Is Keir Starmer just copying Tony Blair with his ‘measurable milestones’?

The prime minister, after a “choppy” first few months in office, is promising to implement a “plan for change” and to introduce “measurable milestones” by which the performance of the government may be judged. Some are calling it a “reset”, and, if so, it would be the first such effort since the heady morning of 5 July.

Riots, freebies, cuts to winter fuel payments, a tough Budget, farmers’ protests, a struggle for control in No 10 resulting in the ousting of Sue Gray, plus an early cabinet resignation... events, rather than some overarching narrative, have come to define the government.

Can things get better?

This is yet to be seen in the “plan for change”, but you could say that one mission is equal to two milestones. That’s because the five specified (though not that specific) “missions” are envisaged to take place over a “decade of renewal”, whereas the six prospective “milestones” will be achieved over the course of this parliament, the end of which is around five years away. A halfway milestone, in fact.

Not necessarily. According to the Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden, who is close to the PM and is a veteran of the Blair administration, targets haven’t always worked for governments in the past. That doesn’t mean they can’t, but it’s also the case that the milestones can be non-numeric. So they could be disconcertingly vague for an electorate wondering just what the next four to five years will bring.

One thing we may be sure of is that there will not be a hard “cap” on net migration numbers, after the bitter experience of recent Conservative administrations.

It would be a bit odd if it were, because Blair’s “credit card” of specific goals was a central part of the pre-election campaign in 1997, rather than an afterthought. Keir Starmer and his aides have also spent the last few years being generally, and determinedly, unspecific about what they’d do in office.

For historical interest, Blair’s pledges were as follows:

They were mostly met.

That’s the worry for Labour – badly drafted promises such as “Stop the Boats” that were always going to be impossible to meet and end up being an embarrassment.

Yes, though even at this early stage they’re in jeopardy. NHS bosses say they are concerned about the waiting list targets, while local authorities have called the housing targets unrealistic. The prime minister hasn’t endorsed Rachel Reeves’s promise of no more tax hikes, and the manifesto aim for the UK to be the fastest-growing G7 economy is anyway outside the control of any British government.

No. What they really need is to get on with governing competently, and explaining to the public exactly what they are doing – and why. As John Curtice told us most recently, “The fundamental question is whether a politician [Starmer] who has shown so far absolutely no ability to construct a narrative can suddenly construct a narrative.”