Labour's Peter Kyle denies change will take years on Darlington visit

Labour’s ‘change’ manifesto announced on Thursday (June 13) will have a “profound impact on people’s lives from day one”, Peter Kyle, the Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology said.

He claimed the Government’s levelling up agenda was a “gimmick” they “never had the potential to fulfil” and said Labour would like to cut taxes on workers, but can only do it when “sensible”.

He was speaking exclusively to The Northern Echo after meeting local start-ups at an event in Darlington with the town’s prospective Labour MP Lola McEvoy.

Challenged on whether it will take time for people to see any real change if Labour come to power on July 4, Mr Kyle said: “I honestly don’t think it will.

Lola McEvoy and Peter Kyle speak to representatives of Sedgefield-based packaging company Wootzano. (Image: STUART BOULTON)

“We are laying the foundations for a decade of national renewal. What we’re trying to do is show we can make change at the beginning and then point our country towards a decade of national renewal based on missions that we can all align to as a nation.

“We know the problems our country is facing are systemic, deep, profound and they will take time to heal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make progress straight away and it doesn’t mean you can’t lay the foundations for profound change going forward.”

He said that Labour would like to see taxes on working people cut after the Tories claimed Sir Keir’s party would further increase the tax burden.

“Of course I would [like to see taxes come down] on working people,” he said.

“It’s something we all want to do. We’re the Labour Party. But we can only do it in a sensible, fully costed and funded way, otherwise, it will be working people who pay the price.

“As we go forward, fix the problems in our country, get growth into the country we can then start to look to how we reduce the taxation burden for working people from the historic high it has got to with the Tories.”

Labour’s manifesto announced yesterday features just one reference to the “North East”, and makes no commitment to “levelling up”.

Echo reporter Daniel Hordon speaks to Labour's Peter Kyle and Darlington candidate Lola McEvoy. (Image: STUART BOULTON)

But Mr Kyle said his party’s plans would actually “turbocharge” levelling up as he slammed the Tories for selling a “gimmick”.

The Hove MP added: “What levelling up intended to do will be turbocharged by a labour government but what we’re not going to do is have a gimmick.

“We want to replace gimmicks with solid, steadfast economic management that benefits parts of the country that need it the most, the most.

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“A gimmick is a government scheme with a catchy title that it does not fulfil and never, from the start, had the potential to fulfil because it had no detail behind it, and it had no backing behind it.

“What it had was a PM that rattled around announcing things that never made it off the drawing board and into reality – where are the 40 hospitals, for example?

“It's the scale of ambition that we have for this that people should not underestimate. We have huge ambition for our country.”