Labour’s power to the people
Keir Starmer has pledged to oversee the “biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people” if Labour wins the next general election.
The Labour leader unveiled a giant 155 page report this morning in Leeds, authored by Gordon Brown, which would radically overhaul the constitution. The report, which the former PM has been working on for two years, outlines a raft of recommendations which would enable Labour to reform Parliament and ditch “a century of centralisation”.
The pledge to abolish the centuries old, “indefensible” House of Lords and replace it with an elected second chamber, while not a new suggestion from Labour, is perhaps the most eye-catching and controversial section of the report. Starmer has promised to hold a consultation on the composition and size of the new chamber but Brown is proposing a special role for this reformed chamber in protecting devolution. Drawing attention to this policy at this moment in time is politically savvy, since Boris Johnson’s impending resignation honours list is likely to prompt a backlash.
Yet the main bulk of the report focuses on how Labour would increase devolution to grow Britain’s economy.
As well as recommending that 50,000 civil service jobs move out of London, Brown’s report advocates for a regional investment bank and proposes handing mayors, local authorities and devolved governments new economic, taxation and legislative powers. The logic being that this would give them greater control to make decisions over matters such as transport and housing in their local areas.
As far as Starmer and Brown are concerned, this approach isn’t just a politically sensible, it’s also economically astute. “Those with skin in the game,” as the Labour leader puts it, are the ones who know best about how to grow their local economies. The proposals aim to create hundreds of mini growth plans – 288 economic “clusters” – around the country.
Of course, a drive to make the British economy less London-centric is hardly a novel approach. And questions remain about how exactly this Labour vision for “levelling up” would trump that offered under the Tories.
However, Starmer has insisted that these proposals would not pit regions against each other when competing for money from Westminster for big shiny projects – an existing criticism of the Tory “levelling up” model. On the contrary, “Cooperation is hardwired into this report,” he says.
At the moment, Starmer isn’t endorsing every recommendation in Brown’s lenghty paper. There will be a consultation first, meaning some of the measures may not end up featuring in the Labour manifesto.
Nevertheless, the report spells trouble for Nicola Sturgeon, who already appears to be on increasingly thin ice.
Brown’s proposed reforms would mean further devolution of power to Scotland, and would hand Holyrood a bigger voice on the international stage: for instance, it would give Scotland legal powers to enter into international agreements with bodies such as Erasmus, Unesco and the Nordic Council.
The move is a sensible one. Labour is keenly aware that winning back seats north of the border is vital if the party is to be victorious in 2024. And this is an early attempt to persuade Scottish nationalists that they can achieve more positive change by staying in the UK and voting for Starmer.
With the prospect of Scottish independence looking slimmer than ever after the recent Supreme Court ruling, Starmer’s pledge to end the “hoarding of power at the centre” in Westminster may start to resonate with an increasing number of SNP voters.
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