Keir Starmer will launch the Labour Party’s manifesto on Friday with a focus on growing the economy.
Speaking in Manchester, Starmer will say: “Growth is our core business — the end and the means of national renewal.”
He will argue: “Sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people. That is why it is Labour’s first mission for government. It means being pro-business and pro-worker. We are the party of wealth creation.”
The launch comes at the end of a week of manifesto events as the parties set out their pitches to voters.
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The Conservative Party launched its manifesto on Tuesday with a focus on tax cuts.
At the Silverstone racetrack in Northamptonshire, Rishi Sunak unveiled a surprise plan to abolish National Insurance payments for almost all self-employed people.
What Rishi Sunak’s manifesto launch means for the Conservative election campaign
Keir Starmer has said Labour’s manifesto will feature no tax rises beyond the three the party has already set out — charging private schools VAT, abolishing the non-dom tax status, and closing “loopholes” in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
The Labour leader will also pledge not to increase the rate of income tax, national insurance or VAT, and recommit to a cap on corporation tax at 25 per cent.
Labour’s six “first steps” have featured heavily on the campaign trail and are set to form the centrepiece of the manifesto.
The party’s steps include plans to set up GB Energy, a state-owned company which would invest in renewable energy projects, cut NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 new appointments per week, hire 6,500 new teachers, crack down on anti-social behaviour and launch a specialist Border Security Command.
But it is the economy, the first of Labour’s “first steps”, that will form the centrepiece of the manifesto.
Speaking ahead of Labour’s manifesto launch, Keir Starmer said: “Some people say that how you grow the economy is not a central question — that it’s not about how you create wealth, but how you tax it, how you spend it, how you slice the cake, that’s all that matters.
“So let me be crystal clear — this manifesto is a total rejection of that argument, because if you transform the nature of the jobs market, change the infrastructure that supports investment into our economy, reform the planning regime, start to unlock the potential of billions upon billions in projects that are ready to go, held up by the blockers of aspiration, then that does so much more to our long-term growth prospects.
“The same is true of our public services. If we could grow the economy at anything like the level the last Labour Government did, that’s an extra £70 billion worth of investment for our public services.
“Wealth creation is our number one priority. Growth is our core business – the end and the means of national renewal. The mandate we seek from Britain at this election is for economic growth.
“This changed Labour Party has a plan for growth. We are pro-business and pro-worker. The party of wealth creation.
“We have a plan in this manifesto that represents a total change in direction, that is laser-focused on our cause. A Government back in the service of you and your family.”
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