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Labour has approached a former Conservative minister to help steer through its proposals to bulldoze planning rules, with a flurry of changes expected within days to “get Britain building” millions of new homes.
Nick Boles, who was a planning minister in David Cameron’s coalition government, has been approached for a review of the UK’s National Planning Policy Framework, with the aim of making it easier to build homes, laboratories, digital infrastructure and gigafactories.
Starmer is preparing to announce immediate changes to planning regulations as early as next week, including reinstating mandatory targets for local authorities to build more homes and making it easier to build on green belt land.
Labour is also planning to launch a consultation to decide where to build a series of new towns, with the aim of selecting sites by the end of the year.
Rachel Reeves, the new chancellor, has put planning reform at the heart of her growth plans, arguing that none of the party’s broader housebuilding and infrastructure plans will work without it.
Party sources said that Boles, who switched his allegiance from the Tories to Labour in late 2022 shortly after Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, could be made a “planning tsar” to help pilot a broad-ranging review of the system.
Boles, who made his name as a minister by pushing for wide-ranging planning reform, has criticised the Conservative party for dropping the agenda under pressure from backbench MPs.
Labour has promised to restore the requirement for local authorities to hit population-based housing targets, which was dropped last year by Michael Gove when he was housing secretary.
More recently Boles has been advising Starmer’s shadow cabinet on its preparations for government. A Labour source told PoliticsHome earlier this year: “While there’s still much work to be done to win a general election, we owe it to the public to ensure we’re prepared to govern, given we’d inherit a complete mess from the Tories. Leaning on the expertise of those who have been at the heart of government is an important part of that work.”
In May, Boles introduced Reeves at an event in the City, telling the audience: “Rachel and I were elected first time to parliament on the same day in 2010. And within months, it was clear to all of us on the Conservative [benches that] whenever Labour got its act together … to a point where it was poised to return to government, Rachel Reeves would be close to the very top of it.
Launching one of the most radical shake-ups for planning regulation in decades could prove politically risky for Labour, with the changes likely to pave the way for construction projects that could prove locally unpopular.
Successive governments have struggled to make changes amid stiff opposition. However, the party hopes that by moving early in his premiership, fresh from a landslide victory, and building a broader base of political support, Starmer can give the shake-up more chance of making progress.
It is also expected to take time for changes in regulations to have an impact on construction, adding to the urgency of the changes should Labour want to be able to point to a track record of housing delivery come the next general election in 2029.
In its manifesto Labour said it would make changes to forge ahead with new roads, railways, reservoirs, and other nationally significant infrastructure. It would also set out new national policy statements to prioritise construction projects.
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Keir Starmer’s cabinet will have the highest number of state-educated and female ministers in history, as Rachel Reeves became the first female chancellor ever, although ethnic representation has fallen.
A record 89 minority ethnic MPs were elected to parliament overall, according to research by the thinktank British Future, but David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will be the only black cabinet minister in Starmer’s government.
The first Labour cabinet in 14 years will also only have two ministers of Asian descent – Shabana Mahmood, one of the UK’s first Muslim female MPs, and Lisa Nandy.
Only two ministers in Starmer’s cabinet went to private school – Louise Haigh, who attended Sheffield High School, and Anneliese Dodds, who went to Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen.
Large numbers of Conservative MPs being replaced by Labour candidates means the proportion of state-educated members has risen from 54% to 63%.
That is still far short of the 88% of people among the general public who went to comprehensive schools, but it represents the highest proportion of state-schooled members ever recorded in parliament.
The Labour veteran and Britain’s first black female MP, Diane Abbott, will become mother of the house in the new parliament, having served her Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency for almost 40 years.
More than 40% of seats in the Commons will be held by women, a record that includes 46% of Labour MPs and 24% of their Conservative counterparts.
It’s always fascinating to see how the newspaper front pages compare.
Luckily for us, Adam Fulton has been on the job and he’s brought us what the papers are saying after Keir Starmer took the reins as UK prime minister
The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.
You can see the other front pages here:
The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the NHS is broken as he announced talks with junior doctors in England would restart next week.
The Ilford North MP said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the performance of the NHS was “not good enough”.
But in his first speech in the job he stressed that the problems could not be fixed overnight after the health service had gone through “the biggest crisis in its history” after the pandemic.
Streeting said: “This government will be honest about the challenges facing our country, and serious about tackling them. From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken.
“That is the experience of patients who are not receiving the care they deserve, and of the staff working in the NHS who can see that – despite giving their best – this is not good enough.”
The new health secretary delivered on his promise to call junior doctors in England on “day one” of a Labour government.
Health leaders have urged the government to resolve the long-running dispute with junior doctors as a “priority” after it emerged that tens of thousands of appointments were postponed as a result of the latest strike.
“I have just spoken over the phone with the BMA [British Medical Association] junior doctors committee, and I can announce that talks to end their industrial action will begin next week,” Streeting said in a statement.
“We promised during the campaign that we would begin negotiations as a matter of urgency, and that is what we are doing.”
A recount in the last remaining undeclared seat in the 2024 general election will begin on Saturday morning, amid reports the SNP candidate has already conceded defeat.
Despite an initial count on Thursday night and a recount on Friday, the result of the contest in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire remains undecided.
The PA news agency reports that a further recount is due to commence at 10.30am, with the SNP’s Drew Hendry locked in a close battle with Liberal Democrat candidate Angus MacDonald.
The BBC reported on Friday evening that Hendry had conceded defeat ahead of the count, and that the seat is expected to become the Liberal Democrats’ sixth in Scotland.
This would come as a further blow to the SNP in what has been a bruising election for the nationalists, having lost 39 of the 48 seats they won in 2019, mainly to a resurgent Labour.
If you haven’t come across Rowena Mason’s latest piece, I’d reccommend a read of it. The Guardian’s Whitehall editor takes you behind the scenes of the Tories’ chaotic election campaign, all the way from the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine.
Here is a look at the political schedule for Saturday, courtesy of the PA news agency:
Prime minister, Keir Starmer, is expected to hold the first meeting of his new cabinet as starts working on Labour’s manifesto pledges and preparing for a Nato summit next week. The new cabinet is expected to meet at 11am.
At 10.30am, a recount in the final seat to declare – Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire – will start.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will go on a walkabout with new MP Blair McDougall in East Renfrewshire this morning.
Nigel Farage is scheduled to visit Essex with James McMurdock, the new MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock.
The votes have been counted, the dust has largely settled, and the Conservatives are left with 121 MPs. From this rump – about a third of the pre-election total – who will compete to take over as party leader from the soon to departRishi Sunak?
The likely main contenders, broadly listed from centre to right, are: Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat, Victoria Atkins, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Nigel Farage*.
* Farage is, very obviously, not a Conservative member and now leads his four Reform UK MPs in the Commons. Could the remaining Tories welcome him as a leader? Would Farage want the job? The answer to both is most probably no. But stranger things have happened.
Peter Walker runs you through the main contendersfor the Tory leadership and weighs up their chances and what a run for the job might look like:
Following a landslide election victory, Keir Starmer’s Labour government faces a range of urgent priorities both home and abroad, from a prison’s overcrowding crisis and huge NHS waiting lists to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Starmer’s team is one of the most experienced in recent times, with many MPs who served Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
My colleague David Batty has listed the members of the new cabinet and the main tasks that await them in this handy explainer:
Keir Starmer is expected to hold the first meeting of his cabinet as the UK’s new prime minister starts working on Labour’s manifesto pledges and preparing for a Nato summit next week.
Starmer made a range of appointments on his first day at 10 Downing Street on Friday and spoke with international leaders including the US president, Joe Biden, in a call the White House said included the two leaders reaffirming the UK-US “special relationship”.
Starmer confirmed Rachel Reeves as Britain’s first woman chancellor, Yvette Cooper as home secretary and David Lammy as foreign secretary, while Angela Rayner officially became his deputy prime minister and retained the levelling up, housing and communities brief.
After 649 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons had been declared in Thursday’s general election, Labour had a majority of 176. Labour had 412 seats and the Tories 121 – the worst result in the Conservative party’s history. The Liberal Democrats were on a record 71, the Scottish National party (SNP) on nine, Reform UK on five and the Greens on four.
Starmer entered Downing Street on Friday with a promise to use his historic election victory to rebuild Britain “brick by brick” and provide security for millions of working-class families.
“My government will fight, every day, until you believe again,” Starmer said in a speech outside No 10 which had echoes of Tony Blair’s vow to act as the servants of the people in 1997.
In other developments:
The election turnout figure stood at 59.8% at last count, a sharp decline from an overall turnout of 67.3% at the last election in 2019. A recount in the seat of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat was not to restart until 10.30am on Saturday, delaying the general election’s final result. The Liberal Democrats are poised to win the seat.
Starmer’s other ministerial appointments included John Healey as defence secretary; Shabana Mahmood as justice secretary; Wes Streeting as health secretary; Bridget Phillipson as education secretary and Ed Miliband as energy secretary.
Among the most high-profile Tory cabinet ministers unseated by opposition candidates were Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader. Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, and Michelle Donelan, the science secretary, were also ousted. Former prime minister Liz Truss lost her seat in South West Norfolk. The Conservatives lost every seat they had held in Wales.
After the Tories’ disastrous results,former Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles warned that the party could face “oblivion”at the next general election.He said there were now no “safe seats”.
Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, used his final speech in Downing Street to apologise to the British people and the Conservative party. Sunak confirmed he was standing down as Conservative leader but would stay in place while his replacement was elected. The Guardian has been told that prospective Conservative party leadership candidates are preparing for a speedy contest to appoint a successor to Sunak by the autumn in an effort to challenge the rise of Reform. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party’s leader, said his priority was to now target Labour votes.
Scottish first minister andSNP party leader John Swinney described the party’s election results – the SNP’s worst since 2010 – as “very damaging” and tough.
Sinn Féin has become Northern Ireland’s largest party in Westminster after voters turned against the Democratic Unionist party (DUP). The DUP lost three of its eight Westminster seats in the election, including the North Antrim stronghold held by Ian Paisley and before that his late father since 1970.
Ireland’s premier, Simon Harris, said the Labour government’s election in the UK could herald a “great reset” in Anglo-Irish relations. PA Media contributed to this report
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People celebrate exit poll results at a "Stop The Tories" election afterparty in London, on July 4.
Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
The United Kingdom’s decision to hand the center-left Labour Party a parliamentary majority, according to the exit poll, comes at the same time Europe is broadly in the grip of what some call a right-wing populist surge.
Last month’s European elections saw a historic number of lawmakers from hard-right and far-right parties elected to the European Parliament. The results caused such chaos that French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election in his own country, the first round of which the far-right National Rally won last week.
A government comprised of far-right figures was formed in the Netherlands this week. Italy is led by the most right-wing leader since the rule of fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini. These electoral victories and the prospect of populist right-wingers in power is no longer a surprise in European countries.
There are many reasons for this rise in populism, often unique to individual countries. But broadly speaking, a number of European countries are suffering from sluggish economies, high immigration and higher energy prices, due in part to the drive for carbon net zero. The European Union is often blamed for national woes by populist politicians and breathes oxygen into an increasingly Euroskeptic national discourse.
So why is Britain, the only country where Euroskepticism led to a referendum on EU membership, projected to buck this trend?
Despite the expected seat count, the British right is far from dead. The Conservative Party, despite its undeniably disappointing night, is set to outperform the expectations of a number of opinion polls during the campaign, some of which had it down to double digits in parliament.
Another party that is set to exceed polling expectations is the populist right-wing Reform UK, led by long-term scourge of the Conservatives, Nigel Farage, who is perhaps best known these days for his friendship with former US President Donald Trump. Before this, he was credited with making Brexit possible after decades of campaigning against the UK’s membership of the EU.
Farage’s political success to date has all come without him holding a parliamentary seat. Now he is not only projected to have a seat himself, but also 12 colleagues to hurl grenades at Labour leader Keir Starmer. While this may seem small fry compared to Starmer’s anticipated three-figure majority, Farage will no doubt influence the debate on the future direction of the Conservative Party, possibly dragging it further to the right.
It is possible that Farage’s splitting of the right has actually helped Starmer increase his majority in parliament. An odd quirk of British politics is that the percentage of votes a party gets doesn’t necessarily translate to seats. And with Reform performing well in many of the seats that Labour will ultimately win, the hard-right will not only be impossible to ignore in this parliament, but it could easily see its influence grow further.
Britain suffers from many of the same problems as other European countries. If Starmer falters as prime minister, there is every chance that the popular right could continue to capture the public’s imagination, as it has elsewhere in Europe.
Many feel it is no exaggeration to say it is in a fight for its very survival.
And the decisions it makes in the next few weeks and months could decide whether it lives or dies.
The battle will focus on the choice of a new leader.
Under the current rules, the party’s remaining rump of MPs get to decide which of the eventual leadership candidates will make it to the final two.
Tory insiders say the party is now facing an existential crisis (Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
At that stage more than 100,000 local party members then make their choice and crown the winner.
The first stage of the process will give enormous power to the MPs who have survived the cull. But who will they plump for?
The right of the party accuses Rishi Sunak’s No 10 of trying to rig the vote on his successor by parachuting candidates from the centrist wing into what should be safer seats.
On the other hand, their opponents fear the party is about to stage a lurch to the right, which they argue could condemn it to a long time outside government.
The elephant in the room are fears of a takeover by Reform-backing supporters of Farage, or even Mr Farage himself. Many Conservatives harbour barely conceled fury towards the man who cost many Tory MPs their jobs. But there are some in the party who still want to embrace the populist Reform UK leader.
His supporters say the decision to stand against Tories in every seat in the country was taken before he dramatically returned as leader during the election. And they point to the fact that he hinted at a possible deal to stand down in certain areas, suggesting that he and Mr Sunak should “have a conversation”.
When will the leadership election start?
In truth the contest to be the next Tory leader is well underway, behind the scenes.
Tory MPs have already been talking up the chances of the Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and the former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel.
Ms Patel in particular, is talked of as someone who could appeal to both wings of the party.
MPs also speak of her personal kindness, as an attribute that could secure her votes. One MP told the Independent Ms Patel asks after her son every year - on his birthday.
The battle will focus on who will replace Rishi Sunak (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)
Names floating among the ‘One Nation’ wing of the party include the security minister Tom Tugendhat, who is considered to have grown in stature since he unsuccessfully stood for the leadership two years ago.
The other name mentioned is the health secretary Victoria Atkins, currently the most senior member, in terms of cabinet rank, in the group and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
How long will it last?
A furious row being waged within the party over the length of any election contest. Some want to give the party time to regroup and avoid it making a rash decision. Supporters of this view favour a long election contest. But opponents warn the party should learn from Labour in 2010. Its months long process to decide a new leader is widely seen as sowing the seeds of some of the choas that followed - helping to enure the party remained out of power for 14 years.
The battle was already ramping up on Wednesday - more than 24 hours before a single vote had been cast.
In a sign that the battle ahead will be fraught, Ms Braverman told her party it had to relocate its soul and shift to the right as it accepted the reality of opposition. But just hours later she accused the then cabinet minister Mel Stride of being defeatist.
And asked who she’d like to be the next Tory leader, former minister Andrea Jenkyns appeared almost nihilistic telling the BBC: “We’ll see who’s left.”
