OPINION - The Standard View: Keir Starmer's vow to end the 'London bashing' is a welcome message
It is the message Londoners are longing to hear. Sir Keir Starmer vowed today to end the “bashing of London”, instead working “hand-in-glove” with Mayor Sadiq Khan to fix the capital’s housing crisis if his party wins the election.
In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with the Standard, the Labour leader condemned recent attempts by the Government to do London down as “short-sighted, counterproductive and a divisive way to look at politics”. He added that better relations between Downing Street and City Hall (they could scarcely be worse) would help to accelerate the programme of housebuilding the city needs.
As ever, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. A Labour landslide would likely see the party taking back swaths of Scotland and the Red Wall, as well as consolidating its dominance in the capital. There will be plenty of towns and cities with Labour representation expecting special treatment. Londoners will hope that a new government will recognise that their city is the engine of the UK economy, one that cannot indefinitely be taken for granted.
Eye-catching policies
Political campaigns are an awful lot more enjoyable when you are 20 points ahead in the polls, rather than behind. And so, in a bid to shake the electorate from their torpor, the Conservative Party has been on the lookout for eye-catching policies — particularly for one segment of the electorate still reliably Tory: older people.
National service for 18-year-olds is certainly one way of doing that, but another is a promise to increase the income personal tax allowance for pensioners, which could grant them a tax cut worth up to £275 by the end of the decade. As giveaways go, it is not especially subtle. The policy has been costed at £2.4 billion a year by 2029-30 and will be funded by a clamping down on tax evasion — a pot of money that will also fund the national service announcement.
After a rocky (and rainy) start to the Tories’ election campaign, Rishi Sunak will hope that new policies can shore up his support. If the polls don’t shift, we might expect a few more unusual (and expensive) policy announcements.
Give us a break
With a long campaign ahead and a typically unsettled weather forecast, the British public are entitled to a break. Step up the “Wagatha Christie” feud between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, which returns to the High Court for a battle over the final legal costs of their libel trial.
It would be inappropriate for a newspaper to intervene in the judicial process, but facilitating a months-long court battle would represent an act of public service.
