EU is not a ‘silver bullet’ to save Britain’s economy, says Sir Keir Starmer
THE EU isn’t a “silver bullet” to save Britain’s economy, Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday.
In a speech in London the Labour chief insisted it would be a “mistake” to blame Britain’s cost of living woes on divorcing Brussels.
He said he wouldn’t run back cap in hand to euro chiefs begging to rejoin the bloc.
But he added a Labour government would seek closer economic ties in order to boost growth.
Away from Brussels, Sir Keir vowed that his scaled-back pledge to spend an eye-watering £28 billion a year on green initiatives would be subject to strict “fiscal rules”.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has slammed Labour’s “Green Prosperity Plan” as a recipe to fuel inflation and riddle Britain with debt.
But Sir Keir said: “I am confident that if we turbocharge the growth that we need, we’ll be able to achieve the investment we need within the fiscal rules.
“The £28 billion, we will ramp up to that in the second half of the Parliament.”
At a Q&A session after his speech, Sir Keir also defended himself complimenting Margaret Thatcher for having “set loose our natural entrepreneurialism”.
Tory MPs blasted the opposition boss for being happy to campaign to put Jeremy Corbyn in No10 and equally prepared to heap praise on the Iron Lady.
Levelling Up Minister Jacob Young said: “Is there a fence he won’t sit on?”
They were joined by hard left Labour politicians who described the comment as an “insult”.
But Sir Keir hit back: “It doesn’t mean I agree with what she did but you don’t have to agree with someone to recognise they had a mission and a plan.”