The writing is on the wall. In fact, it was there six months ago, but has now been outlined in permanent marker. After a bruising defeat in the local polls, even Rishi Sunak is conceding that his party may not win the next general election.
In other words, it’s time for voters to confront the reality of a Labour government.
Sir Keir Starmer is not a harmless moderate, as many seem to believe, but someone who as recently as 2020 promised to “make the moral case for socialism”.
His shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, intends to “rebalance between market forces and state control, tipping more power towards the latter”, and believes Nigel Lawson was “wrong not only in application but in theory”.
And his shadow climate secretary, Ed Miliband, believes we can power a nation of nearly 70 million people on energy which can disappear completely for days at a time.
What we know of the agenda is no less terrifying than the views of those peddling it. Miliband last week confirmed that Labour will introduce new net zero laws forcing big companies and banks to limit their carbon footprint.
Nevermind that Britain’s top businesses are already regulated to within an inch of their lives – the financial sector in particular.
Many businesses will have thousands of suppliers – how can they ensure all are reporting accurately? It’s a colossal task which will unproductively employ hundreds of people in big firms and countless more bureaucrats collating and checking data.
And quite what Labour means when they say we need a “proper” windfall tax on oil and gas companies when they already face a marginal tax rate of 75pc is a mystery.
Domestic investment has already been driven away, and that’s before Labour imposes a ban on new drilling. This is the income stream on which the party’s National Wealth Fund, to “rebuild [our] industrial strength” will in part be based. In what world won’t bills go up?
There will also be a “boiler tax”, even though the Tory experiment in the idea saw manufacturers raising prices to cover the fines they knew they would have to pay. And a 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, brought forward from 2035, that will have similar effects.
Meanwhile, dismayed though Angela Rayner may be by reports her “New Deal for Workers” will be watered down, Labour still intends to bring in an avalanche of new entitlements, ranging from the impractical (flexible working from day one) to the absurd (a “right to disconnect”).
Far from repealing the Equality Act – legislation introduced in 2010 to stamp out discrimination in the workplace, but which has instead disincentivised hiring and undermined the concept of meritocracy – Labour will double down with a Race Equality Act that will impose yet more monitoring requirements on businesses and expand the quasi-Marxist notion of “equal pay”.
This plan, according to one estimate, could deliver up to £26bn in extra pay to ethnic minority workers – a bill that would be paid by shareholders, other workers and taxpayers.
And though Starmer has announced a war on “Nimbyism”, committing Labour to building 1.5 million homes over five years in office, his party voted against Tory plans to scrap the nutrient neutrality rules which have prevented the construction of tens of thousands of houses.
What’s more, there can be little hope they will bring down net migration levels, which place significant pressure on the housing market.
It won’t stop there. Reeves has previously advocated an overhaul of council tax bands – a move that could cost households an average of £1,200 a year – and wants to make “tech giants pay their fair share”.
Labour will end so-called “no fault evictions”, preventing landlords from, quite reasonably, reclaiming their property after an agreed period of time. Starmer will renationalise rail – at great expense to the taxpayer – yet has admitted there may be no reduction in fares.
The nation will be repeatedly held to ransom by overmighty unions demanding pay rises that far outstrip those in the private sector in the name of “fairness”.
The party might not have a shadow chancellor who will enthusiastically wield a well-thumbed copy of Mao’s “Little Red Book” anymore, but its key players appear to view success with suspicion and businesses as ethically dodgy.
Employees will be indulged at all times, their wellbeing prioritised over customers and clients. Unions will reign supreme, with strikes easier to organise and minimum service levels banned.
Our prosperity will be sacrificed on the altar of net zero.
Labour have a point when they hammer the Reagan question – “after 14 years of Tory government, do you feel richer?”
But under “red-green” socialist Keir Starmer, Britain must prepare to be much poorer.
