Labour manifesto – live: Starmer proposes £8.6bn tax plan to fund NHS and teachers at election policy launch

Rishi Sunak has said Labour’s manifesto “confirmed” it would bring in the highest taxes in history.

He repeated his warning to voters to “start saving” if they think Sir Keir Starmer’s party will win.

In a post on X, the Prime Minister said: “Confirmed: Labour’s manifesto would mean the highest taxes in history. If you think they’ll win, start saving.”

Sir Keir Starmer was pictured hugging Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Baroness Doreen Lawrence after delivering his manifesto speech in Manchester today.

Sir Keir Starmer has urged people to judge a future government “by the actions that we take” as he pledged his party will “turn this around”.

Asked if he would implement a new ethics and integrity commission within the first 100 days as prime minister, Sir Keir said: “I’m determined that we will do better because I’ve been in public service all my life. I’ve been held to high standards all my life, I’ve led from the front all of my life.

“And yes, we will get on with changing the codes and the ethics codes and the guidance that is in place straight away in government, but I know that nobody will believe it’s changed until they see the action that follows.”

He added: “You need to take action when people breach those codes and that’s what we will do.

“Just as I knew when we were changing the Labour Party, I said on day one, I would rip out antisemitism by the roots. I knew I’d be judged, not by what I said on day one, but what I did on day two, three, four, five and six and on and on and on, and so will be the same in government.

“We are going to turn this around, put politics back in the service of working people, we will be judged by the actions that we take, as well as the promises that we make.”

Political group Momentum has criticised the Labour manifesto claiming the pledges “fall short of what is needed to fix the Tories’ broken Britain”.

Chairwoman Kate Dove said: “This manifesto shows that a Labour government can make progressive change – and that it needs to make a whole lot more.

“We welcome policies such as ending tax breaks for private schools, public ownership of rail and the repealing of anti-union laws as part of a New Deal for Working People. It is no coincidence that Labour’s most popular policies take on the few on behalf of the many.

“Nonetheless, it is clear that Labour’s current commitments fall short of what is needed to fix the Tories’ broken Britain. If elected, Labour must go much further to fulfil its promise to the British people of change.

“That means bold policies like investment in our struggling public services, NHS and schools, renationalising our water and real action to end child poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap and introducing free school meals for all. And it means taxing the wealthiest to help pay for it.

“The public are sick and tired not just of the Tories, but of Tory policies – if Keir Starmer continues down their path, he risks the same fate.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said it will be a “hard road” but a Labour government would provide “light at the certain destination”.

He said: “We did the work properly, our responsibility to give a clear direction to businesses, communities, everyone invested in Britain’s future.

“We took that seriously. So yes, those five national missions, safer streets, cleaner energy, more opportunity, the NHS back on its feet. They remain at the core of this manifesto.

“But if they are to offer hope and clarity through these times, if they are to show, despite the hard road, the light at the certain destination then we must keep to that road. No matter the short-term ebbs and flows of politics, even in a campaign.

“That’s what mission-driven government needs. A chance to stop us bobbing along until the next crisis blows us off course and instead make sure we can keep going through the storm.

“Stability over chaos, long-term over short-term, an end to the desperate era of gestures and gimmicks and a return to the serious business of rebuilding our country.”

The Conservatives have reacted to the Labour election manifesto with Jeremy Hunt slamming the manifesto a “tax trap”.

The chancellor said: “This is Labour’s tax trap manifesto which contains only tax rises and no tax cuts. Under Labour’s published plans, taxes will rise to levels never before seen in this country,” he said.

“But that’s only the tax rises they’re telling you about – it doesn’t include the £2,094 of tax rises they’ll need to fill their £38.5 billion unfunded spending commitments.

“So what’s most important is not what’s in Labour’s manifesto, but it’s what they have kept out of it.

“They are refusing to rule out taxing your job, your home, your pension, your car, your business and they think they can get away with it without anyone holding them to account.

“Be under no illusion, from cradle to grave you will pay more taxes under Labour.”

Rishi Sunak is repeating the unfunded tax cuts of Liz Truss, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.

He said: “You can see what Conservatives are doing, every day they are desperately putting a new policy, a new gimmick, on the table which is unfunded. If there’s one lesson from Liz Truss and what happened to the economy, is if you make unfunded tax cuts then it damages the economy and working people pay the price.”

He added: “Rishi Sunak, if there’s one thing that he was supposed to do, it was to provide the stability after Liz Truss, and here he is repeating it.”

Asked about whether he believed Jeremy Corbyn would have been a great prime minister, Sir Keir said: “I didn’t think we would win the last election.”

He continued: “I didn’t think that we were in a state for winning, that is reinforced by the work that we have now done. We were rejected by the country and the first decision I took is, if you get rejected that badly by the country, you don’t look at the voter and say ‘what on earth are you doing?’ You look at your party and you change it.

“And I’ve led this party through that change and Jeremy Corbyn is not just not a Labour candidate, he’s expelled from this party. That is how much change we have brought around.”

Sir Keir Starmer said the government has developed a “hopeless situation” where tens of thousands of people are not being processed in the asylum system, adding: “The one thing that can’t happen is that they’re removed to the country where they came from even if they have no right to be here.

“That is the chaotic state of this government – they’re not processing the claims, even clear cases where people shouldn’t be here they can’t be removed. We’ve got to fix that.

“We’ve got to fix the loss of control of our borders under this government. Nobody but nobody should be making that trip across the Channel in small boats.”

Sir Keir pointed to Labour’s border security command proposal as a way to address the issue, adding he had helped “smash terrorist gangs” in his previous work as director of public prosecutions.

The Labour leader said: “I will never accept that the only gang that apparently we can’t smash is the vile smuggling gangs that are running this trade.”