Is Keir Starmer turning into Rishi Sunak?

Keir Starmer is only 150 days into his premiership and his team are already planning a reset. Officially, no one in Downing Street is using the R word when it comes to the speech the Prime Minister is due to give on Thursday. But the plan to use the event to signal a new phase for the government – as part of his ‘plan for change’ – points to how Starmer and his team are trying to turn the page on a torrid start to his premiership.

The Prime Minister is expected to set himself a series of new ambitious targets in a bid to show he is listening to the concerns of ordinary voters. These include cutting NHS waiting lists, reducing crime, improving living standards and boosting early years education. While they are talked up as a development of the five missions Starmer announced in opposition, they are intended to be more precise and tangible to people’s everyday lives.