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Keir Starmer indicates he no longer favours renationalising rail companies – UK politics live


Starmer indicates he no longer favours bringing rail companies back into public ownership

When Keir Starmer was running for the Labour leadership after the 2019 general election, he issued 10 pledges which included: “Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water.” He has been in retreat from these every since, but his comments today probably take him a bit further down the path of burying Labour’s interest in renationalisation.

At the Labour conference last year, after abandoning the commitment to renationalising energy companies, Starmer argued that his commitment to “common ownership” was different and he implied that his support for that still applied.

More recently he has refused to restate his commitment to all of the leadership campaign 10 pledges – including “common ownership”, his watered down version of nationalisation.

In her interview on the Today programme this morning Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, was specifically asked about the renationalistation of water, energy and rail. Rail is particularly problematic because Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, told the rail union Aslef earlier this year that the party was “totally committed” to public ownership of rail. Labour claims Reeves was not categorically ruling this out. (See 11.33am.)

But Starmer implied that renationalising rail companies was not an option he favoured. In the Q&A after his speech this morning, in response to the first question on this, from a journalist asking if he was still interested in common ownership, he replied:

I take a pragmatic approach rather than an ideological one and agree with what Rachel Reeves said this morning.

Having come through the pandemic, it’s very important that we have very, very clear priorities and that’s why we’ve set our fiscal rules already as an opposition …

And my priority, as I hope is obvious from this morning is growth. The mission of the next Labour government will be growth.

Starmer was then asked a second directly if taking rail companies back into public ownership was a priortiy. He again said that his approach was pragmatic, not ideolgoical. He said:

Whether it comes to rail or [energy], I think what some of our mayors and metro mayors are doing with public transport is the right way forward – absolutely focus on keeping the price down and making sure there’s control over where things go, particularly buses …

I think that is the difference that Labour mayor’s metro mayor’s can make in power.

Keir Starmer delivering his speech in Liverpool.
Keir Starmer delivering his speech in Liverpool. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

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Starmer indicates he no longer favours bringing rail companies back into public ownership

When Keir Starmer was running for the Labour leadership after the 2019 general election, he issued 10 pledges which included: “Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water.” He has been in retreat from these every since, but his comments today probably take him a bit further down the path of burying Labour’s interest in renationalisation.

At the Labour conference last year, after abandoning the commitment to renationalising energy companies, Starmer argued that his commitment to “common ownership” was different and he implied that his support for that still applied.

More recently he has refused to restate his commitment to all of the leadership campaign 10 pledges – including “common ownership”, his watered down version of nationalisation.

In her interview on the Today programme this morning Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, was specifically asked about the renationalistation of water, energy and rail. Rail is particularly problematic because Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, told the rail union Aslef earlier this year that the party was “totally committed” to public ownership of rail. Labour claims Reeves was not categorically ruling this out. (See 11.33am.)

But Starmer implied that renationalising rail companies was not an option he favoured. In the Q&A after his speech this morning, in response to the first question on this, from a journalist asking if he was still interested in common ownership, he replied:

I take a pragmatic approach rather than an ideological one and agree with what Rachel Reeves said this morning.

Having come through the pandemic, it’s very important that we have very, very clear priorities and that’s why we’ve set our fiscal rules already as an opposition …

And my priority, as I hope is obvious from this morning is growth. The mission of the next Labour government will be growth.

Starmer was then asked a second directly if taking rail companies back into public ownership was a priortiy. He again said that his approach was pragmatic, not ideolgoical. He said:

Whether it comes to rail or [energy], I think what some of our mayors and metro mayors are doing with public transport is the right way forward – absolutely focus on keeping the price down and making sure there’s control over where things go, particularly buses …

I think that is the difference that Labour mayor’s metro mayor’s can make in power.

Keir Starmer delivering his speech in Liverpool.
Keir Starmer delivering his speech in Liverpool. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Here is a link to the full text of Keir Starmer’s speech on Labour’s approach to growth.

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Reeves suggests Labour would not renationalise rail, water or energy

In his Q&A Keir Starmer said that he agreed with what Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said in an interview this morning about nationalisation. (See 11.05am.) That is not the most helpful answer because what Reeves said has been subject to some clarification.

On the Today programme Reeves was asked if Labour was now ruling out nationalisation of water, energy companies and rail companies if it won the election. She replied:

I’ve set out fiscal rules that say all day to day spending will be funded by day to day tax revenues …

Within our fiscal rules, to be spending billions of pounds on nationalising things that just doesn’t stack up against our fiscal rules.

And when it was put to her that nationalisation was a commitment, she replied:

They were a commitment in a manifesto that secured our worst results since 1935 … We have scrapped the 2019 manifesto. That is not the starting point. We’re setting out distinct policies under Kier Starmer.

But subsequently, as Sienna Rodgers from the House magazine reports, Labour said Reeves was not categorically ruling out rail nationalisation in her answer. (But the Labour clarification also does not make rail nationalisation sound particularly probable either, which is also what Reeves was implying.)

Update: I’m told Labour’s position on rail ownership has *NOT* changed – Rachel Reeves didn’t hear the “rail” bit of the question on Today this morning. https://t.co/pDVigdSloc

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) July 25, 2022

Q: Some members of the shadow cabinet say Labour remains committed to public ownership of rail. Are they right?

Starmer starts by saying he knows what train journeys in the north of England are like. He has travelled by train in the region many, many times. He understands why people feel let down.

But he wants to be “pragmatic, not ideological”, he says.

He says some Labour metro mayors have been providing a good example, by focusing on prices for passengers, not ownership.

That’s it. The Q&A is over.

Starmer is now taking questions.

Q: What is your positon on nationalisation of energy and water firms?

Starmer says he takes a pragmatic approach. He agrees with what Rachel Reeves said about this in an interview this morning.

His priority is growth, he says.

He is pragmatic, not ideological.

Starmer says he wants Labour to move on from its “old ideas”. He says redistribution cannot be secure if the country does not have strong growth. Without growth, people will be left in insecure jobs. That is why he is saying growth is as important, he says. (See 9.29am.)

Starmer says Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, is looking at how new forms of economic devolution could drive regional growth.

Starmer says his proposed industrial strategy council could be as influential as OBR

Starmer says the government needs an industrial strategy. This government does not have one, he says. And an industrial strategy isn’t about growing the size of the state; it is about partnership with business and university.

He confirms that Labour would legislate to set up a new industrial strategy council.

He suggests this could shape policy like the Climate Change Committee, or the Office for Budget Responsibility. It could focus on national priorities that go beyond the political cycle, he says.





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