The Despatch Box café at Portcullis House will be bustling this morning as MPs return from their summer break. Keir Starmer, whose holiday was interrupted for the second year in a row, returns to a crammed in-tray. The next few weeks in British politics – before MPs head off again for conference recess – are unlikely to be quiet for the Prime Minister.
Immigration is top of the list of Starmer’s worries. The weekend’s protests over asylum seeker hotels and the small-boats crisis are the latest instances of public discontent. The epicentre of events this summer has been the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where thousands of people have turned up to several demonstrations.
On Friday, a temporary injunction brought by Epping Forest District Council to stop asylum seekers from being housed in the hotel was overturned by the Court of Appeal. Another protest quickly erupted. The government is preparing itself for a wave of similar injunctions from disgruntled councils across the country – similar to the number that challenged the Conservative government in 2023 over the same issue.
Labour’s response so far has been quiet. In 2025, 29,003 migrants have arrived in small boats, up 47 per cent from last year. In the wake of the ruling, the Home Office minister Angela Eagle said the government would “stop using hotels, which aren’t a sustainable solution, by the end of this parliament”. Starmer’s response has been predominantly released through X in a series of odd, semi-robotic posts, the latest of which says: “I am clear: we will not reward illegal entry. If you cross the Channel unlawfully, you will be detained and sent back.” This text is accompanied a photo of two asylum seekers being accompanied by an enforcement officer. Their faces are blurred out.
The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will announce a raft of measures in parliament today with the intention of making it harder for refugees to bring family members to the UK, among other deterrents. But though the government is taking action now, there has been a surprising lack of communication and urgency from No 10 on this issue over the summer.
Nigel Farage, the insurgent leader of Reform UK and another of Starmer’s post-recess worries, has put the parliamentary break to good use. Every Monday this summer (including today) Reform has hosted a press conference unveiling its policy offerings. Last week’s announcement that a Reform government would undertake mass deportations set the news agenda; and 35 per cent of public now say they would vote for Farage’s gathering political force. Reform’s annual conference begins at the end of this week (Friday 5 September).
How might Starmer reclaim the agenda? With rumours of a government reshuffle swirling, could moving around advisers and ministers help the PM to hold on to the headlines? As George reported last week, a mini-reshuffle has already taken place on the Treasury benches, with the pensions minister and former Resolution Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell taking on responsibility for economic policy.
Having already replaced his principal private secretary, Nin Pandit, with Dan York-Smith at the end of last week, Starmer today made another move. Darren Jones, who was chief secretary to the Treasury, has now been relocated to No 10 to take on the new role of chief secretary to the prime minister. Jones’s appointment perhaps indicates how seriously Starmer is taking his government’s economic challenges. For Jones, who is a rising star in the party, this seems to be the latest step on the way to a major cabinet promotion. James Murray, Exchequer secretary to the Treasury, replaces Jones as Rachel Reeves’ number two. Dan Tomlinson, the MP for Chipping Barnet, will replace Murray. Tomlinson, another of the party’s rising stars, is hot on the government’s growth agenda. (Note that he replaced Theresa Villiers, an arch-Tory Nimby as the Chipping Barnet MP last year.) It’s unclear whether more moves are on the way.
After a disquieting summer, the next two weeks are unlikely to be easy for the PM and his government. (Starmer’s 63rd birthday tomorrow will probably not be celebrated much.) As conference season approaches, will Starmer take back the reins of British politics or will he be guided by events?
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here
Content from our partners
Related
