What will Labour do now? Policies and plans explained

Five mission “boards” will be appointed, each led by a minister, that will cut across Whitehall and report directly to Starmer to deliver Labour’s priorities. The policy unit in No 10 will be revamped and overseen by a figure from the world of business. The most important relationship is expected to be between Starmer and Reeves. But where that leaves Rayner will need careful handling.

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Difficulty rating: 3/5

The economy

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said that she will hold her first budget in September and will also have to conduct a spending review in the autumn. The big question is what she will do on tax.

Labour has repeatedly refused to rule out several significant tax rises to balance the books — increasing capital gains tax, targeting pensions tax relief, revaluing council tax bands and raising fuel duty. But economists have pointed out that the situation is unsustainable, with either tax rises or spending cuts required to “square the circle”.

Reeves is likely to resist further obvious tax rises in her first budget and will set a tight one-year spending envelope for departments. The big question is what comes in 2025 — Labour has said it will boost growth to spend money on public services. But if that growth doesn’t come, Reeves may have no choice but to make plans for higher taxes.

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Difficulty rating: 5/5

NHS waiting lists

Labour is promising that within weeks, hospitals can begin offering more evening and weekend appointments as part of a £1 billion promise to bring down waiting lists by offering two million more procedures a year. But almost as quickly, the party will face a difficult series of conversations with NHS England about how they will manage to meet waiting list targets last hit in 2015 without significant extra cash.

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Wes Streeting, the probable health secretary, has attacked “breathtaking complacency and groupthink amongst the health establishment who think that the first answer is always more money” but will be under pressure to set out reform plans. These are likely to include an overhaul of internal NHS payments to incentivise hospitals and local services to treat more people. GP contracts will also be reformed to incentivise doctors to see the same patients regularly.

The party is promising to double the number of scanners but will also need to find staff to interpret the results, as part of a workforce plan that will cost £50 billion. Streeting has also promised to meet dentists’ leaders on the Monday after the election, while Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban is likely to be revived in Labour’s first piece of health legislation.

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Difficulty rating 4/5

Junior doctors

Streeting has said he would call junior doctors’ leaders on the day after the election in an attempt to resolve a bitter dispute that has dragged on for more than a year. But he will find resolving the issue difficult without more money — he has said he cannot afford a 35 per cent pay rise, but the doctors are adamant they will not settle for anything less than restoring pay to 2008 levels.

However, the party was buoyed by a vote among junior doctors in Wales to accept a 12.4 per cent pay rise — almost exactly the same as what the British Medical Association had rejected in England. Labour hopes this shows there is a deal to be done by a new government that can reset poisonous relations with the BMA leadership, and there are potential grounds for compromise in Streeting’s argument that pay rises will be “a journey not an event”, allowing him to commit to increases over several years.

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But even that would prompt fury from nurses and other staff who settled for a 5 per cent rise last year and offering similar deals to a million staff would cost billions. The first few weeks of a new government will also see pay recommendations for the present financial year, meaning even more money will be needed to end industrial disputes.

Difficulty rating 4/5

Workers’ rights

The edges have been sanded off Angela Rayner’s workers’ rights package, but Labour is still promising legislation within 100 days. In her first week or two, Rayner is likely to change the remit of the low pay commission to set the minimum wage with reference to the cost of living, as an early signal of intent.

However, drafting legislation that can be passed quickly will be a tricky balancing act as Labour promises to “consult fully” with business before laws are passed. The law is likely to include a ban on zero-hours contracts, unless workers opt for them, banning fire and rehire and ensuring rights to sick pay and parental leave from day one. However, other elements of the package are likely to take longer, notably creating a “single category of worker” which the party accepts may take years to get right.

Difficulty rating 3/5

Planning

Changes to the national planning policy framework will be initiated in the early days to boost housebuilding and clean energy while stimulating the economy. Mandatory local house-building targets would be restored, while a de facto ban on onshore wind will be lifted, with consultations beginning in Labour’s first few weeks.

As well as telling councils to come together to plan for more homes, Labour will set up a new town commission to select locations for big new urban centres, which will report within six months. The first months of the Starmer government will also see changes to the rules on “nationally significant infrastructure” projects, designed to make it easier to approve new roads, reservoirs, power stations and pylons, as well as data centres and laboratories.

Difficulty rating 2/5

Energy and net zero

This is one of the most time-critical elements of Starmer’s missions as decarbonising the grid by 2030 will need regulatory change almost immediately. Ed Miliband has already drawn up detailed plans for the setting up of GB Energy, which is likely to be the first tangible moment in an agenda the party accepts will take time. An end to the de facto onshore wind ban will be among the first acts, and Labour also hopes to be able to make an early decision on the Sizewell C nuclear plant.

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Miliband is also likely to spend much of his first months preparing for Cop28 in November, seen as a key moment to restore Britain’s global leadership on climate. Ministers are likely to also move early to impose a ban on new oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea — although this will be a largely symbolic move as the party has said it will honour existing licences.

Difficulty rating 4/5

The welfare state

Labour is under pressure from its activists to reverse the two-child benefit cap, costing about £3.5 billion, something it will find much easier after the election and will buy it some time with the left. But it will also need to make another choice on how it will try to reverse rising sickness benefits spending, something it has accepted will be vital for the party’s mission to grow the economy and improve public services.

The Boston Consulting Group estimated that reversing only three quarters of the increase in sickness absence since the pandemic would boost the public finances by £57 billion through lower benefit spending and higher tax receipts from more in work. Labour’s plan focuses on joining up Jobcentres with the NHS and dealing with waiting lists. But experts say that the fundamental problem will only be solved by making Britain healthier. The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that a Labour government would face a choice in its early days on accepting “much higher spending” on benefits or imposing painful cuts.

Difficulty rating 5/5

Education

Labour has said that it will press ahead with plans to impose VAT on private schools “straight away”, but in reality the timing of the budget means that it will be delayed until 2025 at the earliest. Private schools have warned that there will be a flood of pupils into the state sector, which Labour has rejected. Starmer has pledged to use the money raised — £1.5 billion — to recruit 6,500 more teachers, but the sector itself has expressed scepticism.

There is already a shortage of graduates going into teaching in subjects such as maths, physics and foreign languages. Labour has been silent on the issue of university funding, amid increasing concern that institutions could go under. Universities want to raise the annual £9,250 tuition fee in line with inflation as they battle financial challenges caused by a sharp decline in international student fees. Will Labour buckle?

Difficulty rating: 5/5

Migration

Labour has said it will scrap the Rwanda scheme “on day one,” which in practice will mean that any migrants still in detention will be released, the cancellation of flights that were scheduled for late July, the termination of security and escorting contracts and an awkward phone call to Kigali. Instead, the Home Office’s focus will turn to establishing a Border Security Command centre with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers. It will be led by a former military, police or intelligence chief tasked with Starmer’s vow to “smash the gangs” facilitating the illegal small boat crossings.

Labour will also start work pursuing new and deeper agreements with the EU to ensure access to real-time intelligence on migrant movements and people smuggling activity across Europe, but efforts of negotiating a new migrant returns deal with the bloc is likely to have to wait.

On legal migration, Labour has pledged to reduce numbers but has not set out any new measures to do so apart from vague proposals to train domestic workers to reduce employers’ reliance on foreign labour. It has committed to retaining the tougher measures introduced by Sunak to reduce net migration such as the ban on dependants and higher salary thresholds but has not committed to going any further.

Difficulty rating 4/5

Crime and prisons

Labour’s priority will be setting up a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee with 13,000 police officers, of which 7,000 will be new personnel and others reassigned from elsewhere to tackle antisocial behaviour and knife crime. Every community will be assigned a named officer so members of the public will know who they can get in touch with about concerns in their local area. It will also introduce new respect orders — a form of adult Asbo — to punish adults guilty of persistent antisocial behaviour. It will overhaul standards in policing following years of scandals with new nationwide mandatory vetting regulations.

Labour has pledged to complete the government’s prison-building programme to ensure that there are enough places for Britain’s rising prison population. Construction of new prisons has been stalled by delays to planning, which Labour says it will overcome by designating new prisons as being of “national importance” on public safety grounds.

Difficulty rating 2/5

Gender

Labour is planning to make it easier for people to legally transition by removing the need for them to prove they have lived in their preferred gender for two years. Under existing rules, they have to submit proof that they have changed genders such as official documents. However, Labour wants to “remove indignities for trans people” and introduce an effective cooling-off period for two years after their application for a gender recognition certificate is submitted.

Campaigners have warned it could put women at risk and reduce protections for single-sex spaces. Labour has refused to commit to Tory plans to ban schools from teaching children about gender identity.

Difficulty rating 4/5

Changing the electorate

One of Starmer’s priorities will be extending the electoral franchise to voters aged 16 and 17. The plans, which would need a one-line bill, are expected to be included in the King’s speech and would extend the franchise to 1.5 million people under the age of 18. Polling suggests that the move will benefit Labour, as younger voters are far more likely to vote for Starmer’s party. Labour is also planning to introduce automatic registration for voting, adding people to the electoral roll by default.

Difficulty rating: 3/5

Foreign policy

Starmer will fly to Washington for Nato’s 75th anniversary summit days after entering No 10 before returning to the UK to host a meeting of the European Political Community at Blenheim as part of a busy fortnight of diplomacy after the election. While Starmer will seek to establish himself on the world stage — and many faces such as Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and Olaf Scholz will be familiar thanks to Labour’s preparations for power — both events could be overshadowed by politics elsewhere.

At Nato, the sentencing of Donald Trump in New York could mean Starmer faces awkward questions about his thoughts on a convicted felon being elected to the White House. At the EPC summit, Starmer may struggle to make progress on Labour’s attempts to secure a return agreement with the EU for small boat migrants if, as polls suggest, the far-right National Rally win French parliamentary elections. After these summits, Starmer will be advised to go to Ukraine to show Britain’s unwavering support for President Zelensky.

There has been speculation that Starmer could replace David Lammy as his foreign secretary with Douglas Alexander, a former New Labour cabinet minister, not least because he did not rule it out on the campaign trail, saying “I’m not going to start announcing the Cabinet”, but the Labour leader is not planning any immediate reshuffle.

Starmer has promised to recognise a Palestinian state but is unlikely to do so in the first 100 days since it would open up a dividing line with key allies including the US, Germany and France. The longer he stalls, the more pressure he will come under from the Labour backbenchers for him to act and the question of arms sales to Israel could lead to further internal divisions.

Difficulty rating 3/5

Defence

Labour has promised to carry out a defence review within the first year of coming to power. It will be the third review of Britain’s armed forces in the past four years. Labour previously promised to shelve the cuts that will see the army shrink to 73,000 troops, its smallest size since the Napoleonic era. But that policy appears to have been ditched in the party’s manifesto, and in any case the latest MoD headcount suggests the army has already shrunk below that target size.

Other major decisions facing Starmer include whether or not to pursue cuts to the number of Challenger tanks. Another pressing matter is what to do about the gaping hole in British air defences given the threat posed by ballistic missiles. Germany has invested by buying Israel’s Arrow 3 air defence system and the UK has no comparable technology.

Starmer will also have to address the ballooning cost of rebuilding Britain’s ageing fleet of nuclear submarines, which is cannibalising the rest of the MoD budget. Starmer has promised to “set out the path” to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP. Given the volatility of the international situation, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, he may come under pressure from generals to offer a more concrete timeline towards rearmament.

Difficulty rating 3/5