Keir Starmer warns Labour WON’T be able to splurge money if he wins the keys to Downing Street – as he reels from left-wing backlash over praising Thatcher

Keir Starmer will today risk fuelling unrest among Labour activists as he warned the party will not be able to splurge money if it wins power.  

Sir Keir is set to highlight the ‘huge constraints’ on the public finances and the need to be ‘ruthless’ about spending in a speech.

The intervention comes as a furious spat with the Labour left rages over the leader heaping praise on Margaret Thatcher.

Sir Keir used an article yesterday to hail the Conservative doyenne’s ‘driving sense of purpose’ and for dragging Britain ‘out of its stupor’ by unleashing ‘entrepreneurialism’.

But he faced a major backlash from opponents on both Left and Right, who said his comments were a nakedly cynical ploy to win the votes of Tory supporters.

Following the cost-of-living crisis and with the economy bumping along the bottom, Sir Keir will argue in his address at a Resolution Foundation conference that ‘Britain is going backwards’ under Rishi Sunak.

Keir Starmer is set to highlight the ‘huge constraints’ on the public finances and the need to be ‘ruthless’ about spending in a speech

He will declare the ‘political consensus’ that hard work will be rewarded has ‘become nothing short of a lie for millions of people’ under the Tories.

‘It is already clear that the decisions the Government are taking, not to mention their record over the past 13 years, will constrain what a future Labour government can do,’ Sir Keir will tell the gathering.

‘The comparison between 2010 and today is instructive. Now, debt and interest rates are much higher. Britain’s standing is diminished. Growth is stagnant and public services are on their knees.

‘Taxes are higher than at any time since the war, none of which was true in 2010.

‘Never before has a British government asked its people to pay so much, for so little.

‘Inflation, debt, taxes; we face huge constraints.’

Sir Keir will say that ‘growth creation’ will be the ‘number one priority’ under his premiership, a position designed to take Labour out of its ‘comfort zone’.

‘The defining purpose of the next Labour government, the mission that stands above all others, will be raising Britain’s productivity growth,’ he will say.

‘A goal that for my Labour Party is now an obsession. That is a big change for us.’

Labour’s approach will be what he and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves have dubbed ‘securonomics’.

It will see a focus on supporting the UK’s ‘huge assets’ — its financial sector, highly educated population and world class universities — by carrying out supply-side reforms.

He will pledge to tackle restrictive planning laws, create a competitive tax regime, place more emphasis on skills, and draw up an industrial strategy alongside business.

Meanwhile, the row over Sir Keir’s warm words on Thatcher was still going today.

Sent out to tour broadcast studios this morning, Labour frontbencher Pat McFadden pointed out that Gordon Brown had a similar response when he invited Baroness Thatcher to Downing Street for tea.

However, Mr McFadden also refused to say he ‘admired’ Lady Thatcher, merely saying she was ‘electorally successful’. 

Even some of Sir Keir’s own MPs were withering about his remarks.

Labour’s Beth Winter, MP for Cynon Valley in Wales, said: ‘Margaret Thatcher devastated working-class communities like mine. Policies like the grossly iniquitous poll tax and the great privatisation rip-off offs were the hallmarks of Thatcherism.’

Her colleague Ian Byrne said: ‘Inequality, hunger, destitution and misery. That’s the real legacy left by Thatcher.’

And Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: ‘Margaret Thatcher destroyed industries, attacked trade unionists and privatised our core industries. [She is] not someone any Labour supporter should look up to.’

Sir Keir’s comments were gleefully seized upon by nationalist politicians in Scotland — where Mrs Thatcher remains a hate figure for many — who are desperate to see off the threat of a resurgent Labour Party.

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf said: ‘What Thatcher did to mining and industrial communities was not ‘entrepreneurialism’ — it was vandalism.’

Other critics highlighted Sir Keir’s previous vocal opposition to the Iron Lady’s flagship policies of privatisation and taming the trade unions.

The intervention comes as a furious spat with the Labour left rages over the party leader heaping praise on Margaret Thatcher

Sir Keir will argue in his address at a Resolution Foundation conference that ‘Britain is going backwards’ under Rishi Sunak

As a young Left-wing lawyer, Sir Keir was even praised by union leader Arthur Scargill for defending striking miners for free.

Tory chairman Richard Holden said: ‘Keir Starmer will say anything to get elected. This is yet another classic example of him saying what he thinks people want to hear, despite having a track record of doing the opposite.’

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told Sky News: ‘I suspect the great lady herself would view a man that is trying to ride on the coat tails of her success with the following words: ‘No, no, no.’ ‘

Tory Backbencher Brendan Clarke-Smith added: ‘The public realise Starmer will say whatever he thinks people want to hear.

‘They will be flabbergasted at his praise for Margaret Thatcher — especially when he has previously portrayed himself as a champion of mineworkers.

‘It’s just the latest flip-flop and goes to show that both he and Labour can’t be treated seriously.’

In an opinion piece for the Sunday Telegraph, Sir Keir extended the ‘hand of friendship’ to traditional Tory supporters by promising a Labour government would be tough on immigration.

He described several seismic moments in modern British politics, from post-war PM Clement Attlee deciding Labour must be a party of duty to Tony Blair seizing the optimism of the 1990s.

‘Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism,’ Sir Keir wrote. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, he explained: ‘The point I’m making is that you can distinguish political leaders into those that had a plan and those that drifted.’

Of Mrs Thatcher he said she had ‘a plan for entrepreneurialism’. He insisted: ‘It doesn’t mean I agree with what she did, but I don’t think anybody could suggest she didn’t have a sense of purpose.’

Asked if he was seeking Tory votes, Sir Keir said ‘yes’, adding: ‘I do want to persuade those that voted Tory in the past to vote Labour this time round.’

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