Is Keir Starmer trying to build a legacy or just getting on with the job?

As the Makerfield byelection and a potential leadership challenge loom, there is a sense the PM is looking to create impacts that last

A s the weeks ticked down to her departure from Downing Street in 2019, Theresa May had a plan. Not only did she want to put a net zero target into law, but she wanted the UK to be the first major economy to do so. And that meant beating the French.

“It required the machinery of government to move more quickly than the French parliament,” a No 10 official from the time recalls. And it worked: the UK target came into force in June 2019 , six weeks before May handed over to Boris Johnson, and five months before the French. She had her legacy.

With the Makerfield byelection little more than a week away, and with it the possible return to Westminster of Andy Burnham, there is a sense that Keir Starmer is entering his own legacy period – not just tying up loose ends, but seeking to create impacts that last.

The long-awaited defence investment plan is expected this week. Efforts are moving ahead to renew ties with the EU . And along with imminent measures to limit access to social media, there is sudden action to block explicit images on children’s phones, a longstanding demand from campaigners.

This idea of a prime minister trying to hastily burnish a reputation for the history books is brusquely dismissed by No 10 officials: one called the idea nothing more than “lazy journalism”.

Allies of Starmer are less obviously dismissive, but point out that it is hard to definitively separate a would-be legacy from a PM who – unlike May – has not said he will step down, let alone given a date, and is thus still very much getting on with the job.

“I think this is less about defining a legacy, and more about showing public and party that this government can deliver meaty and transformational policy change,” a government source said. “I think it’s then on Burnham, [Wes] Streeting and anyone else to explain what it is they would do differently, and how they would either pay for it or deliver.”