The speed of the transfer of power in the United Kingdom always attracts attention on the world stage. On Thursday, July 4, Rishi Sunak was in government; now he is Keir StarmerAnd the new Prime Minister already summoned his new ministers to 10 Downing Street on Friday 5 July.
Some smiled when they received their nomination, others seemed very nervous. On Saturday 6th, they held the first cabinet meeting to launch their electoral programme.
Los results of the recent elections in the United Kingdom show that the public has great hope for this change. But what are the challenges and how will they be faced?
Starmer’s challenges are considerable. He mentioned several of them in his first meeting with the new cabinet. Here we will look at some of these challenges that he proposes to address immediately and at others that could cause problems in the medium term.
National system of health
A priority issue is the health system (NHS). It was once a pioneering system that served as a model for many countries. Indeed, for some Britons, public health is the symbol of the welfare state. But in recent years it has faced increasingly serious problems, from a lack of qualified personnel – partly exacerbated by Brexit – to the obesity pandemic, which is generating greater need for health services precisely in the poorest areas of the country.
Another challenge is the immigration controlwhich ironically seems to have risen a lot since Brexit.
Keir Starmer has started by scrapping The dramatic choice of sending to Rwanda people who have entered the UK illegally. But it is not clear what it will offer to the million (a conservative estimate) people who are currently illegal. “suppress criminal gangs that bring in people without permission” It sounds good, but it won’t be easy to put it into practice.
Prison overcrowding
Thirdly, an objective that is of great personal importance to this human rights prosecutor with a lot of experience in the criminal world is the state of prisons, especially overcrowding y lack of training for the large number of young prisoners.
Starmer is personally convinced that too many young people are being imprisoned, often leading them down a criminal path with tragic consequences for themselves and their families.
In the UK, trust in politicians has suffered greatly in recent years, with the Boris Johnson’s “Covid parties” and Liz Truss’s disastrous 44-day tenure, which cost the country £30bn, Rishi Sunak has been able to do little to rescue his party’s reputation.
Starmer seems to be the man of the moment: serious, patient and hard-working. He could do well. But he will also have to deal with a new opposition, not only the remnants of the Tory party, which will quickly recover, and the nationalists of various kinds with their various claims, but also the veteran brexiteer y tiktoker Nigel Farage.
With his new party, Reform UK, Farage will be able to make a lot of noise in the media and attract a significant part of the population that feels disappointed by the effects of globalisation and, specifically, by immigration and the social policies promoted by the Labour Party.
Deputies without experience, but ministers with it
And if that were not enough, Starmer faces another difficulty. He has plenty of MPs (412 of the 650 that make up the House of Commons), but the vast majority lack experience – the youngest is just 22 – and almost none have previously been part of a government.
But Starmer has started by recruiting experienced ministers from Gordon Brown’s time under the fast-track system of appointments to the House of Lords. After the first cabinet meeting, the new prime minister appeared relaxed and cordial.
He may be an uncharismatic prosecutor, as some think, but for many Britons that is better than the rollercoaster years of Brexit and the Boris Johnson circus.
Only time will tell whether he has the qualities necessary to solve the problems that await him and fulfil the hopes of his electorate.
