Keir Starmer must be 'on the side of the people' as Labour leader branded 'fiscal conservative'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Keir Starmer has been challenged to show he is on "the side of the people" after he was branded a "fiscal conservative".Ther Labour leader faced a backlash from union leaders and some in his own party after he spelled out his tough approach to growing the economy if he becomes the next prime minister.Starmer ruled out scrapping the two-child cap on benefits if his party wins the next general election but pledged to invest in public services in general.Asked if he was "relaxed" at being branded a fiscal conservative, he told the BBC: "I don’t mind what label people on me."My argument is this.

What was absolutely plain from last year’s mini-budget is if you lose control of the economy, it’s working people who pay."Challenged on the Tory two-child cap, Starmer admitted: "We're not changing that policy".That drew a furious response from some in the party.

A Scottish Labour source told the Record: "Members are genuinely upset and disgusted by this".Starmer also criticised a lack of “long-term thinking” during the previous 13 years of Conservative-led governments at Westminster,He added: "Take the NHS, the strains on the NHS are very different to the strains 75 years ago so we have to reform and change the NHS so it’s fit for the future."If all we do is simply patch up and keep going then we won’t fix the fundamentals and that’s why reform is so important.”Pressed again if he would spend more money, he said: "A Labour government will always want to invest in its public services.

The way to invest in our public services is to grow our economy."Starmer insisted the last Labour government "grew the economy and had tens of billions of pounds more to spend on our public services"."That’s what I want to replicate – to grow our