Keir Starmer’s sparks Labour revolt with U-turn on renationalisation of railways

She said the Jeremy Corbyn era pledge to bring rail, water, energy and Royal Mail back into public ownership was now unaffordable.

Ms Reeves has vowed to fund all day-to-day spending with tax revenues and to bring down Britain’s growing debt mountain.

“To be spending billions of pounds on nationalising things, that just doesn’t stack up against our fiscal rules,” she told the BBC.

The shadow chancellor added the renationalisation pledge was made “in a manifesto that secured our worst result since 1935”.

Confusion then reigned as a party spokesman contradicted Ms Reeves, insisting there was a “positive role for rail in public ownership.”

But asked what he thought, Sir Keir said he agreed with his shadow chancellor.

“Whether it comes to rail or anything else, I want to be pragmatic about this rather than ideological,” he said.

“Having come through the pandemic it’s very important we have very, very clear priorities. That’s why we have set out fiscal rules.”

In a later interview with the Daily Mirror, the Labour leader pointed out that much of the train service “is already in public ownership”.