Starmer promises to protect services from new austerity

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to protect public services from swingeing cuts, as he made a bid to move on from rows over donations and strife at No 10, after arriving at the Labour Party conference last night.

- DAVID LYNCH

The prime minister said his government was not “going down the road of austerity”, like that pursued by David Cameron’s administration.

It may signal that the Treasury has found new ways to free up funds, after the halt on spending to address a £22bn black hole in the public finances announced not long after Labour came to power.

In a series of wide-ranging interviews with Labour-friendly newspapers ahead of the party’s Liverpool gathering, Sir Keir also acknowledged the damaging impact of the row over clothing donations he had received, and of internal fighting within his Downing Street operation.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Sir Keir said austerity-era cuts did a “huge amount of damage to our public services”, drawing on his experience as director of public prosecutions.

“We are still feeling the damage even now. So we are not going down the road of austerity,” he said.

In a bid to counter suggestions he had only offered doom and gloom since coming to power, The Observer newspaper reported that Sir Keir now intends to set out a more positive vision for the future under Labour.