Starmer sets out his vision

Sir Keir Starmer laid out his post-pandemic vision for the economy today in a speech designed to fend off criticism from his own party that his treatment of the government has been too soft.

Starmer invoked Labour’s 1945 election victory, saying that the pandemic – like the war – had left the country with “the determination that our collective sacrifice must lead to a better future.” He added there could be no return to the “insecure and unequal” economy that existed before Covid, which he claimed was at least partly to blame for the country’s death rate and recession, both among the worst in the developed world.

The speech gives a good idea of how Labour will try to frame the debate in the months and years to come. Starmer will try to invert the narrative that proved so successful for the Tories following the 2008 crash – that the recession was a direct result of Labour’s economic incompetence, a claim that still plagues the Party to this day – and present Labour as the only party to be trusted to rebuild the nation.

Starmer was at pains to present Labour as pro-business, admitting “that for too long Labour has failed to realise that the only way to deliver social justice and equality is through a strong partnership with business.” To this end he proposed start-up loans for 100,000 new businesses across the country and called on the government to extend business rate relief and the VAT cut for the hospitality and leisure sectors.

One headline-grabbing proposal was to create a British Recovery Bond which would give people a way to save while raising money for investment in infrastructure and research. But economists have been pointing out that with government borrowing being so cheap at the moment, is there really any point? The bond sounds like the existing government gilt in fancy packaging.

A big difficulty for Starmer is that his policies don’t sound all that different from the government’s levelling up, big spending agenda. To compensate, he questioned the Conservative’s sincerity about its commitments by bringing up the fight over free school meals and cuts to Universal Credit – which also tossed some red meat to the restless base.

Still, the riddle plaguing Labour is how it regains credibility after being locked out of power for over a decade. Starmer’s personal approval ratings are the highest for a Labour leader since Blair. It’s a start. But the party still has a fiendish problem to solve.

Covid cases nosedive

The number of Covid cases across England has plummeted since January according to new research, in a sign that vaccines, as well as lockdown measures, may be working to drive down infections.
Interim findings from Imperial College London’s React study, based on 85,000 swab tests, show that infections have dropped by two-thirds across England since lockdown began.

The Imperial team also found that rates in London have dropped 80 per cent since January. Covid infections in hospital remain as high as they were in the first wave, at more than 20,000.

The virus is in decline in all nine English regions and rates are falling fastest in the South East, West Midlands and London. The rate of decrease is less steep in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The trend is in line with coronavirus rates sharply declining worldwide. This week the average number of daily cases recorded across the globe was half that seen at the peak last month.

WHO director Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus put this news down to the success of public health measures.

But some experts have questioned his analysis, since infections have dropped universally despite different lockdown tactics being used, and have instead suggested that seasonality may be responsible, especially in hard-hit European and North American countries.

India’s sudden drop in cases has been perplexing scientists, with daily inflections having fallen from 100,000 in September to just 11,000 today. Herd immunity in cities has been proposed as a possible explanation.

You can’t check out and you can never leave

The inevitable nightmare stories from quarantine hotels are coming in thick and fast. One hapless traveller has filmed himself trying to break out of the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel near Heathrow airport. Anthony Pium approaches the front door asking to get some “fresh air”, has an angry altercation with security guards who push him back, preventing him from leaving. He is now on hunger strike and has said he is being held “under duress”.

It’s hardly the Shawshank Redemption but his escape attempt is a stark reminder that these people are prisoners. And it won’t be the last bid for freedom – a YouGov poll found that 90 per cent of Brits were in favour of the quarantine scheme.

Mattie Brignal,
News Editor