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Britain’s newly appointed cabinet ministers have begun to arrive in Downing Street for the first meeting of Sir Keir Starmer’s top team after his decisive election victory over the Conservatives.
Having vowed to lead a government of “service” and to rebuild the electorate’s trust in politics, Starmer showed his determination to engage in a radical policy rethink by appointing several prominent experts to ministerial posts late on Friday night.
The appointments included James Timpson, a businessman noted for his campaigning work in rehabilitation, as the new prisons minister, and former government chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, who will serve as science minister. Both become peers.
Richard Hermer, a human rights lawyer, was also made a peer and appointed as attorney-general, as Starmer passed over veteran MP Emily Thornberry — who held the shadow position — for the post.
Starmer’s government, the first Labour administration in 14 years, is facing immediate challenges including settling doctors’ pay negotiations, and is expected to set out an overhaul of the planning system within days, with the aim of spurring a badly needed housebuilding boom.
As he entered Downing Street on Friday, Starmer used his first speech in office to pledge to rebuild trust between the public and politicians.
“This wound, this lack of trust, can only be healed by actions not words,” he said, promising to prioritise economic growth.
The prime minister is also preparing for next week’s Nato summit, where he will meet world leaders including Joe Biden.
On Friday the US President phoned Starmer to congratulate him on his election victory and to reaffirm “the special relationship between our nations and the importance of working together in support of freedom and democracy around the world,” the White House said.
In his first appointments in office, Starmer named Rachel Reeves, David Lammy and Yvette Cooper as chancellor, foreign and home secretary respectively. All three held these shadow posts in opposition.
Reeves has taken office against a backdrop of stagnating growth, rising public debt and the highest peacetime tax burden.
On Friday she told Treasury staff she plans to lead Britain’s most “pro-growth” finance department and support the industrial strategy that Labour hopes will bolster flagging investment. “This Treasury will play its full part in a new era of industrial strategy,” she said.
Labour pledged throughout this year’s campaign that it would not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT in government and subscribed to a set of tight fiscal rules. Yet it could still be forced to raise other taxes, borrow or cut public services if it cannot generate growth.
Wes Streeting, who was appointed health secretary on Friday, will next week meet representatives from the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, amid hopes of breaking a deadlock that has seen junior doctors strike 11 times in England in the past two years. He met the BMA during this year’s election campaign.
Officials are increasingly confident the new government can reach a deal that falls below doctors’ demands for 35 per cent pay increase, such as an agreement to raise salaries over several years.
Speaking on Friday, Streeting said: “We promised during the campaign that we would begin negotiations as a matter of urgency, and that is what we are doing.”
He added that the policy of the new government was that the “NHS is broken”.
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