War of the words: Sunak vs Starmer

Both the Prime Minister and Labour Leader set out their plans for 2023 earlier this week. Sunak might’ve got the jump on Starmer, at least in terms of timing, but what did we actually learn?

The Prime Minister’s five promises

The Prime Minister made five promises; halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists, and stop the boats. He’s been criticised for a lack of ambition by some, including his Labour counterpart, but the themes of his speech will have landed well with wavering Conservative voters. As the BBC’s Chris Mason noted, Sunak’s speech was more like something we’d expect to hear from a Party Conference stage but he’s a Prime Minister in a hurry, all too aware that a General Election looms, keen to show he’s the man to trust to get the job done.

REC’s view

Sunak’s passion for education, influenced by his own upbringing, and his aspiration that young people in England study maths until they're 18 is, in his view, "the closest thing to a silver bullet there is". Education is incredibly important, but to truly grow the economy and boost productivity, a range of policies that truly incentivise business investment and help our labour market perform better is required. Sunak highlighted the importance of good jobs, recognising the value of local investment and tackling economic inactivity.

Rightly, the government wants to get people back to work but we need more detail on exactly how they plan to do that, particularly for those in the welfare system. Activation programmes, like Kickstart and Restart, are an excellent way of engaging those furthest from the labour market. The REC is a supplier to one of the lead providers for Restart and last year 255 job starts were made through the scheme, showing why working with organisations like the REC is so important in tackling shortages and getting people into good jobs.

Broadly speaking, the themes the Prime Minister set out are right, but the substance is still lacking. We’ll keep a close eye on plans as they develop.  

Minimum service levels legislation

There was little in the speech about plans for anti-strike legislation, but the government published details the next day. The law, which the government plans to introduce in the coming weeks, will allow bosses in health, education, fire, ambulance, rail and nuclear commissioning to sue unions and sack employees if minimum levels are not met.

A number of organisations, including trade unions, professional bodies, and think tanks have expressed their concerns about the proposals. The TUC called the government’s plans “wrong, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal.” And added that “these new laws are a direct attack on working people’s fundamental right to strike to defend their pay, terms and conditions”. The Royal College of Nurses said, “curtailing workers’ freedom to participate in lawful industrial action is always undemocratic…”. The New Economics Foundation said, “people should always have the right to strike if they are being treated unfairly by their employers. To undermine this right is fundamentally undemocratic and an attack on all our freedoms.” The REC is following this closely, and we’ll share more once we understand the details of the proposals.

Sir Keir’s turn

The same venue, similar ambitions, and another speech without any real policy announcements, but Sir Keir was keen to show that he’s the PM in waiting, leading a Labour Party that can be trusted with the purse strings. Rishi might have the likes of Cass Horowitz working on impressive videos for his ‘brand’, but it was Starmer’s team who won the image contest. With no jacket, sleeves rolled up, and casual (almost Cameron-esque) mannerisms, Starmer presented himself as a regular guy, keen to get stuck in.

The unlikely rabbit in the hat

Starmer, who voted Remain and campaigned for a second Brexit referendum, knows he has got to win Labour leavers back. Perhaps unsurprising then that his one and only pledge was a promise to introduce a ‘Take Back Control Bill’. The Bill will focus on local, pushing powers away from Westminster and devolving it to local communities, giving them power over employment support, transport, energy, climate change, housing, culture, childcare provision and how councils run their finances.

REC’s view

Starmer criticised the PM for a lack of ambition and clarity around plans, but there was little detail in the Shadow Leaders speech, though he confirmed that Labour’s national missions, which the manifesto would be built around, would be announced in the “coming weeks.” The focus on local is certainly welcome, and something we called for in our Overcoming Shortages report, and it was good to see issues like childcare provision mentioned specifically. Labour’s plans for NHS training are also welcome. Alongside this, we need a long-term workforce plan to ensure the staffing procurement are actually effective and deliver value for taxpayers' money. It’s one thing to claim “2023 will be the year Labour shows a new path for growth”, what we need now is the detail on how it will be achieved.

Campaign priorities for 2023

As well as feeding into party manifestos in 2023, we'll also be looking at green jobs and skills and demonstrating how REC members can help shape policy to ensure we've got the right people with the right skills for the net zero transition. We'll also be building on our work on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), conducting and publishing the results of a survey around attitudes and approaches to EDI in our industry. Amongst other things, we’ll also be campaigning for clearer employment legislation, as well as on issues like workforce planning and procurement in the health sector.