Keir Starmer may not be the best storyteller but he will be ultimately judged on his government’s delivery

Published

4 months ago

December 6, 2024

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A film set location, a big budget production, an audience bussed in – the prime minister’s Plan for Change speech had all the hallmarks of big campaign moments past when Sir Keir Starmer used the event to launch his “first steps’ set of promises – from cutting NHS waiting lists and setting up a new border command to tackle small boats – and his election-winning manifesto.

Five months into government, on Thursday, he gathered his cabinet and crowd in Pinewood Studios to launch this six milestones for government.

But if it was meant to be a box office moment, it all felt a bit flat.

What’s in a Labour government?

Over the past 18 months, we’ve had three foundations, five missions, six first steps and now, on Thursday, six milestones, with a 42-page plan.

Speak to the prime minister at the edges of these events, and he can make a compelling case for his missions and the clarity he has for government.

But somehow it is getting lost in translation as the missions become the first steps, become milestones with three foundations to boot.

It can be hard to find a narrative in what this government is trying to do.

Thursday was an attempt to change that with six measurable milestones now set up so you, Whitehall and the cabinet, are all crystal clear about where they are heading.

Some of them are a departure from manifesto pledges, others are not.

Some of them are genuinely ambitious, others less so.

The manifesto promise to have the fastest growing economy in the G7 is now an “aim” while the new milestone is to “raise living standards in every part of the United Kingdom, so working people have more money in their pockets” is a new target.

The idea is to make the pledge more “human” but the PM wouldn’t say how much he wanted to raise living standards – and household disposable income is already set to rise by the end of this parliament.

Then on opportunity for all, in the run-up to the election the government promised to recruit 6,500 more teachers to improve teaching in state secondaries.

Now the milestone they are asking to be measured on is a promise that 75% of five-year-olds are ready to learn in England when they start school against 67% today.

There is a new milestone to fast-track planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects.

There is a milestone to put a named bobby back on the beat in every neighbourhood, while the pledge to halve violence against women and girls has not been marked up as a milestone.

‘Hold the government’s feet to the fire’

Why are they doing it now and to what end?

At its heart this is an attempt to give voters clear targets on which they can, to quote Starmer himself, “hold the government’s feet to the fire”.

But it felt a bit like a rag bag of measures in which some past promises were pushed aside and others pumped up.

The 1.5 million housing target, the pledge to return to the NHS standard of 92% of patients being seen for elective treatment in 18 weeks, the commitment to green power by 2030 are all ambitious.

But things that are perhaps too risky or hard to meet have been dropped.

The migration question

One of the biggest omissions in the milestones was migration.

This surprised me, not least because the prime minister had said clearly that the economy and borders were his two main priorities in government and a clear concern for voters.

But instead of making it one of his milestone measures, for which the public can hold him accountable, the PM said securing borders was one of the “foundations” of his government.

There is no metric on which to measure him beyond net migration coming down from record levels of 800,000 plus in the past couple of years.

Perhaps he could have been more ambitious in setting a target to hit in terms of cutting legal migration or small boat crossings.

Perhaps he could have committed to a deportation figure – something that Harriet Harman suggested he might have done on our episode of Electoral Dysfunction this week.

But I suspect, in the end, Number 10 decided it was too risky to try to set targets.

‘The tepid bath of managed decline’

But with a disaffected electorate, high levels of scepticism, and a Reform party playing into that anti-politics sentiment, Starmer knows he must galvanise his government to try to deliver tangibles before the next election, and this speech will perhaps be looked back on as one aimed as much at Whitehall as it was you, the voter.

He explicitly challenged the British state to deliver in this speech saying his Plan for Change was “the most ambitious plan for government in a generation” and would require a “change to the nature of governing itself” as he called on the state to become more dynamic, decisive, innovate, embracing of technology and artificial intelligence.

“Make no mistake, this plan will land on desks across Whitehall with the heavy thud of a gauntlet being thrown down, a demand given the urgency of our times,” he told his audience as he fired a warning shot to Whitehall.

“I do think there are too many people in Whitehall who are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline. Had forgotten, to paraphrase JFK, that you choose change not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.”

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Starmer and his team know that without galvanising Whitehall and setting clear navigation through this mission and now measurable milestones, delivery will be hard.

The plan is for stock takes on the missions and milestones in order to hold mandarins accountable.

On the back of Starmer’s milestones speech will come another from cabinet minister Pat McFadden on civil service reform.

At the election, Starmer ran on a platform of promising change.

Five months later, eyeing a sharp fall in opinion poll ratings, he is offering a concrete plan for change.

For now voters seemed tuned out, with the pledges and targets being thrown at them failing to stick.

I don’t think Starmer or his team expect those polls to turn around any time soon.

But they are adamant that if they can fulfil promises to build more homes and better infrastructure, cut NHS waiting lists, lift living standards, and give people a sense of greater security on their streets, they can turn the tide on the tsunami of cynicism they face.

Starmer might not be the best storyteller, but in the end he’ll likely be judged not on the flourish or rhetoric, but on whether he can actually deliver.

Politics

Bakkt investors file class-action lawsuit after loss of Webull, BoA contracts

Published

3 hours ago

April 4, 2025

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Bakkt investors file class-action lawsuit after loss of Webull, BoA contracts

A group of investors with cryptocurrency custody and trading firm Bakkt Holdings filed a class-action lawsuit alleging false or misleading statements and a failure to disclose certain information.

Lead plaintiff Guy Serge A. Franklin called for a jury trial as part of a complaint against Bakkt, senior adviser and former CEO Gavin Michael, CEO and president Andrew Main, and interim chief financial officer Karen Alexander, according to an April 2 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The group of investors allege damages as the result of violations of US securites laws and a lack of transparency surrounding its agreement with clients: Webull and Bank of America (BoA).

Law, Investments, United States, Bakkt — *April 2 complaint against Bakkt and its executives. Source: PACER*

The loss of Bank of America and Webull will result “in a 73% loss in top line revenue” due to the two firms making up a significant percentage of its services revenue, the investor group alleges in the lawsuit. The filing stated Webull made up 74% of Bakkt’s crypto services revenue through most of 2023 and 2024, and Bank of America made up 17% of its loyalty services revenue from January to September 2024.

Bakkt disclosed on March 17 that Bank of America and Webull did not intend to renew their agreements with the firm ending in 2025. The announcement likely contributed to the company’s share price falling more than 27% in the following 24 hours. The investors allege Bakkt “misrepresented the stability and/or diversity of its crypto services revenue” and failed to disclose that this revenue was “substantially dependent” on Webull’s contract.

“As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” said the suit.

Other law offices said they were investigating Bakkt for securities law violations, suggesting additional class-action lawsuits may be in the works. Cointelegraph contacted Bakkt for a comment on the lawsuit but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Prices affected by Trump Media reports

Bakkt’s share price surged roughly 162% in November 2024 after reports suggested that then-US President-elect Donald Trump’s media company was considering acquiring the firm. As of April 2025, neither company has officially announced a deal.

Shares in Bakkt (BKKT) were $8.15 at the time of publication, having fallen more than 36% in the previous 30 days.

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Politics

Trump tariffs squeeze already struggling Bitcoin miners — Braiins exec

Published

9 hours ago

April 4, 2025

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Trump tariffs squeeze already struggling Bitcoin miners — Braiins exec

The new trade tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump may place added pressure on the Bitcoin mining ecosystem both domestically and globally, according to one industry executive.

While the US is home to Bitcoin (BTC) mining manufacturing firms such as Auradine, it’s still “not possible to make the whole supply chain, including materials, US-based,” Kristian Csepcsar, chief marketing officer at BTC mining tech provider Braiins, told Cointelegraph.

On April 2, Trump announced sweeping tariffs, imposing a 10% tariff on all countries that export to the US and introducing “reciprocal” levies targeting America’s key trading partners.

Community members have debated the potential effects of the tariffs on Bitcoin, with some saying their impact has been overstated, while others see them as a significant threat.

Tariffs compound existing mining challenges

Csepcsar said the mining industry is already experiencing tough times, pointing to key indicators like the BTC hashprice.

Hashprice — a measure of a miner’s daily revenue per unit of hash power spent to mine BTC blocks — has been on the decline since 2022 and dropped to all-time lows of $50 for the first time in 2024.

According to data from Bitbo, the BTC hashprice was still hovering around all-time low levels of $53 on March 30.

“Hashprice is the key metric miners follow to understand their bottom line. It is how many dollars one terahash makes a day. A key profitability metric, and it is at all-time lows, ever,” Csepcsar said.

He added that mining equipment tariffs were already increasing under the Biden administration in 2024, and cited comments from Summer Meng, general manager at Chinese crypto mining supplier Bitmars.

“But they keep getting stricter under Trump,” Csepcsar added, referring to companies such as the China-based Bitmain — the world’s largest ASIC manufacturer — which is subject to the new tariffs.

Trump’s latest measures include a 34% additional tariff on top of an existing 20% levy for Chinese mining imports. In response, China reportedly imposed its own retaliatory tariffs on April 4.

BTC mining firms to “lose in the short term”

Csepcsar also noted that cutting-edge chips for crypto mining are currently massively produced in countries like Taiwan and South Korea, which were hit by new 32% and 25% tariffs, respectively.

“It will take a decade for the US to catch up with cutting-edge chip manufacturing. So again, companies, including American ones, lose in the short term,” he said.

Csepcsar also observed that some countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States region, including Russia and Kazakhstan, have been beefing up mining efforts and could potentially overtake the US in hashrate dominance.

“If we continue to see trade war, these regions with low tariffs and more favorable mining conditions can see a major boom,” Csepcsar warned.

As the newly announced tariffs potentially hurt Bitcoin mining both globally and in the US, it may become more difficult for Trump to keep his promise of making the US the global mining leader.

Trump’s stance on crypto has shifted multiple times over the years. As his administration embraces a more pro-crypto agenda, it remains to be seen how the latest economic policies will impact his long-term strategy for digital assets.

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Politics

Malta regulator fines OKX crypto exchange $1.2M for past AML breaches

Published

9 hours ago

April 4, 2025

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Malta regulator fines OKX crypto exchange .2M for past AML breaches

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is under renewed regulatory scrutiny in Europe after Maltese authorities issued a major fine for violations of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.

Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) fined Okcoin Europe — OKX’s Europe-based subsidiary — 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million) after detecting multiple AML failures on the platform in the past, the authority announced on April 3.

While admitting that OKX has significantly improved its AML policies in the past 18 months, the authority “could not ignore” its past compliance failures from 2023, “some of which were deemed to be serious and systematic,” the FIAU notice said.

OKX was among the first crypto exchanges to receive a license under Europe’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation via its Malta hub in January 2025.

The news of the $1.2 million penalty in Malta came after Bloomberg in March reported that European Union regulators were probing OKX for laundering $100 million in funds from the Bybit hack.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou previously claimed that OKX’s Web3 proxy allowed hackers to launder about $100 million, or 40,233 Ether (ETH), from the $1.5 billion hack that occurred in February.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

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