PM says bold plan will take years to deliver as he hits back at critics

Labour's economic plan will take years to deliver in full, Keir Starmer has said, as the prime minister battles to regain the narrative after a turbulent response to last week's budget.

- Kiran Stacey Policy editor

In a piece for the Guardian Starmer has hit back at his political opponents, insisting his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was right to impose £26bn worth of tax rises and promising a long-term plan that should be judged at the end of the parliament.

His comments form part of a broader intervention designed to bolster his and Reeves's position after days of arguments over whether the chancellor needed to put up taxes to their highest levels on record.

The Conservatives have called for Reeves to resign over accusations she misled voters when she warned about the impact of lower growth forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Today the prime minister will give a speech rebutting those claims and setting out a multiyear economic plan based around deregulation, further welfare reform and closer European ties.

Starmer writes: “By delivering a big, bold long-term plan, not a set of quick fixes, we will renew Britain. We must become again a serious people, with a serious government, capable together of doing difficult things to regain control of our future.

“By having a clear mission to renew our economy, our communities and our state we will deliver the change we promised and then be judged on it at the next election.”

And in a rebuttal to his political opponents, he adds: “We will take on those on the left and right who only offer grievance and whose approach would lead to further decline. Because let me be clear - turning on the borrowing taps or returning us to austerity - that is the politics of decline and I will not accept it.”