British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will mark his 100th day in office on Saturday, but he has little desire to celebrate.
Starmer’s centre-left Labor Party was elected in a landslide on July 4, returning to power for the first time in 14 years. But after weeks of talk of feuds, giveaways and financial gloom, polls show Mr Starmer’s personal approval ratings have plummeted and Labor’s support has fallen from voters after years of infighting and scandal. That’s only slightly higher than the rejected Conservatives.
“I couldn’t have imagined a worse start,” said Tim Bale, a political science professor at Queen Mary University of London. “First impressions matter and it will be difficult to change them.”
Starmer was elected on a promise to clean up years of turmoil and scandal under the Conservative Party, grow Britain’s struggling economy and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service. I won.
The government claims it is off to a strong start. He ended a long strike by doctors and railway workers, established a publicly owned green energy company, scrapped the Conservative Party’s controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and introduced tougher legislation. Rights of workers and renters.
Starmer visited Washington, the United Nations and European capitals in a bid to show that “Britain is back” after years of inward-looking debate over Brexit. But Britain, like its allies, is struggling to have a significant impact on the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the escalating war in Ukraine.
The new government is also facing a domestic crisis, including days of far-right-fueled anti-immigrant violence that erupted in towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland over the summer. Mr Starmer condemned the rioters as “mindless thugs” and vowed to jail those responsible. More than 800 people have appeared in court and about 400 have been sent to prison.
Starmer’s most intractable problem is Britain’s weak economy, which is hampered by rising public debt and weak growth of just 0.2% in August, according to official figures.
Mr Starmer warned that the situation would be “tough in the short term” until the situation improved. He said public spending would be constrained by a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the finances left by the Conservatives.
One of the government’s first actions was to strip millions of retirees of payments to help cover their winter heating costs. This was intended to demonstrate a commitment to making tough economic decisions, but it sparked a fierce backlash from Labor members and some members of the public.
Also disturbing was news that Mr Starmer had accepted thousands of pounds ($) worth of clothes and designer glasses from wealthy Labor donors. Starmer insisted the gifts were within regulations, but after several days of negative headlines, he agreed to refund £6,000 (about $8,000) worth of gifts and entertainment, including tickets to see Taylor Swift.
Government officials and advisers have focused on Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray and her reported strained relationship with Labor election strategist Morgan McSweeney. The starting responsibilities are exchanged.
She resigned on Sunday amid intense media scrutiny and revelations that Mr Gray was paid more than the Prime Minister, saying articles about her “risked being a distraction”. Mr McSweeney will replace her as Mr Starmer’s chief of staff.
Anand Menon, director of political think tank Changing Europe UK, wrote on his website that the government had made “inevitable mistakes” that had led to “perceptions of incompetence and dysfunction” taking hold.
The government’s focus now is on October 30, when Treasury Secretary Rachel Reeves will lay out her first budget. The government is trying to combine public and private investment to boost economic growth, but it will need to come up with billions of dollars to do so. Mr. Reeves has ruled out raising income, sales, and corporate taxes, but he also said there will be no “return to austerity,” or a situation that is difficult to square. He is believed to be considering raising taxes on wealth, including capital gains and inheritance tax.
The government is hopeful that it can turn things around by making tough decisions early and demonstrating economic growth and improved living standards. And there is time. There will be no need for another election until 2029.
Mr Starmer, on his 100th day in office, working from No. 10 Downing Street, insisted he “will not veer off course”.
“Things have been volatile in recent days and weeks and there’s no getting around that,” he told the BBC. “That’s the nature of government.
“It was a lot harder than anything I’ve ever done, but it was a lot better.”
Mr Bale said the government could rebuild trust with voters if it could show that it “has a plan to improve the country, not just because it has a pretty terrible legacy”.
“In some ways what’s missing is a question of vision,” he says. “I don’t think people really understand what Keir Starmer, or indeed the Labor Party, are about, and that’s something they urgently need to correct.
