Summary
Just to sum up Starmer set out a series of “milestones” he pledged to achieve over the course of this parliament, including higher living standards, clean power by 20230, and cutting NHS waiting lists.
Building 1.5 million homes, putting “more police on the beat”, and giving every child the “best start in life”, were also listed as milestones.
This government was elected to deliver real change for working people - and that is exactly what we are doing.
We have already stabilised the economy, secured an extra £26 billion for the NHS and launched a Border Security Command to tackle illegal migration.
Faced with a dire inheritance, we know that we cannot deliver our Plan for Change alone. Mission-led government means doing things differently, and a decade of national renewal will require the skills and determination of us all.”
The government says the milestones set out in today’s ‘Plan for Change’ are:
Raising living standards in every part of the UK, so working people have more money in their pocket as we aim to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7, with higher real household disposable income per person and GDP per capita by the end of the parliament.
Rebuilding Britain with 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects.
Ending hospital backlogs to meet the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment.
Putting police back on the beat with a named officer for every neighbourhood, and 13,000 additional officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood roles in England and Wales.
Giving children the best start in life, with a record 75% of five-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school.
Securing home-grown energy, protecting billpayers, and putting us on track to at least 95% Clean Power by 2030, while accelerating the UK to net zero.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the plan confirmed that Labour “still weren’t ready for government”, while Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey said the pledges fell short of what was needed.
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And that’s it for today. Starmer has ended his speech.
The Labour party has posted this video trumpeting the six ‘missions’:
This is what @Keir_Starmer’s Plan for Change will mean for you 👇 pic.twitter.com/w61wpCvcSV
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) December 5, 2024
Badenoch says government 'doesn't know what it is doing'
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is not impressed with the speech.
Posting on X, she said:
The prime minister’s emergency reset confirms that Labour had 14 years in opposition and still weren’t ready for government:
Nothing concrete on immigration – because Labour have no plan to control numbers.
Fastest growth in the G7 in this parliament dropped – because of the hit to the economy from the budget.
Costly plans for energy decarbonisation watered-down – while poor pensioners lose their winter fuel payments.
And fewer than a third of Labour’s 13,000 neighbourhood police are actually new police officers.
This relaunch can’t hide the reality of a government that doesn’t know what it is doing.
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Starmer insisted his milestones were not a reset of his priorities or confusing for the public to understand.
He told reporters: “I announced the missions two years ago as our five national missions to give a sense of purpose-driven Government, and like all of the strategies I have set down since I became Labour leader... we have had a strategy, we have had a plan and we have stuck to it.
“So those missions went down two years ago, we have stuck to them, I have just reiterated them now.”
He added: “We set out the milestones so that people can measure are we making proper progress on our missions, back to what we said two years ago and what will it feel like for me? Will I have more money in my pocket? Will I be able to get an appointment at the NHS if I need it?”
He went on: “These are, if you like, something for the public to use to hold us to account on what we say we can achieve on the missions in the first five years.
“And I will be absolutely straight about it, it is also designed to push and drive the reform that we are going to need if we are going to ensure that we bring about the change that is so desperately needed.”
Starmer is asked about Scotland’s plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap. He says he “will absolutely tackle child poverty”.
There is no “silver bullet” but that there will many reforms the government will make to tackle the issue.
Earlier Starmer insisted both legal and illegal migration would fall as he faced repeated questions from journalists about why the issue did not feature in the milestones he had set out.
Starmer told reporters: “We are going to drive down migration, both legal and illegal. That will only be done with a serious plan.
“We had a gimmick for a number of years called Rwanda. What happened? The numbers went up. We wasted a lot of money - £700 million - removing four volunteers to Rwanda. It didn’t work.
“The only way to make it work is to smash the gangs that are running the vile trade and that’s why we’ve invested so much in setting up the command that is needed to do that.”
He added the British public wanted “a serious plan to ensure we’ve got control of our borders, not arbitrary caps, not gimmicks”.
Starmer had earlier described the most recent migration figures as “shocking” and claimed the issue it did not feature in his milestones as reducing migration was one of the “foundational things that a government must do”.
Starmer pushed on his green energy pledges. Says his mission has not change. The party are sticking to the mission they unveiled two years ago.
He said: “clean energy pledge is exactly what is was in the election”.
“That has always been central to our mission,” he says, maintaining that there has been “no watering down”.
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Starmer suggested that successful delivery of the government’s plans could counter the rise of populist politics.
Everyone can see there’s a growing impatience with traditional politics. Everyone can see how people are tired with those who fail to get the job done.
Now, populism isn’t the answer to Britain’s challenges. Easy answers won’t make our country strong.
But nobody can deny that this kind of politics feeds off real concerns
What people want from their politics, that hasn’t changed.
They want a stable economy, they want their country to be safe, their borders secure, more cash in their pockets, safer streets in their town, opportunities for their children, secure British energy in their home and an NHS that is fit for the future.
That is why we’ve set these missions. Missions to make our country strong, missions to make working people better off, missions this government will deliver.
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Earlier, Starmer said bureaucratic “nonsense” hampered efforts to build major projects.
He said:
We haven’t built a reservoir for over 30 years, and even the projects we do approve are fought tooth and nail, nail and tooth, until you end up with the absurd spectacle of a £100 million bat tunnel holding up the country’s single biggest infrastructure project, driving up taxes and the cost of living beyond belief.
I’ll tell you now: this government will not accept this nonsense any more.
He set out a target of 150 major infrastructure projects to go along with the 1.5 million new homes promised in this Parliament.
That would “send a very clear message to the nimbies, the regulators, the blockers, the bureaucrats, the alliance of naysayers, the people who say ‘no, Britain can’t do this, we can’t get things done in our country’. We say to them: ‘You no longer have the upper hand, Britain says yes’. Because whether you like it or not, we are building a future for working people, making our country strong with stability, investment and reform,” he added.
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Davey accuses government of 'moving the goalposts'
Commenting after Starmer’s speech, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:
After years of Conservative chaos, the people want real change instead of a government simply moving the goalposts.
The Liberal Democrats will hold this government’s feet to the fire on keeping its promises, most of all on fixing the NHS and care.It was worrying to see no clear plan in these targets to make sure people can see a GP when they need to. Pledging to bring down waiting lists while neglecting GP services is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Millions are struggling to get through to their GP or having to wait weeks for an appointment, which just piles more pressure on our hospitals while people go without the care they need.
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Starmer is asked whether Labour is rowing back on its green energy pledge but he bats this back.
There is no “watering down” but that it will be delivered.
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Starmer has been asked if his plan is “confused” and there is suggestion his government does not know what it is doing- that this is yet of another plan of many other plans.
But Starmer maintains that the government will deliver and will bring back the change that is desperately needed.
Starmer everything will be prioritised and admits his plans are ambitious, especially the housing plans. “They talk, the talk but they do not walk, the walk,” referring to past governments and how they did not manage to make any change.
Starmer says will not employ gimmicks to deal with immigration but that they have a proper plan.
Starmer: milestones are 'an almighty challenge'
Starmer acknowledged the six milestones were an “almighty challenge”.
He said:
We face an almighty challenge to hit these milestones by the end of this parliament. Like I say we are starting from ground zero: waiting lists over 7 million, housing starts and permission the lowest for a decade, one in three children not ready for school at the age of five.”
Yes, they are risky for us. Country first party second, because that is something we have totally lost sight of in British politics and to be honest across Whitehall as well.
In language that reflected a phrase used by Donald Trump, Starmer went on:
I don’t think there is a swamp to be drained here but I do think that too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline, have forgotten to paraphrase JFK that you choose change not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
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Downing Street has now shared a link to the six “missions” set out by the PM and you can read that here.
No 10 says these are:
Ambitious - but achievable - milestones we aim to reach by the end of this parliament.
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Beth Rigby from Sky presses Starmer on the point of immigration saying that that he has not delivered.
But Starmer maintains that he will bring down illegal immigration. Says there are basics in government” and “one of them is security and security of our borders”.
“So immigration and control of immigration must be delivered,” he says.
“That is a foundational principle that any government must do. The job is absolutely integral to our plan.”
Now taking questions from journalists. First up Chris Mason from the BBC who asks about immigration.
Starmer says control of immigration must be delivered. He says the missions are integral to the plan and vows to bring immigration down.
I take that as the basic security that any government must deliver … The missions then sit on top of that.
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Starmer says change and reform are coming, that’s what this plan means and confirms a target of 150 major infrastructure projects in the UK - and 1.5 million homes.
Summary: the six 'milestones'
Just a quick summary. Starmer listed his six milestones after saying that a “strong foundation” of economic stability, and security measures had now allowed Labour to look ahead.
The first milestone to reach by the end of the parliament is “higher living standards in every region of the country”. Starmer added the UK was aiming for the “highest sustained growth in the G7, so working people have more money in their pocket”.
The second is to build 1.5 million new homes, and the third to put “more police on the beat, stamping out anti-social behaviour in every community”.
Starmer’s fourth milestone is to give every child the “best start in life” with a record number of five-year-olds entering school “ready to learn”.
His fifth milestone is clean power by 2030, “so never again can a tyrant like Putin attack the living standards of working people”.
And his sixth and final milestone was to cut NHS waiting lists to 18 weeks between referral and treatment.
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Starmer said there would be “trade-offs” that needed to be made as part of the plan to change the country.
He said:
The path of change is long, it’s hard. There are few thanks in the short term.
But mark my words: with this plan for change, we will stick to it - country first, party second.”
The plan “doubles down on our national missions” which have “remained robust” since they were first published nearly two years ago, he says:
A strategy that will give the government and the nation, whether in calm or choppy waters, the stabilising certainty of the clear destination.
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Starmer says we will send a very clear message to the “alliance of naysayers. We will say you no longer have the upper hand. Britain says yes!”
He says we will build a new country with urgency: there is a growing impatience with traditional politics. Populism is not the answer to Britain’s problems. We are still a “pragmatic nation”, he says, adding that people want a “stable economy” and an NHS that is fit for the future, a better future for their children. We will deliver on this mission, says Starmer.
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The Prime Minister said the new milestones would allow the public to “hold our feet to the fire”.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “I make no apologies for sticking to our plan and no apologies for fixing the eyes of Whitehall not on the distraction of Westminster but on the long-term good of our country.
“However, to drive those missions forward in this parliament and show our progress towards them, today we publish new milestones.”
He said they would “give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire, because that accountability, that is part of how we shift the focus in Westminster towards long-term change”.
Sir Keir said the plan would amounted to a “gauntlet being thrown down” to Whitehall to change the way the administration of government works.
“Our plan commits Whitehall to mission-led government, an approach to governing that won’t just deliver change, but also change the nature of governing itself.”
Starmer says “change is what we deliver”. Change and reform are coming.
Keir Starmer: I don’t think there’s a swamp to be drained here. But I do think too many people in Whitehall are comforable in the tepid bath of managed decline
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) December 5, 2024
Starmer starts to outline his pledges.
He says there will be:
- Clean energy by 2030, so the UK does not have to rely on Russia
- higher living standards, Britain rebuilt with 1.5 million new homes
- more police on the streets “stamping out anti-social behaviour in every community”
- children being given “the best start in life”.
- NHS waiting lists cut - with the 18-week target from referral to treatment.
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Earlier Starmer said he would make no apologie for fixing Whitehall.
“Make no mistake, this plan will land on desks across Whitehall with the heavy thud of the gauntlet being laid down,” he said.
Starmer says the fundamentals of economic and national security have never changed. That Lab oour will not “walk away” from working class people and that is “not just about immigration”.
He says the Tories last control of immigration, with zero regard for the damage of trust in politics.
He vows to deal with migration and the economy. “We are not hanging around, we will clear the asylum backlog….that is what dealing with problem looks like".”
”This is not a ridiculous gimmick”.
Some more detail here on the “six milestones” Starmer is committing to today, via the Times’ Steven Swinford:
Higher living standards in every part of the UK by the 2029 – Starmer does not say by how much higher. Plans for a numerical target appear to have been dropped
Building 1.5million new homes over the course of this Parliament. But govt admits that house numbers won’t start to rise significantly until 2027
Routine operations within 18 weeks for 92% of patients by 2029, a level last hit in 2015
An extra 13,000 neighbourhood police
75% of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development, up from 67.7% at present
Decarbonising the electricity grid by 2030
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Starmer says we “need to clear up the mess” but no decisions are straightforward. There is a trade-off that we must “face together”.
To applause, he says: “country first, party second”.
He makes no apologies for sticking to his plan and “drive his mission forward” and today the government will shift the focus in Westminster to long-term change.
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Starmer says there is record dissatisfaction with the NHS. The public insititutions but that they are not beyond repair.
Says this is great nation and we are rediscovering that we can do new things and we can deliver the change that they voted.
The purpose of this government is to make our public services work. It’s cause that demands the full power of government.
Starmer is up. Opening gambit is a swipe at Kemi Badenoch: the leader of the opposition thinks if you do a couple of shifts in McDonald’s you can become working-class.
Keir Starmer: Kemi Badenoch thinks if you do a couple of shift in McDonalds, you can become working class. By that logic, if I keep coming back here [to Pinewood Studios], I could be the next James Bond.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) December 5, 2024
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Rayner says change has already begun.
She says they have done more for working people in a few months than the Tory government in years. Labour is not afraid to be bold and Labour will deliver the most ambitious plan for the country, with working people at its heart, she says.
“We will deliver the most ambitious but achievable programme for a government in a generation to create a fairer Britain, where families have more money in their pockets.
“Fair pay for a fair day’s work, good jobs and opportunity to thrive.”
Angela Rayner is up, introducing Keir Starmer. Referring to the Marvel films being filmed at Pinewood studios l, she said it will take a “superhero” effort to clean up the Tories’ mess @DailyTPodcast pic.twitter.com/2v01Xd3fDw
— Camilla Tominey (@CamillaTominey) December 5, 2024
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Rayner continues we are already re-building Britain and fixing the failures will be a challenge. “We will get Britain back on it’s feet!”.
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Angele Rayner takes to the podium saying Labour will have an unrelenting focus on change and says cleaning up the mess Labour has inherited seems like a job for superheroes.
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The attempted reboot – labelled Starmer’s “plan for change” – follows a rocky first five months in power for the government.
A major tax and spend budget was welcomed by campaigners for greater spending on public services but sapped business confidence and led to protests by farmers. Starmer has also faced a row over ministers enjoying freebies, and the resignations of both his chief of staff, Sue Gray and his transport secretary, Louise Haigh, who quit after it emerged she had been convicted of fraud over a missing work phone.
The Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has branded Thursday’s speech an “emergency reset”.
But Starmer will say claim that the new “milestones” are the next phase of the “missions” he said would shape a Labour government. But it is also a tacit admission that those missions are being dumped as they were either too woolly or not achievable.
And here are the six milestone pledges we can expect to hear about from the PM:
“Milestones for change this parliament” pic.twitter.com/2vj9UoPJiJ
— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) December 5, 2024
Starmer is delivering his speech at the seemingly unlikely venue of Pinewood film studios:
The scene of Keir Starmer’s “Plan For Change” launch. At Pinewood Studios. pic.twitter.com/WgdEaWPb3O
— Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) December 5, 2024
We’ve been briefed that Starmer will seek to relaunch his premiership with a promise to crack down on crime.
In a speech Labour hopes will set out the “next phase” of government, the prime minister will detail half a dozen “milestone” targets covering living standards, NHS backlogs, secure energy, housebuilding and children’s readiness for school.
Starmer will also commit to 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and a named “bobby on every beat”.
As part of a promise to crack down on crime and antisocial behaviour, he will say that every neighbourhood in England and Wales will have a named, contactable police officer.
Each police force will also have an antisocial behaviour lead tasked with coming up with ways to tackle concerns raised by local residents and businesses.
Read our preview here.
Starmer to deliver 'reset' speech
There were the five missions, and then the six first steps. And now we are poised for Keir Starmer’s next set of targets which his government hope to achieve by spring 2029.
Expected to be a critical moment we are set to hear a “plan for change” designed to persuade disillusioned voters that he can turn things around.
Will it be a set of achievable targets or a set of millstones hanging around the PM’s neck for the next four years?
