Change begins now, says Keir Starmer after win: What can the UK expect?

It’s a new day in Britain.

The Labour Party on Friday took power in a landslide victory.

The Keir Starmer-led party won over 400 seats less than five years after it suffered its worst defeat in almost a century under Jeremy Corbyn.

Speaking to a cheering crowd in central London after the historic win, Starmer said “change begins now.”

“A mandate like this comes with a great responsibility,” Starmer told supporters. He said that the fight to regain people’s trust after years of disillusionment “is the battle that defines our age."

He vowed that Labour would offer “the sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger through the day.”

Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, conceded defeat, saying the voters had delivered a “sobering verdict.”

But what changes has Labour promised?

Let’s take a closer look:

Raising $10.2 billion in revenue

The UK has seen its budget deficit at $149 billion for 2023/2024.

That’s equal to 4.4 per cent of the country’s economic output.

Experts had predicted that the next government would push through some tax rises to balance the books.

Which is exactly what Labour has said it will do.

The party has vowed to raise $10.2 billion in revenue by closing the inheritance tax loophole for non-doms, cracking down on tax evaders, closing a carried interest tax loophole, making private schools pay VAT and having a windfall tax on big energy.

The party has vowed not to “increase taxes on working people.”

Fixing NHS

Fixing the UK’s ailing National Health Service (NHS) is a top priority for Labour.

As per The Telegraph, Labour has vowed that by the end of its first term, all patients will be treated in 18 weeks.

It has said the NHS will get thousands of new doctors, nurses and midwives.

It has promised two million more operations, scans and appointments a year – via weekend services and the private sector.

Labour has said new “neighbourhood health centres” will be created.

Wealth creation

Labour in its manifesto has claimed the mantle of “the party of wealth creation.”

It has vowed to foster a “pro-business environment,” and to offer “innovation and growth” in financial services, which it says is “one of Britain’s greatest success stories.”

The party has said it will adopt a new approach – “securonomics” aka “modern supply side economics.”

It has said it will establish a $9.2 billion national wealth fund to “unlock billions of pounds of private investment” in “growth and clean energy”.

Its manifesto vows to spend $2.3 billion would be spent on ports, $1.9 billion on new gigafactories, $3.19 billion on steel, $1.28 billion on carbon capture and $640 million on green hydrogen manufacturing.

Tax on private schools

Labour has said it wants to add a 20 per cent VAT to private school fees.

This, the party, says will help at 6,500 teachers in public schools.

The BBC quoted the Institute of Fiscal Studies think-tank as saying that the tax will raise up to $2 billion per year.

Starmer has vowed to “recruit 6,500 new teachers in key subjects to prepare children for life, work and the future, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools”.

Building 300,000 homes per year

Labour has said it wants to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years – 300,000 per year.

Labour has vowed to make “housing more affordable” through a “blitz of planning reform”.

The party says it will do away with “restrictive” laws to allow homes to be built on “poor quality” green belt land.

This includes “disused car parks” and “dreary wasteland.”

As per BBC, this is a tall order as just 152,000 homes have been built each year in the last decade.

Private housebuilders have built over 170,000 homes just twice in the past few decades – that too in the early 1970s.

The last 10 years has seen an average of 123,000 homes being built by private housebuilders.

Ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2030

Labour has said it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

The Tory government in September set the deadline banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) has said that customers require “carrots, not sticks.”

New border command, curbing immigration

Labour has vowed to get rid of the Conservative Party’s controversial Rwanda scheme.

It said it will instead spend some of that money on setting up a new Border and Security Command.

Starmer has also vowed to tamp down on immigration to the UK.

“Read my lips – I will bring immigration numbers down,” Starmer told voters in June.

Labour has vowed to train Britons to do jobs taken by migrant workers in fields such as healthcare, construction and engineering.

Green initiatives

The party has vowed to turn the UK into a ‘clean energy superpower” by 2030.

The party has said it will spend $30 billion on green energy.

This includes setting up the Great British Energy company to invest in green projects like wind farms.

The party in its manifesto said it aims to create 650,000 green jobs by 2030.

It will also spend another $1.4 billion to improve the energy efficiency of UK homes.

The party has also vowed to overturn the de-facto ban on onshore wind in England.

Defence, commitment to NATO

Labour in its manifesto says, “No policy commitment in pursuit of Labour’s missions matters unless we uphold the first duty of any government: to keep the country safe.”

The party has vowed to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP – the same as the Conservatives.

However, unlike the Tories, the Labour has not pledged to do so by 2030.

Starmer, in a clear departure from Labour under Corbyn, has pledged its “unshakeable commitment” to NATO and Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

The party has also vowed to recognise a Palestinian state.

“Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people,” the manifesto states.

It says that a  “neighbouring country” must not have a veto over the granting of Palestinian statehood.

It says it remains steadfast in its support of a “two-state solution” and Israel’s right to exist.

Though Labour did not set pulses racing with its pledges to get the sluggish economy growing, invest in infrastructure and make Britain a “clean energy superpower,” the party’s cautious, safety-first campaign delivered the desired result.

The party won the support of large chunks of the business community and endorsements from several traditionally conservative newspapers, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid, which praised Starmer for “dragging his party back to the center ground of British politics.”

With inputs from agencies