Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to take a “pragmatic” approach to nationalisation of key industries in a speech made today.
Following a speech in Liverpool this morning, Starmer insisted that his approach to state ownership of rail, energy and water was a “pragmatic approach rather than an ideological one.”
He said he “agree[s] with what” his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined earlier today.
This is after Reeves revealed to the BBC that Labour had abandoned its Corbyn-era promise to renationalize water, energy, and rail companies.
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Reeves stressed that she has: “set out fiscal rules that say all spending, all day-to-day spending would be funded by day-to-day tax revenues.”
When pressed on whether or not nationalisation would happen, she went on: “Within our fiscal rules, to be spending billions of pounds on nationalising things, that just doesn’t stack up against our fiscal rules.”
She said that Labour wished to set “out distinct policies under Keir Starmer,” and highlighted how the 2019 plans had: “secured our worst result since 1935.”
Starmer explained today: “Having come through the pandemic, it’s very important we have very, very clear priorities and that’s why we’ve set out fiscal rules already as an Opposition.”
The mission of the next Labour government will be growth” he said, going on: “My approach here is pragmatic, not ideological, my mission is growth and underpinning that mission is a partnership arrangement with business, where the mission is set by an incoming Labour government and we empower business to work with us in delivering on that mission.”
More to come
