Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer says a strategic plan is needed to save the UK car industry after the collapse of British Volt, the country’s biggest project to build batteries for electric cars.
Sir Keir said a five or 10 year plan was needed “and not the kind of instability that we had last year”.
He spoke to the BBC at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.
His message to business leaders was that Britain “much” needs change.
“Last year in 2022 we eloped three Prime Ministers… these are not the conditions of certainty, of stability, that are required for investment in the UK,” he said.
Sir Keir was in Davos with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, where she met business leaders at the offices of JP Morgan, including top European financiers from Bank of America, Lloyds, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock.
Labor wants to reverse what Sir Keir called the “massive decline” in foreign investment under the Conservative government.
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There was a lot of interest in meeting the Labor team, particularly from long-term investors in the energy and finance sectors. Sir Keir and Ms Reeves unveiled their “Green Prosperity Plan” alongside massive US efforts to subsidize low-carbon manufacturing and energy.
The EU has reacted angrily to the US plan. In response, Sir Keir has proposed a “clean energy alliance” of countries to bring down the cost of renewable energy and act as the “opposite of OPEC,” the oil cartel that is driving up prices.
He denied Labor was bad-mouthing Britain, saying: “We raise the flag, we are ambassadors for UK PLC and very pleased to do so with a very strong message”.
Labor has been wary of talking about Brexit but said former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deal was ‘not a good deal’. You can “see the impact it’s having,” he added.
But he said supporting the auto industry does not mean returning to the single market with the European Union.
“I’m having talks about what a closer trade relationship might look like. But it’s not a discussion that says you have to be in the single market,” he said.
“Can we have a closer trading relationship? Yes I think we can.
“With trust and confidence on both sides, we can make tremendous improvements in removing some of these trade barriers by working together on science and innovation,” he said.
Sir Keir said Labor is “a million miles away” from the deregulated, low standards approach advocated by some Conservatives.
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