Unite chief says ‘bleak vision of Britain is not what we need now’ after Starmer’s speechSharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, has criticised the “bleak vision” Keir Starmer delivered in his first major speech as prime minister, saying it’s “time to see the change that Labour promised”.Graham, an outspoken critic of some of Labour policies, said:
We don’t need more excuses about fiscal responsibility or talk of wealth creation. We should not pit pensioners against workers, that is not a choice that should be on the table.
We now need Labour to have the courage to make the right choices. To be Labour and fight for change for workers and our communities.
She acknowledged that Britain “is in crisis” but said there is money to rebuild industry, infrastructure and public services if it is found in the right places. “If we taxed 1% on the wealthiest 1%, the so-called black hole would be gone,” she wrote in a tweet thread on X.Starmer emphasised trying to stimulate growth in the economy (instead of just relying on tax rises or spending cuts), but Graham said Britain “can’t wait for growth” and the country’s industries “can’t wait for investment”.WE NEED CHANGE NOT CUTS Austerity mk 2 is not the answer to the UK’s problems💬 A bleak vision of Britain is not what we need now. It is time to see the change that @UKLabour promised. #Labour 🧵1/6 ⬇️— Sharon Graham (@UniteSharon) August 27, 2024Unite is calling on Labour to bring in an emergency 1% wealth tax on the assets of the super-rich to pay for 10% pay rises for public sector workers and fill more than 100,000 NHS vacancies.The demand from Unite, Britain’s second biggest trade union, is in one of several motions to the Trades Union Congress, which meets in Brighton next month, that will expose tensions between the government and parts of the union movement.ShareUpdated at 12.26 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureClosing summary

In his first major speech as prime minister, Keir Starmer gave his strongest hint yet of tax rises to come in October’s budget, warning he will have to make “painful” decisions after finding what Labour says is a £22bn black hole in the public finances left by the Tories.

Starmer warned that the government’s forthcoming Budget will be “painful” as he asked the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”.

Starmer said those with the “broadest shoulders” will carry the heaviest burden. He stressed that taxes on “working people” – namely national insurance, VAT and income tax – will not be increased in the 30 October budget, but stressed that “things will get worse before they get better”.

Starmer said removing winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners in England and Wales was difficult. There will be more “difficult” decisions to come, he said.

Starmer refused to comment on why he had chosen to overturn the appointment of Gwyn Jenkins, formerly the number two in the armed forces, as the new national security adviser, a decision that has caused unrest in Whitehall.

Former prime minister and current leader of the opposition, Rishi Sunak, said Starmer’s speech was “the clearest indication of what Labour has been planning to do all along – raise your taxes”. The shadow home secretary, James Cleverly, accused Starmer of having “waged war on pensioners”.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, criticised the “bleak vision” Keir Starmer delivered in his first major speech as prime minister, saying it’s “time to see the change that Labour promised”. If we taxed 1% on the wealthiest 1%, the so-called black hole would be gone,” she wrote on X.

The Green party said “enduring more economic pain and hardship isn’t what people voted for”, with its co-leader, Carla Denyer, criticising Labour’s “refusal to tax the super-rich”.

The Scottish government is largely responsible for its current financial crisis, the country’s independence fiscal watchdog said, because it is spending so much on wages without a clear strategy on pay. SNP ministers are considering cutting or limiting universal benefits on which its electoral successes were built, including free prescriptions, free bus travel and free school meals, in a concerted drive to cut public spending.

Former British prime minister Liz Truss considered scrapping all cancer treatment on the NHS in an attempt to repair the damage caused by her economic policies, according to claims contained within Sir Anthony Seldon’s book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be a Prime Minister.
Thank you for reading and all your comments today. This blog is closing now but you can read all of our politics coverage here.ShareUpdated at 16.58 CESTThe deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, who is also the housing secretary, has visited the scene of the aftermath of the tower block fire in Dagenham, east London, which broke out in the early hours of Monday morning.Emergency services were called to the fire on Freshwater Road in east London at 2.44am on Monday, and a major incident was declared.More than 100 people were evacuated from the eight-storey building and two were taken to hospital.By about 12.30pm the London Fire Brigade said the fire was under control and the major incident had been stood down.Speaking outside the burned building, Rayner told the PA news agency:
It’s horrific to see the level of damage that’s happened to the building, but it was also heroic to see the way the community and the first responders, the council, and all of the emergency services came together to prioritise, first of all, making sure that everyone got out of the building safely, but then also about bringing the fire under control.
You can see the level of damage that’s happened to the building, and I’m incredibly grateful for those that responded and managed to make sure that everybody was out of that building safely.
Angela Rayner at the scene in Dagenham, London, following the blaze at a block of flats on Freshwater Road. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PAShareUpdated at 16.52 CESTLabour has ‘waged war on pensioners’, shadow home secretary saysThe shadow home secretary, James Cleverly, has accused Keir Starmer of “rolling out dishonest policies”, following his Downing Street speech earlier this morning.Cleverly, who is running to replace Rishi Sunak as the leader of the Conservative party, said:
More meaningless drivel from Keir Starmer today as he tries to distract from his latest cronyism row. He says he wants to serve people; all he is serving them are tax rises.
The Conservatives left Labour with low inflation, falling migration, and the highest growth in the G7. Yet the Labour government have waged war on pensioners, caved to their union paymasters and splurged millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on unaffordable pay rises for strikers.
Keir Starmer was elected on a manifesto that he won’t stick to, and he is now rolling out a series of dishonest policies for which he has no democratic mandate.
Since Labour’s landslide general election victory on 4 July, Labour have been at pains to blame the previous Conservative government(s) for leaving them with a terrible inheritance and no room for financial manoeuvre.Labour has come under fierce criticism – including from its own MPs – about the decision to scrap winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners in England and Wales.ShareUpdated at 16.39 CESTSeverin CarrellShona Robison, the Scottish finance secretary, said she welcomed the Scottish Fiscal Commission report into the devolved government’s spending crisis, but insisted it was largely due to cuts being imposed by the UK government.She said:
I welcome this report, which provides useful independent analysis. As it says, there is ‘significant uncertainty’ on the level of funding we will receive from the UK government ahead of the UK Budget on 30 October.
The first minister and I have both made clear that, following the UK chancellor’s July statement, the Scottish government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution.
I will be providing an update to [the Scottish] parliament after recess on the urgent action being taken to address these profound financial pressures.
ShareUpdated at 16.15 CESTScottish finance watchdog says SNP ministers to blame for spending crisisSeverin CarrellSeverin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editorThe Scottish government is largely responsible for its current financial crisis, the country’s independence fiscal watchdog has said, because it is spending so much on wages without a clear strategy on pay.The Scottish Fiscal Commission said the emergency spending controls on all non-essential spending recently imposed by Shona Robison, the finance secretary, “are the result” of the pay policies pursued by Robison and other ministers.The commission’s blunt assessment came as details emerged about the areas being considered for cuts, which already include reintroducing peak rail fares; cutting free iPads and laptops for school pupils; cutting back council spending on flood defences and nature restoration and cutting eligibility for free school meals.Government departments have been told to freeze recruitment, ban all non-urgent staff travel, sacking outside consultants and public relations firms. The health and social care directorate, for instance, has been told to cut £750m from its spending immediately.The commission said the devolved government estimates that last year public sector pay accounted for £25bn worth of its spending, equal to more than 50% of all the money it has for day to day spending.Despite that, it had no policy on pay but had agreed this year to a host of pay awards (including to nurses, refuse workers and college staff) with an average increase of 6.5%, three percentage points higher than ministers estimated in May 2023.“If a budget is set based on pay assumptions which are lower than those that materialise, this creates challenges with in-year management of the budget, requiring the government to reduce its planned spending on services.“The recent emergency spending controls the Scottish government has put in place for 2024-25 are the result of those challenges,” it said.Meanwhile Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said this situation was the result of 17 years of Scottish National party incompetence in government. “Every single institution is weaker, not stronger,” he said.Michael Marra, Labour’s finance spokesman, said Robison and her colleagues were “in a blind panic” about their cost challenges. They had “no planning, no strategy for change,” he said.ShareUpdated at 16.17 CESTKeir Starmer is coming under increasing pressure to extend key financial support programmes after the government’s decision to end winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners. The prime minister said in his speech this morning that this decision was a “difficult” one but stuck by it as he claimed it was necessary to get the public finances back in order after years of Conservative “rot” and economic mismanagement. Labour has also come under fire for its refusal to end the two-child benefit cap – which the Guardian has reported is unlikely to be lifted on the 30 October budget.Reeves announced last month that only people eligible for pension credit ( or other means-tested benefits) would get the winter fuel payments, worth between £100 and £300, bringing them to an end for about 10 million pensioners.You can read this useful explainer by the Guardian’s money and consumer editor, Hilary Osborne, on what exactly the winter fuel payments are and who is eligible for them here:ShareUpdated at 16.37 CESTMembers of the armed forces and government departments, manufacturers and academics have been asked to assess the strategic threat to the UK up to 2050 as part of the government’s root-and-branch review of defence policy.George Robertson, a former Nato secretary general and defence secretary in Tony Blair’s first government, has written to dozens of interested parties with a 24-page questionnaire on the future of Britain’s defence.Keir Starmer commissioned Lord Robertson to come up with a roadmap that equips the UK to “tackle international threats head on” and keep the country safe at a time when leaders across Europe recognise the need to increase defence spending to be combat-ready in the face of the continuing threat from Russia.Robertson is drawing on expertise to work out how to direct Britain’s capability and funding.“The UK faces threats that are growing and diversifying – war in Europe, conflict in the Middle East, states across the world that are increasingly acting in ways that challenge regional and global stability as well as our values and interests, terrorist groups, hybrid attacks and instability caused by climate change,” he wrote in his letter to respondents, seen by the Guardian.His independent review is expected to be published in the first half of 2025, and will feed into the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) strategy.You can read the full story by my colleague, Lisa O’Carroll, here:ShareLiz Truss considered scrapping all NHS cancer treatment after disastrous mini-budget, book claimsFormer British prime minister Liz Truss considered scrapping all cancer treatment on the NHS in an attempt to repair the damage caused by her economic policies, according to claims contained within Sir Anthony Seldon’s book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be a Prime Minister. Seldon is arguably Britain’s leading contemporary political historian. The Independent has this report on the extraordinary claim (we have not been able to independently verify it yet).
Sir Anthony’s book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be a Prime Minister, is deeply critical of Ms Truss, who was forced to resign in 2022 after she triggered an economic crisis by proposing the introduction of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts. She spent only 49 days in office.
The author claims that, in the immediate aftermath of the mini-Budget, Ms Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, launched a desperate attempt to find spending cuts in an effort to restore stock market confidence in their strategy.
Sir Anthony says a group of Ms Truss’s Tory aides met to discuss the issue. One of her senior advisers, Alex Boyd “was told that Truss and Kwarteng were thinking they could still sort out the black hole with severe cuts”: “We’ve been told that they’re looking at stopping cancer treatment on the NHS.”
Mr Boyd’s response was to ask “Is she being serious?” writes Sir Anthony, while other aides said she had “lost the plot”.
“She’s shouting at everyone that ‘We’ve got to find the money.’ When we tell her it can’t be done, she shouts back: ‘It’s not true. The money is there. You go and find it,’” they told the author.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Kwarteng said: “I wasn’t involved in any conversations about restricting healthcare, but that doesn’t mean the prime minister and her team didn’t discuss this.”
Then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and then prime minister, Liz Truss, at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham in October 2022. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PAShareUpdated at 15.40 CESTThe crown prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, have greeted each other in front of No10 before stepping inside.“Obviously, there’s a long, very important history between our countries which we’re very proud of and very keen to build on,” Starmer said.The crown prince replied:
Thank you for taking the time to see myself and my delegation. I would like to congratulate you on your speech today, laying out a very ambitious roadmap for the future.
Keir Starmer (L) welcomes Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa (R) outside 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesThe Sunni Muslim-ruled state of Bahrain is a close ally of the UK.Since pro-democracy protests against the ruling Al Khalifa family swept Bahrain in 2011, many people linked with demonstrations have been incarcerated. The government has launched sweeping crackdowns on activists, press freedom, civil society, opposition political groups, and has sought to silence online criticism.ShareThe director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Paul Johnson, has said the government has given itself “deep problems” by ruling out so many possible tax rises in the upcoming autumn budget (Labour has repeatedly ruled out raising VAT, national insurance and income tax on “working people”).Johnson said direct taxes on people with average wages are “the lowest they’ve been in fifty years”(you can read more on the IFS’ analysis that average earners are facing lower levels of direct taxation here).“Trying to significantly increase taxes without impacting that group of people will be very complex and potentially have some negative economic consequences,” he said, adding that Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is left with “difficult and complex choices” ahead of her 30 October budget.As my colleague Kiran Stacey reports in this story, Reeves has been looking at a number of ways to raise money at her first major fiscal event, including raising capital gains tax and inheritance tax. She is also thought to be planning to stick to the tight departmental budget constraints forecast under the last government’s spending plans, and changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.ShareMore than half a million applications for help have been made as part of a Scottish scheme that aims to help less well-off families with the costs of raising their children, PA Media reports.Figures published by Social Security Scotland showed since the Best Start grant and Best Start food schemes were set up, a total of £164.4m has been paid out. That comes after a total of 503,630 applications for help were received.The figures were published ahead of the fifth anniversary of the introduction of two of the four payments included in the Best Start package of grants.The Best Start grant school age payment provides families on certain benefits with a one-off payment of £314.45 being made to help with the costs of a child starting primary school. Since being established in 2019, it has provided £33.5m to more than 100,000 parents and carers.Meanwhile, the Best Start foods payment is worth up £42.40 every four weeks to eligible families, with the money going to help them with the costs of buying healthy food. Overall, the scheme has given 86,000 parents and carers across Scotland assistance worth £57.1m.To mark the fifth anniversary of these payments, social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville urged Scots to check and see if they could be eligible for help.She said: “Eradicating child poverty is the most important priority for our government and we are committed to making sure every child in Scotland has the best start in life.“We have built a different social security system, one grounded in dignity, fairness and respect. Part of this is making it as straightforward as possible for people to access the financial support that people are entitled to.”SharePA Media is reporting that Crown Prince of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa has arrived in Downing Street.Three Range Rovers are stationed outside Number 10 while the bilateral meeting takes place.The Crown Prince and prime minister Keir Starmer are set to discuss heightened tensions and conflict in the Middle East, and trade and investment.ShareThe End Fuel Poverty Coalition warns of potential ‘public health emergency’ this winterAs we reported in an earlier post, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is set to extend the household support fund, which is due to end next month and helps tens of thousands of households at risk of destitution with cash, food parcels, fuel vouchers and clothing.The End Fuel Poverty Coalition, a group of anti-poverty campaigners, charities, local authorities and unions, said this is the “least” Labour needs to announce. The campaign group says the Treasury also needs to expand the warm home discounts, restore winter fuel payments and “evolve” standing charges, the daily fees that are applied whether you use any electricity or not.Continuing the Household Support Fund is the least @Keir_Starmer needs to announce. We also need to see @hmtreasury support:- Ending energy debt- Expanding Warm Home Discounts- Evolving standing charges- Restoring Winter Fuel Payments to more peoplehttps://t.co/p7V7XGRmef— End Fuel Poverty Coalition (@EndFuelPoverty) August 27, 2024Reacting to Starmer’s speech, Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said:
The winter fuel payment axe is not about rot in the system, it is about basic fairness for older people facing soaring energy bills.
In real terms, the changes this winter mean that some older people will face the highest energy bills on record.
This has the potential to create a public health emergency which will actually create more pressure on the under-pressure NHS which the prime minister says he wants to fix.
The impact of living in cold damp homes is particularly harsh on those older people with a disability, a long term health condition or with poor mental health. It results in people turning to an NHS and, in some cases, can result in additional winter deaths.
Ending energy debt, extending the Household Support Fund, expanding Warm Home Discounts and evolving standing charges are all now needed urgently to help mitigate the impact of high bills and the axe to the Winter Fuel Payment.
But as well as support this winter, the public need to see a clear timetable for when the very real benefits of cheaper renewable energy and the Warm Homes Plan will kick in.
If the prime minister needs to find some ‘broad shoulders’ to pay for this support, let’s not forget that every month we hear about more massive profits for firms in the wider energy industry.
ShareUpdated at 16.17 CESTSunak: Starmer’s speech is clearest indication of Labour’s plan to raise taxesRishi Sunak, the leader of the opposition, has responded to Keir Starmer’s speech this morning from Downing Street’s rose garden.In a post on X, the former prime minister wrote:
Keir Starmer’s speech today was the clearest indication of what Labour has been planning to do all along – raise your taxes.
Keir Starmer’s speech today was the clearest indication of what Labour has been planning to do all along – raise your taxes.— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) August 27, 2024

During the general election, Sunak repeatedly said during ITV’s head-to-head debate with Starmer that “independent Treasury officials” had costed Labour’s policies “and they amount to a £2,000 tax rise for everyone”. Starmer said this claim was a lie.Amid dire polling numbers, the Conservatives said they would rule out changes to council tax bands and cutting discounts, would maintain protections on homes from capital gains tax, and would not increase stamp duty. Labour said it would match all those pledges. Starmer insisted today that he would not raise tax on “working people” (while not clarifying what this actually means), namely national insurance, VAT and income tax.During his speech this morning, Starmer, who won July’s general election in a landslide, warned “things are worse than we ever imagined” because of a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances, claiming to have found out last week that the Tories had borrowed almost £5 billion more than the Office for Budget Responsibility expected.ShareSNP will lose Scottish election without complete rethink, say senior party figuresLibby BrooksLibby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, based in GlasgowThe Scottish National party will lose the next Holyrood election without a fundamental rethink of purpose and policy while carrying out long-delayed internal reforms, senior figures have warned.However, some have expressed doubt that the party’s leader, John Swinney, is strong enough to direct the scale of change required.Before the SNP’s annual conference at the end of August, the Guardian spoke to more than 20 influential voices within the party, including current and former Scottish government ministers, senior activists and those ousted in July’s catastrophic general election defeat – in which the SNP was reduced from 46 to nine MPs as Labour swept the board across the country.John Sweeney stepped into the role as SNP leader barely two weeks before the general election was called. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PAMany predict the SNP, which has enjoyed stratospheric electoral success over the past decade, faces “a doing” at the Scottish parliament elections in 2026 as Scottish Labour capitalises on the UK party’s Westminster win.“The way things are now, we run the real risk of not winning in 2026,” said one senior MSP. “We have to change course and John needs to be decisive.”Stewart McDonald, a former MP for Glasgow South, who had cleared his Westminster desk before 4 July because he was so certain of defeat, said: “What does an SNP that has learned its lesson look and sound like? I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the scale of the challenge we are facing as a party.”Almost all argued that countering the Labour message of change to voters who were desperate to get the Tories out of Downing Street was “incredibly difficult if not impossible”, as one former MP described it.ShareStarmer’s speech shows he is ‘taking the British public for fools’, Kemi Badenoch saysShadow housing secretary, Kemi Badenoch, who is the current frontrunner to be the next leader of the Tory party, said Starmer’s speech shows he is “taking the British public for fools”.In one of the first reactions from a senior Conservative MP, Badenoch was quoted by the BBC as saying: “Keir Starmer is taking the British public for fools, but his dishonest analysis won’t wash.”“He campaigned on promises he couldn’t deliver and now he is being found out,” she adds.Kemi Badenoch is in the running to be the next leader of the Conservative party. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesBadenoch has long been considered the frontrunner in the Tory leadership contest (as per this recent YouGov poll). She has said the Conservatives “will speak the truth again” and return to its roots if she wins it. The MP for north west Essex has argued for leaving the European convention on human rights, a major dividing line within her party.Kemi Badenoch is the frontrunner in our new poll of Tory members for the 2024 leadership contest% saying is their preferred candidate…Kemi Badenoch: 24%Tom Tugendhat: 16%James Cleverly: 14%Robert Jenrick: 12%Priti Patel: 11%Mel Stride: 2%Don’t know: 19%… pic.twitter.com/ubGRLBUCUh— YouGov (@YouGov) August 23, 2024

The former business secretary previously ran for the Tory leadership after the resignation of Boris Johnson and came fourth.Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister and current leader of the opposition, will hand over to his successor on 2 November after an extended Conservative leadership contest.ShareThe public didn’t vote for Labour to endure ‘more economic pain’, Green party co-leader saysThe Green party co-leader, Carla Denyer, has reacted to Starmer’s speech. She said that people didn’t vote for Labour for more “economic pain” and said that the party could improve people’s lives if their economic agenda was bolder. She singled out Labour’s “refusal to tax the super-rich” as an example of a business as usual approach to politics.Denyer, the newly elected MP for Bristol Central, has said she believes the four Green MPs elected to the Commons can put pressure on Starmer from the left. She wants Labour to be more radical on the climate, the housing crisis and the funding of public services.In reaction to Starmer’s Downing Street speech, she said:
Enduring more economic pain and hardship isn’t what people voted for. They were told they were voting for change. Not voting for things to get worse before they get better. Labour needs to be honest about the fact that they could choose to make things better for everyone if they were bolder and braver.
What is being framed as tough choices is actually about political choices. People don’t need a constant reminder that the Tories broke Britain. They need a new approach, not misguided fiscal rules that are set to make things worse.
We must generate the funds needed for investment by shifting the burden away from the poorest onto the wealthiest. Labour’s refusal to tax the super-rich shows that business as usual is very much still in business.
Keir Starmer says the violent riots earlier this month exposed a deeply unhealthy society. But the health of a society can’t be improved if it is forced to swallow the same failed medicine. The government can choose to provide the investment our communities are crying out for. This would help create hope and unleash the goodness of people to improve their communities.
The Green Party manifesto proposed to raise up to £151bn a year in new taxes by 2029, including a new tax on the wealthy, which they claimed would raise about £15bn. Some analysts said many people this would affect would have likely left the UK to avoid paying the extra cash. The party also said there would be a tax rise for earners on more than £50,270.ShareUpdated at 13.03 CESTMain takeaways from Starmer’s Downing Street speechHere are some of the key takeaways from Keir Starmer’s first major speech as prime minister:

Starmer warned that the government’s forthcoming Budget will be “painful” as he asked the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”.

Starmer said those with the “broadest shoulders” will carry the heaviest burden. He stressed that taxes on “working people” – namely national insurance, VAT and income tax – will not be increased in the 30 October budget, but stressed that “things will get worse before they get better”.

Starmer said removing winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners in England and Wales was difficult. There will be more “difficult” decisions to come, he said, pointing to the government inheriting a £22bn black hole in the public finances from the Conservatives.

Starmer claimed to have found out last week that the Tories had borrowed almost £5 billion more than the Office for Budget Responsibility expected.

Starmer said his government inherited a “societal black hole” made worse by recent rioting, which he said exposed the state of a “deeply unhealthy society”.

The prime minister said his government has done more in seven weeks than the Conservative government did in seven years.
ShareEd Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has reacted to the prime minister’s speech. He said “only the out-of-touch Conservative Party will deny the scale of the challenges” facing the government, striking a broadly supportive tone of Starmer.Davey – whose party won 72 seats in the general election (12.2% of the vote) – said:
From the millions stuck on NHS waiting lists to the millions struggling to make ends meet, the last Conservative government has left a toxic legacy. We need bold and ambitious action from the government to fix this mess.
Liberal Democrats will work tirelessly to put our positive ideas forward and hold the new government to account if they fail to rise to the challenges facing the country. Above all, people want urgent, ambitious action to fix the health and care crisis.
Only by getting people off NHS waiting lists can we get the economy growing strongly again and ensure more funding for our public services in the long-term.
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