I wouldn’t change first five months as PM, says Keir Starmer

It comes as the Bank of England said the economy had performed worse than expected, with no growth at all between October and December.

Sir Keir set the G7 growth target in early 2023, more than a year before his party returned to power at July’s general election.

Earlier this month, he announced an additional target to improve living standards, leading to some accusations he was moving the goalposts on what he wanted his government to be judged by.

But in his first appearance before the liaison committee of senior MPs since entering office, Sir Keir insisted he was still committed to getting the UK growing faster other G7 members, such as the US, Germany and Japan, by 2029.

When it was pointed out to him that economic forecasts suggested this was not going to happen, he said they had not taken some future policy changes into account.

He cited a rise to the legal minimum wage, announced at October’s Budget, as an example of how ministers were boosting living standards.

He added that changes to the planning system, other “regulations” and new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) would also help improve the UK’s economic growth rates.