FOR all his talk about being the son of a toolmaker, Sir Keir Starmer couldn’t tell a screwdriver from a spanner.
The bloke hasn’t got a clue how the construction industry works.
GettyReform MPs Lee Anderson and Richard Tice say Starmer ‘hasn’t got a clue’ about the construction industry[/caption]
Britain desperately needs more construction workers
This week, you heard the government’s big plan—1.5 million homes and even a third runway at Heathrow.
It might sound great, but Labour’s policies are driving the very workers we need into the ground.
Britain urgently needs more homes, hospitals, schools, and roads. Yet instead of equipping workers with shovels and tools, the PM has handed them pencils and clipboards.
In Sir Keir’s reckless race to climate targets, the construction industry is drowning in skyrocketing costs and endless red tape.
The result? Job losses, delayed projects, and a construction industry crumbling under the weight of its own regulations.
Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves – Labour’s resident maths wizard – thinks hiking employer National Insurance is a great idea.
Because nothing screams “economic growth” like strangling family-run businesses. These firms, the backbone of Britain’s construction industry, are being crushed under Labour’s anti-growth agenda.
And the workforce? It’s vanishing faster than new houses are appearing. Over the past five years, UK construction has lost 70,000 workers annually, with the average age of those remaining now over 50.
Apprenticeship starts have averaged just 31,000 per year, with nearly half dropping out.
If ‘Rachel from Accounts’ did the maths, she’d see this adds up to a net loss of 50,000 people leaving the jobs market every year.
Yet Sir Keir expects these dwindling ranks to deliver his Soviet-style building targets. It’s laughable.
Industry leaders like Steve Mulholland of the Construction Plant-hire Association have warned the PM his policies are hammering the sector. But Sir Keir thinks he knows best.
His forensic expertise has already left pensioners freezing at Christmas and farmers blockading his front door. Now, Britain’s builders are next in line for his dose of wisdom.
Labour’s solution? Import more workers. Why bother training Brits when you can call for a quick fix from overseas? At this rate, we’ll have more brickies arriving at Heathrow than passengers on Starmer’s third runway.
As the benefits bill balloons and borrowing hits record levels, Labour continues to prioritise the workshy over the hardworking like they always have done. This madness has to stop.
At Reform UK, we believe blue-collar workers are the backbone of this country. They should be cherished, not punished.
And for too long, our education system has funnelled teenagers into pointless degrees that saddle them with lifelong debts and no real job prospects.
Keir Starmer’s promises might look good on paper, but they’re as flimsy as the clipboard he’s handed Britain’s builders.
If this government is serious about growth, it needs to trade soundbites for real blueprints and start listening to those who actually know which end of a hammer to hold.
If not, Britain’s building dream will collapse faster than Jeremy Corbyn’s allotment shed in a storm.
Richard Tice and Lee Anderson are Reform UK MPs