Starmer promises ‘plan for change’ in bid to reboot UK government

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will set out a range of targets for the UK economy, health and crime over the coming week as he seeks to reboot his young administration following Labour’s turbulent return to power.

The British prime minister will unveil a “Plan for Change” that will set out “measurable milestones” that will add flesh to the five core missions he outlined during this year’s general election campaign, his office said late Saturday in a statement. The goal is to provide “real, tangible improvements in the lives of working people across the country,” it said.

“Mission-led government is not about picking milestones because they are easy or will happen anyway,” Starmer said in a statement. “This means a relentless pursuit of real improvements in the lives of working people.”

Just five months after coming to power with a landslide election victory, the British prime minister is trying to turn the page on a rocky start, complicated by revelations that ministers were taking freebies while in opposition and the unpopular tax and spending decisions of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, which alienated pensioners, farmers and businesses. This rattled markets and caused poll ratings to fall.

The economic growth that Starmer hopes to achieve through much of his agenda has stalled amid financial uncertainty. Moreover, with higher debt servicing costs undermining Reeves’ already narrow ability to comply with self-imposed budget rules, she will now have to plug a new budget deficit in the spring.

The Prime Minister is hoping to regain momentum after replacing his chief of staff Sue Gray with his top political aide Morgan MacSweeney. Adding to the government’s woes, Starmer suffered his first cabinet resignation on Friday when his transport secretary, Louise Hay, quit over revelations about a past fraud conviction.

While Starmer’s office did not provide details of the new targets, it said the prime minister would set them out “later this week” and that they would enable workers to “hold the government to account for the progress that has been made”. The government’s stated goals are to kickstart economic growth, transform the country into a clean energy superpower, reduce crime rates, reform child care and education, and restore the flagging state of the struggling National Health Service.

This means Starmer’s announcement is likely to include numerical targets in areas such as raising living standards and increasing disposable income, reducing crime and migration, reducing NHS waiting lists, improving education levels, demonstrating progress in tackling change climate and stimulation of housing construction.

Labor has already made a series of unpopular decisions in an attempt to restore order to the public finances and plug what Reeves calls a £22 billion budget hole left by the outgoing Conservatives, who oversaw a long period of spending austerity that slashed spending. the country’s civil services during the 14 years of their rule.

At the end of July, the Chancellor cut around 10 million pensioners’ winter fuel payments and then raised taxes by £40 billion in her Budget in October, primarily by increasing National Insurance payroll tax paid by employers. Meanwhile, a Budget measure increasing inheritance tax on agricultural properties brought thousands of farmers to the streets of London in protest on 19 November.

“Some may object to what we are doing and there will no doubt be obstacles along the way, but this Government was elected with a mandate for change and our plan reflects the priorities of working people,” Starmer said. “Given the unprecedented challenges we inherit, we will not get there by simply doing more of the same, so investment goes hand in hand with an agenda of innovation and reform.”

With assistance from Alex Wickham.

This article was created from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.