'People are exhausted': Keir Starmer says election must 'return politics to force for good'

Watch Sir Keir Starmer's full interview with ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston

Sir Keir Starmer has told ITV News this week's general election is an opportunity to return politics to a "real force for good" as he acknowledged the British public have lost all trust.

The Labour leader said people are "exhausted with the constant division in politics" and that if France's election results are anything to go by, a Labour government would have to work hard to turn things around for those who feel so "disaffected" with mainstream politicians.

In an interview with Political Editor Robert Peston, Sir Keir also insisted his party will not put up taxes for working people and his "most important mission" is to grow the economy, while planning reform would be a priority in the first weeks of a Labour government to boost homeownership.

With just days to go until the British public heads to the polls on Thursday, Sir Keir was asked by Peston on the campaign trail about what lessons he's learnt from Emmanuel Macron's bruising defeat in the first round of parliamentary elections in France.

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party secured 33% of the vote, edging them closer to forming the next government with one more round of voting to go next weekend. If they are victorious, they would become the country's first far-right government since the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War.

Sir Keir told ITV News: "I do think there are really important lessons here because as we go into this election, I think probably the biggest sort of challenges are the mindset in some voters that everything's broken, nothing can be fixed, that it's almost impossible now to turn things around.

"And secondly, a sense of mistrust in politics because of so many promises having been made over the last 14 years which weren’t carried through. We have to reach in and turn that around."

"I genuinely think that people are exhausted with the constant division in politics and we have to find a way through that... and understand why people feel disaffected with politics and politicians and return politics to a sort of real force for good," he continued.

"Difficult to do, as difficult as the policy choices we have to make. But this is a big opportunity on Thursday because people are yearning for change."

If Le Pen's far-right party were to come into power, Sir Keir said he will work with "whichever government is in place in any of our allied countries" and denied they would affect Labour's immigration plans "because our first priority will be to smash the gangs that are running the vile trade of putting people in boats across the channel.

"Nobody should be making that journey. That will require joint work across France and other countries.

"But that's why, first and foremost, we need a border security command in this country capable of carrying out that work of smashing the gangs, working with other countries in a way that I've seen for myself when I was chief prosecutor - in my case, smashing terrorist gangs."

Despite the Tories' repeated attacks that Labour will increase taxes, Sir Keir insisted this would not be the case for working people and repeated his party's pledge that there will be no rise in income tax, national insurance or VAT.

But when put to him by Peston that the tax burden - the amount of tax taken out of the economy - will go to record levels under his plans, the Labour leader replied: "Well, the lever or the most important mission, for me is growing the economy and there's been a lot of discussion in these weeks of the campaign on tax and spend.

"Actually, you can't tax your way to growth. You have to have a plan for growth and that's what our manifesto is all about. And I'm really pleased that for a number of years we've been talking to global investors about the stability that they're looking for, the long term strategy that they're looking for and the seriousness of government that they're looking for."

For that reason, he said, he is confident his party can deliver its plans and that planning reform would be a priority within the first few weeks of a Labour government in a bid to build more homes and boost homeownership for younger people.

“We cannot go on with the system as it is - infrastructure takes years. Housing takes years to build," he said. "We're too slow. We're too expensive. We're over budget. We cannot go on like that. We have to take the tough decisions to get the country moving.

"And we'll start on that if we're elected in to serve our country, we'll start on that straightaway.”

Sir Keir denied his plans lack ambition for a post-pandemic world that is grappling with major wars and hopes that a Labour government could have the same impact of the party's 1945 manifesto, which created the NHS.

He said: "There's a lot of ambition in our manifesto in terms of making sure our economy works for everyone, wherever they are across the country. We've never had that. An NHS that's not just back on its feet, but fit for the next 75 years."

"We celebrate that [the creation of the NHS] every year, but I want us to be celebrating what the 2024 Labour Government did if we are elected to serve in years and years to come."

Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Every day in the run-up to the election Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda…