‘Go up a gear’: Starmer gives revamped Cabinet mantra to pull down Nigel Farage’s rising graph

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged his new cabinet to “step up a gear and deliver for the British people” as he seeks to counter the growing threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party.

Starmer spent the weekend finalising a sweeping reshuffle, appointing more than four dozen junior ministers after overhauling his cabinet on Friday. With immigration and the economy emerging as key priorities, he revamped his Home Office team just days after bringing in new economic advisers.

“What Keir Starmer has done is put a new team in place and said to us all, you’ve got to go up a gear,” Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky News. “We’ve got to start to show that we can help change people’s lives, make them better off and make them more secure. That is the challenge for each and every one of us now.”

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Starmer is trying to regain ground after unpopular tax-and-spending decisions and policy U-turns dented his 14-month-old Labour government. While Labour won a landslide 411 seats in last year’s election, Reform UK has since surged in national polls despite securing only five seats.

The challenge was underscored Saturday when 1,097 migrants crossed the Channel — the highest daily number since May. “These small boats crossings are utterly unacceptable and the vile people-smugglers behind them are wreaking havoc on our borders,” new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said. She vowed to “explore all options” to restore order, including cooperation with Five Eyes partners at a meeting this week.

Healey said the government is also weighing the temporary use of military sites for migrant arrivals and considering reforms to how the UK applies the European Convention on Human Rights. Immigration has now overtaken the economy as the top concern for voters, an Ipsos poll last month showed.

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Labour has pledged to phase out the costly and unpopular practice of housing migrants in hotels by 2029, but insists it needs time to implement the change in an orderly way.