Starmer dismisses Tory leadership contest as ‘Thatcherite cosplay’ – UK politics live

Read More

Good morning. Keir Starmer will make a speech this morning arguing that a key problem facing Britain is that, for at least a decade, growth has been feeble. It is an argument that Starmer and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have been making for some time (the trend rate of growth was higher before the financial crash, when Labour was in power, and low growth ultimately means lower living standards and less money for public services). But suddenly this territory is now rather croweded. In the Tory leadership contest Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are both promising to unleash growth, and some of Truss’s comments in particular about how dismal the government’s record has been over the last decade could be copy and pasted straight into a Starmer speech.

Starmer will address that point in his speech. According to extracts released in advance, here are two of the points he will make.

Starmer will dismiss the Tory leadership contest as “Thatcherite cosplay”. He will say:

You will see a clear contrast between my Labour party and the Thatcherite cosplay on display tonight [in the Tory leadership debate]. The difference between a Labour party ready to take Britain forward. And a Tory party that wants to take us back into the past.

Between Labour growth and Tory stagnation. That will be the choice at the next election and we are ready.

And he will say that promoting growth is now as important for Labour as redistribution. He will say:

The approach to growth I have set out today will challenge my party’s instincts.

It pushes us to care as much about growth and productivity, as we have done about redistribution and investment in the past. Not to hark back to our old ideas in the face of new challenges.

As my colleague Robert Booth reports in his preview of the speech, Starmer will also set out plans for a new industrial strategy council, established on a statutory footing to become “a permanent part of the [economic] landscape”.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Keir Starmer gives a speech in Liverpool on Labour’s policy for growth.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

9pm: Liz Truss debates Rishi Sunak in Stoke-on-Trent in the BBC’s Tory leadership debate.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com