Starmer Promises ‘Plan for Change’ in Bid to Reset UK Government

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will spell out a set of targets on the UK economy, health care and crime over the coming week as he seeks to reset his fledgling administration following a turbulent return to power for Labour.

The British premier will unveil a “Plan for Change” setting out “measurable milestones,” adding flesh to the bones of the five core missions he outlined during this year’s general election campaign, his office said late Saturday in a statement. The aim is to deliver “real, tangible improvement to the lives of working people across the country,” it said.

“Mission-led government does not mean picking milestones because they are easy or will happen anyway,” Starmer said in the statement. “It means relentlessly driving real improvements in the lives of working people.”

Just five months after sweeping to power in a landslide election win, the British premier is seeking to turn the page on a rocky start beset by revelations about ministers accepting freebies while in opposition and unpopular tax and spending decisions by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves that have alienated pensioners, farmers and businesses. That’s unsettled markets and led to plunging poll ratings.

Economic growth, which Starmer is counting on to achieve much of his mission-led agenda, has ground to a halt amid the fiscal uncertainty. Moreover, as higher debt servicing costs erode Reeves’ already narrow margin for meeting self-imposed fiscal rules, she now risks having to fill a further budgetary shortfall in the spring.

The prime minister is looking to rebuild a sense of momentum after first replacing his chief of staff, Sue Gray, with his top political aide, Morgan McSweeney. Compounding the government’s woes, Starmer on Friday suffered his first cabinet resignation when his transport secretary, Louise Haigh, quit over revelations about a past fraud conviction. 

While Starmer’s office provided no details on the new targets, it said the premier will spell them out “later this week” and that they will allow working people “to hold government to account on its progress.” The government’s stated missions are to kick-start economic growth, turn the country into a clean energy superpower, reduce crime, reform childcare and education, and restore the flagging fortunes of the struggling National Health Service. 

That means that Starmer’s announcement is likely to include numeric goals in areas such as raising living standards and increasing disposable income, cutting crime and migration, reducing NHS waiting lists, improving educational attainment, showing progress on fighting climate change, and boosting homebuilding.

Labour has already taken a series of unpopular decisions in an effort to restore order to the public finances and plug what Reeves describes as a £22 billion budgetary hole left by the outgoing Conservatives, who had overseen a long period of spending austerity that pared back the country’s public services during their 14 years in power. 

The chancellor at the end of July stripped some 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments, and then in her budget in October raised taxes by £40 billion, primarily by increasing the national insurance payroll tax paid by employers. A budgetary measure raising inheritance tax for agricultural property, meanwhile, drew thousands of farmers to the streets of London in protest on Nov. 19.

“Some may oppose what we are doing and no doubt there will be obstacles along the way, but this government was elected on a mandate of change and our plan reflects the priorities of working people,” Starmer said. “Given the unprecedented challenges we have inherited we will not achieve this by simply doing more of the same, which is why investment comes alongside a program of innovation and reform.”

With assistance from Alex Wickham.

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