Starmer hits out at Reform’s ‘politics of grievance’ as his new Cabinet meets

Sir Keir Starmer has used the first meeting of his new-look Cabinet to take aim at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

The Prime Minister told his reshuffled top team that “we’re up against those that feed off the politics of grievance”, and his Cabinet has a “patriotic duty” to offer an alternative programme of “national renewal”.

He acknowledged the number one priority has to be a drive for economic growth to improve public services and the living standards of working people.

Sir Keir, flanked by his new Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, said the reshuffle – carried out following Angela Rayner’s resignation – had prepared the Government for the “next stage of our journey”.

The Prime Minister said the Government is moving from “fixing the foundations” to a “state of national renewal”.

He told his top team of ministers: “You are the right people to heed the patriotic call to lift up our country and take it forward to national renewal for millions of working people.”

In an apparent swipe at Reform UK, which has developed a consistent lead in opinion polls, Sir Keir said: “It is important that we are very clear about what we’re up against.

“We’re up against those that feed off the politics of grievance, those that do not want problems to be fixed, because if the problems are fixed, their reason to exist, their politics, ceases to have any role in our society.”

Setting out his approach, he said he is working for “a Britain of decent, reasonable, compassionate, tolerant people” as “the vast majority of people in this country are”.

He added: “It’s them that we have in our mind’s eye as we go forward and our mission is the triumph of national renewal over divide and division and decline.

“That is our patriotic responsibility and our patriotic duty. And I look forward to working with all of you as we go on to this next phase of Government.”

The focus on Reform – even without naming the party or Mr Farage – is the latest sign that Labour views it as its main opposition, rather than Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives.

Ministers around the Cabinet table included Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who has launched her bid to replace Ms Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader.

The deputy leadership contest could trigger a round of infighting within Labour as the party tries to find a way to reverse plummeting opinion poll ratings.

Divisions within Cabinet could also become clear as Chancellor Rachel Reeves works on a Budget which could involve tough choices as she tries to cut costs or raise taxes to fill a black hole in the public finances.

But Sir Keir stressed that everyone around the Cabinet table has to be part of a “team effort”.

He told the Cabinet meeting: “We are obviously representing different departments around the table, as you must and you will, but you’re not just representing one department. You are representing the Government.”

Apart from Sir Keir’s opening remarks, the Cabinet meeting took place behind closed doors, as usual.

Sir Keir said the Government had to demonstrate to people it was “driving down costs and spending their taxes well”, according to Downing Street’s account of the meeting.

That included measures to go “further and faster in reducing the size of the civil service” and “reducing the number of regulators”.

Downing Street said the Chancellor told ministers: “The entire autumn, and beyond, must be about growing the economy in a way that makes working people better off and provides the revenues we need to fund our public services.”

She said the Government would “deliver economic stability and public investment so that consumers have the confidence to spend and businesses have the confidence to invest”.

Ms Reeves acknowledged here was more the Government “must do to attract international investment, drive jobs and growth across the country, get Britain working, back the builders and not the blockers, and buy British”.