Starmer says ‘it will take some time’ before living standards improve

Sir Keir Starmer has said “it will take some time” before living standards improve in the UK as he faced a grilling from senior MPs.

The prime minister said “we want people to feel better off” but warned his government could not fix everything “by Christmas”.

He was facing the chairs of parliamentary committees in his first appearance in front of the powerful Liaison Committee.

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Sir Keir championed Labour reforms, saying an increase in the national living wage was a “pay rise for the three million who are the lowest paid” and public sector workers were also feeling the benefit of pay increases.

“In addition to that, the measures that we put in place will improve living standards,” he said.

He added: “It will take some time, of course it will.

“One of the biggest mistakes, I think, in the last 14 years was the idea that everything could be fixed by Christmas. It can’t.”

He said planning how to fix things “will take time”, as will changing regulations to ensure growth can happen.

The prime minister said the October budget, which has been criticised by some, was about “stabilising the economy”.

But the prime minister added more needs to be done to grow the economy, with planning reforms a key concern.

He said the government was “determined” to meet its plan to build 1.5 million houses in England over the next five years.

“I accept it’s difficult, I accept it’s stretching. But it’s hugely important,” he added.

Sir Keir also defined “blockers” after he pledged to “back the builders, not the blockers”.

Blockers are those who say the UK “shouldn’t have targets” for housebuilding and those who argue “we shouldn’t build here”, he added.

The prime minister gave an example of wind turbines taking 13 years to be installed due to planning objections and delays connecting them to the energy grid.

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Sir Keir was also asked about foreign affairs and defence, including the possibility of tariffs being introduced by US President-elect Donald Trump.

He said he is “not a fan” of tariffs but thinks he can make progress on trade with the US, and added he does not accept the UK can only be close to the EU or the US when it came to improving trade relations.

Insisting the UK could “pursue both”, he said: “We do want a closer relationship with the EU on security, on defence, on energy and, yes, on trade, and I’ve set out how we want to reset on a number of occasions.

“At the same time, I want to improve our trading relationship with the US. Is that going to be easy? Of course it’s not. Do I think we can make progress? Yes, I do.”

On defence, the PM was asked by Labour MP Tan Dhesi, chair of the defence committee, what keeps him up at night.

He said he is not kept awake because he is confident in the UK’s defence and security, adding we have “first-class personnel here and across the world”.

However, he said he accepts we are “living in a more volatile world” and his government has doubled down on support for NATO.

On migration, Sir Keir said the UK will always need overseas skills but the levels are too high.

“Obviously what I don’t want to do is to choke off businesses that are thriving at the moment by cutting their legs off and say ‘you can’t have inward migration’,” he said.

Sir Keir was thanked by the Liaison Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier for his “commitment to transparency and scrutiny”.