Keir Starmer once said “there is no such thing as Starmerism, and there never will be”. It was meant to signal his preference for pragmatic progressivism over ideological purity, but it has, for many, come to encompass all that is wrong with the current Labour government.
As it ditches part of yet another policy this week – on plans to make its digital ID scheme mandatory for UK workers – Downing Street faces a “political challenge”: its vision for the country looks less and less clear as “the climbdowns, dilutions, U-turns, about-turns, call them what you will, are mounting up”, said BBC political editor Chris Mason.
A change of heart can be “strategic”, showing flexibility and “sensitivity to public opinion”, said George Eaton in The New Statesman. But “too many” of Starmer’s U-turns look like “the product of incoherent thinking and inadequate preparation”. The watering-down of the digital ID plans follows about-turns on changes to inheritance tax for farmers, business-rate relief on pubs and the winter fuel allowance, not to mention the reversals on welfare reform and a grooming gangs inquiry.
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Successful governments have a defining purpose and message (think the push for privatisation under Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair’s public sector reforms) but, under Starmer, “missions, milestones and foundations have come and gone”. The U-turns “are ultimately a symptom of the government’s woes, rather than their cause”. Instead of moving “towards a clear destination”, Labour looks “as if it is merely going round in circles”.
U-turns are “rarely” down to “anger in the country”, said The Independent’s political editor David Maddox. They happen when a government doesn’t “have the strength to push through their agenda”. The “latest climbdown” on digital IDs suggests a prime minister in “survival mode”, lacking “the authority to get his policies through and to keep his backbenchers in line”.
Starmer is turning into the “Grand Old Duke of York”, one unnamed Labour MP told Dominic Penna in The Telegraph, and that is “building up resentment”. Hull MP Karl Turner, who is leading a backbench rebellion against jury reforms, said he and his colleagues now have to “think very carefully before defending policy decisions publicly” as any subsequent U-turns leave them “looking really stupid”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a likely leadership contender, has said it is important the government “gets it right first time”. To “put it very politely”, said the BBC’s Mason, “this is a work in progress” for the prime minister.
What next?
Future government reversals could be on anything from private landlord rental income to employment rights, said Matthew Lynn at MoneyWeek. “The one thing we know for certain about this government is that, as soon as it runs into any serious opposition, it quickly changes its mind.”
