Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s first year in office won’t be marked with party poppers and balloons. No 10 is keen to avoid an atmosphere of celebration amid its five-year rolling programme to make voters feel genuinely optimistic about their lives.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Labour’s first year in office has been a carousel of disasters from freebies to winter fuel to its latest U-turn on welfare reforms.
On Sunday Starmer admitted to the Sunday Times he’d been “distracted” by the Middle East and Nato summit last week and not recognised the strength of opposition his backbenchers had to proposed changes to the benefit system. He enters his anniversary week with his domestic authority under severe strain.
But if voters can separate out the narrative about U-turns and look at some of the policy achievements, on paper the Government can also celebrate some early wins.
“In its first year Labour has done incredibly popular things by stealth and deeply unpopular things with a full marching band to make sure everyone knows about them,” John McTernan, who advised Tony Blair in office, told The i Paper.
But perhaps it’s time to give some credit where it is due, especially as in opposition Starmer made it clear it would take years to undo the mistakes made by the Conservatives and help the NHS recover from its pandemic hangover.
In health, waiting-list targets are coming down and with the added 3 per cent a year investment in the NHS, queues for treatment should drop even further. It was also a bold, if necessary, decision to scrap the duplication by abolishing the quango, NHS England.
In education, parents should start to feel better off as the scheme to fund 15 hours of childcare is rolled out with 30 hours available from September. The first 300 new school-based nurseries will also open this autumn, while private nurseries have been prevented from overcharging for nappies and food. Half a million more primary-aged kids are eligible for free school meals with breakfast clubs now feeding 180,000 more children.
Meanwhile, the Renters’ Rights Bill will introduce a ban on no-fault evictions and in-tenancy rent rises in England in one of the biggest reforms in a generation, designed to help nearly a fifth of the population who don’t own their own home.
Tackling the flow of revolting sewage water companies pump at record levels into rivers, lakes and seas is almost universally popular. So, too is the drive to create new jobs in clean energy via the Great British Energy rollout. A modern, patriotic country can be proud of jobs created by coastal power than the old-fashioned search for coal.
The aim to quadruple nuclear power capacity by 2050, crucial for energy security in an uncertain world and reducing reliance on fossil fuels is hardly to be sniffed at.
The lowest earners should be starting to feel a bit better off. An increase to the National Minimum Wage is worth £1,400 a year for an eligible full-time worker. The median salary is up over £1,000 in the year to April. The employment rate has risen, albeit marginally. The Government has also boosted workers’ rights, alongside commissioning the Careers & Enterprise Company to boost career and enterprise skills in young people.
“It’s not that Labour haven’t done popular things – a whole raft of their policies from renters’ reform to the minimum wage raise to the sewage bill are highly popular, the problem is they’ve had nowhere near the cut-through of the unpopular things or have been actively drowned out by things like winter fuel, farmers and prisoner releases and now the welfare U-turn,” Luke Tryl of the think tank More in Common told The i Paper.
Labour insiders also insist that while pensioners feel upset about the now-amended change to the winter fuel allowance, older people are protected by the triple lock on pensions, keeping them on incomes which match the working age population.
And although he may have been distracted by world affairs, arguably, some of Starmer’s biggest successes have been on the world stage. He’s shown a masterclass in handling the notoriously tricksy Donald Trump, securing better deals on tariffs for Britain than other nations, even if the Prime Minister can’t influence the US President on Ukraine or the Middle East.
Signing off three international trade deals shows the UK is moving on from the chaos of the Brexit years. A reset, albeit slow, with European nations is a step in the right direction.
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But more is yet to come. In its first year Labour has put in place the foundation stones which should lead to greater returns within the next few years. Notably, liberalising planning laws to build more homes. Once new towns are springing up with shiny new community facilities including GPs surgeries, voters will feel more positive.
Labour has had a terrible year of communicating its successes; drowned out by unending stories on freebies, former No 10 Chief of Staff Sue Gray, the winter fuel U-turn and farmer fury over inheritance tax changes. Insiders acknowledge the operation has made mistakes. But they also hope once voters start feeling the tangible benefits of their plans, those early mistakes will be forgiven.
Only by getting concrete achievements – a hip fixed, more cash in the pocket, more jobs – can Labour prove itself a success. Starmer knows this and has made good progress in his first year. He’s benefited from weak political opposition which can’t be the case for ever. Now his Government just needs to avoid even more self-inflicted errors.
To misquote Lady Bracknell; one U-turn may be regarded as a misfortune, more than two looks like carelessness.
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