Starmer's Biggest Issues As He Takes The Keys To No 10

The incoming PM’s in-tray will be more daunting than usual due to a rotten economic inheritance, writes Andrew Grice

- Andrew Grice

The opinion polls were correct and Labour has stormed to power, but Sir Keir Starmer will have no time to celebrate his victory.

The first few days and weeks as prime minister will be a whirlwind that would, in hindsight, make the difficult job as leader of the opposition look easy. The incoming prime minister’s in-tray will be more daunting than usual because of a rotten economic inheritance – in sharp contrast to 1997, when Tony Blair took over with the economy growing, which eventually allowed him to boost spending on public services.

Sir Keir’s first big task will be to appoint his cabinet and junior ministers. Most of the top jobs are expected to be filled by those who held them in opposition, but there could be some tweaks.

One headache: the number of ministers who sit in the Commons is limited to 95 but 109 Labour MPs were on the front bench in the last parliament. When the Lords is included, Labour had more opposition frontbenchers (146) than there are paid ministerial posts (109). Would Sir Keir scale back his team and ask many of them to forsake their ministerial salary?

Another dilemma would be whether to appoint as ministers the “retreads” who have returned to the Commons after time out.

The centre of government, 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, would likely be restructured to reflect Sir Keir’s five “missions” to ensure more joined-up government across departments. Figures from business may be appointed to “mission boards” chaired by the PM.

He would be likely to create an inner cabinet or “quad” including Angela Rayner, Rachel Reeves and Pat McFadden, with other ministers joining it when their briefs are discussed.