Starmer warns of ‘difficult choices’ over NHS, tuition fees and two-child benefit cap – UK politics live
Labour leader quizzed on Today show says damage to economy means he cannot implement ‘ideal world’ policies
Good morning. Keir Starmer has been giving interviews this morning, including on the Today programme. Labour is promising “change” but today Starmer seemed determined to temper expectations, repeatedly stressing that that there were things he would like to do in “an ideal world” which voters should not be expecting after 4 July.
When Starmer was running for the Labour leadership in 2020, he said he supported abolishing university tuition fees. On the Today programme, asked by Mishal Husain if he still believed in that, Starmer said he certainly wanted to change the current arrangements. He said since 2020 there had been “huge damage” to the economy. He said he thought the government could not afford to put more money into the NHS and to abolish tuition fees, and he had decided to not abolish tuition fees. People would understand this, he argued.
I came into politics, as you know, late. It’s actually how most people think, which is look, yes, in an ideal world I would like a number of things, but in the real world, I can’t have them all and I’ve got to make some difficult choices.
I’d rather make the choice now, this side of the election, than say something now in my heart of hearts which I know is not deliverable on the other side of the election.
Well, in an ideal world, of course, but we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment.
Well, in an ideal world, we’ll be able to do that. I’ll be clear, we want to grow the economy so we can absolutely put the money where it’s needed.
I think one of the big mistakes that governments make is not to be clear enough in their project – what are the things that matter most that we’ve got to tackle first?
Yeah, absolutely, but I’ll tell you what – I will have an umbrella.
The image of a man who says ‘I’m the only one with a plan’ standing in the rain without an umbrella is, to put it politely, pretty farcical …
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