What does Keir Starmer need to achieve with his ‘plan for change’ speech?
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The Prime Minister will give a speech this week which he says will outline the “next phase” of his government, while critics have called it a “reset” after just five months in power.
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In brief...
- Keir Starmer will give a ‘plan for change’ speech this week, in which he will once again outline Labour’s plans for the UK.
- The News Agents say the government must get better with their own narrative, and suggest this speech could be linked to the US election result and the rise of populist politics.
- They say Labour’s plans for reforming the UK are, so far, “pretty shallow”.
What's the story?
Despite what you may have heard from Kemi Badenoch or in the press, Keir Starmer’s ‘plan for change’, which he will deliver this week, is not being billed as a ‘reset’ or ‘relaunch’ for the Labour Party, just five months into its time in government.
Instead, Lewis Goodall says, it is an opportunity to “flesh out” what his government is all about.
Starmer has described it simply as the “next phase” of his government.
The PM will deliver his plan on Thursday 5 December, hoping to move on from some of the controversies Labour has faced since he entered Downing Street in July this year.
In just five months, Labour has had to weather backlash to its winter fuel cuts, controversy over freebies given to senior members of the cabinet (including the PM), and the resignation of Louise Haigh – among other poorly received initiatives.
In the months between July and October, the Prime Minister's approval rating dropped from +11 to -38, one of the biggest declines in a PM's popularity in modern times.
So what does he need to announce to turn this around, and how might this be linked to the results of the US election?
What does Starmer need to achieve this week?
There is one thing The News Agents see the current UK government as lacking – and that is the ability to sell their narrative.
“I think now more than ever, it is vital to be able to tell a story of what you're doing and how you're winning, and convince people that you're doing the right things,” says Jon Sopel.
“The most important part of that is immigration and dealing with the small boats, and having a better story to tell than the Tories did.”
And this is where the outcome of this year’s US election may have served as a warning sign for the Labour government.
"I think Biden failed because he couldn't tell a narrative," Jon adds, saying that having to deal with "stubbornly high" inflation and the poor state of the US economy certainly didn't help matters.
"Politicians' language is so important at a time when people are desperate to hear very tangible things that are going to improve their life," adds Emily Maitlis.
Lewis says the key to Starmer getting back on track is to show "micro improvements" at grassroots level, fixing potholes in roads and other "hyper localist" issues that people will see as “demonstrable change”.
He says that the Democratic Party's loss in this year's US election could be attributed to this, with a focus from Biden on how his government has been "re-industrialising" America, but ignoring the local issues that people can see day-to-day in their own communities.
What’s the link to the rise of populist politics?
Lewis says one of the biggest concerns, for all politicians in the UK, is the growing success of Nigel Farage.
“They are particularly concerned about the possibility of populist politics, being led by Reform, not just winning the next election or doing really well the next election, but mutating where politics is going to go,” he says.
Lewis adds that the key to "neutralising" populism in Britain is if Starmer's Labour government can show the change in people’s lives they need to see.
Emily says the consensus across the UK political spectrum is that a 2029 Reform UK government is "entirely possible".
Is a Reform UK government 'entirely possible' in the future?
What’s The News Agents take?
One of the major hurdles Labour has struggled with is the high bar it set before its election win.
“Some of the goals and missions Labour set for themselves in opposition were always going to be very difficult to achieve,” Lewis says.
“If you set goals which you don't achieve, then your opponents say you're incompetent.
“Starmer's entire pitch, in so many ways, has always been predicated on a kind of politics of competence and a politics of being able to manage the institutions better than his opponents.”
He cites Ed Miliband's promise of green energy investment reducing people's energy bills as one he "guarantees will come back and bite the government".
He adds that, when compared to the last Labour government, under Tony Blair, Starmer and his top team lack "sustained thinking on reform", and that what plans there are to fix institutions such as the NHS are currently "pretty shallow".
“But for all the talk of it being a shaky start for this government, I don't think it has been that shaky,” he concludes.
“There have been problems and political missteps – it's been a steep learning curve.”
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