Starmer daren’t tell us his true plans for the economy

It will get the economy growing, restore public services, and complete the transition to a Net Zero economy, while lowering energy bills, and of course creating tens of thousands of “well-paid green jobs”. 

At the launch of the Labour Manifesto this morning, Sir Keir Starmer did his best to reassure everyone that his administration would be both moderate and sensible. Yet given that this was, in reality, a contract for government, Labour’s blueprint was also terrifyingly lacking in detail. There is a very simple reason for that. Sir Keir does not dare tell anyone the real truth. If he did his campaign could begin to unravel.

If it was pictures of Sir Keir Starmer you were looking for, with that slightly entitled frown that is his trademark, then Labour’s Manifesto was perfect. Dozens of them were scattered across the document. If it was, however, a detailed programme for the next five years, you are likely to be disappointed. Sure, the familiar policies were all there, much as expected. VAT will be imposed on school fees, GB Energy will secure our energy supplies, and there will be a programme of housebuilding and a target to cut NHS waiting lists. It was long on vague aspirations, and short on how a Labour administration would actually achieve them.

It has been reported the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is planning an emergency budget for the autumn that will include substantial tax rises. While it’s true the party has ruled out increases in the main rates of income tax, corporation tax and National Insurance, this leaves a lot still on the table. 

It now looks inevitable that Capital Gains Tax will be doubled, hitting entrepreneurs, and anyone with investments. The self-employed and small businesses will be clobbered by lowering the VAT threshold. Landlords will be hit with NI charges on rental income. And corporation tax could be effectively doubled by scaling back “full expensing”. Add them all up and taxes will be pushed to a 100-year high. 

It looks inevitable that pension funds will be raided. The £1.2 trillion of wealth locked up in the UK’s pension system is the last great source of money that governments have so far left largely alone. Labour is planning to corral it into building “green infrastructure”, regardless of the potential returns, which will amount to a tax in all but name.

Finally, immigration could be ramped up. With flatlining growth, which  tax rises will only depress only further, the only way a Labour government will be able to maintain increases to GDP will be to open the e-gates at the airports and import more low-skilled, foreign workers. The manifesto plays it safe. It is designed to reassure voters that they will simply be getting a more competent government. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. In office Sir Keir Starmer will be the most left-wing Prime Minister the UK has had in 50 years – and the results will be catastrophic.