Starmer looks back in anger: "Things will get worse before they get better"

By The News Agents

The Prime Minister told the country to prepare for a painful period as he attempts to fix the “14 years of rot” left behind by the Tories.

In brief…

• In his latest speech, Keir Starmer said his government has inherited an abysmal set of financial and societal circumstances that will take time to fix.
• His core message was “things will get worse before they get better”, warning the October budget will be a painful one.
• He defended the difficult decisions he has already had to make, blaming the last 14 years of Conservative rule for the issues at hand.

The News Agents on Keir Starmer's August speech

What’s the story

Oasis might be getting back together, but this is nothing like Labour’s glory days of 1997 under Tony Blair.

In fact, things are worse than Keir Starmer ever imagined, who says things will get even worse before they gets better.

This is the bleak message the Prime Minister gave Britain on Tuesday morning, fresh from their bank holiday weekend, in a press conference from the garden of 10 Downing Street.

He blamed the Tories for a heap of problems Labour inherited, somberly warning more difficult decisions are to come in the coming months.

What did Starmer say?

From lockdown parties to lying about the state of the country’s finances, Starmer said it will take time to fix the “14 years of rot” left behind by the Conservative Party.

He said there have been “difficult decisions” he didn’t want to make but has already been forced to, such as slashing the winter fuel payment for pensioners.

But prepare for worse. He warned the October Budget will be “painful” given the “situation we are in” as he gears up for inevitable tax rises.

“We have not just inherited an economic black hole, but a societal black hole," he said, referring to recent riots that have erupted across Britain.

These were in part birthed out of the "snake oil of populism" allowed to fester under the Tories, Starmer claimed.

“Just as when I responded to the riots, I’ll have to turn to the country and make big asks of you as well, to accept short term pain for long term good.

“The difficult trade off for the genuine solution”, he said.

He pinpointed the lack of prison spaces as about as "fundamental a failure" of the system as you can get.

"Here we are without the prison spaces we need” he said, adding “I can’t build a prison by Saturday”.

So it “won’t be business as usual” when Parliament returns, Starmer said, referring to the lockdown parties that happened in Downing Street under Boris Johnson.

He said: “This is a garden and a building once used for lockdown parties…this garden and this building is now back in your service.”

It may seem all doom and gloom, but there was some positive messaging too.

He promised to introduce new legislation to protect taxpayers, build new homes and promote economic growth.

Starmer also said his government would nationalise the railways and preside over the largest "leveling up of workers right in a generation".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves tells The News Agents: "I think we will have to increase taxes"

The News Agents take

It ain’t 1997 anymore, Dorothy.

Lewis Goodall says Starmer’s speech from the Downing Street rose garden on Tuesday showed no greater sign than this - that we are a far cry away from the Cool Britannia years.

It was just “pure bad” about the state of Britain, Jon Sopel notes.

A strange, glaring contrast to the electrifying, upbeat atmosphere of the Democrats’ National Convention in Chicago The News Agents attended last week.

It was also “pure politics”, says Lewis, who notes that there was “almost no policy to it at all”.

He adds: “He [Starmer] was setting the sort of tone and the prism through which he wants us to see politics in the next few months.

“It was building on themes that he's already established…with the new government blaming the Tories for the woes that Britain has.”

It may have been light on policy, but Lewis made some predictions.

He says: “I think it's very likely we're going to see a change on capital gains tax. I think it's very likely that we'll see changes in the way the state deals with pensions and taxes pensions. Perhaps there'll be a form of extra wealth taxation on the table. Maybe some change maybe some changes in inheritance tax. ”

But Lewis adds that the “difficulty is, these are all things that raise some money, not loads of money”.

He adds: “The political problem is that Labour in the election not only ruled out those things, but said that they had no plans to increase taxation.”

And the fact that the Tories ran their election campaign warning Labour would raise taxes, when they promised they wouldn’t, could prove to be a political challenge for Labour.

Jon says that what was good about Starmer’s speech was “the manner in which he was trying to frame political debate”.

That is, to “get away from the populism that has infected British politics over the past seven, eight years.” He adds: “We've now got someone who's saying, ‘You know what, life is complicated. On a whole range of issues, there needs to be a more grown up debate.’”

Listen to Jon and Lewis’ take on Starmer’s latest speech on today’s episode of The News Agents.

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