What will the Job do? A guide to Starmer’s 100-day action plan and his strategy to make the UK great again

That’s no easy task, given the complexity of the challenges – from crumbling public services to weak private investment – and budget constraints that mean Starmer can’t just throw money at every problem. His incoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves spoke of a “very difficult legacy” since the Second World War.

“We wanted a mandate in this election to grow the economy, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Reeves said on Sky TV in the early hours of Friday. “Reforming our planning system is essential in order to build the housing we need, the transportation infrastructure, and the electricity infrastructure.”

Starmer and Reeves will prioritize measures to promote economic growth at home while seeking to pose as politicians abroad. Here’s what they’ve planned, according to people who were traveling with them who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity.

A diplomatic push

Starmer wants to take an international lead on defense, security and climate, and to fight for liberal democracy in the face of increasingly assertive China and Russia and the electoral success of right-wing parties in Western democracies. He will meet with other world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy five days after the election at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington. Foreign affairs chief David Lammy and defense secretary John Healey are in talks to visit Ukraine next month.

The government will host a meeting of the European Political Community in Oxfordshire on July 18, Starmer’s first chance to “speed up the day” with European leaders in the hope of closer defense cooperation with the European Union and an improved Brexit deal. Labor sees this as a moment to reset relations with Europe and deliver a message that Britain will not break international law, as former prime minister Boris Johnson threatened during Brexit.

Finance chief Reeves gets his chance in the world at the Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers on July 25.

Important

The economy

Britain has had the lowest levels of investment in the Group of Seven advanced economies for 24 of the last 30 years. Successive governments promised to address this by increasing public investment and providing tax credits for research and development, but the dial has not moved.

The problem is even greater when it comes to private sector investment, with the UK sitting 28th out of 31 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development as a share of national product. The Strong Government in 2023 introduced a 100% tax exemption on capital investments.

Labor has promised to maintain this and said it will not raise corporate tax. We hope to see billions of pounds of business investment open within weeks of the national economic fund being selected. Reeves plans to hold an investment summit with business leaders in the first 100 days of the new government.

Boosting growth seems important, because otherwise the government will not be able to raise the kind of tax money needed to make significant improvements in decaying public services.

The cost of living problem

Starmer’s predecessor, Rishi Sunak, declared “we are here” after inflation returned to the 2% target for the first time in nearly three years in June. But living standards for ordinary Britons remain below where they were at the time of the last election in 2019 – the result of inflation outstripping wages for nearly two years. Poverty rates after housing costs have risen to around 20% and the UK is the world leader in homelessness.

Angela Rayner, the incoming deputy prime minister and housing secretary, is preparing a raft of policy changes within weeks to boost housing and the end of the homeless unit to tackle the crisis in government. He will start rolling out his package of workers’ rights reforms immediately, writing to the low-wage commission to change the allowance to take into account inflation and the cost of living when setting the national minimum wage.

The weather

Renewable energy projects have been stuck in a growing row due to a complex process of local approval and opposition, which is delaying the transition to green energy. Rayner’s proposed reforms will include measures to accelerate the construction of clean energy infrastructure. Ed Miliband, the incoming energy secretary, is expected to end the offshore wind ban in a statement within weeks, if not days, of coming into government. GB Energy, a new public investment vehicle, described below, will also attract private funding for energy infrastructure projects.

Life

A combination of Covid-related delays, chronic staff shortages and increasing pressure on resources has led to treatment delays in the National Health Service. The waiting list has risen since Sunak dropped one priority to the top five. It stands at 7.57 million cases, including about 6.33 million patients waiting for treatment, as of April 2024. That is equivalent to about 10% of the country’s population.

The incoming Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said he would contact the doctors’ union BMA on the first day of the Labor government to try to end the strike by junior doctors, which has contributed to the backlog. Labor said it would use more weekend and evening services to create an additional 40,000 positions a week, as well as other measures such as expanding the workforce and leveraging the private health sector.

Prisons

Prisons in England and Wales will be in “critical condition” within days of the general election result, the president of the Association of Prison Governors has warned, leaving Labor with an urgent decision to make a decision to prevent the situation in all prisons. the prison system is reaching capacity, as it threatened to do during the election campaign. The failure of successive governments to build prisons or invest in the crumbling prison system, as well as the growing prison population, means the Conservative government has been releasing some prisoners early to free them.

On their first day in government Labor will get a full picture of when prison space can overflow and what options are available. The group is likely to continue with the plan to release prisoners early, with rehabilitation, and to look at capacity-building options such as moving people around the prison or building more temporary spaces.

Some challenges

Starmer’s team has a host of other challenges to deal with, including local government bankruptcies, rising immigration, high university fees, clogged rivers and public sector pay disputes. Starmer may also need to face heavy pressure from the party and impose an assertive stance on Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.

Legislative Blitz

Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray has 20 bills to introduce within the first 100 days of the new government. The King’s speech, introducing the new law, will be held on July 17.

• The highest priority is labor rights bill delivering Rayner’s promised labor rights reforms, a major package of reforms including measures to end “exploitative zero-hour contracts” and improve workers’ rights from day one of employment, as well as strengthening the power of unions. The government will discuss the bill with businesses as it passes through Parliament.
• A tenant liability introduced under the Conservatives will be brought back under Labor to end the so-called “no fault eviction” of tenants by landlords.
• A a publicly owned power company, GB Power, will be established by law as soon as possible to be able to enter into agreements with private companies.
• A crime and police bill it will deliver on Labor promises to increase neighborhood policing and crack down on anti-social behaviour, including tougher sentences for assaulting shop staff.
• A border security bill will introduce legislation to give the new Border Security Command counter-terrorism powers to crack down on illegal smuggling gangs, building on the previous government’s efforts to stop illegal immigration. Labor plans to scrap the Tories’ migrant deportation bill – it just won’t implement the deal they negotiated to send migrants to Rwanda.
• Other bills that should be included in the law include the need for an independent audit of federal finances from the Office of Budget Responsibility alongside every financial event, to deliver railroad franchises in public ownership when contracts expire, i continued smoking ban proposed by Starmer’s predecessor Sunak, a reform of the Mental Health Act and a prohibition of “conversion therapy,” seeking to make a non-heterosexual person into a heterosexual person.

Budget

This is Starmer and Reeves’ first chance to prove themselves as honest stewards of the state’s finances. If bond investors are impressed and call for the fiscal outlook, that could eventually lower the cost of borrowing for homes and businesses that grew under Starmer’s predecessors and earn him some credit from voters.

Labor has committed to publishing the OBR’s assessment of all future financial events, which takes 10 weeks, making September 11 the earliest possible date for Reeves to present his spending plans to Parliament. Discussions are still ongoing within Labor about whether September or October would be a better time for the budget.

Either way, the timing of the budget means that Labor’s plan to end the extra tax break for private schools won’t take effect until the 2025-26 school year.