Gliding into Downing Street in the Prime Ministerial car, the road lined with flag-waving Labour supporters, Keir Starmer was surrounded by all the trappings of power and success.
His first few days – from a string of cabinet appointments and a tour of the UK’s four nations to the Chancellor’s growth speech and an imminent trip to NATO in Washington D.C. – suggest a party, and government, champing at the bit to get going, including on the world stage.
But, as the now-Prime Minister and his advisors will be painfully aware, if he wants to secure a successful first term, the time to act is now.
Any “honeymoon period will be very, very short”, former Sun editor David Yelland, has said – “almost nonexistent”, even – and he’s very far from the only one to make that point.
Why? Simply, Britain faces a host of challenges. Many voters – frustrated with the Conservative’s record in office, sluggish growth and rampant inflation – lent their votes to the party promising change.
But an increasing splintering on the left and the right of UK politics, which saw Labour secure a lower share of the vote, means a second term for Starmer is far from secure.
As Luke Tryll, director at political think tank More in Common, put it, this results in a “precariousness” that, at present, only requires a six per cent swing back to the Conservatives to see Labour out of power.
Shoring up support for the party, and seeing off the threat of populism, requires results. There is, as Starmer acknowledged on Friday morning, no time to waste.
Tackling the so-called ‘Sue’s shit list’ – chief of staff and former top civil servant Sue Gray’s round up of potential crises already flashing red – will see cabinet ministers forced to address the possible collapse of Thames Water, prison overcrowding and NHS funding, as first reported by the Financial Times.
Strikes and public sector pay pressure, particularly in the NHS, as well as universities and local councils risking bankruptcy, will also be among the issues keeping ministers awake at night.
But those outcomes must be tangible. Starmer’s aides are said to be influenced by the ‘death of delivery’ concept coined by US writer Matt Stoller, The Times has reported.
Whether economic growth happens is one question. But perhaps a more important one is who feels the benefits of it, and where the profits are spent.
For example, Labour will get a lot more credit among the voter groups it needs to hang on to by ending the struggle to secure a GP appointment, rather than simply boosting abstract economic indicators.
But to fund more NHS staff, pay for overtime, improve kit, commission private sector services, or the myriad other routes to achieve it, do require them to do both.
Another factor of the ‘broad but shallow’ Labour support, which has seen newly-minted MPs installed in green and pleasant lands from St Austell to Northumberland, is the risk of green shoots of NIMBYism sprouting, as the planning applications roll in.
As Capx’s NIMBY Watch column reported, back in 2021 even box-fresh housing minister Matthew Pennycook objected to a proposed tower block development in his own south London constituency warning of “excessive height” and “detrimental impact”.
Rachel Reeves insists she’s not “naive” that there will be “opposition” to her grey-belt plans, but just how divided could a party with a majority close to that of Tony Blair’s become? We may be about to find out.
As the adage goes, Starmer and co have successfully tiptoed across the freshly-polished floor, priceless Ming vase clasped in hand. They may not be able to set it down just yet.