No magic wand to grow economy, says Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is prepared to make enemies to grow the economy, including by passing controversial planning applications.

In the latest in a series of BBC Panorama interviews with party leaders, the Labor leader denied wanting to wave a “magic wand” to prevent tax rises or public spending cuts, in order to keep his electoral promises.

Sir Keir also told Nick Robinson he was “not hostile” to people using private healthcare and ruled out any possibility of joining the European Union.

Separately, speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in Italy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “going to fight for every vote until the last day”.

He was asked why he thought opinion polls suggesting some Conservative voters were turning to Reform UK, Mr Sunak said “we are only halfway through this campaign”.

He also reiterated his insistence that “the Conservatives had a 'tax cut manifesto' while Labor 'were going to raise your taxes'.

Earlier this week at Launch of the Labor manifestoSir Keir said his party was one of economic growth and would boost wealth creation.

Nick Robinson suggested the party was trying to cover up an $18 billion hole in Treasury funds – the equivalent of 10% of the NHS budget – which would have to be filled either through tax rises or cuts spending on public services.

However, Sir Keir said he rejected that the choice was simply “locked in” between tax and spending, because there is another lever, which he said is growth.

“My manifesto is about wealth creation,” he said. “It’s a party of wealth creation, of growth.

“That's why this claim that everyone tries to make… that the only levers a Labor government or a Labor prime minister has is to raise taxes or cut spending – I reject that – growth is the lever I intend to pull.”

Asked if he was trying to “wave the magic wand of growth”, Sir Keir replied “it's not a wand, it's a plan” and explained how Labor was focusing on how to remove barriers to business needs that were preventing economic growth.

The Labor leader gave the example of a wind turbine which could be built in two years but would be stuck in the planning process for five years – suggesting he would be prepared to override objections to new developments.

Asked by Nick Robinson if he was prepared to make enemies to boost economic growth, Sir Keir replied: “Yes, we are going to have to be tough.

“We’re going to have to change the way things are done.”

Following the first leaders' debate, where Sir Keir said he would under no circumstances use private healthcare himself, Mr Robinson suggested there was some concern that the Labor leader thought people who did were “queue jumpers”.

“I’m not hostile at all,” Sir Keir said. “I totally understand why people go private… because they want to get surgery quicker or go back to work or whatever.”

But he defended the NHS as top performer in acute care, saying it was “the best place to be” for treating life-threatening illnesses, adding that private hospitals “refer to the NHS for care treble” for this reason.

On Brexit, Sir Keir was pressed on whether he wanted to re-enter the European Union after campaigning for Remain and also calling for the option of a second referendum as Shadow Brexit Secretary, before exclude a return Last year.

The Labor leader ruled out re-joining, saying he respected the vote and that EU membership was “not a silver bullet”.

Post-Brexit trade deals were “botched”, he said, and Labor would negotiate a better Brexit trade deal if they win the July 4 general election, but many growth-related issues could be resolved without undoing Brexit.

“I think we can do better than the botched deal we made under Boris Johnson,” he said. “I think every company thinks that.”

He added: “If you look at the growing pains over the last 14 years, they existed, or many of them, before Brexit, so the idea that the sort of silver bullet lies simply in the relationship with the EU is not something I accept.”

At the G7, Mr Sunak said there was a clear choice between the two sides and he would “continue to fight very hard to make sure everyone understands the choice before them”.

He claimed Labor's election would give Sir Keir “a blank cheque” to raise taxes, whereas, if the Conservatives were re-elected, “we will be able to cut taxes for people at every stage of their lives “.

Regarding the single opinion poll that puts Reform ahead of Conservatives, the Prime Minister said the only poll that mattered was the July 4 poll. Other opinion polls put the Conservatives ahead of Nigel Farage's party.

Mr Sunak also pledged to remain an MP for a full five-year parliament, even if the Conservatives lost on July 4.

The BBC interviews all the main party leaders in the run-up to the election in The Panorama Interviews with Nick Robinson. You can watch Sir Keir Starmer's interview at 7.30pm on BBC One or BBC iPlayer.