Keir Starmer in Downing St: How new PM will govern Britain

Labour tipped to use thumping majority to act on its prime economic 'missions' in first 100 days

King Charles III welcomes Keir Starmer during an audience at Buckingham Palace. PA

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A US election winner has 11 weeks to prepare for the White House. The Netherlands has just spent 233 days forming a new government. In Britain, Keir Starmer had barely a few hours to adjust.

After Labour’s election victory, King Charles III appointed Mr Starmer as Prime Minister at lunchtime on Friday. As well as the customary speech at No 10 Downing Street, there are also cabinet appointments and conversations with world leaders before the day is out.

In a sobering part of the handover, Mr Starmer sends “letters of last resort” to Britain’s nuclear missile submarines, with instructions in case the chain of command is wiped out. Rishi Sunak’s letters are destroyed.

By July 9, Mr Starmer is due in Washington for a Nato summit. Leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron battling to keep the far right out of power might envy Labour’s new (and supercharged) majority.

So how will Mr Starmer use his majority to govern Britain? Despite his campaign motto of “change”, he hardly has the manner of a revolutionary. Grey-haired and dutiful, the 61-year-old is often likened to a school headmaster.

Keir Starmer through the years – in pictures

Mr Starmer’s election pledges reflected what was seen as a safety-first ‘Ming vase strategy’ meant to protect Labour’s strong position, reassure floating voters and neutralise Conservative attacks.

Yet experienced MPs and political advisers, both Labour and Conservative, hope Mr Starmer will go on the front foot within his first 100 days to push priorities such as the economy, housing and clean energy.

A summit throwing the UK's doors open for investment is planned in that 100-day stretch. Businesses are being told to prepare for early moves on planning reform under Mr Starmer.

“This will be his victory and he will be in an extremely strong position in those early years. He will be wanting to put his own stamp on government,” said former Conservative MP turned independent peer Andrew Tyrie.

He told business leaders that Mr Starmer could go after economic wins such as planning and closer ties with Europe, which amount to “pretty tough political fruit to pick, and that’s why a large majority is so important”.

Labour missions

A key part of Mr Starmer’s pitch was five “missions” on the economy, health, crime, clean energy and equality, meant to bring a long-term focus after years of day-to-day political soap operas.

The idea has been pushed by Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato. Its success will depend in part on key figures in Mr Starmer’s team such as chief of staff Sue Gray and likely chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Westminster insiders are watching closely for any signs of tension between Mr Starmer and Ms Reeves, after a rift between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown derailed the 1997 to 2010 Labour government.

With Labour aware it will not have the money to repeat the health and education spending spree of the Blair-Brown years, it is relying on its push for economic growth to fill up the Treasury’s coffers.

One option being discussed is for Mr Starmer to centralise power around new ‘mission boards’ that would be tasked with banging departmental heads together on the five priorities.

But the Treasury has a reputation for guarding its territory, and Ms Reeves has made clear she will not let pie-in-the-sky spending pledges get past her. Former Labour minister David Blunkett has warned of resentment towards overarching policy tsars.

Civil servants have already taken soundings on Labour policies under pre-election contacts that take place, by convention, with the government's permission.

Steve Bates, a former Labour adviser who now represents the UK’s biotech industry, said he would be “unsurprised” by an early restructuring, such as when Mr Brown reformed the Bank of England in 1997.

“I would mark your card to keep an eye on how they do the wiring,” he said. Ms Gray, the former civil servant who investigated the Boris Johnson party scandal, “knows a lot about how the wirings of Whitehall work”.

Then there are the unforeseen events that every prime minister must deal with. The aftermath of 9/11 derailed Tony Blair’s premiership. Gordon Brown had the global financial crash. Boris Johnson had Covid-19.

On the world stage, Mr Starmer could soon have to strike up a relationship with Donald Trump. European centrists who would be natural partners for Labour as it seeks to rebuild ties with the EU are under siege from the far right.

“We may wake up on Monday with a far-right government in France and this is going to present a very immediate challenge for the incoming Labour government,” said Eunice Goes, an author on the British left at Richmond American University London.

In the event of a Trump comeback, Mr Starmer’s policy is “to deal with him as he has to”, she told The National. “It will be difficult but they will have to deal with the problems as they come.”

Party management

Mr Starmer, a former chief prosecutor for England and Wales, likes to tell voters he is came to politics late – he was elected an MP aged 52 – and is not absorbed in party tribalism.

His critics on both right and left say he lacks political principles, having dropped left-wing positions he once supported such as abolishing university tuition fees.

“He's not someone – nor is Rishi Sunak – who can tell us a story about where the country's going in a convincing manner,” said politics professor Anand Menon of the think tank UK in a Changing Europe.

“He’s someone who seems to have changed his mind on an awful lot of issues so people are uncertain where his real centre of gravity is. That being said, those who have worked with him will say he’s very, very competent.”

Labour’s expected huge gains mean scores of its MPs will be newcomers who owe their election to Mr Starmer’s landslide, although there are not enough ministerial jobs to satisfy all their ambitions.

A purge of the left has softened Labour’s brand but angered sections of the party. Mr Starmer will not be able to keep ignoring it if ambitious MPs side with trade unions to cause trouble for the government, Mr Tyrie said.

Labour’s intraparty management “is going to be every bit as crucial in the years ahead as it has been difficult for the Conservatives,” he said.

Keir Starmer wins general election – in pictures

On the Conservative side, Mr Tyrie – who was one of 165 Tory MPs elected in the 1997 drubbing – said that was not enough to mount an effective opposition to the Blair government.

Former ministers “more or less go on holiday for a while, exhausted” and “leave you with a very small group trying to run the whole of the opposition” for which 200 MPs would be a bare minimum, he said.

It means “important points from the point of view of balance and argument won’t be made”.

With the Tories facing a period of reflection, Labour is “already betting on being re-elected at the next election,” said Dr Goes.

“Keir Starmer talks about a 10-year plan. The question remains, will British voters be patient to wait for the big change?”.