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

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(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer will outline a set of policies on the UK economy, health care and crime next week as he seeks to reset his fledgling administration following Labor’s return to power.

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The British prime minister will present a “Transformation Plan” outlining “important steps,” fleshing out the bones of the five missions he announced during this year’s general election campaign, his office said late Saturday in a statement. The goal is to bring “real, tangible improvements to the lives of working people across the country,” he said.

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“A machine-led government does not mean taking important steps because they are easy or they will happen,” Starmer said in a statement. “It means relentlessly driving real improvements in the lives of working people.”

Just five months after taking office in a resounding election victory, the British prime minister wants to turn the page on a difficult start that exposed ministers accepting free money while opposing tax and spending decisions that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves doesn’t like. separate pensioners, farmers and businesses. Those are the informal markets that have led to the drop in survey ratings.

Economic growth, which Starmer relies on to deliver much of his policy-led agenda, has stalled amid financial uncertainty. In addition, with higher debt service costs eroding Reeves’ already thin margin for meeting his fiscal mandate, he is now at risk of another budget crisis in the spring.

The prime minister is looking to rebuild a sense of stability after initially acting as her boss, Sue Gray, and her senior political aide, Morgan McSweeney. Adding to the government’s woes, Starmer on Friday resigned for the first time from the cabinet when his transport secretary, Louise Haigh, resigned in the wake of the fraud scandal.

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While Starmer’s office did not provide details on the new targets, it said the Prime Minister would explain them “later this week” and that they would allow working people to “hold the government to account for its progress.” The government’s stated tasks are to jump-start economic growth, transform the country into a clean energy superpower, reduce crime, reform childcare and education, and restore the fortunes of the struggling National Health Service.

That means Starmer’s announcement is likely to include numerical targets in areas such as raising living standards and increasing disposable incomes, curbing crime and immigration, reducing NHS waiting lists, improving access to education, showing progress in the fight against climate change, and boosting housing.

Labor has already taken a series of unpopular decisions in an attempt to restore order to the public finances and plug what Reeves described as a £22 billion ($28 billion) budget hole left by the outgoing Conservatives, who oversaw a long period of spending. that set back the country’s public services during his 14 years in power.

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The chancellor at the end of July stripped around 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments, and in his budget in October he increased taxes by £40 billion, mainly by increasing the national insurance tax paid by employers. A budget measure increasing inheritance tax on 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 there is no doubt that there will be obstacles along the way, but this government was elected with the mandate of change and our plan shows the important things for working people,” said Starmer. “Given the unprecedented challenges we have inherited we cannot achieve this by simply doing the same, which is why investment comes with a program of innovation and change.”

—Courtesy of Alex Wickham.

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