The latest set of ‘milestones’ from the prime minister are a series of political truisms with underwhelming effect, finds Kevin Crane

Keir Starmer, a man who was for years hyped by centrist commentators as a titan of competence, has once again exposed himself as totally inept. He’s basically done the same thing he did every few months for two years prior to the Boris Johnson government imploding in 2022: recognised belatedly that he is not appealing to any popular base, and announcing a big ‘reset’ of his leadership. The press plays along, pretending to be excited, right up until it is inevitably revealed that what he’s got is another list of predictable policy pledges, none of them distinctively Labour Party policies, and somehow even blander than the previous list.

Even the prime minister’s bullshit is inept. The official strapline of the ‘Plan for Change’ is:

‘This plan sets out the ambitious – but achievable – milestones we aim to reach by the end of this Parliament.’

It is often said that an easy way to identify nonsense is to invert the statement and see if it makes logical sense. I would say that this fails such a test straight away – a goal that is both ambitious and achievable is basically a dictionary definition of a milestone – although as we’ll see, it may actually be the case that Starmer has managed to set targets that are both underwhelming and unachievable. 

The actual milestones are tediously familiar blend things that literally any government would say it was going to do, and furtive retreats from previous pledges. The list in full is:

1. Raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom, so working people have more money in their pocket as we aim to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7.
2. Building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects – more than the last 14 years combined.
3. Ending hospital backlogs to meet the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment.
4. 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.
5. Giving children the best start in life, with a record 75% of 5-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school.
6. 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.

Points 1 and 2 are no different from what the Tories under Johnson were saying five years ago, although the first one does have Starmer’s strange obsession with out-competing the other wealthy economies on growth shoehorned in. He presumably thinks this is a ‘populist’ goal, but I really don’t think millions of people worried about their energy bills right now are terribly concerned about whether or not we have a faster-growing economy than Italy.

Points 3, 4 and 5 are similarly political truisms, stuff that politicians always say is a priority, and ones that the government is very unlikely to deliver on. The last of these is worded in pure jargon, however, so even if anyone were talking about this announcement in 2029, there would be no way to confirm or deny it had been accomplished. This is unlike the GDP thing: we’ll definitely know he hasn’t done that.

The final point is probably the most worth discussing, for two reasons. Firstly, it is a shameful retreat from previous Labour positions, even Starmer’s own positions, on climate change: we were previously told to expect Net Zero by 2030, and now we will simply be ‘on track’… but not even for full decarbonisation of the grid by that year. It’s also worth noting that although the detailed policy document attached to this (which was likely written by Ed Miliband) does actually refer to the ’climate crisis’, Starmer’s front page absolutely does not. It continues to be the case that Keir Starmer is remarkably unwilling to discuss the climate even by the standards of liberal politicians.

Has this statement worked at putting the government back in control over the media narrative? Of course not: even if weren’t for the fact that none but the most sycophantic centrist columnists in the media can really argue that this is anything other than waffle, it arrives on the same day as a genuinely shocking voting intention poll came out showing Labour behind Reform UK in public support. Even if that poll is an outlier, no British government has come third place in terms of popular support in modern history, and certainly not a mere half year after being elected. 

It took two years, and a massive scandal initiated by the civil service, for Boris Johnson to go from a triumphant general election win to an unstable shambles. Starmer’s managed this an eighth of the time, and largely due to his own decision-making: he didn’t have to continue the child benefit cap, he didn’t have to means-test pensioner fuel allowance, he didn’t have to support war and genocide. He does these things because he wants to, in service of the capitalist class and for his own enrichment, and on a deep level he resents that the public seems to think he shouldn’t be allowed to do this. December 5th has been an extremely bad day for centrist politics on both sides of the English Channel. France’s arrogant centrist leader, Macron, seemed invincible a few years ago but is now finding himself increasingly powerless and facing political oblivion. It’s a fate that very likely lies in Starmer’s future. However, in France, a well-organised and assertive left is leading the battle against Macron and presenting its own vision of the future. Here in Britain, Labour is failing in office, and at the moment all the opposition and opportunities are being monopolised by a radicalising right-wing. It is a matter of urgency that a genuine left makes its own challenge in this country.