Protester interrupts Keir Starmer’s Labour party manifesto launch

A heckler has interrupted Sir Keir Starmer’s launch of the Labour party manifesto by uncovering a banner and claiming his plans are the “same old Tory policies”.

A woman described as a climate protester in the audience shouted out just minutes after Sir Keir began speaking before being quickly removed from the event in Greater Manchester.

Uncovering a yellow banner showing the words “Youth deserve better”, the young woman said: “You say you are offering change but it is the same old Tory policies. We need better.”

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The Labour leader quickly snapped back that “Labour stopped being the party of protest five years ago” after Jeremy Corbyn lost the 2019 general election.

Do you know the protester? Email alexander.butler@independent.co.uk

He said: “We gave up being a party of protest five years ago. We want to be a party of power. That’s not in the script but that is part of the change,” to loud cheers of applause.

Last Friday, prime minister Rishi Sunak was heckled by a GP who shouted the NHS was “disintergrating” under his Conservative government.

Mr Sunak was speaking at a rally in Wiltshire when the doctor began questioning government policies that see patients being sent to other primary care staff, rather than GPs.

She said: “The country is not stupid. They know when lesser qualified people are being used to conduct consultations which are massively complex.”

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage has also had a few run-ins with the public during the campaign trail, when he had objects thrown at him in South Yorkshire and was hit with a milkshake in Essex.

Mr Farage was waving at supporters from the top of his party’s battle bus in Barnsley town centre on Tuesday when the incident occurred.

He said he believed the objects were some wet cement from a work site followed by a coffee cup. He narrowly missed the objects.

Last Tuesday, Mr Farage was leaving a Wetherspoons pub after carrying out media interviews when he was hit with a banana milkshake in front of his supporters.

During the event at the Co-op supermarkets headquarters, Sir Keir vowed that his government would “not pay fast and loose with the country’s finances”.

He promised it would be based on “sound money” as he again reminded people of how Liz Truss’s mini budget had prevented people getting mortgages.

Directly taking on the tax questions, he insisted: “I do not think that it is fair to raise the taxes of working people in a cost of living crisis.”

Sir Keir said that not raising the major taxes – VAT, income tax and national insurance – “is a manifesto commitment.”

He added: “Growth is our main mission. Nothing can be achieved without growth. We are the party of wealth creation.”

The party’s policies are summarisied within fourteen different areas including security, housing, economic growth, a fiscal plan, clean energy and the NHS.

On the economy, Sir Keir will offer “tough new spending rules to allow businesses to plan”, as well as a cap on corporation tax of 25 per cent and promises of industry investment.

He will also commit to Labour’s “new deal for working people”, including better childcare, better pay, and help for people to get back into employment.

The party has consistently led the polls over the past three weeks of the campaign, putting it around 20 points ahead of the Tories.