Shaken, not stirred: Labour 'reset' gets muted response

Sir Keir Starmer attempted to relaunch his struggling government yesterday with a new set of six "milestones" aimed at persuading voters he is making progress.

- DAVID MADDOX

After five months in Downing Street beset by scandals over freebies and the loss of his chief of staff and a cabinet minister, the prime minister delivered a keynote speech at Pinewood Studios in a bid to steady his ship.

But in a sign of the difficult task ahead of him, his address to an event packed with Labour supporters was met with a muted audience response and little applause. It reflected the findings of a new national poll from Find Out Now UK that puts Labour in third place on 23 per cent, behind the Tories on 26 per cent and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on 24 per cent.

And the event was overshadowed by a warning from the Bank of England that his chancellor’s much-criticised Budget would lead to job losses.

Sir Keir tried to inject some energy into his flagging government by announcing that his “milestones” were raising living standards, building 1.5 million homes, putting 13,000 new police on the beat, giving children the best start in life, ending hospital backlogs, and securing green energy.

But in a 54-minute speech and question-and-answer session, he appeared quickly to come unstuck on some of his past promises. He was accused of watering down a previous pledge by stating that only 95 per cent of energy will be “clean” by 2030, rather than 100 per cent as before. Energy secretary Ed Miliband was deployed to provide reassurance that the plan had not changed.

And he downgraded the promise of economic growth – previously the centre of Labour’s election campaign – to a detail after “raising living standards”. There was barely a mention of a previous pledge to hire 6,500 new teachers, nor of domestic abuse despite representatives of campaign groups on the issue being in the audience.