Locals launch: Starmer trials low-key Boris approach

Keir Starmer launched Labour’s local election campaign in Dudley today, vowing to revive Boris Johnson’s levelling up flagship policy and tackle regional inequalities. But his overarching message was one of caution: There is no “magic money tree”.

When quizzed on how Labour would sort England’s council funding crisis – in which one in five local authorities have declared themselves at risk of bankruptcy – he refused to pledge any extra funds. 

“I can’t pretend that we could turn the taps on, pretend the damage hasn’t been done to the economy – it has,” replied Starmer. 

The Labour leader’s location was symbolic. He was speaking from a podium in the same West Midlands town where Johnson launched the Conservatives’ levelling up pledge in 2020.

Starmer labelled levelling up a “good ambition”, but insisted it was unachievable in “the Tory era of politics as performance art”. 

How then would Labour aim to deliver on Johnson’s failed promises without offering councils any extra cash? 

Starmer pledged to generate investment and, in turn, growth through more devolution deals. Handing over transport, skills, housing, planning, employment and energy support to mayors, he insisted, would “enable local leaders to develop powerful local growth plans that attract specialist industries and enhance their local strengths.” 

He was also keen to stress that more efficient funding systems, as opposed to simply increasing funds per se, could help councils: Labour would introduce three-year, as opposed to one-year, settlements, to enable councils to plan ahead. 

Another saving to local authorities, he argued, would be a ban on no-fault evictions, leaving fewer residents in need housing help from councils. On a week where Michael Gove has come under fire for diluting previous plans to ban no-fault evictions, this suggestion allowed Starmer to score a political point. 

Starmer delivered his speech bolstered by yesterday’s prediction from polling guru Sir John Curtice that his party has a 99 per cent chance of forming the next government. Yet his fiscally cautious message illustrated the tough road ahead for his party if – or indeed when – it enters government. 

A resistance to pledge more spending – or indeed become the party of austerity – will leave Starmer desperately dependent on kickstarting economic growth. 

For many across the country, Johnson’s promise to level up England with extra pockets of funding and lots of shiny new projects was certainly a lot more inviting. 

But today we saw a leader wary to make false promises – and clearly hoping that being honest about the challenges ahead could earn him a few points for integrity. 

“I will not make promises that I cannot deliver,” said Starmer, claiming he would rather level with the British public about what is deliverable before the election. 

“What Boris Johnson did in the last election,” he added, was to “pretend he could deliver everything and then deliver nothing.”

The local elections will take place on 2 May. The West Midlands is among ten mayoralties on offer, alongside over 2,600 English council seats as well as police and crime commissioners’ posts in England and Wales.

This set of elections was last contested in 2021, when a Johnson-led Tory party was riding far higher in polls. 

May’s results will provide another key indication of just how much of a mountain Rishi Sunak has to climb before the general election. Heavy losses for Andy Street or Ben Houchen, Tory mayors often labelled levelling up success stories, won’t bode well for Sunak. 

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