Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said she was ‘alarmed’ at Keir Starmer’s response to last week’s election results and called for an ‘economic reset’
Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has called on Keir Starmer to launch an “economic reset” following last week’s election results.
In her first intervention since leaving the Cabinet, Ms Haigh said voters sense the Government is “not capable or interested” in delivering change. And she said people on doorsteps have told her Labour has turned its back on pensioners and the disabled.
She branded the Government’s pledge to double down on existing policies “alarming” while Labour is “haemorrhaging votes”. Mr Starmer faces growing unrest from anxious backbenchers after last week’s election results, which saw Nigel Farage’s Reform narrowly claim victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
Ms Haigh warned that for her former cabinet colleagues “unpopular policies are drowning out any good they are achieving”. Writing in The Times she said: “The government’s response on Friday was alarming. 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.”
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And calling for a change of direction, Ms Haigh said the only way to hold Labour’s “perilous coalition” together is “through an economic reset, through ripping up our selfimposed tax rules and by a serious programme of investment and reindustrialisation”.
The former frontbencher, who quit in November after a decade-old fraud conviction came to light, warned Mr Farage is wooing voters with policies like nationalising steel and water. She wrote: “Ultimately, we must be more confident in our own values, not chased off the pitch by Reform.”
In a separate interview with The Guardian Ms Haigh warned that Chancellor Rachel Reeves may have to raise taxes again. She said: “You know, every time President Trump implements a new policy, implements a new tariff, changes his mind or something, it’s going to affect the chancellor’s headroom.
“We’re going to be presented with these very difficult and unpalatable choices again. So I think the likelihood of the current tax policy staying the same is highly unlikely.”
She went on to say it was “completely unacceptable” that child poverty is expected to rise, and added: “The last thing any Labour government should do is create more poverty and push people actively into poverty.”
But Veterans Minister Al Carns backed the Government’s response to the results, telling Sky News: “We’re going to move further and faster as we go forward and going to see this speed up as the government moves forward. A lot of legislation is required to move that change forward at pace.”
And he continued: “The reality is it takes time to get legislation move forward. And I always say slow is smooth, smooth is fast. After 24 years in the military I’ve seen planning and strategy without a plan and key objectives is a fool’s folly.
“So we’ve got to move steady through this to deliver the best for the country in the most progressive manner.” Jo White, the chair of the Red Wall group of Labour MPs, has urged Mr Starmer to stop “pussyfooting around” and take a more decisive approach, while backbencher Emma Lewell said the party needs a “change of plan” rather than a “plan for change”.
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