What is Keir Starmer’s ‘plan for change’ and will it reverse Labour’s fortunes?

Sir Keir Starmer’s time in government was summed up on Sunday by Sky’s Trevor Phillips as “the Taylor Swift tickets, the suits, the dresses, the glasses, the No 10 passes, the chief of staff sacked inside six months”.

And, alarmingly for the prime minister, it is these issues many will remember of Labour’s early record – as well as the decision to scrap pensioners’ winter fuel payments, hike national insurance contributions and levy inheritance tax on many family farmers for the first time.

So, after five months of plummeting popularity, it is no surprise Sir Keir will launch a major reset of his government in a speech on Thursday.

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The Independent looks at what the PM’s “plan for change” will entail, and whether it will be enough to reverse his fortunes.

In his speech this week, Sir Keir is planning to set numerical targets for the economy, the NHS, public safety, energy security and social mobility against which the public can judge him and his government at the next general election, expected in 2029.

They will run alongside public sector reform, Downing Street said, and will include a focus on reforming Whitehall, spearheaded by an as-yet-unannounced new chief civil servant and cabinet ministers, so it is geared towards the delivery of the missions Labour promised to be driven by in July.

Labour insiders say the plan for change has been in the works since this summer. However, the need to establish concrete numerical targets has taken on additional importance since the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States and against the backdrop of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK continuing to gain support.

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The lesson Labour has taken from its sister party’s loss in the US is that if the incumbent government does not deliver tangible improvements for voters, those voters will take the opportunity to boot it out.

But, in a stark assessment of the PM’s chances, Britain’s top polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice told The Independent it will be hard for a man with “no ability to construct a narrative” to sell the plan to voters.

And whether the plan is to work or not, the fact Sir Keir is having to embark on a relaunch so soon into his tenure may be indicative of a wider problem.

Speaking to LBC on Sunday, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden insisted it is “no relaunch”, but an “extension of what we were talking about before the election”.

But, having billed itself as the party of change after 14 years of chaos under the Conservatives, the resignation of the first member of Sir Keir’s cabinet on Thursday was just the latest example of the trouble Labour has had demonstrating that change.

After Labour’s general election “Change” slogan and its “Change Begins” party conference slogan, it remains to be seen whether Sir Keir’s “plan for change” will be enough to turn things around.