SIR KEIR STARMER was accused today of “sheer vacuous banality” after he made a major policy speech prioritising “wealth creation.”

The Labour leader outlined his party’s priorities in Gateshead, just a few miles from Durham, where the annual miners’ gala was held at the weekend with 200,000 people in attendance.

Trade unionists at the event called on Labour to back the fight against the Tory-caused cost-of-living crisis by supporting the strikes by railway workers and in many other sectors.

Sir Keir said: “We will reboot our economy, re-energise our communities, revitalise our public services, unite the country, clean up politics and end the cost-of-living crisis.

“Labour will fight the next election on economic growth.

“The first line of the first page of our offer will be about wealth creation.”

But Mish Rahman, a member of the Momentum national co-ordinating group and the Labour national executive, said: “The route is there for a majority Labour government, but only if the leadership sets out a transformational socialist plan that meets the needs of the country.

“This speech does not do that and is a wasted opportunity.”

Communist Party general secretary Rob Griffiths was scathing about Sir Keir’s address, saying: “For sheer vacuous banality, Starmer’s speech was unequalled even by his previous efforts.

“Is there a mainstream politician in Britain, France, the US or a hundred other places who doesn’t claim to want economic growth, more innovation, better public services, national and party unity and clean, honest politics?”

Andrew Feinstein, a former ANC MP in South Africa under Nelson Mandela and now a constituent of Sir Keir, told the Star: “I wish I could believe Starmer’s commitment to truth and honesty in politics.

“Sadly, everything he has done as our MP suggests this is just more PR with no resemblance to how he behaves.

“He has driven scores of anti-racist Jews out of the Labour Party, supposedly in the name of fighting anti-semitism, while ignoring Islamophobia and anti-black racism in the party and society.”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said: “There is absolutely nothing here that marks Labour out as an alternative to this miserable bunch of Tories.

“There is no talk of nationalisation or taxing the rich and corporations, no talk of paying people a decent wage rise to match inflation, no talk of dealing with the housing crisis.

“If this is the best he had to offer, then Labour will fail to present any sort of alternative.”