call for the closure of centres such as Yarl’s Wood”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
17) “Tackle insecure work and low pay”
[PLEDGE KEPT]
Manifesto - “For too many people a job does not offer the route out of poverty it should: either because work is insecure, inflexible, or low paid; or because people face barriers when trying to move into a better job….Labour will also make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage. We will change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living. Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of workers across the UK.”
18) “Repeal the Trade Union Act”
[UNKNOWN]
Manifesto - Nothing but rumours are this will happen due to trade union pressure
19) “A federal system to devolve powers — including through regional investment banks and control over regional industrial strategy”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - Nothing
20) “Abolish the House of Lords - replace it with an elected chamber of regions and nations”
[PLEDGE DITCHED]
Manifesto - “The next Labour government will therefore bring about an immediate modernisation, by introducing legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. Labour will also introduce a mandatory retirement age. At the end of the Parliament in which a member reaches 80 years of age, they will be required to retire from the House of Lords.”
21) “Maintain our collective link with the unions”
[PLEDGE KEPT]
Manifesto - “Labour will stop the chaos and turn the page to create a partnership between business and trade unions, by implementing ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay”
The final analysis shows 5 out of 21 (24%) of Starmer’s policy promises (within his ten pledges) have been kept whilst 15 or 16 out of 21 (71 - 76%), the vast majority, have been ditched & discarded. This reveals that Starmer has categorically and unarguably stepped back from the “core principles” he claimed to hold in 2020 and explicitly claimed he would not step back from.
The 2024 Labour manifesto also ignores the 2022 Labour conference democratic vote to back electoral reform (proportional representation), this again shows Starmer is willing to step back from the core principle of party democracy.
https://progressiveprimers.medium.com/starmer-u-turns-on-electoral-reform-612ebbf6ef1d
