Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
In his christmas message Speaking to the nation, Sir Keir Starmer tells people to “Reconnect with people who may have found this time of year difficult. Reach out to a friend or relative you haven’t heard from for a while. Reach out. It can make a huge difference.”
Commendable sentiments. However, it seems that many of those who voted him into power at the last general election would also like the Prime Minister to approach them again, as they are finding life under a Labor government much more difficult than they expected, as indeed is Sir Keir himself.
Latest polling results by Independent The things that have come to light about the position of the Prime Minister and his government become a subject of serious study. He knows he’s unpopular, but maybe not in a good way sorely disappointed People who trusted him one and a half years ago are realizing it now. Nearly four in 10 of those who will vote for Labor in July 2024 say the party will perform better at the ballot box with a new leader, with more than one in 10 having no confidence in Sir Keir.
The implications of such data are troubling for the Prime Minister, because it suggests that if he survives as leader until 2027, with an election looming, he and his party will be even more disliked, and a truly apocalyptic scenario will begin to play out. At that time, the party may panic or get stuck in a deadlock due to this critical situation. Either situation could reduce their support even further. Sir Keir’s personal ratings have never been that great, even in opposition, while his Commons landslide significantly reduced the 34 per cent of the vote he received.
Still, this is a historic decline, and it may not be over. Although the Labor government’s honeymoon was surprisingly brief – reduced by deduction For the aging winter fuel allowance – At this point last year, Labor was still ahead in the polls. At the time, Sir Keir’s party was at around 30 per cent support in opinion polls, ahead of the Conservatives and Reform, and had almost twice the support of the Greens.
Since then, of course, a lot has changed for the Prime Minister. He has lost two more important personalities in his orbit – his deputy Angela Rayner and the short-lived Peter Mandelson in Washington – as well as suffered a backbench rebellion over welfare reform that put the parliamentary party in the driving seat, and a succession of policy U-turns, which came just after Parliament was closed for the duration.
There could be a retreat from the so-called family farming tax right thing to doBut the timing seemed strangely suspicious. After all, it was “good news,” so why try to bury it under Christmastide? However, more than anything, it has been the disorganized conduct of economic policy and the 2025 budget that has shaken confidence in the competence of Sir Keir and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves. He, in particular, spent years ridiculing Conservative ministers for “chaos and confusion” and occasionally found himself Liz Truss’s rival for messiness (though she remains the benchmark for frustrating failure).
As far as the economy is concerned, things should improve in 2026 – if only because, with luck, there will be no big tax increases like in 2024 and 2025. Yet it’s similar to the old saying about how much better you feel when you stop banging your head against the wall. Growth will still be minimal, and living standards stagnant, while real improvements and reforms in public services, especially the NHS, are still not fully visible, and are threatened by industrial action by resident doctors and others.
So next year will be tough, and Sir Keir will surely face some disappointing results in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections in May. Sir Keir’s leadership will come under even greater pressure. Yet the man whom Boris Johnson called a “useless bollard” has a certain steady quality that may help him see things through. They are also greatly helped by the fact that their internal The opponents are very differentNo one is in a clear position to challenge and then be confident of winning the leadership election.
They too are divided. Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting may represent a more concrete version of Stormerism, whatever that means, but that is not what the “soft left” Labor Party of the 2020s wants. They would prefer Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner or, unexpectedly, the party’s deputy leader Lucy Powell. It is not entirely clear how any of them can bring Labor back to popularity.
The problem is that Sir Keir’s more socialist alternatives could alienate just as much centrist or reform-minded support among voters as it does winning back those who have defected. Charismatic Zach Polanski And its red colored greens. On the other hand, replacing Sir Keir with Ms Mahmood or Mr Streeting would make little difference to the policy terms, even if the presentation would probably be better. And, of course, neither candidate has access to a magical money tree. The rivals are clearly unwilling to plot together to get rid of Sir Keir, nor to work harmoniously in a Mark Two Labor administration. Such division could make matters worse.
The basic fact is that the adverse economic and demographic trends that have made life so challenging for the Prime Minister and his Chancellor will not simply go away, let’s say. audibly working class northerner is in charge.
It would be all the better if, in the middle years of this administration’s first (or only) term, Sir Keir could find his voice and articulate the narrative that has been lacking for so long. It seems that this is much later than the Prime Minister thinks.