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Celebrations will be short-lived for Starmer, he’s got to fix a broken Britain
By Rob Harris
London: Sir Keir Starmer faces perhaps the most monumental challenges of any incoming British prime minister since Clement Attlee’s Labour Party won in a landslide at the 1945 general election, as a tired nation emerged from six bloody years of war.
Within days, the new Labour hero’s majority of 170-odd seats will be all but forgotten, as the problems of a broken Britain are placed on his shoulders behind the famous black door at 10 Downing Street.
Attlee’s postwar economic inheritance was incredibly difficult. Britain, having used up so many of its resources to secure victory in the war, was described as on the verge of bankruptcy. Housing stock and infrastructure, ravaged by bombing, were woefully inadequate, and jobs had to be found for soldiers returning home on a massive scale.
Over the next six years, his government built postwar Britain and cemented its place in the international order.
Britain has again been through a collective trauma, but this time in the very different form of the COVID-19 pandemic. The scale of the challenge, though, is one that Attlee would recognise, and it falls once again to Labour to deliver transformational change to improve people’s lives.
Starmer inherits a Britain that has been bruised by repeated global crises, compounded by the disruption of its divorce from the European Union, which finally took effect in early 2020.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and wife Victoria vote in London.Credit: AP
The scars are still visible. The public health system has more than 7.5 million people waiting for treatment. About 2.8 million people are off work sick. And leaving the EU has acted as a further drag on economic growth, with a 4 per cent hit to potential productivity.
For the first time since records began in 1955, British households are – when adjusted for inflation – on average poorer after this parliamentary term.
In a speech in May, Starmer was sober about the challenges ahead, vowing to put “country first, party second”.
“You cannot restore trust and respect with the politics of protest,” he said. “You cannot move our country forward with gimmicks and gestures. And you cannot truly serve the country if you only do what is convenient, that is why I changed the Labour Party. That is how we serve the British people.”
Many of the achievements of Attlee remain foundational to British society today, from the creation of the welfare state and NHS to independence for India and the signing of the NATO Treaty in 1949.
Starmer, like the first man to win a Labour parliamentary majority, appears to have the same deep commitment to delivering a better society, which served Attlee well as he grappled with the country’s immense postwar challenges.
But his path will not be easy. It is 27 years since Labour won a general election from opposition, and Starmer will face parliamentary ranks in which the majority of Labour MPs will have no experience of being in government, himself included.
Today, like in Australia, the problem of poor discipline is also not confined to House of Commons debates.
Instead, some Labour MPs are inclined to use social media as their proverbial soapboxes. As Starmer discovered when it came to the Israel-Gaza conflict, party discipline may be difficult to maintain when they are forced to take votes that are unpopular with their members.
Perhaps more importantly, under Starmer, the Labour Party has been reticent about sketching a clear program for government.
There remain sizeable gaps in the Starmer policy agenda. He has vowed to “turn the page forever” on held-back potential to put wealth creation and economic growth at the heart of Labour’s manifesto.
But what is the answer to the social care crisis? How will Labour address long-term wage stagnation?
Britain’s postwar PM Clement Attlee smiles at a cheering crowd in London in July 1945.Credit: AP
Opportunities for transformative change are rare and cannot afford to be missed. Attlee seized the opportunity in 1945. Starmer must do the same eight decades later.
After 14 years of chaos, he may get a short grace period. But his challenges are so vast that the honeymoon won’t last as long as he might like.
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