Party pooper
SIR Keir Starmer will today warn his party he’s ready to do things they won’t like.
If that means tough action to curb migration and slash the bloated welfare bill, it will be welcomed by many voters who deserted Labour.
But the PM’s biggest stumbling block will be on his own backbenches.
It is only two months since 49 rebel MPs forced him to retreat over plans to overhaul benefits. But he will now brace them for decisions “that will not always be comfortable for our party”.
So far the discomfort has only been felt by taxpayers.
Businesses hit by higher National Insurance. Communities having swathes of undocumented migrants taking over local hotels.
Pensioners robbed of their winter fuel allowance.
Sir Keir will warn Britain stands at a fork in the road and can choose either the path of renewal or decline.
His job today is to convince the country he’s not leading it towards a dead end.
Work it out
RACHEL Reeves has set herself a noble ambition to end the scourge of youth unemployment.
It is a political and moral scandal that a wasted generation sits at home idle.
More than a million under-25s not in work, education or training face being locked out of opportunity for decades.
But denying benefits to those who refuse to take a job only scratches the surface of the problem.
More than half of out-of-work youngsters aren’t unemployed, but on the sick, claiming to suffer from mood disorders, anxiety and depression.
Even for those able to work, there are fewer vacancies after the disastrous National Insurance rise which forced companies to shed 142,000 jobs.
With up to 80,000 EU youngsters expected to flock to Britain under a youth mobility scheme, it won’t get any easier, either.
The drive to get young Brits working will only succeed if coupled with action to cut anti-business taxes and mass migration.
Hold line, Wes
THERE’S nothing more frustrating than hanging on the phone line to fix a doctor’s appointment for a sick family member.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting wants to make it easier to see a GP by improving access to online booking from tomorrow.
But his efforts to drag the NHS into the 21st century risk being thwarted by the militant Marxists of the British Medical Association.
Just two months after a damaging junior doctors’ strike, they have threatened action by GPs unless the plan is dropped within 48 hours.
We trust Wes will not flinch. Fed-up voters are depending on him.
