‘Same Old Tory Policies’: Starmer’s Big Labour Launch Interrupted by Left-Wing Protester

A protester complaining the Labour Party isn’t left-wing enough interrupted their manifesto launch on Thursday, forcing party leader and widely presumed next Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stop reading from his script.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer had just taken the stage at the launch of his party’s election manifesto (party platform) in Manchester, England on Thursday morning when he was interrupted by a woman unfurling a banner and shouting. The protester, who was promptly manhandled out of the room, shouted that Labour wasn’t left wing enough and was only offering “the same old Tory policies”, in reference to the present government which, critics say, has governed as Labour-lite for over a decade.

The protester, who stood next to the large screen at the back of the hall displaying Starmer’s speech notes for him, shouted: “My generation is being let down by the Labour Party and this manifesto. You say you’re offering change but it’s the same old Tory policies. We need better. The climate can’t wait. The climate can’t wait! We need a green new deal now”.

Starmer replied from the stage that “we gave up on being a party of protest five years ago. We want to be a party of power” and was greeted with sustained applause from the party faithful for the rejoinder.

What are called party manifestos in the UK were once attended with importance in British politics, but voters have long become accustomed to election-time promises being treated as negotiable, if not outright contemptible, by those making them once the elections were over. Nevertheless, Sir Keir promised £8.6 billion in tax rises, with costings decribed as “unserious” by Conservative party critics.

The present Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is fighting for his job and if present polls are to be believed will very likely be replaced by his Labour counterpart next month called the Labour document a “tax trap manifesto”, pointing to what he claims are unfunded commitments. Criticising Labour on raising taxes is unsteady ground for the Conservatives, of course, given part of the reason their voters have abandoned them in droves is their pushing taxation to new, historic levels in recent years.