Keir Starmer makes pre-election pitch with six pledges

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has set out the first six steps he would take if his party wins the next election.

The commitments include a border security command to tackle the criminal gangs behind small boat crossings and recruiting 6,500 teachers.

At an event in Essex on Thursday, Sir Keir will say the pledges will help begin "a decade of national renewal".

The Conservatives said the Labour leader was on his "16th relaunch" and had "no coherent plan".

Last year, Sir Keir outlined five "missions" of growing the UK economy, making Britain a clean energy superpower, improving the NHS, reforming the justice system and raising education standards.

The Labour leader has now added a sixth pledge - plans to tackle people smuggling gangs - and in a speech will attempt to assure voters he would take "urgent" action on the issues.

The six steps will form the spine of Labour's election campaign and will remind some voters of the pledge cards presented by Tony Blair when he was leading the Labour party ahead of the 1997 general election.

They are:

• Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability
• Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes.
• Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings
• Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company
• Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders
• Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.

Pledges on healthcare, policing and teaching only apply to England as powers over these matters are devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Labour will make separate policy pledges for Scotland and Wales.

Labour has put no precise time frame for delivering these policies, but shadow business secretary and Labour's national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden, said his party will implement them "as soon as possible".

Mr McFadden told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "as soon as we get elected we will put in place the changes that we need to put in place to make these first steps happen".

The six pledges "were the foundation" for proving showing the party can be "trusted with public money and trusted with defence", he said.

The party also launched an advertising campaign - including ad vans and billboards - which will constitute their largest ad spend since the last general election in 2019.

Labour is expected to hold separate launches for voters in Scotland and Wales in the coming weeks.

The event is a further sign that political parties are in full pre-election mode.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can choose when to hold an election, but it has to take place before by 28 January 2025.

Earlier this week, he delivered a wide-ranging speech which included strong criticism of his Labour opponent, attacking Sir Keir's record on defence spending and arguing that he would make the UK less safe.

A Labour spokesman has insisted the six steps are "not the sum total" of the party's election offer and insisted the party also stood by its other policy commitments, such as housing and workers' rights.

"I would remind you for example... the national minimum wage was not on the pledge card in 1997, but it was one of the most important achievements of the Labour government, and in a similar vein, our manifesto will be our full offering." he said.

Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden said Labour's plans did not "amount to a hill of beans".

He said the Conservatives were "sticking to the plan which is working to strengthen the economy - with inflation down from 11.1% to 3.2% and £900 back in hard-working people's pockets - and a fair immigration system with boat crossings down".