By Reality Check team<\/p>\n
BBC News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Labour leader Keir Starmer set out his five missions for government on Thursday.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n We’ve been looking at some of the claims made in his speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Growth has certainly been slower in the last 13 years than it was in the previous 13 years, when the Labour Party was in power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Between 1997 and 2010, the economy grew at an average of just under 2% a year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Labour’s argument is that, had growth kept going at that rate (instead of at just below 1.5% a year) the economy would be bigger and the government would take more in taxes. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Using that method you can come out with that overall figure of about an extra \u00a340bn in the tax take.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So, it is correct to say that had the economy kept growing at the rate seen before 2010, the government could have tens of billions more to spend now. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n However, whether all of the differences in growth rates seen over the last 26 years are down to the decision of the governments of the time is a more contentious question. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The sluggish growth seen during the 2010s was not a problem unique to the UK, for example, and all economies faced challenges due to Covid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n UK economic growth was indeed very poor between 2010 and 2019, with total growth of just over 20%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But that wasn’t as bad as the decade around World War One, for example. Between 1917 and 1926 the economy contracted by almost 10%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It wasn’t looking at all decades, but at the 10 years after a recession. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It found that the period 2009-2019 had been similar to the decade after 1921, but worse than all other recovery periods since 1808.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n However, that’s not the same as it being the worst decade of growth in two centuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘If growth over the last 13 years had been as strong as under the last Labour government, we would have \u00a340bn extra to spend’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
‘The worst decade for growth in two centuries’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
‘Zero-carbon British electricity by 2030… will put us ahead of any major economy in the world’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Presentational](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/16C07\/production\/_87719139_line976.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"Reality](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/1848\/production\/_98761260_onlinebanner_976x280.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n