One of Sir Keir Starmer‘s former Cabinet ministers has demanded the Prime Minister rip up Labour‘s tax rules in a bid to combat Reform UK’s poll surge.
Louise Haigh, who was transport secretary until she resigned in November amid a fraud row, blasted Sir Keir’s ‘alarming’ response to last week’s local election results.
Reform, led by Nigel Farage, gained more than 600 council seats and took control of 10 local authorities in Thursday’s contests.
The party also secured another MP by winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election from Labour, and won mayoralties in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.
Meanwhile, Labour shed nearly 200 council seats as voters turned away from both them and the Conservatives.
Sir Keir is now facing demands from Labour MPs to change tack in the face of Reform’s challenge, including on benefits cuts and axing winter fuel payments.
In an article for The Times, Ms Haigh said that ‘voters are desperate for change and they have sensed from us that we are not capable or interested in delivering it’.
She added: ‘For my brilliant former Cabinet colleagues, it will be just as frustrating, as the unpopular policies are drowning out any good they are achieving.’
One of Sir Keir Starmer ‘s former Cabinet ministers has demanded the Prime Minister rip up Labour ‘s tax rules in a bid to combat Reform UK’s poll surge
Louise Haigh, who was transport secretary until she resigned in November amid a fraud row, blasted Sir Keir’s ‘alarming’ response to last week’s local election results
Reform, led by Nigel Farage, gained more than 600 council seats and took control of 10 local authorities in Thursday’s contests
Ms Haigh said the means-testing of winter fuel payments for pensioners and Labour’s welfare changes had ‘become totemic for many voters’.
‘The Government’s response on Friday was alarming,’ the Sheffield Heeley MP added, in her first intervention since leaving her Cabinet role.
‘It failed to acknowledge any need to change course but simply committed itself to double down on the plan, whilst haemorrhaging votes to the parties of our left and right.
‘It is now urgent that we develop a vision and a strategy that is confident in our values, sets the terms of the debate and takes the fight to Reform, rather than letting the fight come to us. That is the only way to hold our perilous coalition together.’
Ms Haigh demanded an ‘economic reset’ by ripping up Labour’s ‘self-imposed tax rules’, which prevent the Government raising income tax, VAT or national insurance.
She argued this could help deliver ‘a serious programme of investment and reindustrialisation’.
The former minister warned the threat being posed by Mr Farage’s outfit was ‘existential’, with Reform not wooing voters ‘with a traditionally right-wing offer’.
‘He is calling for the nationalisation of steel and water,’ Ms Haigh added.
‘Polling I saw revealed that banning fire-and-rehire was almost as popular among Reform voters as Labour ones.’
Health Secretary Wes Streeting yesterday admitted Reform is a ‘real threat’ to the Government and is being treated as a ‘serious opposition force’.
‘I think there’s clearly, on the right of British politics, a realignment taking place,’ he told Sky News.
‘It’s not yet clear whether at the next general election it will be Reform or the Conservatives that are Labour’s main challenges, but we’ve got to take that threat seriously.
‘In that spirit, I think Reform does deserve more air time and scrutiny of their policies.’
