What Starmer’s first 100 days would look like

The Labour leader has been cautious in revealing policy for a future government but details have begun to emerge

Labour’s first 100 days in office will set the tone for what a Government led by Sir Keir Starmer will do.
Yet relatively little has been disclosed about the party’s plans for office should it win the general election on July 4.
Sir Keir has adopted a “ming vase” strategy, cautiously revealing as little about his policy platform as he can get away with to avoid denting his 20-point lead in the polls.
But hints of what a Labour Government will mean for Britain have started to drip out now that the election campaign is under way.
Royal permission 
If his party wins the election, Sir Keir’s first port of call will be Buckingham Palace, where he will ask the King for his permission to form a government.
Immediately afterwards he would be whisked to No 10, where traditionally he would deliver a brief speech to the public from a podium in Downing Street.
He would then head behind the famous black door to meet and greet the staff, before inviting inside those Labour MPs who will be appointed to his first Cabinet. 
Axe Rwanda
Labour has said it will axe Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda migrant deportation scheme “on day one” if it is elected.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, said on Thursday that Labour would ditch the scheme even if flights were scheduled because it was an “expensive gimmick”.
Mr Sunak has said he does not expect to get flights off the ground before the election but the Home Office is continuing to work to the previous target of June 24 for the first deportations.
In its place, Labour has said it will create a “border security command”, appoint “hundreds” of investigators and give counter-terror powers to Border Force to “smash criminal gangs”.
Nato alliance summit 
Just four days after his appointment, Sir Keir would take his first foreign trip, attending a summit of the Nato alliance in Washington alongside Joe Biden, the US president, and other world leaders.
Tax private schools
Sir Keir pledged on Friday morning that Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees would be rolled out “straight away” if he won the election.
The Labour leader said the exact timing would depend on “the timetable in Parliament” but committed to bringing in the policy “as soon as it can be done”.
Labour has previously said that the change will pay for one of its six “first steps for change” – the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers. It has not committed to a date by which it will have recruited them.
Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said at last year’s party conference that she would implement the policy in her first budget.
EU Political Community summit
On July 18, as Prime Minister, Sir Keir would host major EU leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz for the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. 
Expand workers’ rights
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has been spearheading the party’s plans to introduce new workers’ rights through legislation.
This would likely be done at the beginning of the new Parliament in line with Labour’s pledge to bring a “new deal for working people”.
That involves an end to zero-hours contracts, fire-and-rehire practices and easing “restrictions on union activity”.
Businesses have criticised the plans, with the Confederation of British Industry warning that the “European model” they represent would make companies reluctant to take on new workers.
The Institute of Directors has warned that “there can be a really valid role for zero-hours contracts”, which Labour wants to scrap.
No National Service
Labour has wholly rejected the Tories’ plans to bring back National Service, claiming the Conservatives have been driven to take “desperate” action because they have “hollowed out the Armed Forces to their smallest size since Napoleon”.
Income tax
Rachel Reeves has pledged not to raise income tax or national insurance in her clearest commitment on the matter to date.
The shadow chancellor categorically ruled out increasing either levy, as she insisted she wants the burden on working people to be “lower”.
Ms Reeves said: “I want, and Keir wants, taxes on working people to be lower, and we certainly won’t be increasing income tax or national insurance if we win the election.”
Resurrect Sunak’s smoking ban
Rishi Sunak’s flagship smoking ban has not been included in the legislation being rushed through before Parliament is dissolved on Thursday, May 30.
The Prime Minister had previously hailed it as an example of “the bold action that I’m prepared to take”.
The policy, which would have made it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born after Jan 1 2009 and aimed to gradually abolish smoking, was supported by Labour.
Sir Keir said on Friday that the party was “committed” to the legislation, indicating that his party would reintroduce the legislation if elected.
It is therefore likely to be another of the first measures Labour brings to Parliament.
Set up Great British Energy
Labour has said it wants to “make Britain a clean energy superpower” by setting up Great British Energy, a state-owned generator of green electricity.
One of its six “first steps”, the party has said the company’s creation will cost £8.3 billion and be paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), however, has claimed that it would actually need between £61 billion and £82 billion of public investment over 10 years – nearly ten times more than Labour has pledged for the project.
The formal creation of the company is likely to be one of Labour’s first decisions in Government.