In the run-up to the general election, Keir Starmer was regularly compared to Tony Blair. When the parallels were highlighted by the left, they were often intended as insults. When they came from the Labour right, particularly after the landslide result, they were compliments.
Starmer has mirrored Blair so far in his ruthlessness towards his own party, his efforts to build relationships with business and his pursuit of public service reform. But he is also more cautious, less seduced by glitz and more to the soft-left in his own views.
Friends insist that while he may have borrowed from Blairism, he is his own man. After entering politics late in his career, he is less likely to think of himself in traditional ideological terms. They say that while he has surrounded himself with ministers and advisers with New Labour links (below), he is more interested in their experience and talent.
Alan Milburn
As health secretary from 1999 to 2003, Milburn was the architect of some radical changes, including the creation of foundation trusts, which are semi-autonomous from government control. Wes Streeting, the current health secretary, has defended him attending meetings in the Department of Health and Social Care before having any official role, praising his record in giving patients choice and cutting waiting lists.
Pat McFadden, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster
The most powerful politician you’ve never heard of, McFadden’s Cabinet Office empire sits at the heart of everything the government does. A veteran of the Blair era, he worked on the 1997 election campaign alongside Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell and then as Blair’s political secretary. The Wolverhampton South East MP has a reputation for quiet but ruthless efficiency.
Liz Kendall, work and pensions secretary
Kendall was a political adviser to Harriet Harman in the Department for Social Security after Labour won in 1997, and is a veteran of the row on cutting single parent benefits. She later worked at the Department for Trade and Industry, and then the health department, before becoming an MP in 2010.
Five years later, she ran for Labour leader as the ideological heir to Blair, having supported the free schools programme and private sector involvement in the NHS. She finished fourth in the contest won by Jeremy Corbyn, garnering 4.5% of the vote.
Peter Kyle, science and technology secretary
Another former New Labour special adviser, Kyle worked in the Cabinet Office focusing on social exclusion policy before entering the voluntary sector. He was elected MP for Hove and Portslade in 2015, and backed Kendall in the Labour leadership election that year.
He also supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in 2016. A firm centrist, Kyle has talked about the “politics of envy”, a phrase sometimes deployed to attack the left. His priorities as tech secretary are public service reform – particularly within the NHS – and economic growth, focusing on AI.
Douglas Alexander, trade and economic security minister
Often thought of as a Brownite because of their shared Scottish roots, Alexander was also close to Blair. He coordinated the 2001 general election campaign that won New Labour its second term. He was rewarded with a ministerial job and rose through the ranks to cabinet.
After Labour lost the 2010 election, he co-chaired David Miliband’s leadership campaign. He lost his own seat in 2015, but returned this year – becoming MP for East Lothian at the general election – and was immediately promoted to trade minister.
Jacqui Smith, skills minister
A former New Labour minister, Smith was promoted to chief whip by Blair and then appointed the UK’s first female home secretary by Gordon Brown, later resigning over the expenses scandal.
She made a surprise return to frontline politics when Starmer gave her a peerage and a job in the Department for Education. At the Home Office, she was oversaw controversial policies including holding terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge, and identity cards.
Jonathan Powell, Chagos envoy
The former diplomat was the only senior adviser to last the whole of Blair’s time at No 10. He was his chief of staff from 1997 to 2007 and his key righthand man. He was also the chief British negotiator on the Northern Ireland peace process, one of New Labour’s successes.
A foreign policy expert, Starmer appointed him as an envoy to negotiate the future of the Chagos Islands, which resulted in the UK controversially handing over sovereignty to Mauritius.
