Keir Starmer's 100 days in office: chaos and misery

(Image credit: Getty Images/Justin Tallis)

published 11 October 2024

Keir Starmer was handed one of the largest parliamentary majorities in history, yet has contrived to make a complete “hash” of his first 100 days in office, says Daniel Johnson in The Telegraph. The resignation last week of his chief of staff, Sue Gray, is just the latest of an “almost unprecedented catalogue of misfortunes, almost all of them self-inflicted”. “Keir Scrounger, as he deserves to be known, is not only guilty of misconduct” by accepting freebies from Labour donor Waheed Alli, but has also “bungled almost everything he has touched in his first three months”.

As a result, no PM in modern history has “lost popularity so rapidly”. It’s unfortunate that, for the last few years, Starmer has chosen to “introduce himself to the British public” – from the other side of the dispatch box – as disapproving and superior, says Marina Hyde in The Guardian. You have to be “whiter than white” if you are going to “make a career out of peering judgmentally” through your £294 Oliver Peoples glasses, and Starmer hasn’t been. “Which brings us to the other unfortunate conclusion”, as a poll places Labour’s lead over the Tories at just one point: the sense that Labour has squandered almost all of its electoral goodwill for a relatively “minuscule sum”.

The list of Labour’s other missteps is long, from the decision to cut the winter heating allowance for 10 million pensioners and giving striking train drivers a £10,000-a-year pay rise to the failure to deal with successive revelations about gifts and donations. The government has scrapped the cap on social-care bills, voted to keep the two-child limit on benefit payments, released violent criminals early and made foreign-policy blunders (see below), while alienating allies. It was also quick to freeze infrastructure projects despite their “evident need” and is yet to address “multiple social crises”, says Will Hutton in The Observer.

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What's happening in Downing Street?

At least Sue Gray, who has provided “a masterclass in how not to respond to crises”, has been replaced by the more suitable, “pugnacious political hard man” Morgan McSweeney, says Tom Harris in The Telegraph. McSweeney “put iron in Starmer’s soul when he was struggling to carve out a path from opposition to government”. But if personalities matter, “structure, systems and discreet responsibilities” matter more, and McSweeney must put those structures in place as a matter of urgency. Perhaps then Labour could actually get on with doing something, says Sheersh Kapoor on CNBC.

One of the most “persistent criticisms” of Labour has been the “lack of concrete policy details” despite promises of economic growth and national renewal. There’s also the concerning absence of “clear ideological direction”. Unlike Tony Blair and Clement Attlee, who advanced “distinct political philosophies”, Starmer’s leadership has been “characterised by a more managerial approach”, which lacks the galvanising visionary element. Starmer is “unique in his ability to spread fear and despondency rather than good cheer”, says Johnson. “A key qualification for the job is to lift our spirits. That is not the Eeyore of Downing Street’s way.”

The Budget on 30 October will be a defining moment as chancellor Rachel Reeves scrambles to “balance the books” and deal with the alleged £22 billion “black hole” left by the Tory government, says James Tapsfield in the Daily Mail. Reeves appears to be backing away from plans to slash pension contribution reliefs and scrap the UK’s controversial non-dom status. Experts have warned that imposing 20% VAT on private school fees in January may even be “impossible”. Whatever is in store, the Budget will prove a critical test.

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Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.