Tag: Labour Party leader Keir Starmer

Young climate activists protest at Labour MP’s Edinburgh office

Promise to continue every week ‘Until Bold Action Is Taken’

On Friday, local climate activists from Green New Deal Rising staged a ‘sit-out’ in front of Ian Murray MP’s HQ to demand bolder climate commitments from Labour ahead of the next General Election. 

Beginning at 11am on Friday, young climate activists in Edinburgh gathered outside Ian Murray MP’s constituency office in Causewayside, urging him to commit to doing more in the face of the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

The group criticised the Labour Party’s failure to adequately respond to repeated calls from young people for rapid decarbonisation, a just transition to a low emissions economy and investment in green jobs.

Ian Murray is MP for Edinburgh South and the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet.

This action follows similar protests every Friday since 14th July. This week, the activists staged a “birthday party” for Keir Starmer outside the office, putting up decorations, playing party songs and sharing around cake to mark the Labour leader’s birthday this week.

They spoke to Ian Murray’s constituents and members of the public about what the Labour party could be doing to tackle the climate emergency and social and economic injustice.

The protest was part of a national campaign by Green New Deal Rising pressuring the Labour Party to ‘Be Bold’ in their manifesto pledges ahead of the next UK General Election, which must be held before December 2024.

They are demanding that the Labour Party commit to passing legislation which expands public ownership, taxes wealth, delivers a green jobs guarantee and a living income, enacts a National Nature Service and make polluters pay globally, in the first 100 days after the election. 

Similar protests were also staged in cities across the UK targeting other members of the Shadow Cabinet.

Paris, 20, a member of Green New Deal Rising from Glasgow said: “We are seeing unprecedented heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods, crop failures, famines and falling living standards.

“Labour are refusing to put in place the bold and systemic solutions required to put an end to these crises, with the party having just ruled out wealth taxes and having reaffirmed their support for a set of dangerous and arbitrary fiscal rules that top economists have said are morally and fiscally irresponsible.

“So we are back outside Ian Murray’s office for the 8th week chatting with the public and throwing a birthday party for Keir Starmer celebrating what Labour could achieve if they grant our wishes of having a livable future through public ownership of essential services, a secure income for all, and a transformative Green New Deal.”

Keir Starmer announced Labour’s ‘Green Industrial Strategy’ earlier this year, but has already U-turned on a number of issues in response to fossil fuel lobbying, by refusing to block the Rosebank Oil Field if approved and delaying the timing of green investment.

Polls consistently show that the electorate are in favour of more action on environmental issues as well as public ownership.

Paris continued: “Our wishes are highly reflected in our interactions with the public who are concerned about the destruction of our planet and deteriorating living standards. Labour need to reject austerity economics and support our demands for a Green New Deal.”

The group say they will return to Ian Murray’s office again next Friday.

KEIR STARMER: I followed the rules

A statement by Labour Party leader KEIR STARMER:

Ever since the first covid lockdown, I have always followed the rules. 

In that time, the British people have made heart-wrenching sacrifices. 

People were left desperately lonely. 

They were separated from family and friends tragically, many were unable to see dying loved ones. 

This was a collective sacrifice. 

People were entitled to expect that politicians would follow the same rules as everyone else. 

When my mother-in-law passed away suddenly just before the lockdown, my wife and I were unable to provide her father with the support we wanted to afterwards, because we followed the rules.  

Barely a day has passed where we haven’t agonised over that decision, but we did it, because we followed the rules.  

We all found those rules frustrating at times –

And I’m no exception to that. 

I had to isolate six times during covid, pulling me away from my work and the things that I love. 

But I did it, because we followed the rules.  

The idea that I would then casually break those rules is wrong. 

And frankly I don’t believe those accusing me believe it themselves. 

They are just trying to feed cynicism, to get the public to believe all politicians are the same. 

I am here to say they’re not. 

I believe in honour, integrity and the principle that those who make the laws must follow them. 

And I believe that politicians who undermine that principle, undermine trust in politics, undermine our democracy, and undermine Britain. 

I am absolutely clear that no laws were broken. 

They were followed at all times. 

I simply had something to eat while working late in the evening. 

As any politician would do days before an election. 

But if the police decide to issue me with a fixed penalty notice, 

I would, of course, do the right thing and step down. 

This matters. 

It matters because the British public deserve politicians who think the rules apply to them. 

They deserve politicians who hold themselves to the highest standards. 

And they deserve politicians who put the country first, rather than themselves. 

They will always – always – get that from me. 

Thank you. 

KEIR STARMER

Leader of the Labour Party