Starmer says he is open in principle to possibility of asylum seekers having their claims processed offshore
Q: What would you do about illegal migration?
Starmer says the government has lost control. People want the crossings stopped. He says he would look at credible ways of stopping this. Gangs are running this. The boats are being made to order, and stored in France. As DPP he worked with other countries on breaking up gangs. And he refuses to believe that these are the only gangs that cannot be stopped.
As for processing claims offshore, he says there is a difference between processing claims offshore, and just deporting people, which is the Rwanda policy.
He says the Ukraine scheme includes an element of offshore processing. Other countries are looking at this, and he would be open to the idea, he says.
Key events
Steven Morris
The venue for Keir Starmer’s speech – the Bristol and Bath Science Park – wasn’t the most original. During the 2015 general election campaign Ed Miliband and David Cameron came here in consecutive days.
Miliband gave a speech at the National Composites Centre shortly after Labour launched its “the doctor can’t see you” poster campaign, showing a winding queue of people. The day before Cameron, campaigning alongside the then chancellor George Osborne, was on site to commit to lowering taxes and raising the personal tax-free allowance.
The science park is Emersons Green, south Gloucestershire, seven miles north east of Bristol city centre, an area currently held by the Conservatives.
Starmer gave his speech at the composite centre in front of something called a “robotic deposition system for carbon fibre”. Boeing use it in the construction of fuselages for the 787 Dreamliner.
The audience included business leaders, Labour party workers and politicians including the Bristol directly elected mayor, Marvin Rees.
Q: What is more of a priority for you – cutting personal taxes or business taxes?
Starmer says the focus has to be on growth. Liz Truss floated tax cuts that were uncosted. That crashed the economy, he says.
He attacks Truss for rewarding some of her aides with honours, and he suggests people must have been shocked to see that.
And that is the end of the Q&A.
I will post a summary and analysis of the speech and Q&A shortly.
Starmer says, with the tax burden near a record high, he does not think people should be paying more tax.
Starmer plays down significance of £28bn green investment plan, saying what matters most is clean energy by 2030 target
Q: Can you guarantee that there won’t be further watering down of the £28bn green jobs investment plan?
Starmer says there is no question of pushing back on the mission – green power by 2030.
The investment that Labour is planning is intended to trigger private investment at the ratio of 1:3. They have talked to international investors about this.
The key target date is 2030.
The £28bn investment will be ramped up, but that does not mean nothing will happen at the start.
“There is no pushing back on the mission,” he says.
Q: Do you think Peter Mandelson has questions to answer about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? He is a close ally of yours.
Starmer says he knows no more about this than what he has read.
Q: Are single-sex spaces safe under Labour?
Yes, says Starmer. He says he has been committed to these for a long time.
Starmer denies reports saying he wants to avoid election debates with Sunak
Q: Will you commit to taking part in debates during the election campaign?
Starmer says reports saying he wants to avoid them are just wrong. He is happy to debate any time. He is not afraid of scrutiny, he says. He wants the election. “Bring it on.”
Starmer says he is open in principle to possibility of asylum seekers having their claims processed offshore
Q: What would you do about illegal migration?
Starmer says the government has lost control. People want the crossings stopped. He says he would look at credible ways of stopping this. Gangs are running this. The boats are being made to order, and stored in France. As DPP he worked with other countries on breaking up gangs. And he refuses to believe that these are the only gangs that cannot be stopped.
As for processing claims offshore, he says there is a difference between processing claims offshore, and just deporting people, which is the Rwanda policy.
He says the Ukraine scheme includes an element of offshore processing. Other countries are looking at this, and he would be open to the idea, he says.
Starmer says he would not support cutting inheritance tax
Q: If the Tories cut inheritance tax, will you support that?
Starmer says the Tories have floated this idea many times. Labour does not support that.
Starmer says, if fiscal rules do not allow borrowing needed for £28bn green jobs investment, it won’t happen
Q: [From Christopher Hope from GB News] How will you fund your £28bn green jobs programme?
Starmer says he wants to achieve clean power [electricity generation] by 2030. He has said the £28bn will be ramped up in the second half of the parliament. He says it will include money already put in by the government. The rest will come from borrowing. But if the fiscal rules do not allow that borrowing, it won’t happen, he says.
Q: Has Luke Littler’s perfomance in the darts showed that 16-year-olds should get the vote?
Starmer says he does not watch darts regularly. But this tournament has been electrifiying. He says he is a big supporter of 16-year-olds, incuding having the vote.
Starmer says Labour has set out ‘precisely what we are going to do’
Q: People say they don’t know what a Starmer government stands for. What are you getting wrong?
Starmer says last year he set out five missions for government. There is no lack of clarity in those ideas, he says.
He says Labour has set out “precisely what we are going to do”.
Q: [From ITV’s Anushka Asthana] Labour has criticised the Tories for freezing income tax thresholds. Will you unfreeze them?
Starmer says he wants people to pay less tax.
But the first lever he will pull is growth.
Labour has said where it would raise taxes.
As Pat McFadden said on the Today programme, any Labour tax cuts would have to be fair and affordable, he says. (See 9.55am.)