Why Starmer had to ditch his £28 billion green pledge

What will Labour’s flagship promise be going into the next election? There’s a policy vacancy, now that the party plans to ditch its pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green investment. 

This is not your average U-turn. This has been Labour’s big offering for more than two years. Yet today, Keir Starmer will ditch the headline figure for good – though his party still plans to usher in other parts of their proposed ‘Green Prosperity Plan’. 

By abandoning the £28 billion promise, Stamer is putting to rest what had become a contentious topic within his own party. The spending promise – which shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves first committed to back in 2021 – has become increasingly diluted over the past year. Reeves had to acknowledge last summer that the money would arrive closer to the end of Labour’s first parliament rather than at the beginning. Since then, there have been questions about whether such a spending commitment could really be achieved until a second term. 

As Katy Balls reported this week, Labour MPs weren’t just putting out mixed messages about the green spending plans: they were doubling down on them, with chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones insisting last week that the figure would be scrapped.