‘Kamikaze mini budget insults working people’, Labour’s Keir Starmer tells Lincolnshire radio presenter

Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer said “resilient” Lincolnshire workers were being hurt by what he repeatedly called the government’s “kamikaze mini budget” in a live interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

Starmer spoke with presenter Sean Dunderdale on the morning of Thursday, October 6 as part of a national BBC local radio tour.

The tour replicated that of Prime Minister Liz Truss’ round of local interviews last week, though it’s fair to say the opposition leader appeared to be having an easier time of it, following backlash from the PM’s mini budget announcement.

Kwasi Kwarteng’s u-turn of the mini budget came days after market turmoil, but many Brits are already looking at huge bill increases as a result, on top of the ongoing cost of living crisis.

In her first speech to the Conservative party conference on October 5, Prime Minister Liz Truss said she would make difficult but necessary choices for economic growth, and promised to get Britain moving after a few difficult days .

Meanwhile the interest rate on a typical two year fixed rate mortgage breached 6% for the first time in 14 years, according to financial research service Moneyfacts.

Kier Starmer, UK Labour Leader told the Lincolnshire radio show: “A kamikaze mini budget that loses control of the economy and puts hundreds of pound on people’s mortgage payments is not a plan for growth. It’s vital that we reverse this kamikaze budget.

“If you look across Lincolnshire, on our calculation, the government’s mismanagement of its budget is going to lead to increases of £297 per month additional, and that is eye-watering. I’d be more than frustrated, I’d be angry. It cannot be right or fair.”

He accused Truss’ growth plan of “making the rich richer, the very rich even richer than that”. He said he disagreed wit ideas that “somehow the money will trickle down to working people”

“If you look across Lincolnshire, who is growing the economy? It’s the people going out to work every day. The bus drivers, the train drivers, those who work in agriculture, hospitality, hospitals and schools. They’re the ones really growing the economy. We need a plan for them as a medium and long term plan.

“We set that out last week. A plan for prosperity, a plan to buy, make and sell more in Britain. We want to create a Great Britain energy company that means for energy creation in the future, the rewards come back to Britain.”

Starmer concluded the interview by promising to return in person, and described the county as “a very beautiful place” with “resilient and hard working people”, adding that he knows he has to earn every vote in the seven current Conservative constituencies.

“I have to demonstrate that a stable economy under a Labour government is far better than this kamikaze approach that we’ve got at the moment .”