Labour must share its priorities with working people - and ditch “baggage” policies if they want to win power, Keir Starmer has warned.
Speaking at the party’s National Policy Forum in Nottingham, the Labour leader told officials they must “learn the lessons” from their narrow by-election defeat in Uxbridge.
said there was "something very wrong" when a party policy was on "each and every Tory leaflet" following attacks on London mayor Sadiq Khan's plan to expand the capital's ultra low emission zone (Ulez), which applies a charge for older and more polluting road vehicles.
After using the divisive policy to cling on to Boris Johnson ’s former seat in an otherwise dismal night for the Tories, Rishi Sunak is under pressure to focus on similar “wedge issues” in the run up to the next election.
Labour officials were expected to argue until the early hours of this morning (SUN), as they hammered out a blueprint for the party’s election manifesto - with a string of such issues on the agenda.
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Plans to make free school meals universal and scrap the two-child benefit cap - both of which are hugely popular with party members - have been ditched by Labour because of cost.
And speaking before Mr Starmer’s speech to the forum yesterday, Danny Beales, the defeated Labour candidate in Boris Johnson’s former seat, branded Ulez a “bad policy”.
Sadiq Khan is "always looking at ways" to address Londoners' concerns about Ulez (PA)“A single policy cut us off at the knees,” he said. “Ulez is a bad policy, it must be rethought.”
And Mr Starmer said London Mayor Sadiq Khan should "reflect" on the expansion of Ulez, after new Tory MP Steve Tuckwell painted the vote as a referendum on the toll.
But while Mr Khan’s City Hall team is understood to be in “constructive listening mode”, sources defended the policy - and the party’s performance in Uxbridge.
A source close to the London Mayor said: “Winning Uxbridge and South Ruislip was always going to be a struggle for Labour. Labour hasn’t won this seat for five decades and Tony Blair didn’t even win it during the 1997 landslide.”
They added: “It is a disappointing result and Sadiq has been clear he is listening to Londoners following this by-election. The Mayor is always looking at ways he can address their concerns.
“Sadiq has always said that expanding the ULEZ was a really difficult decision, but necessary to save the lives of young and vulnerable Londoners.”
Mr Starmer told the forum winning the next election would be “an historic task - which means it will require historic levels of effort, discipline and focus.”
“We’ve got to ask ourselves seriously – are our priorities the priorities of working people or are they just baggage that shows them we don’t see the country through their eyes,” he said.
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“We can’t take anything for granted. So let’s stay disciplined, meet the Tory attacks with hope, show we can be trusted, and that we measure up to the scale of the challenge.”
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats were celebrating their victory in Somerton and Frome, where they overturned a 19,000 Tory majority to take the seat by 11,000 votes.
“People spoke loud and clear yesterday,” Leader Ed Davey told this newspaper last night (SAT).
“They want an end to being taken for granted and these clowns out of No10. Whilst the other parties are navel gazing, we have a clear plan to improve our NHS, help families through the the cost of living crisis and fight crime.”
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