Starmer’s State of the Nation

Good Tuesday morning. This is Stefan Boscia.
GOOD TO BE BACK: Keir Starmer will deliver a major speech on the Southport riots this morning, which his team is calling a “State of the Nation”-type address. The PM will reflect on the ugliness we witnessed this month and use his diagnosis of the causes as a springboard for the government’s wider policy aims. It will also serve as a back-to-school speech as Starmer tees up what one No. 10 aide called the “next season of politics” when parliament returns on Monday. The PM will then jet off to Berlin for a bilat with Chancellor Olaf Scholz right after the speech. It definitely feels like politics is properly back today.
Feeling rosy: Starmer will deliver the 20-minute speech in No. 10’s rose garden around 10 a.m. In attendance: 50 voters he met on the election campaign trail. The PM will then hold a presser with assembled hacks. Starmer has purposefully chosen the rose garden to remind people of Boris Johnson’s lockdown parties — a theme he will drive home during his speech. 
The (garden) party is over: The PM writes in a Times op-ed this morning that “the rose garden at Downing Street became a symbol of the rot at the heart of their government” and that he will restore the public’s broken trust with Westminster. In a particularly Starmer-ish line, he added: “They didn’t just break a garden swing with their rose garden antics … they broke something even more fragile and more precious: the trust of the British people in politics and their politicians.”
Never waste a good crisis: The PM is expected to say in his speech that “the business of politics will resume” next week, but that “it will not be business as usual.” He will say “we can’t go on like this anymore — no more politics of performance, papering over the cracks, or division and distraction,” and place the blame for myriad problems at the feet of successive Conservative governments. Expect also to hear plenty about a “decade of renewal” as Starmer already looks ahead to reelection.
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Sickness and the cure: The PM will use much of the speech to diagnose the cause of the riots — yep, you guessed it, the Tories. He will talk about the “14 years of failure and populism,” which “let rot grow in the heart of our system.” He will also use his own experiences as director of public prosecutions in 2011 to talk about a long-term government response. “The riots didn’t just betray the sickness, they revealed the cure, found not in the cynical conflict of populism but in the coming together of a country the morning after,” he will say.
Last chopper out of Downing Street: The government is showing off one immediate change from the last lot by ditching a £40 million helicopter contract signed by Rishi Sunak. The Guardian’s Kiran Stacey and the Sun’s Jack Elsom report that Defense Secretary John Healey will not renew the five-year contract with Sloane Helicopters, whose choppers Sunak extensively used to get around the country. A government official said the helicopter contract “became a symbol of their government: grossly wasteful, head in the clouds, and totally out of touch.”
My fellow Britons: A  No. 10 aide told Playbook that the speech will mostly act as a preview of the government’s priorities over the next few months. “It’s a bit of a State of the Nation speech … we’ve looked under the hood and the situation is worse than what we imagined before,” they said. The PM will roll the pitch for tax hikes and spending cuts in the Oct. 30 budget as he talks about “tough decisions” ahead.
But this won’t be one of them: The FT’s Lucy Fisher reckons one cut Rachel Reeves won’t make is to a hardship fund for struggling households. She writes that the chancellor will soon announce that the household support fund, which provides grants for energy and food bills, will be rolled over past the planned end date of Sept. 30.
Slash and burn: Tory grandee William Hague, meanwhile, has called on Starmer to use his speech to talk about ways to improve economic growth and living standards — namely by slashing regulation. Hague writes in the Times that the PM should start to implement Labour’s manifesto pledge to create a “Regulatory Innovation Office” to monitor government-imposed targets for regulators.
WORD FROM THE ACTUAL OPPOSITION: Tory party Chair Richard Fuller hit back at Labour by labeling the PM’s address as “nothing but a performative speech to distract the public from the promises Starmer made that he never had any intention of keeping.” 
He added: “In fewer than 100 days the Labour Party has dumped its ambition of public service and become engulfed in sleaze, handed out bumper payouts to its union paymasters with ‘no strings’ attached and laid the groundwork to harm pensioners and tax working people.”
RIGHT BACK AT YOU: It did not go unremarked in today’s papers that Starmer’s flighty rhetoric about public standards comes as the party is engulfed in a row over alleged cronyism. That has included Labour donors being appointed to senior civil service positions and Starmer’s fundraising chief Waheed Alli being temporarily given a Downing Street pass. My colleague Vincent Manancourt writes in his big story out this morning that Labour is facing a scandal of its own making.
Rolling on: The Guardian’s Kiran Stacey got the scoop that Starmer has canceled the appointment of senior army general Gwyn Jenkins as national security adviser — a story that is being jumped on as another example of alleged cronyism. Rishi Sunak appointed Jenkins in April to become Downing Street’s national security adviser by the end of summer. However, it appears Jenkins, who left his job as vice chief of the defense staff in June, may never serve under Starmer.
Sue strikes again: One official told the Guardian that the decision to cancel the appointment “looks like another part of the grab for power by Keir Starmer and [his chief of staff] Sue Gray” and that “the process to appoint Jenkins was run with full transparency, and there is no good reason to do it all over again.” Downing Street is refusing to confirm that the hiring process will start again, but there is speculation a political appointee could be parachuted in. 
Coming attraction: Another one to watch in this vein is the appointment of the next ambassador to the U.S. The Guardian hears the government is now firmly leaning toward a political appointee, like the much-rumored Peter Mandelson or David Miliband, and my colleague Dan Bloom hears the same mood music. Dan texts in to say that one official predicts this is a political appointment No. 10 will believe it “can get away with” … though whether that gets derailed by the recent rows about jobs remains to be seen.
ATTACKING CHANCE: The Jenkins story only adds to the momentum around the cronyism saga; expect the Tories to hit this line of attack hard when parliament returns. Shadow Science Secretary Andrew Griffith is on the morning round and will call for an investigation into the whole affair by Laurie Magnus, the PM’s adviser on ministerial interests, Playbook hears. 
Bad business: Alistair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, told the i’s Will Hazell that Labour has made “silly mistakes” in handing allies civil service jobs and that giving a No. 10 pass to Alli was “not good business.” “The danger for this government is that people might say they’re no different to the last lot,” he said.
PACAC it in: The Telegraph’s Daniel Martin reckons Starmer is facing a possible investigation by parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) when a new chair is chosen. The committee will have a Tory MP as chair, but most of its members will be Labour. Former committee Chair Bernard Jenkin said he would support an inquiry if he was selected. Fellow former Chair Jackie Doyle-Price also called on PACAC “to look at whether existing oversight mechanisms are sufficiently effective.”
BANG UP A HOODIE: Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will likely be a leading figure in the government’s response to the riots and is talking tough about shoplifters this morning. The Times’ Matt Dathan has analyzed government figures to reveal that just 431 shoplifters were handed fixed penalty notices in the year to March — a 98 percent drop from a decade ago. Cooper told Dathan she would “end the shameful neglect” by police, which has “allowed it to become an epidemic in our society.
Whatcha’ gonna do? The government is vowing to impose harsher penalties on people who steal goods worth less than £200. Under current legislation, any theft of less than that amount is considered a “summary-only offense,” which carries smaller maximum penalties. The story makes the Times’ splash. 
Grim reading: The Telegraph also splashes on a crime stats story, with Charles Hymas and Danny Shaw writing that nearly 150,000 people accused of sexual or violent crimes were given “community resolutions” instead of being prosecuted in the year to March. This means that people accused of these crimes need only accept full responsibility to avoid going to court (seriously).
That can’t be right: Community resolutions are supposed to only be used for low-level crimes, but Hymas and Ward write that they are given at the discretion of individual officers. Home Office Minister Jess Phillips, who has launched a review into police handling of some forms of sexual offenses, told the Telegraph: “This government has been clear that violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we expect police to treat all sexual offences with the seriousness it warrants.” 
PARLIAMENT: Got a facemask on.
READ TO RAISE BLOOD PRESSURE: Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “motivated by revenge, legacy and romance” and regards Britain as being at the heart of his country’s failures. In a Telegraph op-ed, he wrote: “Make no mistake, Putin is coming for us. We must be prepared for the inevitable.” Cool cool cool. 
WASN’T THE PLAN: Foreign Office officials told Rishi Sunak not to leave D-Day commemorations in Normandy early, the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith writes in the new paperback version of his book “Blue Murder.” The Guardian’s Kiran Stacey has that one.
PEW PEW: Ministers have told defense chiefs to save £400 million for troop salary hikes, and are ditching military training to pay for them, according to the Mail’s splash. The paper revealed battlefield practices are being scaled back, with chances to use live ammo reduced. A senior military figure told the Mail’s Mark Nicol and Richard Marsden: “Troops will literally be going ‘bang bang.’”
TOM TALKS: Tory leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has said Britain should spend £50 billion a year on fighting illegal migration. The Times ‘ Matt Dathan reports he told a Conservative association that “the U.K. must show the same determination and commitment to fighting this evil trade as we did in fighting slavery.” He added that tackling illegal migration required the “same level of commitment” shown by the Royal Navy’s 19th-century West Africa Squadron, which cost 2 percent of GDP. 
IS THIS A YELLOW CARD? Playbook’s Dan Bloom hears fellow Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch has missed Tory hustings in Cornwall and Norfolk in the past few days. A member of a rival campaign questioned: “I wonder where she is?”
MONEY MONEY MONEY: A report by the Fabian Society suggests Rachel Reeves could raise £10 billion a year through pension tax reforms. The measures would include a single flat rate of tax relief for pensions, reducing the tax-free lump sum and introducing inheritance tax to pensions. The Guardian’s Larry Elliott wrote that one up.
REPORTS OUT TODAY: The government will miss key climate targets if it does not “halt and reverse the UK’s unprecedented environmental crisis and depleting natural environment,” according to the IPPR.
SCOOP — STEVE HILTON EYES RUN FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s T-shirt-wearing strategy adviser turned populist Stateside pundit, is mulling a run for California governor in two years, people familiar with his plans told my California-based colleague Christopher Cadelago.
The former Fox News host, who has lived in California for more than a decade and became a U.S. citizen in 2021, is “thinking very seriously” about running to succeed Democrat Gavin Newsom, “and he is doing it in a very organized way,” said Jim Brulte, the former California Republican Party chair and GOP leader of the state senate.
From 10 Downing Street to the California Governor’s Mansion? Hilton, who famously fell out with Cameron and is a strong supporter of Donald Trump, espouses a brand of “positive populism.” He’d be running as a Republican in one of the bluest states in America — but his candidacy has at least piqued curiosity among some in Silicon Valley pining for political disruptors. Chamath Palihapitiya, a billionaire tech investor who recently hosted a Trump fundraiser, told Christopher that Hilton is a “no-BS person” who could jumpstart conversations about the problems plaguing California.
GB JOBS: DESNZ has started hiring for Labour’s promised GB Energy firm with roles in the to-be-announced Scotland HQ, the FT reports. Simeon Kerr and Rachel Millard report that the location for GB Energy’s HQ will be announced next month.
TELEGRAM TROUBLES: French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov (profile of him here) was “in no way a political decision.” Macron’s English-language post on X came after Deputy Chair of the Russian Duma Vladislav Davankov said — on Telegram, where else? — that the arrest “may have political grounds and be a tool for gaining access to the personal information of Telegram users.” 
UKRAINE LATEST: More than 200 Russian drones hit Ukraine Monday, resulting in seven deaths, damaged energy facilities, leading to power cuts and water outages across the country. Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk described the attack as “the most massive” of the war, Reuters reports. 
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH: Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Iranian-backed Hezbollah suffered a “crushing blow” after a long-expected missile attack was largely thwarted by preemptive Israeli strikes. Reuters has more. 
Meanwhile: The Guardian’s Julian Borger reports that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a backlash from critics who claimed the latest strikes against Hezbollah were inadequate.
COURTSIDE: Back to the U.S.: special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal appeals court Monday to reinstate the criminal case charging former President Donald Trump with hoarding classified documents and obstructing an investigation into their presence at his Florida estate. Smith argued that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon made a series of errors when she dismissed the case in July.
NO HOT MIC: Trump could pull out of a planned Sept. 10 debate with his opponent in the U.S. presidential election Kamala Harris, my U.S. colleague Eugene Daniels reports. The reason: Harris wants microphones to remain on the entire time, even when they’re not speaking, while Trump’s team doesn’t.
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Labour Party Chair Ellie Reeves broadcast round: Times Radio (7.05 a.m.) … Sky News (7.15 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (7.30 a.m.) … LBC (7.50 a.m.) … Today (8.10 a.m.) … GMB (8.30 a.m.) … GB News (8.45 a.m.). 
Shadow Science Secretary Andrew Griffith broadcast round: Times Radio (7.35 a.m.) … LBC (8.05 a.m.) … Sky News (8.15 a.m.). 
Also on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: Metropolitan Police Federation Chair Rick Prior (7.10 a.m.). 
Also on Times Radio Breakfast: Keir Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin (8 a.m.) … Fire Brigades Union General Secretary Matt Wrack (8.15 a.m.) … Former Conservative Leader William Hague and former Labour minister Harriet Harman (9 a.m.).
POLITICO UK: UK Labour faces a scandal of its own making.
Daily Express: Farage warns of ‘shocks’ to come in Labour budget.
Daily Mail: Military training cut back to fund pay rises.
Daily Mirror: Don’t be sorry, smile… it’s been fantastic.
Daily Star: Our last chance to stop psycho killer robots.
Financial Times: Top defence contractors poised for $52bn cash bonanza as orders soar.
i: Safety fears at British care giant owned by Kuwait — despite £500m in taxpayer cash.
Metro: Don’t be sorry, smile … it’s been fantastic.
The Daily Telegraph: Violent criminals allowed to just say sorry.
The Guardian: Revealed — ‘staggering’ rise in anxiety among children.
The Independent: Investigation begins into blaze at tower block with cladding. 
The Times: Police have given up on punishing shoplifters.
WESTMINSTER WEATHER: Sunny spells throughout the day, keeping summer in reach. High 25C, low 18C.
(LACK OF) ACCESSIBILITY AWARENESS: Crossbench peer and former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson tweeted her ordeal on a LNER train at Kings Cross, where she said staff did not arrive to escort her off the train. Grey-Thompson — who has won 16 Paralympic gold medals — eventually had to crawl off. 
WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY: While most people are spending the quieter time getting through emails and psyching themselves up for a return to tube journeys, Conservative MP Luke Evans has been checking out strange, intricate and slightly terrifying scarecrows. Pick your favorite. 
LAST WEEK OF DOWNTIME: You can use the dwindling days of recess to check out the exhibition of Roger Mayne’s photography depicting postwar Britain, open for just one more week. 
NOW READ: The Guardian’s Gwyn Topham on the impact and challenges of new bus routes around the country, including London’s new Superloop and Manchester’s Bee Network.
WRITING PLAYBOOK PM: Emilio Casalicchio.
WRITING PLAYBOOK DAY MORNING: Dan Bloom.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz … Former Ilford South MP Sam Tarry … Former Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill MP Steven Bonnar … Lib Dem peer Alison Suttie … Former U.K. Ambassador to Norway Richard Wood.
PLAYBOOK COULDN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editors Zoya Sheftalovich and Alex Spence, diary reporter Bethany Dawson and producer Catherine Bouris.
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