Starmer’s plan: is that it?

“There is no quick fix to the mess that the Tories have made of this country,” declared Keir Starmer, as he unveiled his six election pledges and promised “a decade of national renewal”.

Speaking from Essex, at an event attended by his entire shadow cabinet, the Labour leader insisted this six-point plan was “fully funded and ready to go”.

Starmer pledged to cut NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week – funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes – and to recruit 6,500 new teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools. He reiterated plans, announced last week, to create a new border security command to stop small boat crossings, promised to crack down on antisocial behaviour by putting 13,000 neighbourhood police on the streets and vowed to set up Great British Energy, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants. Underpinning all these plans was a final pledge to stabilise the economy by sticking to tough spending rules. 

Those struggling to get on the property ladder may be dismayed that there was no mention of “getting Britain building again”, while others worried about our dangerous geopolitical era will be concerned that defence wasn’t listed as a priority. And unions won’t be happy that there was no mention of Labour’s promised workers’ rights reform. 

These are Starmer’s six “first steps” for government – and they are a fair bit more modest than his “five missions” announced over a year ago, which included making Britain the fastest-growing major economy by the end of a first Labour term in government and achieving net zero by 2030.

But the Labour leader rejected accusations that his party has scaled back its ambitions, insisting Labour has a “big, bold plan” but “we need first steps”.

Paradoxically, Starmer appeared to be channelling his inner Tony Blair today and yet simultaneously wary of being compared to his election-winning predecessor. 

The Labour leader donned a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and handed out pledge cards, just as Sir Tony did before his 1997 landslide election victory. 

At the same time, he made a point of distancing himself from Blair in an exercise of expectation management. “This is a very different moment to 1997, after the damage that’s been done in the last 14 years,” he cautioned. Today’s dire economic conditions mean his plans to change Britain will “take time”, he added. Up to ten years. 

The “decade of national renewal” being promised put a positive spin on this apparent inability to enact hard and fast change. 

Critics will say this lengthy timeframe speaks to a lack of ambition. And are those six promises really sufficient given the grave international situation and global challenges?

Supporters will say that Starmer aiming long on the domestic front is his most ambitious goal of all. 

To see through a decade of national renewal, the Labour leader will at least have to mimic Blair in one respect: that is, matching his ten-year tenure as Prime Minister. A tall order, if the timeline of Britain’s leaders of late are anything to go by. 

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