Starmer says boosting living standards is central focus of his Government

Independent

21-07-2025

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted people to feel better-off and more secure by the time of the next election as he set out his priorities in government.
Sir Keir said he also wanted people to feel that the National Health Service (NHS) is working better than it was when Labour came into office last year.
He also highlighted the need for border security – at a time when small boat crossings of the English Channel are running at record levels – and improvements in defence.
After a year in office, Sir Keir was asked what he wanted the UK to look like at the end of his first term in No 10.
He told MPs on the Liaison Committee: 'I want people to feel better off and there has to be a central focus on living standards.
'I want them to feel – as they will – that the health service is working much better, is there for them and their families in a way that it hasn't been for many years.
'And I want them to feel safe and secure, both in their immediate neighbourhood and as a country, both our borders and national security and defence.
'So, they're the three things that I'm focused on more than anything else.'
Sir Keir's drive to improve the NHS could be derailed if resident doctors in England go ahead with strike action which is due to begin on Friday.
The Tory government faced waves of strike action in the NHS which contributed to care backlogs.
The Prime Minister has put international co-operation, including a promised one in, one out deal to return small boat migrants to France, at the heart of measures to control the borders.
But arrivals are running at record levels for this point in a year, with Home Office figures up to July 19 showed 23,474 people had crossed in small boats.
The Liaison Committee, a panel made up of senior MPs who chair the various Commons select committees, was focusing on measures to tackle poverty.
The Prime Minister, who is under pressure from within his own party to scrap the two-child benefits cap, said: 'People will not feel better-off or safe and secure if we haven't tackled poverty.'
He said there were four 'limbs' to the Government's strategy: increasing incomes, decreasing costs, strengthening local support including measures to get people into work and boosting financial resilience.
'I'm very proud of the fact that the last Labour government drove down poverty and I'm determined this Government is going to as well,' Sir Keir said.