Keir Starmer’s manifesto launch disrupted by climate protester – as Labour leader tries to quell fears of secret tax raid with plans showing an extra £8.5BILLION in revenue amid Net Zero drive and VAT on private school fees

Keir StarmerThe manifesto launch was today disrupted by a protester – as he tried to quell fears of a Labor tax raid.

A woman interrupted Sir Keir as he began to explain the plans and forced him to stop talking as she shouted about climate issues. As she was escorted out, he said: “Five years ago we gave up being a protest party. We want to be a power party.’

Sir Keir wants to point the knife at the Tories as he unveils key document in Manchester, including a NHS revision. ‘nanny state’ focuses on junk food, a Net Zero campaign and VAT on private school fees.

With opinion polls putting the party on track for a landslide, the content is being billed as ‘safety first’. But details show Labor is proposing to raise £8.5 billion in extra revenue from policies such as ending ‘Non Dom’ status, increasing stamp duty on foreign buyers and a bigger oil windfall tax and gas industry.

The Tories immediately claimed that Labour’s own plans implied the tax burden would rise to 37.4 percent of GDP – the highest in history.

And while the document includes a promise to cap corporate taxes at the current 25 percent rate, that is not the case revaluation of municipal tax or raids on capital gains tax.

Sir Keir said he had pulled his party away from the “dead end of gesture politics” under Jeremy Corbyn and that it was now “time to change Britain”.

He said Britain is “still a great country” but lacks a “government that can match the ambition of working people.”

Sir Keir tried to turn his dull image into a virtue as he lashed out at him Nigel Farage‘s brand of politics. “If you want politics as pantomime, I hear Clacton is nice at this time of year.”

When asked why there is no policy that has not been announced before, he said: “I am running to become prime minister, not as a candidate to run the circus.”

Sir Keir was introduced by his deputy Angela Rayner and Icelandic CEO Richard Walker – who until recently tried to become a Tory MP.

The Work leader looks to capitalize after he was seen coming out on top in a crucial TV showdown with Rishi Sunak last night.

Unlike Tuesday’s Tory offering – which featured no photos at all – it features 34 images of the leader.

Keir Starmer today seeks to quell fears of a Labor tax raid as he launches his election manifesto

A woman interrupted Sir Keir as he started to explain the plans and forced him to stop talking as she shouted about climate issues

Sir Keir was introduced by his deputy Angela Rayner, with whom he has had a tense relationship at times

Sir Keir posed for photographs this morning with copies of the party’s election manifesto

Sir Keir said: ‘Creating wealth is our first priority. Growth is our core business – the goal and means of national renewal. ‘The mandate we seek in these elections is for economic growth. This changed PvdA has a growth plan. We are pro-business and pro-workers, the party of wealth creation.’

Labor has already ruled out increasing income tax, national insurance or national insurance rates VAT.

The increases the country has openly committed to include imposing VAT on private school fees, abolishing non-domestic tax status and closing “loopholes” in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

The party’s first steps also include a pledge to cut NHS waiting lists by 40,000 new appointments a week, setting up a Border Security Command, setting up GB Energy, cracking down on anti-social behavior and hiring 6,500 teachers.

The manifesto commits to reforming planning rules and building 1.5 million new homes.

There are moves to review workers’ rights and a promise to devolve decision-making to Westminster.

On foreign policy, Labor has said it will back Ukraine against Russia and support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a Middle East peace process.

The party has also pledged to aim to spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense, without saying when that will happen.

In his foreword to the document, Sir Keir said: ‘We must decisively turn the page on the Conservative ideas that have caused the chaos.

‘The world has become increasingly unstable, with a major war in Europe for the first time in a generation and increasing threats to the living standards of working people.

“This ‘age of insecurity’ requires the government to act and not stand aside.”

Sir Keir said Labour’s task ‘will not be easy’.

‘Not just because there is no quick fix for the mess the Conservatives have created. But also because their failures have undermined our collective confidence that Britain can still achieve great things.”

Sir Keir rejected that defeatism, saying: ‘We are still a great nation. We can still achieve great things. What is lacking as a government that can match the ambition that working people have for their families and communities with a credible long-term plan.’

The Labor leader, who took over from Jeremy Corbyn after the party’s 2019 election battle, said: “The defining aim of my Labor leadership has been to drag my party away from the blind alley of gesture politics and its to return to politics. service of working people.

‘I changed parties. Now I want the opportunity to bring that change to the country.”

In his launch speech, Sir Keir said Labor had set out a ‘manifesto for wealth creation, a plan to change Britain’, adding: ‘Today we can lay a new foundation for stability and on that foundation we can start rebuilding Britain.’

Sir Keir was roasted during the Sky News program in Grimsby last night on claims he will raise taxes, and whether he can be ‘trusted’ after previously backing Jeremy Corbyn. He was also scolded for his ‘robotic’ manner.

However, YouGov research found viewers outperformed the Prime Minister by 64 to 36 per cent – after Mr Sunak endured an even more brutal 45-minute mauling.

The prime minister was repeatedly abused for leaving D-Day commemorations early and faced derisive laughter when he tried to defend the government. Tories‘ report on issues such as immigration.