Labour must offer more than better managed decline' on economy, MPs urge

"Because the economic status quo is no longer defensible, the MPs wrote. And if politics is to regain trust, it must offer more than better management of decline. Calling for higher taxes on wealth, action on the cost of living crisis, and more borrowing to fund investment including a redrawing of the government's fiscal rules the group said the essays were intended as idea generation rather than a manifesto for a Starmer replacement."

"An influential group of MPs has said that Labour needs an urgent renewal of economic strategy to offer voters more than better management of decline before the next general election. With Keir Starmer fighting to ward off a leadership challenge, the leading backbenchers from the soft-left Tribune group published a series of essays calling for bolder action to salvage its remaining time in power."

"In a foreword by the former cabinet minister Louise Haigh, and Yuan Yang, a prominent figure from Labour's 2024 intake, the MPs issued a thinly disguised attack on Starmer amid pressure on him to set out a timeline for his departure. Starmer on the brink as cabinet ministers urge him to quit"

"Haigh, who quit in the early months of Starmer's government after it emerged she had been convicted of fraud over a missing work phone, is seen as a key power broker on the left of the party for any would-be replacement, and became one of the first senior figures to call openly for his resignation. In her contribution Haigh called on Labour to replace Rachel Reeves's fiscal rules with a requirement to target lower levels of de"

A group of Labour MPs argues that voters need more than improved management of economic decline before the next general election. Backbenchers from the soft-left Tribune group publish essays calling for bolder economic action and a renewal of strategy. The essays urge higher taxes on wealth, measures to address the cost of living crisis, and increased borrowing to fund investment, including changes to the government’s fiscal rules. The pieces are framed as idea generation rather than a manifesto for replacing the prime minister. Internal party tensions intensify after local election defeats, with some figures and allies floating new ideas publicly to push for a change in direction. Louise Haigh contributes a foreword and calls for replacing Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules with a requirement to target lower levels of debt.

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