Roundup: UK PM warns of “difficult road ahead” amid multiple challenges

LONDON, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) Keir Starmer on Tuesday warned that his government faces “a difficult road ahead” to tackle such challenges as kicking start the economy and reducing illegal immigration.
Speaking at Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool less than three months after a landslide victory in the general election, Starmer acknowledged his government won’t “get everything right” and not “everyone will agree” with his decisions.
Addressing the unpopular decision to scrap winter fuel payments for some pensioners as part of the efforts to fix a 22-billion-pound (29-billion-U.S. dollar) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservative government, Starmer said he accepted some people were frustrated.
“I get that,” he said. “If this path was popular or easy, we could have walked it already.”
In a speech that contained few elements of new policy, Starmer confirmed that GB Energy, the publicly owned clean energy company, would be based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
He also pledged measures to house all military veterans in housing need, as well as for young care leavers and victims of domestic abuse.
Meanwhile, he reiterated the pledge to improve the NHS (National Health Service), reduce net migration, and condemned rioters, many from the far right, who created mass disorder in the summer.
“So I know, after everything you have been through, how hard it is to hear a politician ask for more. But deep down, I think you also know that our country does need a long-term plan and that we can’t turn back,” he said.
On Monday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves reassured the country at the conference that the UK will not return to austerity policies, referencing the austerity program initiated by the Cameron government in 2009.
Looking ahead to the upcoming budget in October, Reeves reassured party members that it will align with the new government’s manifesto commitments. These include no increases in income tax, national insurance, or value-added tax, capping corporation tax at its current level for the duration of the current parliament, closing the non-dom tax loophole, and cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion.
The annual conference, which runs until Wednesday, comes as the Labour government is struggling with an image problem. Multiple media reports emerged that Starmer accepted clothing for himself and his wife, as well as expensive spectacles together valued at tens of thousands of pounds. He also reportedly received high-end donations such as free tickets to Taylor Swift concerts and access to a corporate box at Arsenal Football Club.
Chancellor Reeves, and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner have also accepted similar gifts, according to local media reports. Starmer has insisted he followed the rules, but later, he, along with Reeves and Rayner, announced that they would no longer accept donations for clothing.
The Labour Party won the July 4 election on pledges to “restore politics as a force for good” following years of the Conservative’s rule tarnished by scandals, but a new YouGov poll found that one in seven Labour voters now regret their choice. Nearly two-thirds of all voters say Starmer’s decision to accept freebies for his wife was unacceptable. ■