The March of the Labour Yimbys

It is too soon to write off Sir Keir Starmer. The fortunes of the government and of the country hinge on whether Labour can deliver planning reform and a construction boom. It may yet succeed.

Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash

Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish the signal from the noise. You would think from the tone of some of the recent commentary that the Labour government, elected just two months ago with a parliamentary majority of 171, is already sunk. Sir Keir Starmer finds himself under relentless attack over “freebies”, cronyism, his chief of staff, the cut to the winter fuel allowance, talking down the economy - with much of the criticism seemingly coming from his own side. His approval ratings have slumped to below Rishi Sunak and his party conference speech was overshadowed by an unfortunate slip of the tongue, when he said “sausages” instead of “hostages”.

But it is far too soon to write off this government. Sure, as I wrote at the weekend, to the extent that these negative stories raise legitimate questions about the prime minister’s judgment and political skills, they cannot simply be dismissed as tittle-tattle. And yes, there is still a dearth of policy in many areas which add to the sense of a government struggling to find its feed. Nonetheless, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that Labour was elected above all to perform one vital task, beyond simply replacing a discredited Conservative government that had inflicted immense damage on the economy: to reform Britain’s planning system. It may yet succeed.