Journalism of Courage
In a significant move to tackle youth unemployment in Britain, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer Tuesday announced his government would replace the target of sending 50 per cent of young people to universities, with that of pushing two-thirds of them to obtain “higher-level” skills by the age of 25 through gold-standard apprenticeships, news agency Reuters reported.
Delivering a speech at the Labour party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Starmer said his government would make education its “defining cause,” by setting higher standards in every college.
“I can also announce that further education, so long a Cinderella service, ignored because politicians’ kids don’t go there. We will make it a defining cause of this Labour government, with higher standards in every college. The quality of teaching raised. More apprenticeships. More technical colleges. Technical excellence colleges. Qualifications linked to jobs, rooted in their communities,” he told the gathering.
The aim of the this move is to align education with labour market needs as part of the government’s promise to tackle youth unemployment.
“And, as Rachel announced yesterday. A new guarantee. Training, work support, or an apprenticeship for every young person struggling to find work,” he said, hailing finance minister Rachel Reeves’ move to provide guaranteed offer of unspecified paid work to youngsters who received Universal Credit benefit payments for 18 months “without earning or learning,” as per Reuters.
“That’s young people backed. The class ceiling smashed. The grafters finally included in our country’s highest aspirations. That’s national renewal. That’s a Britain built for all,” he added.
Referring to former labour PM Tony Blair’s 1999 target of sending half of the youth to university or higher education in Britain, which was hit severely 20 years later, Starmer argued, “I don’t think the way we currently measure success in education – that ambition to get 50 per cent of kids to uni – I don’t think that’s right for our times,”
Starmer’s government said it would allocate 800 million pounds ($1 billion) in funding for 16-to-19-year-olds in 2026-27, supporting an additional 20,000 students, according to a Reuters report.
Starmer accuses Farage of dividing Britain
A day earlier, Starmer accused hard-right politician Nigel Farage of crossing “a moral line” with his anti-immigration stance, as he contrasted his vision of “patriotic renewal” with what he called Farage’s divisive politics of grievance, the Associated Press reported.
Amid Britain’s struggles to secure approval ratings, slow-moving economy, raising questions about leadership, Starmer said that the nation was facing a “fight for the soul of our country” between the governing centre-left Labour Party and Farage’s Reform UK.
Urging voters to reject “snake oil merchants on the right, on the Left” who promise “a quick fix, a miracle cure,” the PM said, “I just do not accept that Britain is broken.” “When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage say anything positive about Britain’s future?”
“He can’t. He doesn’t like Britain, doesn’t believe in Britain, wants you to doubt it as much as he does,” AP reported quoting Starmer.
He cautioned that tough economic choices “will keep on coming.” However, Labour’s annual conference – motto: “Renew Britain” – remains focused on conversations about how to fight Farage’s Reform.
Farage’s party has topped opinion polls for months, ahead of both Labour and the main opposition Conservatives, despite holding just five of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
‘Racist’, ‘immoral’: Starmer on Farage’s anti-immigration stance
Calling Farage’s policy of deporting those arriving in Britain by small boats, stripping the right to remain in the UK from legal residents, as “racist” and “immoral,” Starmer underlined it was a “reasonable demand” for people to want secure borders and to end unauthorized immigration, however, “there is a line, a moral line, and it isn’t just Farage who crosses it.”
“Controlling migration is a reasonable goal, but if you throw bricks and smash up private property that is not legitimate, that is thuggery,” Starmer said in his hour-long speech.
“If you incite racist violence and hatred, that is not expressing concern, that is criminal.”
He said people should be proud to fly national flags “as we celebrate difference and oppose racism.”
In response, Farage accused Starmer of calling Reform supporters racist “by implication,” and called the speech “an absolute disgrace,” AP quoted.
In his sweeping speech, Starmer also set out a vision for a government that would focus on “public and private investment to rebuild crumbling infrastructure, restore public services, improve education, build new homes and revive British industries from steelworks to data centres,” according to news agency AP.
