Keir Starmer is accused of ‘conning the public’ over the state of Britain’s finances: Tory chairman says PM has ‘fabricated’ problems amid claim that things will only get WORSE before they get better
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of ‘conning the public’ over his grim assessment of the state of Britain’s finances.
The Prime Minister was accused of having ‘showered billions of taxpayers’ money on union paymasters while ‘parachuting donors and supporters into top taxpayer funded jobs’.
Sir Keir will this week warn of more pain to come as he claims that the state of modern Britain is ‘worse than we ever imagined’.
Conservative Party chairman Richard Fuller also attacked ‘soft-touch’ Chancellor Rachel Reeves for ‘fabricating’ a financial black hole in order to raise taxes.
Mr Fuller said: ‘Just two months in and Keir Starmer has taken winter fuel payments off 10 million pensioners, showered billions of taxpayers’ money on his union paymasters and is now engulfed in a cronyism scandal after parachuting donors and supporters into top taxpayer funded jobs.
Sir Keir Starmer will this week warn of more pain to come as he claims that the state of modern Britain is ‘worse than we ever imagined’
Tory party chairman Richard Fuller accused the Prime Minister of ‘fabricating’ financial problems ‘to con the public into accepting tax increases
‘The soft-touch Labour Chancellor is squandering money whilst fabricating a financial black hole in an attempt to con the public into accepting tax rises, and literally leaving pensioners in the cold.’
In his first major speech since entering No 10, the Prime Minister will say that ‘things will get worse before they get better’.
And he will claim as well as inheriting a £22 billion blackhole from the Tories, Labour had also been left a ‘societal blackhole’.
Speaking on Sunday, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden told broadcasters the speech would represent a change from the rhetoric of the previous government.
He told LBC: ‘I think it’s a refreshing departure not to engage in some of the snake oil that has been sold to people in recent years and actually have a Prime Minister who says, look, we know it’s a tough situation. You know it’s tough. That’s why you voted for change.
‘Change will come, but we’ve got to work through some of these challenges first.
He added: ‘We have got a difficult economic inheritance, there is no point in running away from that, and we have a number of challenges.
‘But we have already started work.
‘We have announced plans for a National Wealth Fund. We have announced plans to build more houses.
Rachel Reeves was accused of ‘fabricating’ the scale of an economic black hole in order to justify tax rises
‘We have lifted the ban on onshore wind, starting that energy transition that is really important.
‘So, progress is being made, we are at the start of a journey of change in this Parliament.
‘Change has already begun, and more change will come in future years.’
But Sir Keir will vow not to ‘shy away from making unpopular decisions’ to restore the country, and fix the ‘rot’ left by the Tories.
Last night Labour sources denied that was code for punishing tax hikes expected in this Autumn’s Budget, saying the PM was ‘trying to be honest that the change people voted for will take time’.
It comes with his Government accused of caving into the union barons by agreeing huge wage deals at the same time as it cuts winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners. But Sir Keir justifies the pay deals, saying ‘we’ve ended the strikes that have crippled our country for years.
‘Because I defy anyone to tell me that you can grow an economy when people can’t get to work – because the transport system is broken. Or can’t return to work – because they’re stuck on an NHS waiting list.’
The PM will also seek to link this Summer’s riots with 14 years of ‘populism’ and Tory failures, claiming ‘people torching cars, making threats’ were exploiting the country’s ‘broken’ system.
‘They were betting on it. They were gaming it.’
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden told broadcasters on Sunday that Sir Keir’s speech would represent a change of rhetoric from the previous government
Sir Keir also claims years of Tory failure – including ‘not having enough prison spaces’ – meant that dealing with this summer’s riots was ‘much harder’ than tackling the 2011 disturbances when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
To back up his claim that ‘frankly, things will get worse before they get better’, he will say: ‘I didn’t want to release prisoners early…
‘But to be blunt, if we hadn’t taken that difficult decision immediately, we wouldn’t have been able to respond to the riots as we did.’
Boasting that ‘we’ve done more in seven weeks than the last government did in seven years’, he will accuse the Tories of ‘still not being honest’ about the £22billion black hole.
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Keir Starmer’s performing a tribute act — and he won’t like to be compared to this party
Keir Starmer performed a tribute act at the Labour conference (Image: PA)
Democracy is about genuine choice or it is really about nothing. Little wonder Reform UK is surging in the polls when there is increasingly little to distinguish Britain’s two main parties.
Following Sir Keir Starmer’s conference speech one must conclude the Tory tribute act only gets him so far.
Of course, Labour would chafe at this comparison – it is, the party would argue, leading a mission-driven Government to deliver better results for the NHS, relieve poverty and make work pay, with a bit more of a role for the state in the running of the economy. If the country must suck up a bit of austerity for that, then so be it. The ends therefore justify the means.
Yet, it isn’t hard to imagine a Tory leader saying pretty much the same things. Just as it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine a Labour leader botching Brexit and opening the borders to record immigration just as the Tories recently did.
Sure, it is difficult to imagine the Conservatives lifting the VAT exemption on private schools as Labour commits to do. But even the Rwanda plan has been scrapped only for an Albanian one to be floated.
Despite Sir Keir’s efforts, the mood seemed a little low at conference (Image: PA)
Both parties are fairly open to mass immigration – okay maybe in the Tories’ case this has more to do with business needs, but the effect remains the same – plus net zero and relatively high taxation, while the jury is still out on how committed Labour really is in standing up to nimbyism and getting Britain building again.
The vibes may differ, but it isn’t much good the Tories rhetorically standing up against “wokeism” when they did little to stop its impact in government. No good either Labour slamming Tory austerity when it comes into office and does much the same.
This can only create an opportunity for Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Untested in power, but untainted by charges of hypocrisy, the anti-mass migration, anti-net zero, pro-business and low tax party is fast distinguishing itself as the unofficial opposition to Sir Keir’s Labour.
And Reform UK is really an outlier. The Lib Dems and Greens have largely been squeezed out by the scale of Labour’s victory, even as the Lib Dems won a much larger number of seats on July 4, while admittedly both parties stand to gain if Leftist voters sour on Labour.
But if there is little to distinguish the Conservatives from Labour, even less separates Labour from the Lib Dems, beyond maybe some disagreement over how far into bed the UK should get with Europe.
Despite what most politicians believe, voters aren’t thick, and can see not only that actions speak louder than words, but sense a bait-and-switch when they see one.
This happened both in the aftermath of the Tories 2019 landslide and feels like it is happening again under Labour. Democracy is about the freedom to choose but that freedom is pointless unless there is actually a genuine choice on offer.
Again, this can only be to the advantage of Nigel Farage, as Reform breathes down Labour’s neck in coastal and post-industrial communities. Labour knows it needs to talk tough on migration to guard against Reform, but – like the Tories before them – the voters can smell a phoney a mile off.
In the social media era, voters want authenticity and personality. Donald Trump is very much a creature of this era as is Farage. Neither would have the pulling power they do without the internet. Trump would never have been President in 1996, and Farage would have struggled to cut through before he could go direct-to-consumer on YouTube and TikTok.
Farage may have been mocked when he merely said it was possible he could become PM by 2029. But he’s right. It is possible, and the more Labour and the Tories are ideologically indistinguishable the more probable it becomes.
Sir Keir and Labour will get their five years at least, if for no other reason than – even with a new leader – the Tories are unlikely to wipe away the stench of the last 14 years. But today’s voters have had enough of anodyne copycat policies.
There is only one winner from this blending of the two main parties, and it isn’t the new Prime Minister or whoever gets the poisoned chalice of the Tory leadership. The Honourable Member for Clacton will be gunning for both.
