LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer will set out plans on Thursday to deliver on his priorities to raise living standards and rebuild Britain in a speech he hopes will draw a line under what even some of his supporters say has been a bumpy start to government.
Five months since his Labour Party swept back to power with a landslide win, Starmer wants to turn the page on criticism of his government on everything from its use of campaign donations to a tax-raising budget which prompted an outcry from businesses and farmers.
He will use Thursday’s speech to plot out when Britain can expect to start seeing progress his government has promised in a range of areas, including hospital backlogs, increasing police numbers, improving education and securing home-grown energy.
Called the government’s ‘plan for change’, he is expected to set out a reform program for Britain’s overly stretched public services to try to restore trust in politics, eroded by years of chaos and scandal under the Conservatives and further deepened by Labour’s missteps in its first few months in power.
“My government was elected to deliver change, and today marks the next step. People are tired of being promised the world, but short-term sticking plaster politics letting them down,” Starmer will say, according to excerpts of his speech provided by his office.
“My mission-led government will deliver.”
Labour campaigned before the July 4 election on five missions — boosting economic growth, accelerating steps toward reaching net zero, reducing waiting times in the state-run health service, tackling crime and improving education.
His first measures on Thursday will include a move to give communities a named, contactable police officer to deal with local issues, his office said, part of a pledge to add a further 13,000 police in neighborhood roles.
“This marks a return to the founding principles of British policing — where officers are part of the communities they serve,” interior minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.
“Through this visible, responsive police presence in every neighborhood, we will restore the trust and partnership that lies at the heart of keeping our communities safe.”
Under pressure, UK’s Starmer sets out plans to deliver on election pledges
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Under pressure, UK’s Starmer sets out plans to deliver on election pledges
Nigeria police charge driver in fatal Joshua crash
- Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode charged with reckless and dangerous driving causing death
- British boxer's two friends Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami were killed in the crash
LAGOS: Nigerian police on Friday charged the driver of a car carrying British boxer Anthony Joshua that was involved in a fatal crash with “reckless” and “dangerous driving causing death.”
Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, was also charged with driving without a valid “driver’s license” and “driving without due care and attention, causing bodily harm and damage to property,” Oluseyi Babaseyi, a spokesman for the police in Ogun state, told AFP.
He was granted a five million naira bail ($3,500) but will remain in detention until he meets bail conditions, Babaseyi said.
Kayode was driving the boxer and two of his friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in southwest Nigeria when the Lexus SUV in which they were traveling rammed into a stationary truck on Monday.
Nigerian police and state officials said that Ayodele and Ghami died at the scene, while Joshua and the driver sustained minor injuries.
The Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun state, where the accident occurred, told AFP earlier in the week that its preliminary investigations showed that the vehicle was moving at an excessive speed and had burst a tire before the crash.
Kayode is due to appear in court on January 20.
