The three things Keir Starmer did that will stand the test of time

Now, the end is near, and so we face the final Keir-tain. Today, the sun will officially set on the Starmer era of the Labour Party with a special conference in London to install Andy Burnham as his replacement.

Three days later Sir Keir will formally hand over the keys to No 10, and that will be that.

The outgoing PM’s team has been in so-called ‘legacy-building’ mode for the past month or so, announcing a raft of policies for us to remember him by. At the end of the day, this is what all political leaders yearn for: a tangible change that will last.

So, to mark the end of this chapter, I thought I’d have a think about the things Starmer did that will stand the test of time. In 20, 30, or 50 years, will any decisions he made still be affecting our lives?

It’s not too easy. Big things can be undone – railways can be privatised again, social media bans can fall apart, and age limits on buying cigarettes can be scrapped (just ask New Zealand). NHS waiting lists will go up and down, as will immigration numbers.

However, I’ve come up with three things I can imagine will still apply in a few decades’ time. Feel free to email us to disagree or suggest your own.

The Hillsborough Law

Perhaps more than any other single policy, Starmer considered passing the Hillsborough Law a personal mission.

After many months of wrangling over the extent to which it should apply to the security services, the bill finally passed the House of Commons on Tuesday.

If it gets all the way through the Parliamentary process, the law would impose a ‘duty of candour’ on public officials, meaning they can be prosecuted if they lie or evade in a public inquiry.

Attorney General Richard Hermer said it will ‘radically change the relationship between those who govern and the people they govern, forever’ – and he may well have that timeline correct.

Renters’ rights

Keir Starmer’s government did not come up with the idea of scrapping no-fault evictions for renters, but it did manage to get it into law.

A key consideration for this thought experiment is which policies provided such a dramatic, beneficial change to so many people that it’s hard to imagine them being undone.

Overnight, at the start of May this year, renters in England found themselves no longer bound by a fixed-term contract and no longer liable to be evicted for no reason at short notice.

That’s pretty solid.

Small modular nuclear reactors

Yes – it’s a rogue choice. But SMRs could end up transforming how the UK gets its electricity in the coming decades, and we might have to credit Starmer for that.

It was his government who allowed these little power stations to be built anywhere in the country, not just designated nuclear sites, and awarded Rolls-Royce the contract to start designing the tech.

Once up and running, which could be a while away, they should reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels – though climate campaigners are still concerned about nuclear waste.

The government has also suggested they could help serve power-hungry AI datacentres, which (like them or not) are bound to become crucially important in the not-so-distant future.

Check back in 2076 to see if my predictions are correct. Ahead of that, though, it’s time for the dawn of the Burnham era.

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