'Bombproof Labour's green U-turn reflects readiness for May election

Labour has spent the past few weeks performing U-turns on policies as it finalises its manifesto, culminating in last Thursday's announcement of a big cut to its £28bn ($35bn) green spending plans.

- Kiran Stacey and Eleni Courea

Party insiders have also let it be known that they no longer intend to abolish the House of Lords, that they may reduce their planned tax on private equity profits and that they will not legislate to create a national care service.

This is part of Keir Starmer's plans to ensure the party is ready if an election is called in May. A shadow minister said: "The green prosperity plan looked like a massive slush fund so it didn't survive bombproofing."

Starmer and his advisers now have a sense of the manifesto's main elements. The remaining green pledges stay, including a publicly owned energy supplier. So do proposals to strengthen trade union rights and employment protections known as the "new deal for working people" - despite pressure from corporate lobbyists to drop it.