“We will power up every corner of Britain” - Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves launch Labour’s battle bus

Labour has today [Saturday] launched its battle bus tour with a pledge to ‘power up every corner of Britain', as new data shows that five more years of stagnation under the Conservatives is set to leave people thousands of pounds worse off. 

On day one of the battle bus tour, Labour Leader Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves will join Labour's Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner as she sets off on a 5,000-mile journey to battleground seats across the country.

Rayner will brandish the Conservatives' ‘levelling-up' pledge as a “phoney gimmick” as new data released by Labour today exposes the areas set to be worst hit if the Conservatives are given five more years to hold our economy back, hoard power, and prevent towns and cities across the country from realising their economic potential.

The data shows that in the North East of England people are to be £5,400 worse off, and in the South West families will be £4,300 poorer. 

Labour's plan to ‘power up' Britain will:  

• Deliver growth in every corner of the country, harnessing the potential of every town, village and city by pushing powers out of Westminster, rolling out Local Growth Plans and delivering a new national industrial strategy and a Green Prosperity Plan to leverage Britain's full potential.

• Put more money in people's pockets, ensuring people keep more of the wealth they create through a fiscal lock of economic stability and Labour's plan to make work pay with the New Deal for Working People. 

• Give people control over what matters to them, from better access to GP appointments and safer streets, to more school places and revived high streets. We will crack down on antisocial behaviour, breathe life back into our high streets and neighbourhoods including introducing a community right to buy, and recruiting 6,500 new teachers. 

All of this will be underpinned by Labour's Take Back Control Act, which will help to establish a new, clear framework for devolution, structures for local and national leaders to work better in partnership together and with the communities they represent, and a presumption towards pushing powers outside of Westminster and into the hands of those who know how to put them to the best use. 

⁠Labour's plan to power up Britain will be delivered in lock step with Labour's Green Prosperity Plan, which will create 650,000 jobs across the country, revitalising Britain's industrial heartlands.

Angela Rayner, Labour's Deputy Leader, said: 

“For 14 years the Tories have failed to do what they promised and held back Britain's potential. Levelling up was a phoney gimmick which has now been abandoned to fund mandatory national service. It was a scam and a sham, and we should call it what it is. 

“No more desperate gimmicks or promises that can't be met. This changed Labour Party will do the hard yards to get our economy growing. We will power up our towns and cities, and release Britain's untapped strengths. 

“This is our plan for change. We will deliver growth wherever you're from, more money in your pockets, and hand people control over what matters to them. That's what people tell me they want, so up and down the country in this campaign that's what we'll be talking about.” 

Ends

Notes

• Labour's plan to power up Britain can be found in full here: https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labours-plan-to-power-up-britain/  

• In January 2024, Centre for Cities analysis found 14 years of low growth under the Tories made Britons an average of £10,200 worse off in forgone household income. 

• At current rates, economic stagnation under the Conservatives will leave people worse off compared to a return to the growth in gross household disposable income seen under the last Labour government. 

• Across England's regions, under five more years of the Conservatives: 

• Estimates are based on House of Commons Library data analysis using assumptions made by the Labour Party. 
• Figures come from ONS Regional gross disposable household income: all ITL level regions and are adjusted by CPIH inflation to get GDHI per head.

• Centre for Cities analysis ends in 2021 in 2022 prices. This analysis therefore projects forward 2022-2029 in 2022 prices. Figures are taken from years 2024-2029 only.

• Figures come from ONS Regional gross disposable household income: all ITL level regions and are adjusted by CPIH inflation to get GDHI per head in 2022 prices. 

• All figures project the cumulative forgone household income between 2024-2029, per individual, per region, under current Conservative growth trends. 

• The methodology is based on the Centre for Cities: Cities Outlook 2024 analysis of forgone growth rates between 2010-2024. 

• The estimates compare growth rates in each region and nation between (a) 1998-2010 and (b) 2010-2021, forecasting the widening gap over the next five years.