Keir Starmer: No tax cuts before economy grows under Labour

Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants to see lower taxes for working people but the economy needs to be growing first.

In a speech setting out his party's vision at the start of a general election year, the Labour leader said he wanted to defeat the Conservatives with "project hope".

He said he wanted the election to be fought on the economy.

An election must take place before the end of January 2025 but it is up to Rishi Sunak when exactly to call one.

In response, Sir Keir accused the PM of "squatting in Downing Street for months on ends, dithering and delaying while the country wants change".

With Labour significantly ahead of the Tories in the polls, Sir Keir said his party was ready to fight an election.

Sir Keir's new year speech did not include any new policy announcements.

Instead, he sought to present a positive vision to voters ahead of the next general election.

The Labour leader said he understood the "despair of a downtrodden country" but urged voters to "choose the hope of a national renewal".

"To truly defeat this miserabilist Tory project, we must crush their politics of divide and decline with a new project hope," he said.

"Not a grandiose utopian hope. Not the hope of the easy answer, the quick fix, or the miracle cure. People have had their fill of that from politicians over the past 14 years.

"No - they need credible hope, a frank hope, a hope that levels with you about the hard road ahead, but which shows you a way through, a light at the end of the tunnel. The hope of a certain destination."

After his speech, Sir Keir faced questions from journalists over the party's position on tax cuts and whether a Labour government would unfreeze income tax thresholds.

Under the government's current policy, National Insurance and income tax bands have been frozen until 2028, meaning millions of people will be pulled into a higher tax band or see a greater proportion of their salaries taxed when their pay rises.

Sir Keir said that "in principle" he wanted to see lower taxes on working people but that "before we get to the question of tax we've got to grow the economy".

With economic growth stagnant last year, he added: "The first lever that we will pull is the growth lever because in the end that's the only way we're going to get the money we need to fund our public services."

Sir Keir also said he was "fundamentally opposed" to the idea of scrapping or reducing inheritance tax - something some Conservative MPs have called for.

Asked if Labour would overturn any cut to inheritance tax if the party wins power, Sir Keir said: "I don't believe in tax breaks for those who are already well-off when there's nothing on offer for working people."

In his speech Sir Keir pledged to "clean up politics" with a "crackdown on cronyism", saying the public were "right to be anti-Westminster" and "angry about what politics has become".

"After the sex scandals, the expenses scandals, the waste scandals, the contracts for friends, even in a crisis like the pandemic, some people have looked at us and concluded we're all just in it for ourselves," he said.

Sir Keir said a Labour government would "restore standards in public life" and show "zero tolerance towards the darker side of Westminster".