Starmer’s Labour knows the kind of Britain it wants – it just doesn’t know how to build it | Martin Kettle

Ministers are right to want to reform the state: it’s crucial to their project. But simply telling civil servants to work harder won’t achieve it

After five months in office, Labour knows where it wants to take the country; but it does not know how to get there. In this, and despite radically different priorities, the Labour government resembles the Conservative one that preceded it. Boris Johnson found in the end that he could not make modern Britain work in the way he wanted. Now, today, it is Keir Starmer’s turn.

Starmer’s “plan for change” speech at Pinewood Studios last week was a recognition of the problem. British government, said Starmer, is “broken”. It was a striking admission, but also true in many ways, prisons and social care prominent among them. Starmer responded by announcing five-year targets in key policy areas – the economy, housing, health, policing, early years and energy. But this was not enough. Starmer’s answer does not measure up to the problem that confronts him.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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