Starmer launches Labour local election campaign and defends ‘difficult decisions’ over dropped pledges– politics live | Politics

The number of crimes being prosecuted behind closed doors in England and Wales has risen to its highest level on record since the measures were introduced, PA Media reports. PA says:

Last year, 787,403 criminal cases were dealt with by magistrates’ courts under the single justice procedure (SJP).

The latest Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show this exceeds a previous peak of 784,325 recorded in 2019, signalling how the volume of cases being considered through the secretive process has now returned to levels similar to those seen prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

The figures comes after justice secretary Alex Chalk suggested the system needs reform amid concerns from magistrates.

SJP allows magistrates to handle some offences which would not result in jail time – like using a television without a licence, dodging train fares, driving without car insurance, speeding and truancy – in private rather than in open court. Although defendants can choose to attend their hearing in person.

Labour until very recently said it was expecting a general election on Thursday 2 May, it was planning for such a contest, and if there had been an election then, parliament would have dissolved two days ago. Keir Starmer’s speech today would have been the launch of Labour’s national election campaign.

In fact, the speech we heard this morning may well have started life as a draft text for a national campaign launch. It was longer and better crafted than the sort of speech you normally get at a local election campaign launch. It did not contain anything particularly new, but it summarised the party’s key messages crisply. You can read it here.

What was much more interesting was the Q&A. During his four years as Labour leader Starmer has become increasingly confident in handling the media and today he was hard to fault. A lot of the media coverage will focus on the Angela Rayner story, and there is nothing that Starmer could have said that would have killed the story stone dead. But he defended her very robustly and, rather than sounding cowed or defensive when responding to questions on this from the rightwing papers that have been pushing the story, he took them on effectively, highlighting the fact that the Sun never asks for Tory ministers to publish their tax details from before they entered parliament.

He was robust on employment rights (see 11.17am), compelling about the Tories (see 10.51am), but the other really telling answer came when he was asked (by the Daily Mail) how people could trust him when he has U-turned so often on policy. Normally he responds to this question with a slightly apologetic line about how it is normal for people to change their mind. But today he managed to flip the question entirely, and used it to deliver an intregrity message that sounded strong. (See 11.11am.)

None of the questions caused him any real difficulty at all. It is hard to imagine Rishi Sunak exposing himself to this level of scrutiny and emerging unscathed in the same way. His local election campaign launch was a low-key event in a bus depot in Derbyshire last week, where he was cocooned by Tory activists and delivered an odd message about Labour “arrogantly” taking people for granted.

What’s the main takeaway from Starmer’s launch? It’s simple, really. He’s ready.

The final question was about Labour’s new deal for working people, its employment rights programme.

Q: You are under pressure from business to water this down. Will it be implemented in full in the first term of Labour government, including the ban on zero-hours contracts?

Starmer replied: “Yes.”

He went on:

Let me tell you for why, because I believe, deep down, that respect and dignity at work matters.

This goes back to what I said about my dad. It really matters that people feel respected and that they feel that they have their dignity at work.

But there is an additional reason … Every good employer knows that if you do treat people with respect and dignity of work, then that increases productivity, that increases the growth in your business and enterprise and it’s actually good for the economy.

Q: [From the Daily Mail] You have accused Boris Johnson of letting people down. But haven’t you done the same, by going back on some of your pledges?

Starmer says:

What I’ve done is to take difficult decisions before the election about what we can deliver.

Sometimes that has required us to adjust our position. So if you take some of the commitments we made on [the £28bn green investment plan], since we made that commitment, the Tories have done enormous damage to the economy and therefore we’ve had to adjust our plan.

I would rather level with the British public before the election, tell them straight what we can do, what we can’t do, and deliver on what we say we can do, rather than do what Boris Johnson did in the last election, which is to pretend he could deliver everything and then deliver nothing, because that leads you back to Amy’s question [see 10.46am] which is why do people not have faith in their politics?

I’ve taken a tough decision to not do things which an incoming Labour government might have wanted to do more quickly. But I’ve done it by looking down the barrel of the camera and saying to the British public, I will not make promises that I cannot deliver.

Q: [From the Sun] Do you think Rayner should publish the tax advice she has received about the sale of her home?

Starmer replies:

No, she shouldn’t. Where does this end? Are you going to be calling for Tory ministers to publish all their legal and tax advice go back over the last 15 years?

This gets a round of applause from Labour supporters in the audience.

Q: During the beergate scandal you said you would resign if you were found to have done anything wrong. Should Angela Rayner have to resign if she is found to have done anything wrong?

Starmer says Rayner has answered plenty of questions on this. She has taken legal advice that has satisifed her. He goes on:

The fact that the Tory party is spending more of its time and energy pursuing this issue, rather than answering questions and [accounting] for what they’ve done after 14 years … tells you everything you need to know.

He does not actually address the question about whether Rayner should have to resign if found to have been at fault.

Q: People are very despondent. Can you really make a difference?

Starmer says he can. Labour would spend funds that have been allocated for communities by the government, but not spent. And things like three-year funding settlements for councils would make a difference.

He claims the Tories are now only acting in their party interest. In their budget, they are spending money that could go towards the public services on “gimmicks” that will help them politically, he says.

This is a very different Tory party …. [It has lost a] sense of the national interest and is now passing budgets in their own party interest.

That happened at the last budget and, if they get the chance, they’ll do it again. The only purpose of that is to salt the ground for the incoming Labour government. It’s very important people understand that.

Q: The police have reopened their investigation into Angela Rayner. Does she have your full support?

Starmer replies:

Angela has my full support, my full confidence, today and every day as we work together to take the Labour party back into government so we can serve the interests of workers.

That reply, which is more full-throated than replies to these sort of questions normally are, generates a round of applause from Labour supporters in the room.

Q: Do you accept that, if you don’t win hundreds of council seats, you won’t be doing as well as Labour was before 1997?

Starmer says there are mayoral elections as well as local elections. Mayors and councils need to go together.

He says, to win the general election, Labour needs a bigger swing than in 1997. That is why he has been disciplined, and changed the party, he says.

Q: The Local Government Association says there is a £4bn shortfall in funding for local government. Will you address that?

Starmer says councils face an “appalling situation”.

He says he does not want to pay party politics with this. Councils under the control of all parties are under pressure.

He says three-year funding plans for councils, instead of one-year ones, would help.

But he says he cannot pretend that Labour can just turn funding taps on.