Climate crisis battle an ‘opportunity’ for working people, says Starmer

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Winning the battle against the climate crisis provides the biggest opportunity in decades to make the economy deliver for working people, Keir Starmer has said.

Speaking at a business leaders’ dinner in London, the Labour leader said there was no cause for gloom despite the need for radical and immediate action to protect the planet from global heating.

Starmer said Labour’s ?28bn-a-year investment plan for a green economy would deliver the jobs and businesses of the future, cut gas and electricity bills, and give the UK energy independence. He was speaking ahead of this month’s Cop27 conference in Egypt, where countries will discuss ways of speeding up progress on tackling the climate crisis.

It is not clear whether Rishi Sunak will attend the summit – he has previously said he wants to focus on mending the economy – but the Labour leader said that without energy security, there would be no economic security.

“There’s no need for gloom,” he said. “The way I see it, this is the biggest opportunity we’ve had in decades to make this country work for working people.

“A chance to create the jobs, the industries, the businesses of the future, deliver cheaper bills for working people. And real independence from tyrants like Putin and their fossil-fuel economic weapons, that’s what our green prosperity plan is all about. It’s cheap, clean, British energy – everywhere by 2030.”

Labour would have an industrial strategy that included all sectors of the economy, he said, rather than simply those at the cutting edge of the fourth industrial revolution.

Starmer, who has made reaching out to business one of his policy aims, was speaking at the SME4Labour gala dinner, where he said the party must “stand with working people and meet their ambitions for real change”.

He said: “Our industrial strategy isn’t just for firms experimenting at the edge of technology’s horizons, it’s a plan to support all businesses, to put what Rachel Reeves [the shadow chancellor] calls ‘the everyday economy’ front and centre as well.

“We need to win the race for electric car batteries, quantum computers, personalised medicines – absolutely,” Starmer added. “But we also need to support the small traders who replace our car batteries, the IT firms who get our offices running smoothly, the pharmacies who sell medicine in our communities.

“The Tories are always about the richest 1%. That’s how they see the economy – people and businesses. For them, growth comes from the top-down, not from the grassroots; it’s why they’re always fiddling with corporation tax, but never think to reform business rates. They don’t get it. And it’s a crucial part of the stagnation they’ve given us for 12 years.”