The UK has just had its "Midterms," a slate of elections—Welsh and Scottish Parliaments and major council elections in England. The conclusion from all these is that the voters rejected Labour mainly because of its deeply unpopular leader, Sir Keir Starmer.
I'm not going to assert that Starmer has been a great Prime Minister because he hasn't, but he is definitely not as bad as the consensus has painted him. A considerable number of people even think he is some sort of Son of Satan.
My basic view is that most mainstream UK Prime Ministers are mediocre at best (limited by the system), while Labour ones tend to be a bit worse than the Tory ones. Starmer, however, strikes me as a bit better than the average Labour Prime Minister, operating at roughly the level of competence that you would expect an average Tory PM to operate at. Yet, despite this, he has become the most loathed and unpopular PM of all time. What is going on here?
Ask political commentators the reason and they are hard pressed to come up with clear reasons.
The biggest thing that comes up is Labour's move soon after they were elected in 2024 to cut winter fuel payments for many pensioners (soon reversed). Other things mentioned are "slow economic growth," problems with the NHS, not supporting the Palestinians enough, and, laughably, "sleaze and corruption," as if Starmer is some bribe-harvesting Latin American dictator.
This last point should alert you to how skewed this all is. Trump and his entire family have been looting tens of billions of dollars from the system through blatant graft and corruption and building golden statues with the receipts, while Starmer and his missus have picked up a few hundred quid in designer clothes and tickets for pop concerts and football games. Yet Starmer's the bad guy here!
As for (temporarily) cutting the Winter fuel allowance for well-off pensioners and not being too partisan on the Palestinian question, those were actually objectively good decisions that blew up in his face politically. The first move alienated a lot of self-entitled old boomers who have been over-privileged for too long; while the second alienated the "student leftie" and "ethnic Labour" types, many of whom have now defected to the Greens.
Regarding the Palestinians, morally there is a case for more being done, but at the same time, the UK has to keep in touch with its main existing ally, the USA. Whatever one thinks of the future of that relationship, it would be reckless to just trash it and go all-in on Palestinian liberation and saying "fuck you, America."
Regarding the Palestinians, morally there is a case for more being done, but at the same time, the UK has to keep in touch with its main existing ally, the USA. Whatever one thinks of the future of that relationship, it would be reckless to just trash it and go all-in on Palestinian liberation and saying "fuck you, America."
When you examine other aspects of Starmer's record, none of it is brilliant, but, generally speaking, his decisions are characterised by sensible caution that tends to push in the right direction. I would give two particular examples: immigration and avoiding involvement in Trump's war against Iran.
Since taking office in 2024, Starmer has taken immigration seriously and his government has been pushing as hard as a Labour government can to stop small boats crossing the Channel and reducing immigration in general.
Thanks to Boris Johnson and the Tories, my home town in Scotland was flooded with African health workers whom the locals could see walking around at all times of day, paying home visits to the ill and the elderly. Since Labour took over, however, they have largely disappeared.
Also, look at this graph:
Thanks to Boris Johnson and the Tories, my home town in Scotland was flooded with African health workers whom the locals could see walking around at all times of day, paying home visits to the ill and the elderly. Since Labour took over, however, they have largely disappeared.
Also, look at this graph:
Sure, as always, more could always be done to protect Britain's ...erm..."demographic integrity." But for a Labour Prime Minister this is actually pretty impressive.
Also, quietly but firmly telling Trump that the UK wasn't on board with his idiotic terrorist war against Iran was the correct decision, a decision that was mocked and blamed by people like Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, who leads what remains of the Conservative Party.
So, why the relentless and unjustified hatred of Starmer? I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that when he does something right, like keeping his distance from Hamas, cutting unjustified public spending, or cracking down on immigration, it alienates lefties, who then jump ship to the Greens.
It also stems from the fact that he finds it difficult or counterproductive to boast of his actual achievements.
It also stems from the fact that he finds it difficult or counterproductive to boast of his actual achievements.
Starmer could have made a lot more of his government's relative success in cleaning up the immigration mess left behind by Boris Johnson and his Tory successors. But crowing about clamping down on migrants would be a bad look for a Labour PM and might push some more lefties into the Green camp.
Likewise, he could have gained a lot of popularity by making his disagreements with Trump more public, possibly throwing in a few personal insults to spice things up. But Starmer, true to his nature, chose to quietly tell the Americans to take a hike, while sending over the king to mollify Trump's fragile ego, so as to minimise the chances of any erratic American behaviour harming Britain.
The way Starmer does things makes it difficult to boast about them, even when they are clearly the right decisions. This means that the shallow, fickle, and uncomprehending public remain blind to them.
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
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