Andrew Marr: 'I'm sick of nothing in the UK working - and I'm interested in how Keir Starmer could change that'

23 February 2023, 18:15

Sir Keir Starmer is asking British voters to ask whether the country around them is working as it should after more than a decade of Conservative rule, Andrew Marr has said.

Andrew was speaking on LBC after Sir Keir unveiled his five “national missions” to fix Britain on Thursday.

The presenter said: "Good evening. Do you feel better off, or worse off, than you were three years ago or five years or ten years ago? Better? Worse? You yourself. Take a moment to think about that.

"Next, do you think things in general are working better, or worse, than they used to? By 'things' I just mean the obvious stuff we bump into day to day – hospitals, ambulances, schools, I mean courts, prisons, the roads system, I mean the state of the rivers and the state of the shops.

"Again, I’m asking you to make a personal, instinctive choice: in general, better or worse?

Andrew Marr says he is interested in Keir Starmer's new approach

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"Now the reason I'm asking these questions today, as Keir Starmer describes his political mission at a speech in Manchester -  is that what I've just said seems to be basically the developing Labour attack line."

Andrew added that when Labour's pitch to voters is "guys, just stand still a sec and look around you", the Tories "must be in a pretty terminal state. Game over."

But he said that "as ever in politics, things are a little more complicated.

"Sir Keir unveiled big general promises about putting things right - you know, a better health service and above all that he would grow the economy so that Britain had the highest sustained growth in the G7 by the end of the first Labour term. Lovely.

"But how? Isn't this just free apple pie for all? Starmer says he wants something called a mission-driven government which really means focused on the long-term, and on a few really big problems; and everyone working together - which I guess is what most of us would hope government was like all the time but of course isn’t. It’s decent, noble stuff.

"I've always thought Starmer has the potential to be a much better Prime Minister than he is, frankly, a politician. His speech didn't answer the big questions about tax - how's he going to raise the money he needs – or Europe - is that faster growth going to come from trading properly again with the continent? Nor will it satisfy the left.

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"Yesterday the socialist campaign group Momentum attacked Starmer for ditching his old commitment to nationalisation and said of today's speech that 'his promises lie in tatters, ditched in favour of the reheated third way Blairism typified by these latest vapid missions'. Ouch.

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"The Tories as well accuse him of chopping and changing, as of course they would. Cards on the table. As somebody who is really fed up of the failure of so much in this country to work properly, and the endless loudly trumpeted initiatives from government that never seem to get anywhere, I'm interested in this new approach.

"But it all sounds complicated and I might just be naive. At any rate, today I want to ask whether government can really do better.