Sir Keir Starmer unveiled Labour's manifesto in Manchester this morning, with pledges including recognition of a Palestinian state, a £7 billion tax raid and a publicly owned clean energy business Great British Energy, as well as a new security deal with the EU.
The Labour leader described his plan as a "manifesto for wealth creation".
He said his manifesto is a "plan for change" for a "government back in the service of you and your family".
Starmer added: "Make no mistake, that is the cause of this changed Labour party. We have written that argument through every word of this manifesto.
Sir Keir Starmer unveiled Labour's manifesto in Manchester this morning
PA
"Too many communities are not just locked out of the wealth that we create, they are disregarded as sources of dynamism in the first place. Ignored by the top-down idea that economic growth is handed down by the few to the many."
He acknowledged “we don’t have a magic wand” and challenges will not “disappear overnight” if Labour wins the election, but said the party’s manifesto represents a “credible long-term plan” built on “stable foundations”.
Starmer said he understood voters’ “cynicism” towards politics but insisted Labour’s manifesto is a “total rejection” of the idea that Britain cannot improve.
Labour would bring forward immediate legislation to abolish “indefensible” hereditary peers from the House of Lords, its manifesto says.
The document reads: “Too many peers do not play a proper role in our democracy. Hereditary peers remain indefensible.”
It adds: “The next Labour government will therefore bring about an immediate modernisation, by introducing legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.
“Labour will also introduce a mandatory retirement age. At the end of the parliament in which a member reaches 80 years of age, they will be required to retire from the House of Lords.”
Labour plans to raise around £7 billion in revenue from tax, its costings document confirms.
Some £5.2 billion would come from closing the non-dom loophole and cracking down on tax avoidance and £1.5 billion from VAT and business rates on private schools, according to its calculations.
Starmer was heckled by a climate protester at the party’s manifesto launch
PA
The rest would come from closing the carried interest tax loophole and increasing stamp duty on purchases of residential property by non-UK residents by 1 per cent, the document says.
After being heckled by a climate protester at the party’s manifesto launch, Starmer said: “Thank you very much. We gave up on being a party of protest five years ago, we want to be a party in power.”
He added: “That’s not in the script, but that is part of the change.”
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