With low ambition and a weak economy, can Keir Starmer meet his promise on poverty?

Labour will face a tougher economy and weaker public finances than Blair did in 1997, writes Stewart Lansley. It means this could be the time for radical change, not caution

Keir Starmer believes that the Labour party is politically vulnerable on public spending (PA)

In one of his clearest promises, Keir Starmer has declared that he will be as “laser-focused on poverty” as Tony Blair. This is a welcome commitment. Nevertheless, it raises the question of how sustained cuts in poverty can be achieved without a simultaneous attack on Britain’s yawning income and wealth gap. Here the lesson of history is clear: poverty and inequality are umbilically linked. Britain achieved peak equality and a low point for poverty in the 1970s. This was the high-water mark of post-war egalitarianism and a historic achievement. But it was short-lived.

The next four decades saw a doubling in the level of (relative) child poverty and a surge in inequality. The overriding explanation for these reversals lies in the shift from an egalitarian to an anti-egalitarian philosophy of government.

Tony Blair’s ambitious post-millennium goal to abolish child poverty achieved some notable but only temporary successes (PA)