Keir Starmer accused Whitehall of becoming comfortable with failure as he challenged civil servants to hit a series of policy targets and deliver on 150 “major infrastructure projects”.
Ushering in the “next phase” for the five-month-old Labour government, the prime minister urged “a profound cultural shift away from a declinist mentality” and a relentless focus on getting things done.
Successful delivery was the way to counter the rise of populist politics in the UK, which “feeds off real concerns”, he said in what was billed as a landmark speech.
“Too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline. Have forgotten, to paraphrase JFK, that you choose change, not because it’s easy but because it’s hard,” he said.
“I totally get that when trust in politics is so low, we must be careful about the promises we make. But across Whitehall and Westminster that’s been internalised as ‘don’t say anything’, ‘don’t try anything too ambitious’, ‘set targets that will happen anyway’.”
Starmer set out six “milestones” designed to “give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire”. They were:
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Higher real household disposable income and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by the end of this parliament, as part of a long-term aim to make the UK the fastest-growing G7 economy.
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Building 1.5m homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects.
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Putting the UK “on track” to achieve at least 95% clean power by 2030.
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Meeting the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective care.
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Getting a record 75% of five-year-olds ready to learn when they start school.
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A named police officer for every beat, and 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers for England and Wales.
But he came under pressure for his failure to include immigration as one of the milestones, and faced claims that some targets have been watered down.
The government’s plan to decarbonise the power grid by 2030 is now a target of “at least 95%” clean power generation by 2030, it emerged on Thursday, prompting concerns about shifting goalposts.
Labour insisted the two statements were consistent, with Ed Miliband, the net zero secretary, saying the remaining 5% was due to the need to maintain a strategic gas reserve.
The promise to deliver higher living standards by the next election was not accompanied by a specific numerical target. Starmer said growth must be “felt by everyone, everywhere”, with real household disposable income and GDP per capita rising in every region of the country.
And challenged on immigration by reporters at the event, Starmer said he regarded controlling borders as a “foundational” part of governing, separate from other changes he needed to make.
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This week, it was confirmed that 20,000 people have crossed the Channel on small boats since the new government came to power. Labour said a higher number of calm autumn days than last year was to blame.
Delivering the speech at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire behind a lectern bearing the slogan “plan for change”, the prime minister sought to strike an optimistic note, saying Britain was “broken, but not beyond repair” and could still “do great things”.
Aiming high entailed considerable risk, he said, but added: “We embrace the risk … Because if there was no jeopardy, if there was no resistance, no blockages or impediments for us to remove, then as sure as night follows day that would be a sign that we were not serious about delivering real change.”
Starmer denied that the speech – which has been branded an “emergency reset” by the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch – represented a change of plan, saying it “doubles down on our national missions” that had “remained robust” since first being announced two years ago.
Responding to the speech, Badenoch said the reset showed Labour had not been “ready for government” and claimed the government’s “costly plans for energy decarbonisation” had been watered down, adding: “This relaunch can’t hide the reality of a government that doesn’t know what it is doing.”
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said Starmer was “simply moving the goalposts” and described the lack of a target for GP appointments as “worrying”, while the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, criticised the lack of a target on immigration.