A handy list of Labour's sixteen major U-Turns to date

A handy list of the sixteen issues on which Labour have broken their promises or reversed their policies.


1) Business rates on your local. The Conservatives held five Opposition Day Debates calling on the Labour Government to repeal its business rates hike and launched a Save the Local campaign, which was signed by 46,500 people, forcing the Government to U-turn on this tax.

2) Mandatory digital ID. The Conservatives do not believe in mandatory digital ID because it is against our values, puts our data at risk and will cost billions, which is why we led a campaign against the scheme which successfully forced the Labour Government to U-turn on it being mandatory.

3) A national, statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. Labour let down the victims of vile rape gangs by brushing the issue under the carpet. We called for a proper, targeted, national, statutory inquiry into rape gangs operating in this country – Labour voted against that three times before U-turning.

4) Winter Fuel Payment. The Conservatives believe in security and dignity in retirement, which is why we led the opposition to Labour’s betrayal of pensioners when they cut 10 million Winter Fuel Payments to fund pay rises demanded by the trade unions.

5) Family Farms Tax. The Conservatives forced the Labour Government to U-turn and water down their Family Farm Tax, meaning that farmers can pass on £2.5 million in assets and allow spouses or civil partners to pass on up to £5 million in qualifying agricultural or business assets between them.

6)  Cancelling local elections in England. The Labour Government attempted to bully councils into cancelling elections for a second year in a row but this was ruled unlawful, forcing them to U-turn and to allow the elections to go ahead.

7) Vital court records. After pressure from a Conservative-led campaign calling for the Labour Government to save the court records used by journalists that have led to the uncovering of the most heinous crimes, including the grooming gangs’ scandal, Labour opened negotiations for a new licence to be agreed with Courtsdesk to preserve these vital court records.

8) ‘Day one’ protections from unfair dismissal. The Labour Government pledged to introduce protections for employees from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment. Under Conservative pressure and after several rounds of ping pong, the Labour Government U-turned, reducing the qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal to 6 months.

9) Defence spending. The Labour Government initially dithered and delayed on increasing defence spending, leaving our Armed Forces without the certainty they deserve in an increasingly volatile world. It was only after Kemi Badenoch forced them into action that Labour announced a commitment to 3 per cent of GDP on defence.

10) Our Post Offices. The Labour Government consulted on closing up to half of Britain’s 11,500 Post Offices. The Conservatives launched a campaign against it, with a petition that received 180,000 signatures, which led to the government to U-turn.

11) The Mandelson files. On 4 February 2026, the Conservatives delivered a Humble Address to force the release of all relevant files and there was an initial government attempt to allow Keir Starmer and Morgan McSweeney the power to withhold files before the Labour Government U-turned.

12) Personal allowance thresholds. REEVES: ‘I have come to the conclusion that extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people. It would take more money out of their payslips. I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto. So there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax and National Insurance thresholds beyond the decisions of the previous government’. A year later she broke this promise.

13) Welfare reforms. Over the five years from 2025-26 to 2029-30, Labour are now planning to spend £36.4 billion more in the November 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook than in the March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook before Labour dropped their welfare reforms set out at Spring Statement 2025.

14) The two-child benefit cap. Despite pledging to ‘not increase taxes on working people’, Labour have hiked taxes by £60 billion, pushing the tax burden to a record high to fund more welfare handouts, including scrapping the two-child benefit cap at a cost of £3 billion

15)  The WASPI women. Keir Starmer and his frontbench used WASPI women as a political prop to win votes but now Labour are in government, they’ve been betrayed, like so many others Labour promised the world to.

16) To ‘not increase taxes on working people’. The Labour Party Manifesto for the 2024 General Election said: ‘Labour will not increase taxes on working people’. However, Labour’s first two Budgets have increased taxes by £36 billion and £26 billion respectively, pushing the tax burden to a historic high of 38.3 per cent of GDP.

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