Keir Starmer to say class ceiling must shatter to let children get ahead

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Britain needs to shatter its snobbish “class ceiling” that prevents children from getting ahead, Keir Starmer is to argue in a speech setting out his fifth and final “mission” aimed at removing barriers to opportunity.

Speaking at a college in Gillingham, Kent, the Labour leader will argue that students must be taught creativity and the “human” skills that cannot be done by computers, advocating a shift in focus for the artificial intelligence age.

He will pledge to bring dedicated “child poverty reduction specialists” into the education system.

Keeping with his practice of setting out broader goals rather than specific policies until closer to an election, Starmer will argue against the “snobbery” of dividing education into vocational or academic, saying young people require both.

His proposals include revamping the schools curriculum and creating more opportunities for vocational training, an already announced programme to boost early-years provision, and as yet unstated plans to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

Another strand brings in existing promises on planning reform and housebuilding, with the target of helping 1.5 million more people own their homes.

In a first mention of a policy area that some Labour MPs had recently grumbled was absent from the missions thus far, Starmer will stress the need to tackle child poverty, with specialists on the issue sent into the education system.

Starmer has also pledged to put the ability to “speak well and express yourself” at the centre of the national curriculum, arguing in an article in the Times that the current focus on reading and writing is “shortsighted”.

The Labour leader said the skill was “key to doing well in that crucial job interview, persuading a business to give you a refund, telling your friend something awkward. Oracy is a skill that can and must be taught.”

Extracts of the speech released in advance show Starmer will argue for a focus on skills needed to adjust to the onset of artificial intelligence. This would include “a greater emphasis on creativity, on resilience, on emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt – on all the attributes, to put it starkly, that make us human, that distinguish us from learning machines,” he is to say.

Elsewhere, the speech takes a notably personal tone, with Starmer saying he was the first person in his family to go to university. He rails against the “barrier in our collective minds that narrows our ambitions for working-class children and says, sometimes with subtlety, sometimes to your face: ‘This isn’t for you.'”

Such a “class ceiling”, Starmer argues, is about not just structural injustices but “a fundamental lack of respect – a snobbery that too often extends into adulthood, raising its ugly head when it comes to inequalities at work, in pay, promotions, opportunities to progress.”

He will add: “This mission is my core purpose and my personal cause: to fight, at every stage, for every child, the pernicious idea that background equals destiny, that your circumstances, who you are, where you come from, who you know, might shape your life more than your talent, effort and enterprise.

“No, breaking that link, that’s what Labour is for. I have always felt that. It runs deep for me.”

Thus far Starmer has used a series of set-piece addresses to set out missions on crime, the NHS, green energy, and a pledge to give the UK the highest sustained growth in the G7 group of industrialised nations.

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A central part of his plans for education is to create a curriculum fit for the modern economy and to end what he calls an artificial divide between academic and vocational paths.

“The sheep and goats mentality that has always been there in English education, the ‘academic for my kids; vocational for your kids’ snobbery – this has no place in modern society, no connection to the jobs of the future,” he is to say. “For our children to succeed, they need a grounding in both: skills and knowledge, practical problem-solving and academic rigour.”

The end of the process of setting out the five missions may lead to Starmer being put under renewed pressure by some of his MPs to be more specific on how these might be achieved, including spending commitments.

One Labour backbencher said that while the pledge to equalise opportunity was welcome, there remained a “glaring omission” in how child poverty would actually be tackled, with the party yet to say if it would scrap Conservative policies such as the two-child benefit limit, something official Labour plans say cannot be decided so long before an election.

The MP said child poverty was “the gravest issue of our day – there is no greater driver of educational inequalities and underachievement. When Labour last came to power in 1997, Blair pledged to end child poverty within a generation.”

On the missions

Starmer’s five “missions“, first announced in February and fleshed out in speeches since then, are broad areas of aspiration rather than specific policy platforms, but would nonetheless form the core of what a Labour government would do. This is what they are:

Highest sustained growth in the G7. The first mission to be announced, this is the most specific of the five and arguably the most risky, given it depends on events in other countries. In a rare moment of agreement with Liz Truss, Starmer said economic growth targets were useful, while insisting Labour’s plan would be based on a stable mix of free markets and the state.

Cutting crime. A perennial pledge for any opposition party, this is seen as particularly relevant given a perception of police absence and court delays. Starmer pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, using measures including dedicated “rape courts” and domestic violence experts taking 999 calls.

Restoring the NHS. Another obvious subject for the roster, Starmer said Labour would increase real-terms spending on NHS England, although he dodged questions on how this would be done. Other priorities included a focus on better preventive health.

Making the UK a clean energy superpower. Very firmly building on the work of Ed Miliband, this mission is a restatement of intent after the party rowed back on its promise to invest ?28bn in a green industrial strategy. Starmer said he would “throw everything” at net zero and create jobs for a low-carbon future.

Improving social opportunity. The last mission to be launched, this covers everything from a revised school curriculum aimed at boosting creativity and “human” skills in the AI age, to bringing child poverty reduction experts into schools. Starmer has promised it will tackle the “class ceiling” in which children are pigeonholed according to background.