Starmer considers burying plan to deport migrants to Rwanda | International

Keir Starmer is not a fan of shocks or surprises. But now he is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The head of government of the sixth richest country in the world. And every decision, statement or gesture is seen differently. Make headlines. Although this is nothing new. When this Saturday he declared “dead and buried” the plan to deport immigrants to Rwanda, for which his predecessor Rishi Sunak made so much effort, the beginning of a new political cycle became clear. “That plan never achieved the desired deterrent effect. It is enough to look at the figures of these first six months (13,500 immigrants have already crossed the English Channel in 2024) to understand the problem we have inherited (…); I am not willing to proceed with measures that are more about trickery and manipulation than about being effective,” Starmer made clear.

The Labour leader has announced the creation of a joint border security command to crack down on mafias transporting migrants.

The new Labour cabinet met for the first time this Saturday morning. Smiling faces, optimistic spirit and plenty of banter to celebrate the return to Downing Street after a 14-year journey in the wilderness.

Starmer knows that his mandate, no matter how comfortable his parliamentary majority in Thursday’s election, owes more to the punishment the electorate handed to the Conservative Party than to the enthusiasm generated by the Labour Party. And that the decisions and gestures of the first 100 days of government are going to be crucial. “We have to make tough decisions, and we have to make them soon. We will do so with all sincerity,” the prime minister said at a press conference following his inaugural cabinet meeting.

In this way, he supported the strategy of his new health minister, Wes Streeting, in the face of the urgency of saving the National Health Service (NHS), which has a waiting list of eight million patients. Avoiding any hot topics from the start, Streeting said, “The NHS is broken.” Starmer assured, “We are not going to work with language or simulations that try to hide the true nature of the problems, because they cannot be solved that way.”

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This expression has been circulating for several months Nonsense list (nonsense list) to set out the most serious and urgent problems that the new Labour government will have to face. It has been drawn up by senior civil servant Sue Gray, who agreed to become Starmer’s chief of staff and has an understanding and command of the internal machinery of the UK civil service like few others.

The public water company, Thames Water, has debts of more than 18 billion euros and its managers are demanding, for example, nationalisation or a hike in consumer bills by more than 40%. UK prisons are full. Universities on the verge of bankruptcy. The health service, in crisis. All that, to start with.

Officers are already demanding and expecting pay rises from the new left-wing executive. And most councils and municipal corporations in England (which rely on central government for funding) are in deep water.

“Next Tuesday I will meet the mayors of the main cities to discuss how to achieve the economic growth the United Kingdom desperately needs,” Starmer announced. “This includes all mayors. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas and I don’t consider myself a tribal chief. My government will always work with any local authority, regardless of party, when they have a concern for their area,” he added.

“Four Countries” Tour

Starmer has the legitimacy that his predecessor did not have, in that his party has received the most votes in England, Wales and Scotland. In the latter, he managed to practically wipe out the pro-independence supporters of the SNP. The other thing is Northern Ireland, which has its own political key, where this Thursday the republicans of Sinn Féin received the most votes. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister wants to recover the relevance that Tony Blair once gave to the autonomous governments, and he has announced that this Monday he will make a quick tour of the four countries of the United Kingdom. “I work under the principle that those who give everything for their community know what is best for it. And this requires that we make firm decisions to move power and resources out of Whitehall (as central power is called in British political jargon, because the main ministries are located on that street in London), he assured.

Starmer will also travel to Washington to attend the NATO summit next week. This will be his first international meeting with leaders who have already called to congratulate him. But above all, he called to express his government’s continuity with regard to the United Kingdom’s extensive overseas commitment today: “I am going to join my colleagues in making clear our firm support for Ukraine,” he declared.

The new prime minister knows that the pressure of public opinion demanding “change” will be high from day one, which he used as a campaign slogan and has not stopped promising. “Change does not come overnight, but we have been working on the next decisions for months and we are going to move forward without stopping,” he said.

The clearest signal Starmer wanted to send by being aware of his legacy Tory Amid scandals, banned parties during confinement, and influence peddling, he is to meet in the early hours at Downing Street with Laurie Magnus, the government’s chief adviser for ministerial ethics issues, and tell members of his Cabinet “what he expects of them, their behaviour, their effectiveness, and their response to the trust placed in them by citizens.”

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