Starmer sets his sights on Scotland

Sir Keir also sounded positive, focusing on Scotland’s only oil refinery at Grangemouth, where hundreds of jobs are under threat.

“We discussed the economy. We discussed energy and as you would expect, we discussed Grangemouth,” he said, promising that “our governments will work together on that issue straight away.”

More generally, says new Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the way to reinvigorate the economy is growth aligned with an industrial strategy which will include a new publicly-owned green energy company based in Scotland.

However, there is still confusion about whether the proposed “Great British Energy” would operate as an actual energy generation company, as Labour originally promised or, as Sir Keir later told BBC Radio Scotland, “an investment vehicle.”

Regardless, trade unions, which have traditionally supported Labour, are worried about the impact on North Sea jobs of an accelerated transition to renewable power.

That is not their only concern.

“We haven’t got time to wait for growth,” said Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

“People are literally hurting out there, and we’re going to have to borrow to invest, and our crumbling public services need money.”

The other big economic issue hanging over Sir Keir as he takes office is the UK’s decision – against Scotland’s wishes – to end free trading arrangements with its biggest market, the European Union.

As he spoke to journalists on a terrace overlooking Edinburgh Castle on Sunday, I asked the prime minister if he had anything practical to say about how he would address the impact of Brexit, which the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates will reduce UK productivity (output per worker) by 4% in the long term.

“Yes,” he replied. “We intend to improve our relationship with the EU and that means closer trading ties with the EU.

“It means closer ties in relation to research and development and closer ties in relation to defence and security.

“I do think that we can get a much better deal than the botched deal that Boris Johnson saddled the UK with,” Sir Keir added.

Could that mean a return to some form of free-trading arrangement with the EU?

“I think we’re going to have a much better deal than the one we’ve got now. That depends on respectful relationships, talking to leaders across the EU and, of course, that work has already begun,” he replied.