‘Is that it?’ UK Labour’s cautious entry to government

LONDON — If Britain’s new prime minister campaigned in prose, it’s because he intends to govern in prose too. 

Having just won a whopping victory after 14 painful years in opposition, Keir Starmer might be expected to go for broke when it came to his first program for government. 

This was Tony Blair’s approach in 1997 — Starmer’s predecessor heralded a new era with a clear and punchy set of policies: introducing a national minimum wage, a windfall tax on privatized utilities, referendums on devolution in Scotland and Wales, and — in a surprise move — independence for the Bank of England.

Yet when King Charles comes to parliament Wednesday to read out Starmer’s inaugural legislative offer, it’s expected to be a rather more restrained affair. 

The king’s speech is a fixture of the U.K. political calendar and features the monarch formally opening the new parliamentary session amid plenty of pomp and circumstance. 

While details of all the bills are not yet confirmed, Labour’s agenda seems likely to stick close to its trailed announcements and is dominated by a gradual approach to change. That doesn’t please everyone.

As one Labour aide, granted anonymity to speak frankly, commented: “Nobody expected FDR, but after 14 years of bad policymaking and poverty on the rise, there is a feeling of ‘is that it?’”

Senior figures inside the party insist this perception that Starmer’s program is underwhelming is a misconception, arguing that the package does contain radical elements — and that the whole point is to advance an agenda which can actually be delivered. 

Softly, softly

Labour’s first king’s speech is expected to be relatively lengthy, encompassing more than 35 bills on key manifesto promises such as planning reform to boost house-building, a new state-owned energy company and a border command to police illegal migration. 

An overhaul of workers’ rights, partial rail nationalization, a crackdown on antisocial behavior, changes to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s remit, greater devolution to city regions, automatic voter registration and House of Lords reform are all on the menu too.

Starmer stressed his determination for the measures to boost economic growth, saying in remarks ahead of the speech: “Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain.” 

Matt Upton, head of policy for the Starmer-aligned think tank Labour Together, identified two central messages in the new government’s policy platform. 

Keir Starmer stressed his determination for the measures to boost economic growth, saying in remarks ahead of the speech: “Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain.” | Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images

One is that “growth is the dominant mission,” according to Upton, and the other is that “this is about national renewal and long-term change — many of the things being mooted address the foundations and won’t happen overnight.”

The cautious approach leaves Starmer open to criticism that he is not acting boldly enough. Some in his party would like to see him take more progressive measures right away, with a number of MPs expected to rebel over the lack of any move to end a two-child cap on benefits for parents. 

Even those who strongly back elements of Starmer’s program, such as the shake-up of inflexible planning rules, fear he is proceeding too cautiously in key areas. 

Sam Richards from the growth campaign group Britain Remade said it was “critical” for Labour to deliver further reforms to environmental regulations “because if they don’t do that, then they’re not going to hit their very ambitious 2030 zero carbon grid target.”

Other areas with big price tags attached have been singled out for review rather than immediate change, including an investigation of health service performance, a defense review, and a reported cross-party commission on social care for the disabled and elderly.

Competence trick

If Starmer is playing a conservative opening hand, there are some clear political calculations behind it. 

Research conducted by More in Common after the election showed that among all respondents, including voters who backed both the outgoing Conservatives and the upstart Reform UK, the dominant view was that the Tories lost because they were incompetent, not because they had veered too far to the left or right.

Bristol University’s Paula Surridge has described this as a “valence election” — that is one where “political battles are fought not over what the outcomes should be — everyone wants to see lower inflation and shorter waiting lists — but rather who is best placed to deliver them.”

Against this backdrop, it’s unsurprising that, as Upton put it, the new PM is determined to “follow through on delivery, which is what people felt was lacking by the end of the last government.”

This approach clearly carries its own risks, however. 

Theo Bertram, the director of the Social Market Foundation think tank and a former adviser to Gordon Brown, contended there were some “meaty” proposals in the king’s speech, but said Labour should be wary “not to spread themselves too thinly, both in terms of parliamentary time and political capital.”

Even with a big majority, Bertram added, “one of the things that can slow you down is just that general blancmange of government and the sense that there’s so much to do that you’re just treading water.”

The king’s speech is a fixture of the U.K. political calendar. | Geoff Caddick/Getty Images

If Labour can indeed demonstrate an ability to deliver the reward could be great. 

Several Tory insiders confessed they were worried by the targeted restraint Starmer had shown in his first fortnight in office, pointing to planning reforms which many Tory MPs had been pushing for years, prioritized quickly by Labour without much backlash. 

One predicted that if Labour were able to enact lots of deliverable, albeit unambitious, policies it would be an uphill battle for the Conservatives to rebuild their reputation for competence.

Mason Boycott-Owen contributed reporting.