Will PM’s speech pile on the pain or restore hope’?

Since winning the election in July, the new government’s rhetoric has largely been a blame game.

- MILLIE COOKE

From Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to release prisoners 40 per cent of the way through their sentence to scrapping winter fuel payments for most pensioners, each announcement has been caveated with the record of the previous government and the inheritance left behind.

Expectation management

While the Labour Party campaigned on a platform of optimism, saying it will “restore hope and rebuild Britain”, Sir Keir’s time in office has so far been one long exercise in expectation management. And his upcoming speech tomorrow, the prime minister’s first keynote speech since acquiring the keys to Downing Street, will be no different.

He will warn that things in Britain will get worse before they get better, saying they are currently “worse than we ever imagined”, a far cry from the 1997 Blairite anthem “Things Can Only Get Better”. As well as a £22bn financial black hole, the prime minister will say the government has also taken on a “societal black hole”.