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Tuesday, March 18

U-turn After Screeching U-turn

RobertBy 152 Views15 Mins Read Westminster

(Nearly) All Labour U-turns in one place.

It’s hard to keep up. Despite claiming to be the party of working people, Labour now endorses the Tories’ economic policy, social security cuts, anti-immigrant rhetoric and betrayal of WASPI women.

In addition to deploying his shadow cabinet to defend his screeching u-turns while in opposition, the Prime Minister has junked many of his pledges himself, including on tuition fees, commitment to a just energy transition, bankers’ bonuses and tax hikes for tech companies and the ultra-wealthy.

So what exactly does Labour stand for at this point? Here, we break down some of the party’s biggest policy reversals.

The SNP was absolutely right to ask during the election – after so many U-turns will the Labour Party actually have any policies left?

These have seen Labour come to back Brexit and break even more pledges their pledges – on rent controls, free school meals, public sector pay, freedom of movement, nationalisation, progressive taxation, electoral reform and reform of the House of Lords, as well as on devolution and Scotland’s right to choose our own future.

Betraying the WASPI Women

The Labour party in Scotland were overruled by the UK leadership after pledging to stand up for women financially hit by sudden increases to the state pension age.

A report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) stated thousands of women who were born in the 1950s might have been impacted by the Department for Work and Pension’s “failure to adequately inform them” about the increase in the age of entitlement.

The WASPI group has been campaigning for compensation since 2015 and secured the inquiry by the PHSO back in 2018.

Despite this, Labour backtracked on a previous manifesto commitment and joined with the Tories, this time to refuse paying the compensation they are due.

Ahead of this year’s UK General Election, however, just about every Labour MP and MSP committed to justice for WASPI women. But, in the end, DWP Secretary Liz Kendall made the astonishing announcement that the Labour Government will completely ignore the Ombudsman recommendation to deliver compensation. 

Previously, the Labour party in Scotland have attacked the SNP for not creating a new benefit to compensate these women in place of the UK Government who are responsible.

The SNP has now called for a vote on the Labour decision to reject the Ombudsman recommendation of compensation.

Betraying Pensioners

Starmer’s latest and most damning u-turn came only weeks into his new government.

Labour MPs had previously queued up to attack the Tories over leaving pensioners in the cold – often in punishing winters.

The £1.5 billion cut to the vital benefit will leave ten million pensioners without financial support entering the coldest months of the year.

Even Labour’s own research has suggested that the policy could cost lives.

No More Scruples on the World Stage

Starmer shocked the country when he suggested Israel had a right to commit war crimes.

He dodged the issue as the death toll rose – only changing his position when foreign secretary and former prime minister Lord Cameron called for a ceasefire.

Another major foreign policy u-turn came in January. He’d made a pledge to stop the sale of UK arms to Saudi Arabia – which he’s now dropped.

The Saudi war in Yemen has claimed the lives of over 250,000 people.

Saving the Planet Can Wait

A 2021 pledge to invest £28 billion a year in green technologies was later watered down. Labour’s Shadow Chancellor then said that a Labour government would only be looking to move towards that level of investment – and only by the second half of a parliamentary term. The associated borrowing figures were revised down significantly.

Now this pledge has been dropped entirely, seemingly in a cowardly reaction to Tory categorisation of the commitment. This is truly a betrayal to voters across Scotland who are reliant on our vital green energy transition.

The damaging decision will destroy Scottish jobs, harm economic growth and hit families in the pocket by keeping energy bills high.

No Capping of Bankers’ Bonuses

While still Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves confirmed that a Labour government would not reimpose a cap on bankers’ bonuses – stating that the party “does not have any intention of bringing that back”.

Keir Starmer had previously vowed, back in 2022, to curb bankers’ bonuses by reinstating the cap – with Labour’s leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar having described the lifting of the cap as “economically illiterate and morally bankrupt“. Starmer himself had called the Tories’ removal of the cap as “absolutely tone deaf to what so many people are going through.”

Now that would appear an accurate description of Labour’s platform across the board as the party drifts ever further to the right.

Forget Rent Controls

Labour’s announcement that they were U-turning on Keir Starmer’s pledge to introduce rent controls in England if they won the next UK general election, just nine months after proposing it, was simply further evidence that Labour would offer no real change from the last Tory government.

As they sought to win support from landlords, the pledge was binned – and described as a “sticking plaster.” In contrast, the SNP Scottish Government has already introduced rent controls in Scotland in order to protect tenants and is looking at long-term measures in its Housing Bill.

The SNP has built more council houses than Labour in Wales and the Tories in England. But the UK-wide housing crisis continues to spiral, with young people and renters suffering the most.

Nationalising Nothing

Despite pledging to bring public services including rail, mail, water and energy into “common ownership” when running for the Labour leadership, it was clear by September 2021 that this was not going to happen in the case of the latter after Starmer ruled ruled out nationalising the ‘big six’ energy companies.

By July 2022, any commitment to bringing those other services into public ownership had been fully ditched by his then-Shadow Chancellor. Junking these pledges, despite them having strong and widespread public support, was a startling betrayal of Labour members.

Most notably, the new Labour government has failed to get a grip on the scandal of the private companies running water providers in England pumping huge amounts of waste and sewage into natural bodies of water. Far from being just a u-turn, it seems that yet another Westminster government is hoping to sweep the scandal under the carpet.

NHS Outsourcing to Continue

Another key pledge of Keir Starmer’s party leadership bid was to end the outsourcing of NHS services to the private sector.

By summer 2022, however, the line was that a Labour government would “likely have to continue with” some level of private provision.

Labour’s top team are now offering to hold the door “wide open” for the private sector.

Solidarity with Workers a Thing of the Past

Despite promising that Labour would “work shoulder to shoulder with trade unions to stand up for working people” under his leadership, summer 2022 also saw Starmer ban his shadow ministers from being seen supporting strikers on picket lines.

It was no joke, with former shadow rail minister Sam Tarry sacked for doing so, claiming this was for making up party policy in an interview.

Then on 1st May 2024, International Workers Day of all days, the Financial Times reported that Labour were set to unveil a weakened package of workers’ rights. Scotland’s workers deserve better than watered down reforms by a Labour Party chasing Tory policies.

A Full 180 on Brexit & Free Movement

When campaigning to become Labour leader in the spring of 2020, Starmer was still vociferously against the Tories’ disastrous Brexit and pledged to protect the free movement of people.

Keir Starmer has gone from being a proponent of a second referendum on Brexit pre-2019 election, to vowing to “defend free movement as we leave the EU”, to a complete embrace of the Tories’ Brexit – making the return of free movement for EU citizens a “red line“.

Starmer has ruled out a return to the single market, the customs union and any other European framework – leaving consumers and businesses stuck with the broken Brexit that is stifling the very economic growth Labour claims to want so badly.

Universal Credit Here to Stay

The problem-riddled benefit, introduced by the Tories, was something Starmer initially promised to abolish.

This has now been diluted to “reform” of the system, though the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth has said his party “actually agree[s] with the concept behind Universal Credit”.

Tuition Fees Too

Another of the biggest U-turns to date, Starmer started out reiterating Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to abolish tuition fees for students in England.

This was binned back in May 2023, with the Labour leader saying he is “likely to move on from that commitment”. Only months after taking office, Labour conceded that they would in fact be raising tuition fees once again.

Scottish Labour have gone even further, raising the prospect of repealing free tuition in Scotland entirely – a hammer blow to the social mobility young people desperately need.

Customary Labour Walkback on Abolishing the Lords

113 years after Labour first promised to abolish the unelected House of Lords, Keir Starmer continued the party’s tradition of recommitting to this before returning to business as usual.

Though Starmer has reaffirmed the pledge as recently as November 2022, his spokesperson then indicated that the Labour leader may actually look to appoint new peers. Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire has since confirmed that any plans to abolish the Lords will likely be dropped again because constitutional change “takes time and it drains energy”.

 At this point, we can only assume they’re taking their voters for fools.

Top Earners Needn’t Fear Fairer Taxes

You would think the importance of this pledge would have been evident in its placement at the top of the list: “Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners”.

There are a record 171 billionaires in the UK – who would hardly notice a wealth tax.

Instead, it’s another full 180 – with Keir Starmer now saying his principle is to “lower taxes”, and that he isn’t “looking to the lever of taxation”. Labour has u-turned on a wealth tax as it focuses on chasing support and donations from the UK’s richest corporations and individuals.

Universal Childcare ‘Not Labour’s Policy’

That’s what a labour spokesperson told the Guardian. And yes, that is despite the time the then-Shadow Education Secretary told the Sunday Times a Labour government would guarantee childcare from the end of parental leave until the end of primary school, NHS-style.

Fast forward to less than six months later – the policy was junked.

Caving to Big Multinationals

Pledged in 2021, a digital services tax plan would have seen Labour increase the 2% levy charged on the revenues of tech firms operating in the U.K. — the likes of Amazon and Facebook — to 10%.

But it only took some business figures raising concerns to see an outright ditching of this commitment too, with a Labour spokesperson confirming the party had “no plans to raise [the] digital services tax”.

Big tech and online retail rake in huge profits, at the expense of high streets and small businesses. Labour chucked this idea to woo big corporations into backing the party. Putting their interests ahead of the nation’s?

The Rape Clause

In an astounding press conference, the Labour leader admitted that scrapping the Tories’ cruel and callous two-child benefit cap was not Labour Party policy.

In the past, Scottish Labour figures have branded the flagship Tory policy as “despicable” and “absolutely shameful”, which makes this not just another screeching u-turn for UK Labour, but a complete policy reversal for Labour’s Scottish branch office.

Labour’s endless u-turns prove that the SNP are the only party in Scotland seeking to deliver real and lasting change. Keir Starmer can talk all he wants about delivering change for these isles, but it only happens if you’re serious about seeing it through.

That means standing on your principles and laying out your vision – assets Keir Starmer seems to lack.

Labour must fully commit to abolishing the two-child cap and Westminster’s draconian rape clause – these polices remains just as vile now as they was when they were first introduced more than six years ago.

More than a million children are affected by the two-child cap, why are Labour choosing to side with the Tories rather than working families?

The Leasehold Rip-Off

Last May, the then-shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said that a future Labour government would bring forward legislation to abolish leasehold within 100 days.

Now though, its just another promise broken to add to the long list.

Labour dropped its pledge to introduce legislation to abolish leasehold within the first 100 days of government.

Leasehold is a type of property contract that allows the homeowner to live in a property – usually a flat – for a fixed term.

Under this system, leaseholders often have to pay expensive ground rent and service charges to freeholders, who own buildings or land on which the homes are built.

No More Pretence of a Union of Equals

Whichever side of the independence debate we’re on, a vast majority of people believe it should be Scotland’s right to decide.

Starmer commissioned Gordon Brown to report on what Labour could do to address the UK constitution. He’s since binned the recommendations and, like the Tories, avoids any discussion on the nature of Scotland’s constitutional future.

The SNP has won multiple mandates for the Scottish Parliament to have the power to put the question to the people again – but Sir Keir thinks has the right to ignore you.

Instead, he has created a ‘Council of Nations and Regions’, where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are given the same treatment as regions and cities of England. To make it worse, he created an Envoy position to offer to his sacked chief of staff as a consolation prize – who didn’t even bother to turn up to the first meeting of the council last week.

Under flip-flopping Starmer, the sad reality is that it’s increasingly hard to distinguish the Labour Party from the Tories.

While the Labour leader has thrown every progressive policy on the scrap heap, it’s the SNP Scottish Government showing how it’s done across these areas – enacting rent controls, providing free school meals, tuition and personal care, delivering the Scottish Child Payment, ensuring higher public sector pay, making progressive taxation a reality and securing key services in public hands.

It’s clear that the SNP is the only party offering real support with the cost of living, real opposition to Tory cuts and real change – with independence. In contrast, the Tory-lite Labour Party only offers Brexit, austerity cuts and the same damaging policies that got the UK into this mess.

Voting SNP is the only way to secure independence – so Scotland can escape Brexit, tackle the cost of living and get rid of unelected Tory governments for good.

I have worked for Graeme since joining his office part-time as a constituency assistant while studying at University in 2017, before eventually capitulating and taking on a full-time role as office manager in 2021.

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