Keir Starmer sets out his vision for ‘full fat devolution’ as he launches Labour’s local election campaign

Sir Keir Starmer will today set out plans for a new wave of devolution, as he pledges to make ‘levelling up’ work.

Launching Labour‘s local election campaign, Sir Keir will acknowledge that Boris Johnson‘s 2019 manifesto pledge to ‘level up’ the country was a ‘good ambition for Britain’.

But he will accuse the Conservatives of failing to deliver – and argue that local mayors now need to be given more powers to finish the job.

Setting out plans for ‘full fat devolution’, the Labour leader will pledge to give local communities more say over key areas like transport, energy and planning.

In an audacious political land grab, he will commit Labour to empowering communities to ‘take back control’.

In a speech in the West Midlands today, Sir Keir will say: ‘As well as deploying the full power of government to deliver security for working people, we give power away and put communities in control.

‘A new Take Back Control Act that sets a presumption towards devolution, and new powers for mayors over transport, skills, energy, and planning, so they can rejuvenate our high streets and generate growth for every town and city – a full-fat approach to devolution.’

A Tory source last night accused Sir Keir of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ – pointing out that Labour had criticised the government’s levelling up drive for years.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove pointed out that Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has praised the government for overseeing a ‘new era for English devolution’.

‘It might be hard for a North London lawyer to notice what’s going on across the country, but any fair observer would recognise the scale of transformation we are delivering as part of our plan,’ he said.

‘Labour’s 13 years in office saw no powers in England devolved beyond the M25. Since the publication of the Levelling Up White Paper two years ago, devolution has been extended across two thirds of England, and 90 per cent of the North, with more to come.’

Mr Gove added: ‘Labour have no plan. They have attacked Levelling Up Funding and devolution. Labour would just take us back to square one.’ 

But Sir Keir will today accuse the Conservatives of ‘preying on the hopes’ of working people by failing to deliver on their election pledges.

‘Four years ago, the former prime minister gave his big ‘levelling up’ speech, a project he said would turn the tide on regional inequality in this country.

‘People say to me the worst thing you can do in politics is prey on people’s fear. Yet in some ways, preying on their hopes is just as bad.

‘That’s what the Tories did with levelling up. It is a good ambition for Britain. But it requires not just a new plan, also a fundamental shift in how we govern.’ 

Sir Keir will launch Labour’s election campaign alongside his deputy Angela Rayner, who is now in charge of the party’s levelling up policy.

Ms Rayner last night accused the government of presiding over a political system ‘which centralises power, takes decisions away from the places and people that know best and hoards the profits of growth at the centre, away from those who created it in the first place’.

But Labour is likely to face searching questions about exactly which powers it will devolve, and how quickly. 

The party has also given little detail of the kind of projects it wants to see delivered to boost regional growth – and has refused to say whether it will reinstate the HS2 rail route to Manchester, which was scrapped by Mr Sunak last year.