Keir Starmer says UK will 'not go back to austerity' under Labour in BBC interview

Transcript

00:00The question was, will there be cuts in other areas?

00:03And the independent experts say there will be cuts in other areas,

00:06unless you borrow more or tax more or grow the economy incredibly fast.

00:11So are you saying there will be cuts or not?

00:13Well, Nick, firstly, we're not going back to austerity.

00:16I ran a public service during austerity.

00:18I know what that feels like.

00:19I know the damage that it did.

00:20And that's been the legacy of the last 14 years.

00:22So we're not going to go to austerity.

00:26But secondly, I do want to take on this challenge that you rightly put to me.

00:29In relation to tax and spend.

00:32Because the assumption of those that are saying these are the forecasts

00:36is that we cannot do any better than we've done in the last 14 years.

00:40That, in other words, it's impossible to grow the economy.

00:43And therefore, you're going to have to tax more or spend less.

00:46When you're asked a tough question, you go,

00:47ah, I've got a magic wand.

00:48It's called growth.

00:49No, no, no.

00:50It's not a wand.

00:51It's a plan.

00:52That's the complete difference.

00:53Our manifesto that we launched is the culmination of four years' work

00:58working with business partners, working with others about what is the change.

01:02So I say to every sector, what is inhibiting the growth that you need?

01:07And they say to me, let's take big infrastructure projects.

01:10Planning.

01:11We can't get our roads, our rail.

01:13All of our projects are massively over budget and overdue because of planning.