In a downbeat speech from the Downing Street rose garden he warned that October's financial statement - the first by Labour in 14 years - would involve 'short-term pain'.
Sir Keir Starmer admitted that the upcoming Budget will be 'painful' in a gloomy speech about the state of Britain today - as he defended handing out billions to end strikes by militant unions.
And he defended the decision to make the Winter Fuel Allowance available only to benefit recipients, saying it was a 'difficult trade-off' but everyone including pensioners, would benefit in the long term. Laura Trott, the Tory shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: 'After promising over 50 times in the election not to raise taxes on working people Labour are now rolling the pitch to break even more promises.
Sir Keir compared his task in No 10 to the communities that rallied round to clean up in the wake of the summer's riots. 'Not having enough prison places is about as fundamental a failure as you can get and those people throwing rocks, torching cars, making threats, they didn't just know the system was broken, they were betting on it, gaming it. They thought 'Ah, they'll never arrest me and if they do, I won't be prosecuted, and if I am, I won't get much of a sentence'.
But Tory chairman Richard Fuller said: 'This is nothing but a speech to distract the public from the promises Starmer made that he never had any intention of keeping. No 10 said the audience was made up of 'familiar faces' he met throughout the General Election campaign – including representatives from business, education and public services.
'I promised that we would be judged by our actions, not by our words. We will do the hard work needed to root out 14 years of rot and reverse a decade of decline,' he is expected to say.
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