The PM has to do two things to save his job. So what’s stopping him?
Keir Starmer is a wooden performer. So who’s pulling the strings? (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have collapsed. He has the lowest rating of any Western leader. Seven in 10 Britons now hold an unfavourable opinion of the PM, including 50% of 2024 Labour voters.
It’s easy to see why. Starmer is muddled, unclear on what he stands for, and incapable of connecting with voters. The PM doesn’t do human. Sometimes, I think he was birthed by an early version of AI.
Yet the polls also show he has a clear path back to popularity. Today, voters’ top two concerns are immigration and the economy. The NHS trails a distant third.
Put simply, to survive, Starmer must (a) stop the small boats and (b) revive growth. The problem is he can’t do either, because he’s being blocked at every turn.
That should be ridiculous. Starmer sits on a working majority of 157, thanks to Britain’s first-past-the-post system.
With numbers like that he should reek of power. Instead he’s being humiliated by an unruly gang of misfits. His own backbench MPs.
They first flexed their muscles when Chancellor Rachel Reeves tried to trim £5billion from the welfare bill.
That’s a fraction of the £100billion a year Britain will spend on health and sickness benefits by the end of this Parliament, yet even that modest saving proved impossible.
A noisy rebellion forced Starmer into an embarrassing climbdown, with welfare secretary Liz Kendall shuffled aside for her pains.
The message was brutal. Labour MPs will never wear spending cuts, however modest. Starmer is left with one option to balance the books, more taxes in the autumn Budget on November 26.
Backbenchers won’t object to that. Taxing pensioners, homeowners, business owners and anyone with savings is exactly what they came into politics to do.
Unfortunately, yet another tax blitz will kill the growth Starmer needs to revive the economy. It will sink his flagging popularity even further.
Backbench MPs are also on course to sink the PM’s number one priority: slashing immigration and stopping the boats.
Having tasted blood, Labour rebels aren’t about to stop.
Many in marginal constituencies are desperate to show Labour activists that they’re on the right side, even if it means voting down their own government.
Starmer tried to reassert authority in July by removing the whip from four serial rebels. Far from restoring discipline, he’s made MPs angrier and more determined. Their WhatsApp groups are now buzzing with complaints and plots.
This will frustrate voters on the issue they care about most – our out of control immigration system.
Starmer has appointed Shabana Mahmood as home secretary to get a grip, but she will face a wall of left-wing opposition.
Cutting family reunion rights, tightening residence rules and enforcing deportations are the kind of gritty measures Labour MPs loathe. So they will show their purist credentials, by blocking them.
Starmer is being held hostage by his own side. A childish gang of MPs who don’t understand that politics is about hard choices are calling the shots. And our puppet PM is dancing to their tune.
