Labour policies What must the party address in its campaign?

Ravinder Athwal may have the least enviable job in the Labour party. As director of policy, it is up to him to pull together the party's manifesto, a job he must complete by 8 February.

- Kiran Stacey

The problem for Athwal and others at the top of Labour party is that key questions about its policy platform remain unanswered.

So what do Athwal and the party leader, Keir Starmer, have to address before they are ready for the election campaign to come?

Green spending

Starmer was clearer than ever yesterday that the pledge to spend £28bn a year on green investment was no longer a pledge but instead a "confident ambition".

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said last year the target was subject to the party's fiscal rule to have debt falling as a percentage of economic output at the end of a five-year period. But it remained unclear until Starmer spelled it out that this would mean spending less if the party could not borrow the full amount, rather than finding the money elsewhere.

The current fiscal headroom is only £13bn, so it raises the question: should the party even be talking about the possibility of spending £28bn, especially given it has been subject to repeated Conservative attacks?

Taxes