Ten ways Labour would run the country differently

Keir Starmer has enjoyed a positive reaction to his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

“There is, undoubtedly, a buoyancy here,” observed the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason. The Guardian said that “the Labour leader spoke to a party that smells power again” and Politico described Starmer as “emboldened”.

The Labour leader “proved he has properly listened to the worry pulsing through the country”, wrote Andrew Marr, political editor of The New Statesman.

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Here are ten ways that Starmer’s party is promising to change the way the country is run.

1. Restore top rate tax to pay for nurses

Labour has promised to create an additional 10,000 nursing and midwifery placements and double the number of district nurses qualifying in England every year. The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she would reinstate the top 45% rate of income tax to pay for it. “Labour gets it,” Unison’s general secretary, Christina McAnea, told Nursing Times.

2. Great British Energy

Starmer pledged to set up a state-owned energy company if Labour enters government, putting his “green credentials at the centre of the next election campaign”, said The Times. Bankrolled with £2bn from the Treasury, Great British Energy would be “charged with investing in and even running green energy projects across the country”.

3. Free primary school breakfast clubs

Every primary school child in England would be offered access to fully funded breakfast clubs under Labour. Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the plan would be the “first step on the road to a modern childcare system”. ITV News noted that a child-poverty charity urged Labour to go further and commit to universal after-school activities as well.

4. Face-to-face GP appointments

GPs will be forced to provide face-to-face appointments for every patient who wants one, said Labour. Currently, one in three GP appointments are conducted online or over the phone. “We will require GPs to give patients the choice of where and when they want their appointments,” shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told The Mirror. “Patients must come first.”

5. Neighbourhood policing

Labour would hire an extra 13,000 police officers if it wins the next election, the shadow home secretary pledged. Yvette Cooper said she would recruit “more police officers, PCSOs and special constables in an effort to cut crime and restore confidence in the force”, said the Evening Standard. “We have seen the clock hugely turned back on the policing in our communities that Labour brought in,” she said.

6. More home ownership

Starmer said Labour would set a target of 70% home ownership, with local people getting first refusal on properties, rather than buy-to-let landlords and second home owners. He said Labour would help buyers on to the housing ladder with mortgage guarantees, The Guardian reported. This would mean “hundreds of thousands of new homeowners in the first five years of a new Labour government”, said Inside Housing.

7. Specialist rape courts

A Labour government would roll out specialist rape courts, the party said. Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said only one in 100 reported rapes are making it to trial and he pledged to fix the “broken system”. The Law Gazette said: “Justice featured heavily on day one of Labour’s annual conference.”

8. Aid to prioritise climate

Labour said it would also pass a law to require the UK’s overseas aid spending to prioritise action to tackle the climate crisis. The Independent said that a Starmer government would take action against “greatest threat to humanity”. The party would also restore the commitment for 0.7% of national income to go to aid.

9. Trade deal benefits

Labour would require British trade negotiators to ensure all regions of the UK benefit from new agreements, said shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds. Official data shows just 1.4% of exporters are from the North East and less than 5% are from the East Midlands. Politico said the party hoped “to paint the governing Conservatives as desperate to get deals over the line regardless of their trade-offs”.

10. Hillsborough law

The party would introduce a “Hillsborough law” to ensure victims of major tragedies get the same support “as the authorities that failed them”, announced Reed. The announcement was greeted with a standing ovation from Hillsborough campaigners who lost relatives in the 1989 football disaster, said the BBC.