Keir Starmer has been forced to deny watering down some of his previous promises to voters as he relaunched his government by unveiling a new “plan for change”.
The hefty document, launched at Pinewood film studios, appeared to dilute Labour’s previous pledges on the economy and green energy.
Starmer’s five “missions” for government, launched nearly two years ago, had vowed to make the UK economy the fastest-growing in the G7 group of wealthy nations.
But in his speech today, the prime minister only said the government was committed to “raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom so working people have more money in their pocket as we aim to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7″.
Labour had also previously pledged to completely de-carbonise the electricity grid by 2030.
However, Starmer today said he wanted Britain to be “on track to at least 95% clean power by 2030, while accelerating the UK to net zero”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was clear that Labour’s economic growth pledge had been “dropped because of the hit to the economy from the Budget”.
She added: “Costly plans for energy decarbonisation watered-down – while poor pensioners lose their winter fuel payments.
“This relaunch can’t hide the reality of a government that doesn’t know what it is doing.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “After years of Conservative chaos, the people want real change instead of a government simply moving the goalposts.”
Challenged by journalists after his speech about the apparent change in the government’s pledges, Starmer said: “The clean energy plan is today exactly what it was in the election.”
He also insisted that the government’s promise to have the fastest-growing economy in the G7 had not changed.
In his speech, the PM said the government was now committed to delivering six new “milestones” that voters could judge them on at the next election, which is not expected until 2028 at the earliest.
As well as the new promises on raising living standards and clean energy, Starmer also said the government will build 1.5 million new homes and recruit 13,000 more police officers to crack down on crime.
The proportion of children starting primary school in England “ready to learn” will rise to record levels, the PM said, while the NHS will also hit its target for the number of patients getting hospital treatment 18 weeks after being referred.
Starmer said: “Make no mistake – this plan will land on desks across Whitehall with the heavy thud of a gauntlet being thrown down.”
He described the promises as “risky” because voters will be able to judge the government on whether or not they are achieved.
“I don’t think there’s a swamp to be drained here, but I do think too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline, have forgotten, to paraphrase JFK, that you choose change, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard,” he said.
“I totally get that when trust in politics is so low, we must be careful about the promises we make.
“But across Whitehall and Westminster, that’s been internalised as ‘don’t say anything’, ‘don’t try anything too ambitious’, ‘set targets that will happen anyway’ and then they wonder why working people won’t give you a pat on the back, wonder why working people no longer believe politics can make a real difference to their lives.
“Our plan for change is a break, both with the unrealistic bluster of Boris Johnson, and the acceptance of decline that was Rishi Sunak’s five pledges.
“Our plan for change that is the most ambitious and credible programme for government in a generation, and we embrace the risk that comes with that because if there was no jeopardy ... that would be a sign that we were not serious about delivering real change and I will never do that.”
Starmer also promised to bring down legal and illegal immigration to the UK, claiming it was what “working people want”.
But it has not been included in the six new milestones which the PM wants voters to judge him on.
He said the public want “a serious plan to ensure we’ve got control of our borders, not arbitrary caps, not gimmicks” like the Tories’ Rwanda scheme, which cost the public purse £715 million and deported no asylum seekers.