Scrutiny of Keir Starmer’s New Pledges

Keir Starmer presented a “plan for change” during an address, establishing objectives in crucial sectors. He stated they were “measurable milestones that will also give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire”. BBC Verify investigates the feasibility of the government achieving these commitments. The prime minister drew attention to a current objective for the NHS in England: that 92% of individuals awaiting scheduled medical procedures should receive care within 18 weeks of referral. This was a commitment from their election manifesto, and the administration has committed to reaching this by 2029. Recent NHS figures from September 2024 indicate that merely 58.5% of surgeries or other anticipated medical interventions were completed within 18 weeks. Upon Labour’s assumption of power in July, the proportion stood at 58.8%, indicating minimal alteration. The 92% goal was last attained in November 2015. To achieve this objective, the government has stated its aim for the NHS in England to complete an extra 40,000 appointments and operations weekly. To assist in financing this, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, in her Autumn Budget, augmented the health department’s inflation-adjusted operational funding by 3.8% for both 2024-25 and 2025-26. However, Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents managers, has cautioned that merely reaching the 40,000 appointments and operations target will be insufficient, by itself, to meet the wider 92% waiting list objective. “The NHS needs reform, not just ever more activity,” Mr Taylor said. Starmer introduced a fresh commitment to boost household financial resources. The administration intends to monitor this using two indicators. The first is real household disposable income (RHDI) per person, which represents what individuals retain from their pay and benefits after tax deductions. In October, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), responsible for government projections, forecast that RHDI per person would grow by approximately 0.5% annually throughout this parliamentary term. Analysis from the Resolution Foundation, a research institution specializing in living standards, indicates that this would represent a marginally improved outcome compared to the 0.3% average RHDI per person growth observed in the preceding Parliament. However, it would fall short of nearly every other parliamentary period over several decades. The second indicator is GDP (an economic size metric) divided by population size, which the prime minister asserts will increase across all UK regions. During the previous Parliament, the UK experienced a decline in overall GDP per capita. Starmer additionally referenced the manifesto commitment to achieve the highest sustained growth within the G7, implying more robust growth than the US, Canada, Italy, France, Japan, and Germany. Recent projections from the IMF, issued in October, indicate that Canada and the US are expected to experience more substantial average growth than the UK from 2024 to 2029. Nevertheless, it is important to emphasize that these are merely predictions, and projections concerning economic expansion and earnings inherently carry significant uncertainty. The administration has reiterated its manifesto promise to recruit 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers, volunteer special constables, and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), who collaborate with officers but lack their full authority. BBC Verify has requested from the Home Office a detailed breakdown of these 13,000 personnel, including the number of new recruits, but has not yet received a response, and the government’s official document does not specify this information. Tiff Lynch, acting national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, the representative body for officers, has expressed approval of the government’s recruitment initiative. However, she also cautioned that force morale is diminished due to real-term salary reductions in recent years and highlighted that 22% of participants in the federation’s most recent survey indicated intentions to depart within the subsequent two years. The government committed to increasing the percentage of children in England deemed “ready for school” at age five to 75%. Formal statistics from the Department for Education indicate that for 2023-24, 67.7% of English children demonstrated a “good level of development”. This is based on teacher assessments of children’s development at age five. This marked a marginal increase from 67.2% in the preceding year. The administration is currently undertaking a significant expansion of publicly funded childcare. Beginning September 2025, the government is committed to providing 30 hours of state-funded childcare weekly for children under five in England, adopting a pledge from the prior administration. Nevertheless, the Early Years Alliance, an organization representing nurseries across England, projects that the rise in employer National Insurance Contributions, as declared in the Budget, will lead to average additional yearly expenses exceeding £18,600 for each provider. That is based on a survey of its members. The childcare industry cautions that, without supplementary funding to offset the tax increase, nurseries may opt out of the complimentary childcare program, or some could face closure. Consistent with Labour’s manifesto, Starmer has reaffirmed the commitment to construct 1.5 million net new residences in England during the current parliamentary term. Maintaining a consistent annual pace, this would correspond to 300,000 units per annum. The latest official figures indicate that 221,070 net additional homes were completed in 2023-24, marking a 6% decrease from the preceding year. The government is introducing fresh housing objectives for local authorities in England, which the preceding administration had abandoned, and is revising planning legislation in an effort to expedite construction. However, numerous housing specialists express doubt regarding the attainability of Labour’