The work of rebuilding Britain has begun. Keir Starmer has wasted no time assembling his team and starting the pressing task of restoration and renewal of a country reeling from 14 years of Tory mismanagement.
Labour’s Cabinet, which met for the first time yesterday, is brimming with talent. Their energy, vision and commitment stands in stark contrast with their Tory predecessors, who had spent the last few years running down the clock rather than seeking to improve people’s lives.
And how refreshing it is to have a Cabinet which not only represents the country in terms of its class and background but is genuinely in tune with people’s aspirations.
They seek to serve the country, rather than serve themselves. This is a moment to be grateful we have the return of serious and stable government – something we once used to take for granted. And it is also a moment to be grateful the Conservatives can no longer cause any more chaos and damage to this country.
It is not just the Tories who have been evicted but their baggage of vindictive and impractical policies –from the assault on benefit claimants to the Rwanda deportation scheme and the ridiculous plan to bring back national service.
Rishi Sunak and his ragbag party deserved the humiliation inflicted on them by voters. They fought a cynical election campaign based on falsehoods, smears and division. Time and again, they put the interests of their party before those of the country. The Tories may finally have gone but it will take years to remove the stains and scars from their time in office.
What a dismal inheritance they have bequeathed to Labour. Wherever you look, the scene is one of decay and dilapidation. The NHS in England needs restoring to health. The economy has to be nurtured back to growth. Life and commerce must return to Britain’s high streets. The backlog in the courts has to be addressed, crimes need to be solved and punished.
Schools need rebuilding so every child can have the best start in life. The crisis in social care must be ended. Councils require an urgent injection of funds. Public transport needs investment and roads need fixing. It is time to clean up the polluted rivers, waters and seas. But it is not just the fabric of our country that is in urgent need of attention. It now falls to Keir Starmer’s government to restore trust in public life.
After 14 years of greed, cronyism, partying and dishonesty, Labour must show that, through service, politics can be a force for good. We can take faith from the fact that Labour has trod this path before.
In 1945, the government of Clement Attlee built a new Britain out of the debris of the Second World War, creating the National Health Service and laying the foundations of the welfare state. In 1964, Harold Wilson modernised the country by harnessing the white heat of technology. In 1997, Tony Blair repaired the homes, hospitals and schools left crumbling after 18 years of Conservative neglect. This new Labour government will have to show just as much dedication, just as much determination and just as much imagination as their predecessors if they are to succeed in the vital programme of national renewal.
While the public wishes them well, they should also understand the problems are so ingrained and the scale of the task so huge that it will take time to make the progress Labour wishes to achieve.
The new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has described the NHS as “broken”. The new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, takes over a flatlining economy and a Treasury whose coffers have been emptied by the Tories. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has inherited a housing department which has failed to build enough homes and allowed councils across Britain to go to the wall. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s portfolio includes a dilapidated school estate, a demoralised workforce and a patchy provision of childcare.
Every Cabinet minister has been handed a daunting in-tray. Mr Starmer has already shown a boldness in his junior ministerial appointments. He has brought in Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser during Covid, to help with the task of rescuing the NHS, and James Timpson, an advocate for employing former prisoners, to oversee the reform of our jails.
The PM knows Labour must deliver. Voters have lent them their support in good faith and Labour must repay them by acting in good faith. You only have to look across the Channel to see how the populist right feeds off despair and failure. If Nigel Farage’s Reform Party is to be kept at bay, then the government must meet its promise to bring about the change people want to see. The best antidote to Reform is to deliver the reforms the country so urgently needs.
The journey to a better Britain will not always be smooth. There will be missteps and setbacks along the way. But an impatient public should take heart that Labour will not falter in its determination to turn the page on a decade of failure and usher in an era of prosperity.
With Mr Starmer comes the promise of a return to integrity and trust in politics. By contrast with the moral bankruptcy of the Tories, Labour’ watchwords will be decency, competence and compassion.
After 14 years of despair there is now the prospect of hope. We wish them well.