Labour’s green U-turn shows Starmer doesn’t want UK Inc to go into the red

For more than a year, the party has been trapped defending a meaningless number – now it can advocate the actual policies needed to deal with climate change, writes John Rentoul

The U-turn has provoked dismay from many in the party and from green pressure groups, but they have had enough warning that it was coming, and failed to make the case against it (Getty Images)

On Tuesday, Keir Starmer said he was “unwavering” on Labour’s clean power mission: “That’s where the £28bn comes in … we need to borrow to invest to do that; that’s a principle I believe in and I’m absolutely happy to go out and defend.” On Thursday, his line was: “What £28bn?”

Abrupt though the final stage was, this has been one of the longest and most signalled U-turns in British political history. Some commentators noticed that Labour had a problem 16 months ago when Jeremy Hunt rescued the public finances from the wrecking ball of the Truss-Kwarteng interregnum. In doing so, he set out plans for tax, spending and borrowing that left no “headroom” over the following five years.

Given that Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, had already accepted the “iron-clad” straitjacket of promises to cut debt by the end of a five-year parliament, and not to raise taxes, she was bound to be asked questions about her plan to borrow an extra £28bn a year for green investment.