One of the most powerful figures in government has defended Keir Starmer amid a row over gifts from a party donor, saying the prime minister is a man of integrity who is not just delivering a diet of doom and gloom.
Pat McFadden spoke out after Starmer faced claims of cronyism and failing to declare donations of clothing to his wife, as well as concern over a downbeat tone during his first weeks in power.
Striking a markedly more optimistic tone, McFadden, the top minister in the Cabinet Office, said there are reasons to be “ambitious and optimistic” about Britain’s future.
Public services like the NHS, education and the criminal justice system “can be turned round” despite a difficult economic backdrop, he added.
“I don’t think we should allow a difficult fiscal picture to be the beginning and end of how we look at the country,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “There’s going to be difficult decisions in the budget, people know that, but the prospects for the country are good.”
Labour has revealed its slogan at its conference in Liverpool next week will be “change begins” as it attempts to cast a more hopeful light on the months ahead despite warnings of tax rises as well as public spending and welfare cuts.
Starmer and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, are expected to use their conference speeches to try to explain to the public why the economic pain is necessary to deliver a brighter, more secure future.
McFadden, who is leading on the government’s five missions for improving the country, acknowledged that the public’s expectations of change, after Labour won such a huge election victory, presented them with a challenge.
But he added: “The prospects for the country are good. We have got a stable government for the next four or five years. If you look around the world internationally, that’s not always true. The UK is a good place to invest. It has a lot of strengths.
“So I don’t think we should allow a difficult fiscal picture to be the beginning and end of how we look at the country. There’s going to be difficult decisions in the budget, people know that.
“But there are reasons to be both ambitious and optimistic about the future of the UK. I firmly believe that we can turn these services round … It doesn’t happen overnight, but I think you have to be dedicated to it, to do it.”
McFadden, who rolled the pitch for Starmer’s gloom-laden speech in the Downing Street garden last month by warning of more economic pain to come, said that he felt he had to level with the public about the fiscal inheritance.
“There was a lot of skepticism among the electorate that politics could deliver. They’d heard a lot of promises before. There was a lack of faith … We couldn’t come in and simply say we can turn on the spending taps,” he said.
Amid calls for the government to be more radical, he said that Labour’s promise of change at the election “wasn’t just a slogan” and long-term work was under way. The mission boards – covering the economy, opportunity, energy, crime and the NHS – have met twice.
A “mission control” room has been set up at the heart of the Cabinet Office, with banks of screens on its wall collating the most up-to-date data in each of the areas to help measure outcomes and inform policy. Election pledges were “not the summit of our ambition”, McFadden said.
Yet he defended the government’s methodical, even cautious, approach. “It’s very easy for government to be buffeted around by whatever’s happening any given day and week. What we are trying to do here is ensure that change is hardwired … We’ve got to get these long-term plans in place.”
McFadden, a veteran of the last Labour government, shrugged off suggestions that Starmer had already made missteps since entering No 10, including on winter fuel payments, appointments and donations, which along with his pessimistic approach had dented them in the polls.
Labour had pledged to give the prime minister’s ethics adviser the power to initiate his own investigations, rather than being instructed by No 10, and to set up a new ethics and integrity commission to ensure probity in government.
McFadden is expected to announce the expansion of the ministerial standards watchdog’s powers within weeks. Officials are also understood to be developing plans for the commission.
Starmer has faced criticism in recent days for accepting tens of thousands of pounds worth of entertainment, clothes and similar freebies from UK donors. Waheed Alli, a Labour peer, covered the cost of a personal shopper, clothes and alterations for Starmer’s wife, Victoria, before and after Labour’s election win in July.
The prime minister failed to declare the gifts until last week in breach of parliamentary rules, the Sunday Times reported.
The Conservatives have sought to capitalise on this, and some Labour MPs are also uneasy over the donations given that Starmer set such high standards in opposition by focusing on the conduct of Tory ministers.
However, McFadden said: “I think Keir has integrity. He will, and does, conduct himself with integrity. If you take the story that’s been going around in the last few days, it’s because of taking advice and trying to make sure you abide by the rules. And he’ll want to do that every time.”
“This is not somebody who thinks that somehow the rules don’t apply to them, or there’s one rule for him and another one for others, like predecessors that have occupied his post. He is a person of enormous integrity, and that will be reflected in the way that he operates.”
McFadden, who played a key role in Labour’s election victory, denied the party was underestimating the threat of the Reform party, which took 4 million votes and came second in 98 seats, of which 89 are Labour-held.
Starmer has said his strategy to stave off the rise of rightwing populism would be to make a material difference to people’s lives. McFadden added that Labour would challenge the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, for “parroting” the Kremlin line on Ukraine and abandoning the public service model of the NHS.
“I wouldn’t say that’s the beginning and the end of it, but I think in politically opposing that kind of politics, we’ve got to point that kind of thing out,” he said.
