Keir Starmer rules out surprise tax rises as he vows to take 'tough decisions for the whole country'
6 July 2024, 13:32 | Updated: 6 July 2024, 13:59
Keir Starmer has pledged not to increase taxes that weren't included in the Labour manifesto in an address to the nation on his first full day as Prime Minister.
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Giving a press conference after his first Cabinet meeting as PM, Sir Keir said that his party was "going to have to take the tough decisions [and] take them early", promising to act with "a raw honesty".
But he told reporters that this was "not a prelude to saying there is some tax decision we didn't speak about.
"It's about the tough decisions to fix the problem and being honest about what they are."
Labour's manifesto included plans to levy VAT on private schools and close non-dom tax loopholes, but the party was also hit with accusations from the Conservatives during the campaign that it would raise other taxes, which it denied.
The party's own tax adviser told LBC before the election that it may have to raise inheritance tax, which Labour also denied.
Sir Keir pointed to new Health Secretary Wes Streeting's description of the NHS as "broken" as an example of his government's honesty.
He added later that this criticism was :not aimed at the chief executive of the NHS," but rather "a reflection on the failure of leadership of the last government.
Sir Keir said "it is a raw honesty about the state of the NHS because we will not fix it if we are not honest."
He also said that prisons were another example of "where other parts of the system are broken".
Sir Keir hit out at the "mess" he said that the Conservatives had left behind after their 14 years of government.
But he admitted that "different change will be delivered at different speeds", adding that it "won't be a question of simply saying nothing's going to change until towards the end of the first term".
When asked if he could offer one concrete promise to voters about delivery in the first 100 days, Sir Keir said "the thing that's changed already is the mindset of the government."
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The Prime Minister said: "It's a mindset of service. Of country first, party second. That's not a slogan, that is the test for all of our decisions."
He added: "I am restless for change and I think and hope that what you've already seen demonstrates that."
Sir Keir said that the appointments of Sir Patrick Vallance and business chief James Timpson to ministerial posts should demonstrate the party's commitment to change and "it won't surprise you to know... I've been talking to them for some time about the need for the change that we will put in place."
"We have been planning for months to hit the ground running," Sir Keir said. He said he had held extensive conversations with Cabinet and there will be "further announcements in the coming days".
"But, look, it is not an overnight exercise changing the country."
Sir Keir also vowed to "turn our back on tribal politics" because "that's what's gone wrong" in the last few years.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to "govern for the whole of the country and take the country forward, and turn our back on tribal politics and simply picking issues we want to fight just for the party politics of it.
"That's what's gone wrong, in my view, in the last few years."
He said his party's election result had given him "a clear mandate to govern for all four corners of the United Kingdom" and "to do politics differently".
Sir Keir said: "This will be a politics and a government that is about delivery, is about service. Self-interest is yesterday's politics."
He said: "We clearly on Thursday got a mandate from all four nations. For the first time in 20-plus years, we have a majority in England, in Scotland and in Wales.
"And that is a clear mandate to govern for all four corners of the United Kingdom."
The Prime Minister set out plans to travel on Sunday to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, before returning to England, during which time he would meet First Ministers and "establish a way of working across the United Kingdom that will be different and better to the way of working that we've had in recent years and to recognise the contributions of all four nations".
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Sir Keir will make his debut on the international stage as Britain's premier when he flies to Washington DC for the Nato gathering next week, which is expected to include discussions on support for Ukraine.
He told the news conference: "It is for me to be absolutely clear that the first duty of my Government is security and defence, to make clear our unshakable support of Nato.
"And of course to reiterate, as I did to President Zelenskyy yesterday, the support that we will have in this country and with our allies towards Ukraine."
Sir Keir also confirmed that the Conservatives' Rwanda scheme was "dead and buried", claiming that it had proven ineffective as a deterrent.
He said it was impossible to promise that the early release of prisoners would end.
Sir Keir added: "We've got too many prisoners, not enough prisons. That's a monumental failure of the last government on any basic view of government to get to a situation where you haven't got enough prison places for prisoners, doesn't matter what your political stripe, that is a failure of government.
"It's a failure of government to instruct the police not to arrest. This has not had enough attention, in my view, but it's what happened.
"We will fix that, but we can't fix it overnight and therefore it is impossible to simply say we will stop the early release of prisoners and you wouldn't believe me if I did say it."
