Keir Starmer's Cabinet ministers outlined their policy priorities this week, following Labour's landslide victory in the general election.
The immediate focus appeared to be on economic growth, housebuilding and improving the NHS. In her first speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves promised to "get Britain building" by reinstating housebuilding targets for councils and reviewing green belt boundaries. However, she warned of "difficult choices" ahead as she ordered the Treasury to draw up an analysis of the state of the public finances. Separately, the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, declared the NHS to be "broken" after 14 years of Tory rule, but said that he'd held "positive" talks with unions about a deal to end the junior doctors' strikes.
'Stability and expertise'
In his first days as PM, Starmer appointed a Cabinet that included record numbers of female and of state-educated ministers. He visited Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – vowing to "reset" relations with the devolved administrations – and hosted 12 regional mayors at No. 10. On Tuesday, he flew to the Nato summit in Washington. He reiterated his promise to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, but did not say by when. In a call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, he'd earlier stressed the "urgent need" for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Starmer promised change, said The Observer – and his initial decisions as PM suggest that he was serious. By giving most of his former shadow ministers their equivalent Cabinet posts, he has prioritised "expertise and stability" over "favours for allies". And he has made some "inspired" appointments from outside Parliament: James Timpson, the businessman known for employing ex-prisoners at his keycutting firm, was made Prisons Minister; Sir Patrick Vallance, the former chief scientific adviser, is the new Science Minister.
'Remarkable accomplishment'
Britain has its first Labour PM in 14 years, and with a huge majority to boot. That's a "remarkable accomplishment" for Starmer, said The Times – and testament to the diligence with which he set about transforming his party after its defeat in 2019. But this was a "loveless landslide", said the Daily Mail. Labour won 63% of seats, on 34% of the vote – the lowest for an incoming PM since 1832. Yes, Labour won plenty of seats; but it didn't win voters' "hearts and minds".
The new Government faces formidable challenges, said The Daily Telegraph: Britain is mired in debt, the NHS is in "crisis", and growth has been sluggish for years. Starmer says that "actions not words" are needed to solve those problems and restore trust in politics; but his promise of "change" may soon "crash into a wall of economic reality".
-
Looming drone ban has farmers and farm-state Republicans anxiousIN THE SPOTLIGHT As congressional China-hawks work to limit commercial drone sales from Beijing, a growing number of conservative lawmakers are sounding an agricultural alarm
-
The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
-
Ukraine and Rubio rewrite Russia’s peace planFeature The only explanation for this confusing series of events is that ‘rival factions’ within the White House fought over the peace plan ‘and made a mess of it’
-
The powerful names in the Epstein emailsIn Depth People from a former Harvard president to a noted linguist were mentioned
-
The launch of Your Party: how it could workThe Explainer Despite landmark decisions made over the party’s makeup at their first conference, core frustrations are ‘likely to only intensify in the near-future’
-
The US-Saudi relationship: too big to fail?Talking Point With the Saudis investing $1 trillion into the US, and Trump granting them ‘major non-Nato ally’ status, for now the two countries need each other
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
-
What does the fall in net migration mean for the UK?Today’s Big Question With Labour and the Tories trying to ‘claim credit’ for lower figures, the ‘underlying picture is far less clear-cut’
