WES Streeting squirmed as he fumbled over Labour’s key priorities – piling onto confusion over the Government’s growing list of pledges.
The Health Secretary was quizzed on Never Mind The Ballots after the PM attempted to define his agenda for the third time.
No 10 Downing Street / BEEMSir Keir Starmer gives his Plan for Change speech at Pinewood Studios[/caption]
AFPHealth Secretary Wes Streeting, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Chancellor Rachel Reeves[/caption]
Mr Streeting confidently began reeling off Labour’s top “foundations,” saying: “It’s economic security, border security…”
He then awkwardly stalled for a few seconds before finally blurting out “national security”.
The slip came after Sir Keir Starmer unveiled six new “milestones” to measure the five “missions” he set out in February 2023 – all supposedly anchored by three key foundations: economic stability, secure borders, and national security.
The milestones are meant to provide Labour’s driving purpose, with civil servants ordered to prioritise them.
But the new “Plan for Change” has raised eyebrows, with critics accusing Labour of shifting the goalposts and watering down key manifesto pledges.
At a speech in Buckinghamshire’s Pinewood Studios, Sir Keir declared his government would put the UK on track to achieve “at least 95 per cent clean power” by 2030.
But this falls short of Labour’s election promise of a fully zero-carbon power system within the same timeframe.
Further doubts have also emerged over Labour’s promise to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7.
Initially billed as a cornerstone of Sir Keir’s vision, the bold pledge has since been downgraded to a more modest “aim.”
But speaking to The Sun Political Editor Harry Cole, Chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted Britain can outpace the US and lead the G7 in economic growth by the end of the decade.
Brushing off doubts, Ms Reeves said she’s “hugely optimistic” about Britain’s future, saying: “It’s a mission. That we set out two years ago. And those missions remain.
“What we want is for that growth to be felt by people in their pockets. Which is why the milestone we’ve set out today is that people’s incomes go up, that people feel better off, because in the end, the whole purpose of growing our economy is so that working people feel better off. And that’s what I’m determined to happen.”
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband also said about plans to decarbonise the grid: “It’s not going to be watered down. And I think what’s so interesting about it is when we first launched it a couple of years ago, people said it was unachievable.
“Now when you talk to industry, when you look at the judgment of the independent national energy system operator, they say it’s really hard, but it is achievable.”
Responding to the speech, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the Prime Minister’s “emergency reset” showed Labour had not been “ready for government”.
She also claimed the Government’s “costly plans for energy decarbonisation” had been “watered-down”, and “fewer than a third of Labour’s 13,000 neighbourhood police are actually new police officers”.
Ms Badenoch added: “This relaunch can’t hide the reality of a Government that doesn’t know what it is doing.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the Prime Minister was “simply moving the goalposts” and described the lack of a target for GP appointments as “worrying”, while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage criticised the lack of a target on immigration.
Analysis
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
The British people will be forgiven for not being on top of where this government is heading.
Please, keep up.
We’ve now got six milestones, to add to five missions, six first steps and that is on top of three foundations.
But the Prime Minister headed to the glitzy Pinewood studios to unveil milestones on which he wants to be judged.
Whether it’s raising living standards, more bobbies on the beat and reducing NHS waiting times – the PM is going all out for change.
But many people will say this is just a Mission: Impossible.
The PM is right when he says the new milestones that he set out will allow the public to “hold our feet to the fire” saying it will be for the long-term good of the country.
He also wants a major snake-up of Whitehall declaring that civil servants “are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline”.
One new promise included 150 new major infrastructure projects this Parliament as he hits out at the NIMBYs holding up projects.
But there was one gaping hole in the plan – there was no mention in migration in the six promises to judge him by.
Sir Keir says he has to “get to grips” with the problem of illegal migration and small boat crossings – but the public will want to see a measure that is more concrete.