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Keir Starmer will unveil his version of New Labour’s promise card for the next general election on Thursday, with six key commitments “highlighted” as part of his party’s bid to change voters.
The campaign materials, which will be handed out to voters on doorsteps across England, will be unveiled at an event in Essex as Labor the leader has launched the party’s biggest advertising blitz since the 2019 elections.
His pledges, which include stabilizing the economy, reducing NHS waiting times, creating Great British Energy, tackling anti-social behavior and recruiting 65,000 new teachers, are the latest step in his five “national missions”.
But he is promising a sixth – the launch of a new border security command – after the party was criticized for not having a separate mission on migration, with the issue of small boats rising on the political agenda.
A Labor spokesman said the electorate was right to be concerned about migration and, rejecting the Tory plan to deport to Rwanda, added “we have a plan for the whole problem. They have a plan for 1% of it.
Labor insiders said the six “consumer-focused” questions were chosen because they were expected to go down well in battleground areas where the party hopes to attract voters in the general election.
However, they denied that this meant other policy issues such as housing and workers’ rights had been “de-deficit”, citing the example of the national minimum wage, one of New Labour’s biggest achievements, which has not was Tony Blair’s pledge card in 1997.
A party spokesman said the pledges were “not the sum total of what a Labor government hopes to achieve” and stood behind other commitments already made. However, he did not say whether the manifesto would include new promises.
Instead, the spokesman said the policies were a “bridge to longer-term plans” with each of the commitments to be achieved in the Labor government’s first term.
The party admitted that the word “promise” had lost its appeal as confidence in the policy had eroded in recent years, but suggested they would seek to explain exactly how the policies would be implemented and paid for.
The campaign event, which will be attended by the entire shadow cabinet on the back of a successful set of local results, represents the party’s biggest spending on advertising since the 2019 contest against Boris Johnson.
It will include vans and billboards, as well as regional newspaper ads in battlegrounds, with local campaign materials to hand out to voters. There will be different versions for Scotland and Wales.
Starmer was pictured with his sleeves rolled up and text about “my” first steps for change, with party insiders admitting there was a deliberate decision to put his “personal stamp” on the campaign, despite mixed personal approval ratings.
Amid frenzied speculation about a surprise guest at the event, senior party figures ruled out another defection from the Conservatives today, following right-wing Natalie Elphick’s shock defection to Labor last week.
Labor played down any importance of launching its pledges in Essex, saying it was just one of many battlegrounds, although the party’s election boss, Pat McFadden told the Guardian plans to target the south of England heavily in the general election.
At a shadow cabinet meeting ahead of the event, Starmer said the pledge card showed his “first steps” towards delivering on his missions were “a down payment on change”.
“What is crucial about these commitments is that they are part of a long-term plan to get Britain back on its feet,” he added. “Each of the first steps will respond to the aspirations of the voters, show a clear set of priorities and a powerful direction of movement.”
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