London, United Kingdom – Keir Starmer, who will on Saturday mark his first 100 days in office as the British prime minister (PM), is unpopular.
According to an October 8 YouGov poll, the 62-year-old former lawyer’s favourability ratings have plummeted to the lowest level since he took over as Labour leader in 2020, his popularity having declined further since becoming PM.
More than six in 10 Britons now dislike Starmer, YouGov reported.
“It’s easily the worst start to a government’s time in office in living memory – and it wasn’t as if Labour were that popular anyway,” Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera.
Starmer on July 4 led his then-opposition party to a resounding election victory and large majority in Parliament, sweeping the Conservatives, in power for more than a decade, into the shadows.
But turnout was low at about 50 percent, the poorest level by share of population since universal suffrage.
“The freebie problem is the most immediate issue [Labour] need to put behind them because it’s badly damaged their brand,” said Bale.
“In the long term, the main issues – as they always are, are the economy and the NHS. If the government can get them right, they stand a chance of recovering.”
A donations scandal has dominated headlines in recent weeks.
Starmer, whose annual salary is now about 167,000 pounds ($218,000), has declared receiving freebies worth more than 100,000 pounds ($131,000) over the past five years. He has accepted more gifts than any other member of parliament (MP) during this period, including some after being elected as PM.
News of the accommodation costs, pricey glasses, Taylor Swift concert tickets, football match tickets, clothing and other giveaways he has embraced has angered the British public, many of whom are still grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.
Starmer’s donors include a wealthy Labour peer, Lord Waheed Alli, and the Premier League.
Accepting gifts is legal but since Labour is traditionally a left-wing party that prides itself on values such as equality and transparency, the PM and other Labour MPs who have lapped up freebies are being accused of greed.
There are also questions over influence.
Henry Newman, an ex-political adviser to the Conservatives and the director of The Whitehall Project on Substack, told the Financial Times: “[Starmer’s] personal donor, Alli, was given privileged access to Downing Street while working on both fundraising and government appointments. The government needs to come clean on Lord Alli’s exact role otherwise concerns over cronyism will keep growing.”
‘It’s been quite a shaky start’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also upset a large section of society by limiting a winter fuel payment for pensioners – meaning about 10 million elderly people will no longer receive a few hundred pounds of relief as energy companies hike prices this winter.
“It’s been quite a shaky start,” said Anand Menon, professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London. “The surprise was how badly they’ve handled it.”
He believes Labour has a public relations problem.
“They’ve allowed [the donations scandal] to be the story … They failed quickly enough to come out with a coherent coordinating response,” he said.
“What you want is the government to come in and tell a story about where we are and where they’re taking us, and actually bring that narrative home to us. Over the first few months in government, there hasn’t been a narrative, and I think because of that, there’s been a hole. Everyone’s waiting for the budget.”
Reeves, who accepted a 7,500-pound donation ($9,800) before the election to use on clothing, will unveil the budget on October 30. There is speculation the government could raise some taxes, such as capital gains and inheritance.
As well as denying the winter fuel payment to better-off pensioners, Labour has made clear the state pension will rise by 4 percent and committed to honour its election promise of adding VAT to private school fees.
In September, Starmer, Reeves and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner tried to draw a line under the donations scandal, saying they would no longer accept free clothing.
According to Steven Fielding, a politics professor at the University of Nottingham who is currently writing a book analysing the Labour Party since the 1970s, Starmer’s administration has been “stumbling” rather than “striding purposefully into the future”.
He said Labour “totally misunderstood” the timeframe that most British voters live in, “which is they want jam today, not tomorrow, even though it’s unreasonable to expect it”.
“It doesn’t really help that the two dominant themes that have emerged out of this period [of 100 days] have been the freebies and the poor old pensioners losing out in their winter fuel payments.”
While neither issue is “quite as bad” as headlines suggest, since politicians accepting donations is hardly novel and because the payment will still reach tens of millions of pensioners in need, “that’s the takeaway”, said Fielding.
Away from Whitehall, Starmer’s first days in office were rocked by race riots across the nation after a fatal stabbing attack against young girls in northern England. Online agitators, fanning flames of division, dreamed up a Muslim migrant suspect to pin the blame on and succeeded in riling up thousands of rioters.
Starmer backed what his home secretary called “swift justice” against the rioters, winning praise for his calm yet firm response.
However, the hard-right MP Nigel Farage led the PM’s critics, a group which includes billionaire Elon Musk, in accusing the government of overseeing “two-tier” policing, suggesting without evidence that minority groups and the left are punished less severely than white offenders.
Amid riots, a scandal and a financial blow to pensioners, some of Labour’s less dramatic promises have fallen under the radar.
In September, Starmer promised a 10-year plan to improve the NHS, saying there would be no extra funding for the health service before reform.
A major election campaign issue, most Britons will be affected by any changes made to the health service, which is beset by challenges including long waiting lists and staff shortages.
“Labour will definitely hope that the first 100 days will not be in the forefront of anybody’s mind by the time there’s a next election,” said Fielding.
“I mean, can you tell me what the first 100 days of the [ex-Conservative PM] Boris Johnson government was like? I certainly can’t.”
