"Labour is supposedly the champion of the poor and needy"Not now. That tear-jerking leftwing stuff has gone. You got the wrong bloke."Keir Starmer has said he will lead from the centre ground if elected prime minister and declared wealth creation to be his “number one mission”.In an interview with the Times, Starmer said the centre ground was “where most people are at”.“As a nation, broadly speaking we’re a pretty reasonable, tolerant bunch but we are in the centre ground of politics. People don’t like the extremes of the right or the left. They are reasonably tolerant. They want themselves, their families and the country to improve and make progress,” he said.Starmer said the ‘“only way our country can go forward” was if people and businesses make money. “I think it’s a good thing that people are aspirational. When I say our number one mission is economic growth, you could say our number one mission is wealth creation. Now that’s an odd thing for the Labour party to say. It might have been in the past.”Asked whether he was relaxed about people making money, he said: “Very. I’m not just relaxed, I’m relaxed as well as being doggedly determined.”His centrist pitch comes as the party conducts what some see as a purge of Labour’s left wing. Earlier this week, the sitting MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Faiza Shaheen, who had been selected by her local party to run as the Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, were deselected by the party’s national executive committee, where Starmer allies have majority control, and replaced by figures on the right of the party." (Guardian 1/6/24)https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/01/labour-keir-starmer-says-wealth-creation-is-his-number-one-mission"When I say our number one mission is economic growth, you could say our number one mission is wealth creation. Now that’s an odd thing for the Labour party to say. It might have been in the past.”Asked whether he was relaxed about people making money, he said: “Very. I’m not just relaxed, I’m relaxed as well as being doggedly determined.”"
David Ainsworth ● 53d