Keir Starmer says ‘things will get worse before they get better’ in Downing Road speech – UK politics stay

Starmer mentioned “things are worse than we ever imagined” after discovering a £22 billion “black hole” within the public funds. The prime minister is utilizing this argument to warn that the funds – on 30 October – might be “painful”.

“We have no other choice, given the situation that we’re in, those with the broader shoulders should bear the heavier burden,” he mentioned in his speech.

He mentioned “things are worse than we ever imagined”, telling the press convention:

Within the first few weeks we found a £22 billion black gap within the public funds and earlier than anybody says ‘Oh this is just performative or playing politics’ let’s keep in mind the OBR (Workplace for Price range Accountability) didn’t find out about it, they wrote a letter setting that out.

They didn’t know as a result of the final authorities hid it and even final Wednesday, simply final Wednesday, we discovered that due to the final authorities’s recklessness we borrowed virtually £5 billion greater than the OBR anticipated within the final three months alone. That’s not performative, that’s truth.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is planning to boost taxes, reduce spending and make adjustments to advantages in October’s funds. Reeves will obtain the OBR’s preliminary evaluation of the state of the financial system early subsequent month, however she believes there may be nothing to recommend the federal government’s underlying monetary place is getting any higher. Starmer says it “won’t be business as usual” when parliament returns on Monday.

Starmer has set out a few of his legislative priorities to reverse “14 years of rot”. This contains accelerating planing to construct houses, harnessing the potential of synthetic intelligence for progress, placing the rail service into public possession and producing clear power.

Starmer says that his new Labour authorities have “done more in seven weeks than the last government did in seven years”.

“These are just the first steps towards the change that people voted for, the change that I’m determined to deliver,” the prime minister mentioned.

He provides that change won’t occur “overnight” and points must be tackled on the “root”.

“A garden and a building that were once used for lockdown parties,” Starmer later mentioned throughout his speech within the rose backyard, including his authorities is “now back in your service”.

Keir Starmer has mentioned that “things will get worse before they get better”. He mentioned that he didn’t wish to launch some prisoners early (to keep away from overcrowding), particularly given his historical past because the CPS’ chief prosecutor, however that it was obligatory.

“It goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever done,” the prime minister mentioned in his speech.

“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, and if we don’t take tough action across the board, we won’t be able to fix the foundations of the country as we need.”

“I didn’t want to means test the winter fuel payment but it was a choice that we had to make,” Starmer continued.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, revealed plans final month to introduce a way check for the winter gas cost, the place solely these on pensions advantages would qualify, as a part of a push to plug what she mentioned was a £22bn black gap within the public funds left by the earlier Conservative administration.

Keir Starmer mentioned the riots this summer season uncovered the state of a “deeply unhealthy society”, including {that a} “mindless minority of thugs” thought hey might get away with criminality due to the damaged justice system.

He mentioned:

A senseless minority of thugs who thought that they might get away with inflicting chaos, smashing up communities and terrifying minorities, vandalizing and destroying folks’s property, even attempting to set fireplace to a constructing with human beings inside it, and as if that wasn’t despicable sufficient, folks displaying swastika tattoos, shouting racist slurs on our streets…

Now they’re studying that crime has penalties, that I gained’t tolerate a breakdown in regulation and order below any circumstances, and I can’t hearken to those that exploit grieving households and disrespect native communities. However these riots, didn’t occur in a vacuum. They uncovered, the state of our nation, revealed a deeply unhealthy society. The cracks in our foundations laid naked.

He mentioned the rioters exploited the cracks within the society left by the Conservative authorities.

“They saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of failure, and they exploited them. That’s what we’ve inherited, not just an economic black hole, a societal black hole, and that’s why we have to take action and do things differently,” Starmer mentioned.

Keir Starmer has begun his first main speech as prime minister. He’s anticipated to stipulate the federal government’s plans and priorities shifting into the autumn. Starmer is because of warn that change will take a decade – not a parliamentary time period – to implement, provided that the harm that the Conservatives did to the nation was so nice.

It is possible for you to to observe Keir Starmer’s speech at 10am on the livestream we are going to put on the prime of the weblog shortly.

The prime minister is because of make a speech within the Downing Road rose backyard with a vow to “root out 14 years of rot” and “reverse decades of decline”.

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor

Scottish Nationwide social gathering ministers are contemplating slicing or limiting common advantages on which its electoral successes had been constructed, together with free prescriptions, free bus journey and free college meals, in a concerted drive to chop public spending.

With a few of these measures seen as middle-class subsidies, ministers have already ordered cuts to flood defence spending, the Scottish arts funds, council spending on nature restoration and, it has emerged, free iPads for some college youngsters.

The Occasions experiences that Caroline Lamb, the director common for well being and social care within the devolved authorities, has informed civil servants there’s a £1.1bn spending hole in her division, pushed largely by public sector pay offers just lately agreed by ministers.

She informed her workers they wanted to avoid wasting £750m this monetary 12 months, and put together for the extra value pressures of £357m extra subsequent 12 months to cowl pay will increase. The Occasions experiences that free tuition for Scottish college and school college students can also be below scrutiny.

Shona Robison, the Scottish finance secretary, issued an order to all her division heads earlier this month to implement “emergency controls” on spending pushed by the warning from Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, that the UK authorities had a £22bn spending hole to bridge.

The chancellor’s cuts to spending for English or pan-UK departments will straight have an effect on Scotland’s grant from the Treasury.

Robison’s directions have led to officers cancelling some initiatives, curbing others or slicing closely on in-year spending. She is getting ready for an emergency spending assertion when Holyrood resumes in early September.

These cuts increase important political dangers for the SNP: a lot of their reputation has been primarily based on the upper per capita spending for Scottish public providers than the UK common, and the SNP’s willingness to fund common advantages, together with free bus journey for all over-60s and below 22s; a council tax freeze; abolishing bridge tolls and hospital parking charges; a brief suspension of peak rail fares and subsidised ferry fares.

Lamb, additionally the chief govt of NHS Scotland, informed her officers “we have been experiencing a worsening, overall, underlying, financial deficit over a number of years”.

“[We’ve] managed to almost limp over the line over the last year or two but we’ve now got to the point where it’s actually a bit of a tipping point,” she informed civil servants.

Senior officers on the Overseas Workplace repeatedly warned No 10 that Rishi Sunak mustn’t depart June’s D-day commemoration in Normandy early, in keeping with new revelations in a ebook concerning the Tories’ 14 years in energy.

The division handed on two messages to Downing Road within the weeks main as much as the occasion, which had been then ignored in what has gone down because the worst election marketing campaign blunder of the final 14 years.

The declare is contained within the paperback model of Blue Homicide, by the Each day Telegraph’s political editor, Ben Riley-Smith.

The Guardian has additionally spoken to a number of sources concerning the occasions of that day, giving the fullest image but of the error that got here to outline Sunak’s marketing campaign and taint his total premiership.

Based on the ebook, the Overseas Workplace offered written recommendation on two events earlier than the occasion telling Downing Road that the prime minister ought to attend.

The primary got here just a few weeks earlier than the occasion and the second just some days earlier than, as soon as it turned clear that Keir Starmer can be attending, as would the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

You possibly can learn the total story by Kiran Stacey, a political correspondent for the Guardian, right here:

Labour social gathering chairman, Ellie Reeves, has been on LBC this morning. She mentioned Labour will sort out the prisons disaster, which has seen the judiciary ask magistrates’ courts to delay sending some criminals to jail within the coming weeks due to unprecedented overcrowding.

Chatting with LBC radio, Reeves mentioned:

The prime minister might be talking later in the present day concerning the inheritance from 14 years of Conservative authorities, the black gap within the nation’s funds, but in addition the societal black gap that we’re going through.

For instance, the truth that the jail property has been working at 99% capability with no plan from the earlier authorities to repair that, so he’ll be speaking about fixing the foundations.

Beneath the earlier authorities, we noticed the sticking plaster politics papering over the cracks, hoping that one thing would come up, whereas Keir Starmer, the prime minister, needs to repair the foundations of the nation so that individuals’s lives may be higher.

As much as 2,000 prisoners are anticipated to be launched within the second week of September as a part of an early launch scheme, known as SDS40, which can enable many prisoners to stroll from jail after serving 40% of their sentences. A second tranche of as much as 1,700 prisoners, all jailed for greater than 5 years, are anticipated to be freed in late October.

A senior official from Napo, the probation officers’ union, mentioned its members had been attempting to arrange for the early launch scheme in September, however the authorities was unable to keep up staffing ranges, not to mention recruit extra, as required.

Simon Goodley

Simon Goodley is a Guardian enterprise reporter

The UK authorities has awarded KPMG a £223m contract to coach civil servants regardless of pledging to slash state spending on exterior consultants.

Beneath the 15-month take care of the Cupboard Workplace, which is reportedly the second-largest public sector contract ever gained by KPMG, the agency will handle coaching and improvement providers throughout the civil service.

This contains overseeing programs on policymaking, communications and profession improvement, in addition to coaching for assessed or accredited {qualifications} run by universities, enterprise faculties and specialist suppliers.

Information of the contract, which was first reported by the Monetary Occasions, comes after the brand new Labour authorities introduced final month it could take rapid motion to cease all non-essential authorities consultancy spending in 2024-25 as a part of a transfer to halve the federal government consultancy invoice in future years.

The price-saving initiative will save £550m in 2024-25 and £680m in 2025-26, in keeping with Treasury estimates. The federal government mentioned the civil service headcount cap can be lifted to assist departments obtain the goal.

The KPMG contract was awarded simply days earlier than the federal government set out its cost-saving proposals, the official report of the contract award units out. Its most worth represents almost 8% of KPMG’s annual UK revenues, making it the second-biggest public sector contract awarded to the agency, in keeping with the info supplier Tussell.

The Conservatives accused Labour of “cronyism” after the Sunday Occasions reported that main Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli was in a position to entry Downing Road, regardless of not having an official authorities function.

Alli, a tv govt who was given a peerage by Tony Blair in 1998, is a vital determine within the Labour social gathering, having personally donated £500,000 since 2020. He labored because the social gathering’s chief fundraiser for the final election, having been employed by Keir Starmer in 2022, because the Guardian’s political correspondent, Kiran Stacey, explains on this report.

Ellie Reeves, the Labour social gathering chair, was requested concerning the experiences in the present day. She insisted that the “proper processes” had been adopted when questioned on why Lord Alli was given a go to Quantity 10.

Reeves, who additionally holds the federal government submit of minister with out portfolio, informed Sky Information:

Properly, there’s no guidelines that forestall somebody who has made a donation or had a political job prior to now being, having a job.

There are guidelines that should be adopted, there are processes that should be adopted, and it’s necessary that these guidelines are revered.

Lord Alli had a go for just a few weeks. I don’t know all the small print of that, however I’m certain the right processes had been adopted.

He had a go for just a few weeks, as I perceive it, he hasn’t acquired a go now. He’s a nicely revered determine, a Labour peer.

Cupboard Workplace minister Ellie Reeves has been talking on Sky Information. She has been requested concerning the determination to start out means-testing pensioner’s winter gas allowance, which might restrict funds to individuals who obtain pension credit or different means-tested advantages (here’s a helpful explainer on pension credit score eligibility). Labour MPs have warned that the choice might result in a “cruel winter” for probably the most weak folks within the nation.

Reeves blamed the Tories’ “economic mess” for the restrictions on winter gas funds and denied claims that Cupboard members are break up on the coverage.

Chatting with Sky Information, she mentioned:

That is an extremely powerful determination, and never one which the Chancellor wished to be taking, however it’s due to the financial mess that we’ve inherited from the earlier authorities.

The Cupboard are behind the chancellor on this. This can be a determination that’s been taken by the chancellor, with the assist of the Cupboard, there aren’t splits on this.

It’s a call that nobody wished to be within the place to should make, it’s not one thing that we wished to do, however it’s one thing that’s the accountable factor to do due to that £22 billion black gap within the nation’s funds.

Good morning and welcome again to our rolling protection of UK politics.

Keir Starmer will ship a closely briefed speech within the gardens of Downing Road forward of parliament’s return subsequent week. The prime minister will vow to “reverse a decade of decline” and to “fix the foundations” of the UK financial system.

The prime minister will promise that his authorities will do the “hard work” to “root out 14 years of rot” below the Conservatives.

Ministers have already been closely criticised for ending winter gas funds for tens of millions of pensioners. Starmer can also be below stress to finish the two-child profit cap and prolong the £1bn family assist fund, which is because of finish in September.

The prime minister will use his speech – as a result of be delivered at 10am – to warn that “frankly – things will get worse before we get better” because the Labour administration tries to take care of “not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole”.

He’s anticipated to say:

The riots didn’t simply betray the illness, they revealed the treatment, discovered not within the cynical battle of populism however within the coming collectively of a rustic the morning after and cleared up their group.

As a result of that’s who we’re, that’s what we stand for. Individuals who cared for his or her neighbour.

Communities who stood quick towards hatred and division. Emergency providers who did their responsibility – even after they had been in peril. And a authorities that put the folks of this nation first.

Writing in The Occasions, Starmer mentioned that “once trust is broken, it is difficult to get back”, saying he stood on the steps of Downing Road after the final election and promised to steer a authorities that may “return politics to public service, to rebuild that hope and trust”.

Reacting to particulars of the prime minister’s speech, Tory social gathering chairman Richard Fuller mentioned:

That is nothing however a performative speech to distract the general public from the guarantees Starmer made that he by no means had any intention of conserving.

In fewer than 100 days, the Labour Get together has dumped its ambition of public service and develop into engulfed in sleaze, handed out bumper payouts to its union paymasters with ‘no strings’ hooked up and laid the groundwork to hurt pensioners and tax working folks.

In different information:

• A £40m VIP helicopter contract used extensively by the previous prime minister Rishi Sunak is to be cancelled. Starmer and his defence secretary, John Healey, have determined to not renew a contract for helicopter transport which is because of expire on the finish of the 12 months after it was prolonged in 2023 at Sunak’s private insistence.

• The Scottish authorities has been informed to “take responsibility” for fixing the nation’s financial points. Scottish Labour chief Anas Sarwar has sought to capitalise on dire monetary information in current months by releasing what the social gathering is looking a file laying out the extent of Scotland’s “economic decline and financial mismanagement” that may be laid on the foot of ministers.

• Rachel Reeves might increase a minimum of £10bn a 12 months by a radical shake-up of pensions that may make tax aid much less beneficiant to better-off earners, a number one left-of-centre thinktank has mentioned. The report by the Fabian Society says tax breaks for pensions have develop into markedly dearer for the federal government and its proposed adjustments would fill half the £22bn shortfall the chancellor has recognized within the public funds. You possibly can learn extra on this story right here.

It’s Yohannes Lowe right here with you in the present day. Please do electronic mail me on yohannes.lowe@theguardian.com when you spot any typos or omissions.