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 Sir Keir Starmer during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, where he invited the leader of the Labour Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government following the landslide General Election victory for the Labour Party. Picture date: Friday July 5, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Election. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA WireShow less

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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

Keir Starmer has been the Labour party's leader since 2020, and is now the UK's prime minister. Here The National looks back through his political career. Getty Images

Mr Starmer speaking in Westminster, London, in May after Rishi Sunak announced the general election for July 4. AP

Mr Starmer speaks to Labour supporters at Harlow Town Football Club's stadium in Essex, on the eve of local elections in May. Getty Images

Mr Starmer talks to Dan Poulter at the Francis Crick Institute in London in April, after the MP had defected from the Conservative Party to Labour. Getty Images

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Mr Starmer during the launch of Mr Khan's mayoral re-election campaign in March, which proved successful. Getty Images

Mr Starmer addresses the Labour Business Conference in London in February. Getty Images

Mr Starmer and Mr Sunak at the Palace of Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament in November 2023. Getty Images

Mr Starmer addresses delegates at the National Annual Women's Conference in Liverpool in October 2023. Getty Images

Mr Starmer with his shadow cabinet in London in September 2023. Getty Images

Mr Starmer speaks to supporters in Chatham after a Labour win in local elections in May 2023. Getty Images

Joining party activists at a national phone bank on local elections day in London in May 2023. Getty Images

Mr Starmer meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster, London, in February 2023. Getty Images

The Labour leader and his wife Victoria leave the stage after his speech at the party conference in Liverpool in September 2022. Getty Images

Mr Starmer and then-UK prime minister Liz Truss leave the Palace of Westminster in September 2022. Getty Images

With former Labour prime ministers Tony Blair, centre, and Gordon Brown, right, at St James's Palace, London, where King Charles III was formally proclaimed monarch in September 2022. Getty Images

Mr Starmer and then-prime minister Boris Johnson attend the State Opening of Parliament in May 2022. Getty Images

Mr Starmer makes his keynote speech to the Labour conference for the first time as party leader in September 2021 in Brighton. Getty Images

The gloves are on during a visit to the Vulcan Boxing Club in Hull, East Yorkshire, in April 2021. Getty Images

Mr Starmer in talks with care home workers and family members of residents at Cafe 1899 in Gedling Country Park during the Covid-19 pandemic in July 2020. Getty Images

Mr Starmer, then-shadow secretary of state for exiting the EU, addresses the audience at a hustings in March 2020 in Dudley. Getty Images

Mr Starmer and then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn talk to the media at the EU Commission headquarters in March 2019 in Brussels. Getty Images

Mr Starmer delivers a speech on Labour's Brexit policy at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London in April 2017. Getty Images

Holding a press conference as Director of Public Prosecutions to outline new guidelines on assisted suicide, in London in September 2009. Getty Images

Human rights advisers Mr Starmer and Jane Gordon with the Northern Ireland Policing Board annual human rights report 2006, at the Dunadry Hotel in Co Antrim. Getty Images

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.

The relationship between Britain's prime minister and chancellor - the occupants of No 10 and No 11 Downing Street - has bedevilled previous UK governments. Getty Images

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.

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

Eunice Goes

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”.

Rachel Reeves, right, has promised to run a business-friendly ship at the Treasury under a Labour government. Getty Images

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

Britain's new prime minister Keir Starmer addresses the nation after his general election victory, outside 10 Downing Street in London. PA

Mr Starmer and his wife, Victoria, enter 10 Downing Street. PA

Photographers capture the Starmers standing outside the prime minister's official London residence. Reuters

Mr Starmer greets Labour campaigners in Downing Street. Reuters

Mr and Mrs Starmer arrive in Downing Street. PA

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

Sir Clive Alderton, principal private secretary to the King and Queen, greets Mr Starmer at Buckingham Palace in London. PA

Labour Party supporters outside 10 Downing Street. AFP

Mr Starmer celebrates winning the general election with a speech at Tate Modern in London. Getty Images

Mr Starmer and his wife, Victoria, are applauded by supporters. PA

Mr Starmer is congratulated by former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. AFP

Mr Starmer is embraced by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. PA

Mr Starmer shakes hands with Conservative candidate Mehreen Malik after he was re-elected as MP for the Holborn and St Pancras, in London. AP

Mr Starmer arrives during the count for the constituency. Getty Images

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?”.