The Prime Minister Keir Starmer has laid out the six new milestones for his government as part of Labour’s Plan for Change.
This morning, the Prime Minister delivered one of his most important speeches since taking office, outlining six new milestones his government aims to achieve by spring 2029.
He said that these measurable milestones will enable the public “to hold our feet to the fire”.
They build on Labour’s five missions set out in the manifesto: securing the highest sustained growth in the G7, making Britain a clean energy superpower, building an NHS for the future, making Britain’s streets safe and breaking down barriers to opportunity.
Both the missions and milestones are grounded in foundations, “the basics” of being in government, such as national and border security.
Starmer said that with the government’s plan for change, “we will stick to it, country first, party second” and that it will give the government and the nation certainty, steering the country towards a decade of national renewal.
So what are the six milestones and how will they be achieved?
- Strong foundations – economy, national security and migration
Starmer spoke about creating the ‘strong foundations’ of economic stability, national security and border security, as “basics” for the government.
He said the foundations are about serving the real concerns of working people, and “changing the conversation, not walking away or talking down to them”.
Starmer stated that it’s not just about immigration, though the subject featured prominently in his speech.
With net migration figures approaching one million for the year ending June 2024, he argued that this shows how the Tories lost control of immigration, opening the borders to cover up the extent of their economic stagnation.
He called the Tories’ Rwanda plan a “ridiculous gimmick” and said Labour will clear the asylum backlog, as well as reducing legal and illegal immigration. He ruled out committing to a target on immigration, stating that the Tories consistently failed to meet their targets on migration.
On the economy, the PM stated that his goal is to achieve the highest sustained economic growth in the G7, so that people have more money in their pockets and the cost-of-living crisis no longer affects their families.
The UK currently lags behind every other G7 country when it comes to business investment as a share of the economy.
- Home ownership for the working class families
Starmer reiterated that Labour will ‘rebuild’ Britain with 1.5 million new homes over this parliament.
He said that this is “so the security I enjoyed when I was growing up, the base camp aspiration of home ownership, doesn’t move further and further away from working class families like mine”.
- More police on the streets
Starmer said there will be more police on the streets “stamping out anti-social behaviour in every community, because nobody should feel insecure in the streets that they call home”.
Earlier today, the home secretary Yvette Cooper announced £100m in new funding for police officer recruitment.
The neighbourhood policing guarantee will put 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles.
- Giving every child a fair chance to succeed
The prime minister said that the government will focus on securing the best start in life for every child, by ensuring a record proportion of five-year-olds starting school are ready to learn.
The ‘Plan for Change’ document says that 80% of parents have said they’ve struggled to access early years support for their children, and 90% of reception teachers have at least one child in the class who is not toilet trained.
Starmer said “it’s a scandal […] if we do not give every child whatever their background, a fair chance to succeed”.
- Clean energy by 2030
The government will deliver clean power by 2030. Starmer said having “homegrown British energy” will make the country more secure, and reduce the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels from Russia.
In the ‘Plan for Change’, it says this will be measured against a target to achieve at least 95% of low carbon generation by 2030.
Journalists questioned Starmer on whether this constitutes a watering down of the pledge to deliver clean energy by 2030. He insisted that it is not a revision of their initial target to deliver clean energy by the end of the decade.
- Tackling NHS waiting lists
Starmer said that NHS waiting lists will be cut, and the 18-week target from referral to treatment “finally met”.
“A symbol of the NHS back on its feet, facing the future, dignity and care restored to millions,” he said.
The PM said that some people may say this is a brave target, with waiting lists at over seven million.
To this, he said “what is the point of setting a target that you can deliver without bold action?” That’s not public service, that’s political cynicism.” He added that the job of the government’s milestones is to take the country forward.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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