Don’t be content with Starmer’s crumbs in the king’s speech

Keir Starmer has gone from cuddling babies on the campaign trail to starving them when in office (Picture: Keir Starmer/Flickr)

Keir Starmer said the Labour government “will take the brakes off Britain” with the king’s speech on Wednesday. In reality, he put the brakes on ditching the rotten legacy of 14 years of Tory rule.

The prime minister warned against the “snake oil charm of populism” that “may sound seductive” to dampen ordinary people’s expectations for change. He promised “determined, patient work and serious solutions rather than the temptation of easy answers”—a swipe at those demanding Labour scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The Tory cap hit more than 1.6 million children this year. It restricts child welfare payments to the first two children, meaning those with more children miss out on up to £3,5000 per year per child.  

Abolishing the two-child limit would cost between £2.5 billion and £3.6 billion, according to the Resolution Foundation. The think tank said the cost was “low compared to the harm the policy causes” for children’s education, health and quality of life.

Labour claims it’s unaffordable, but the money is there to scrap the cap—and much more.

The Green Party, for example, called for scrapping the cap through increasing capital gains tax to raise £16 billion a year. This move would hit a small minority of rich people by taxing capital gains—profits from selling shares or second homes—at the same rate as income tax.

But even such a mild measure is too much for Starmer, who wants to reassure bosses and the rich that Labour is no threat to their interests. A new law will require the chancellor to consult the Office Budgetary Responsibility—a body set up by the Tories to police austerity—before major taxation and spending changes.

In the House of Commons debate, Starmer emptily claimed, “I do take child poverty very seriously,” in response to criticism from the Scottish National Party. He said a new task force would “devise a strategy to drive those numbers down”—“what matters is the commitment to do it”.

The centrepiece of Labour’s strategy is to boost economic growth—the first of its five “missions for national renewal”. By increasing growth, Labour argues, it will raise living standards for ordinary people.

“I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country,” Starmer said. “It is the only way our country can progress, and my government is focused on supporting that aspiration.”

But growth doesn’t inevitably lead to a boost in living standards for working class people.

Starmer’s real aim is to deliver stability for big business and profit-making. He’s desperate to show a Labour government is more competent at managing British capitalism than the Tories, who presided over five years of shocks to the system.

He is haunted by the financial markets crucifying the Tory government Liz Truss.

But Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves have no plan even on his own terms. When Labour pretends to have a strategy for boosting growth, it’s dubbed “securonomics” that claims to focus on growth and security.  

In a nutshell, Starmer and Reeves want to copy what US president Joe Biden did but on the cheap. He’s tried to use state intervention in the economy to make US capitalism more competitive—particularly to meet the threat of China’s rise in the world.

Biden was forced to water down the plan. And Starmer is in an even weaker position, fundamentally, because British capitalism has far less leverage in the global economy. 

Economic growth has been sluggish for the last decade in Britain. If Labour wants to boost growth, it has to increase investment through increasing taxes or borrowing. But it doesn’t want to do that for fear of upsetting the rich and the financial markets.

So, rather than boosting investment, we’re looking at a further tightening in public spending. Take Labour’s National Wealth Fund, which promises to invest £7.3 billion over the course of the next parliament. That’s less than Starmer’s green new deal of £28 billion which he ditched earlier this year.

A recent study from LSE university and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment said a rise of £26 billion a year was needed to transform infrastructure and service.

Labour’s plan will actually see a fall in public investment as a share of economic output over the course of the parliament. A recent study by the Nuffield Trust, which looked at the major parties’ spending plans ahead of the election, said that Labour was on course for austerity.

It showed a funding shortfall of £20 billion for the NHS by 2028-29. That’s between what Labour promised and the funding requirements of the NHS long term workforce plan to have sustainable staffing levels.

The king’s speech said Labour would introduce an Employment Rights Bill in the first 100 days. Measures will include banning ‘exploitative’ zero-hour contracts, ending policies of fire and rehire and making parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal available from day one in a job for all workers.

These are welcome—and should spur unions to fight for changes that go much further.

Labour pledged to “update” trade union legislation “so it is fit for a modern economy”. It will remove “unnecessary restrictions” on union activity “including the previous government’s approach to minimum service levels”.

The Tory law, introduced this year, demands unions keep minimum service levels—enforced scabbing—during strikes. In transport, for example, workers have to offer 40 percent of the regular service.

But what about repealing the Tories’ Trade Union Act 2016? This imposes turnout thresholds in strike ballots and has been used to thwart industrial action.   

Winning more than what Starmer offers will require a fight from the unions—and now.

The wrong sort of attitude was on show in Unison union general secretary Christina McAnea’s response. She echoed Starmer’s attempts to dampen people’s expectations about the pace of change.

She said it was the “start of a long process to mend what’s been broken” and “generate the growth to get public services thriving once more”.

It’s not just on austerity that Starmer isn’t offering fundamental change from the Tories—and where we’ll need a fight now.

Labour will introduce a Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to “enable stronger borders and a properly controlled and managed asylum system”. It will set up a new Border Security Command with the “tools and powers they need to crack down on criminal gangs”.

People smugglers are small-time gangsters whose business model relies on the British state’s racist immigration rules. If migrants had safe and legal routes to Britain and Europe, they wouldn’t be forced into the hands of organised criminals.

Alongside the fight for social changes, fighting racism and scapegoating is an urgent task for our side.

The SNP and left wing Labour MP Kim Johnson have said they will table amendments calling for the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap. The speaker of the house has to the power to select amendments when MPs debate the content of the speech next week. It will be an early test of every Labour MP to see whether they defy the Labour whip and stand up for ordinary people.

Yes, let’s celebrate the Tory loss—but let’s not be content with the crumbs Starmer offers as he tries to cosy up to big business.

Let’s build a bigger fightback through strikes and protests to break with Tory austerity and racism and win fundamental change for working class people.