Is there a Christmas curse on Downing Street?
Keir Starmer could follow a long line of prime ministers forced to swap festive cheer for the dreaded Christmas crisis
Keir Starmer is getting ready to celebrate his first Christmas as PM, having secured one of the biggest election landslides less than six months ago.
But amid slumping poll numbers, a flurry of negative headlines, grim economic forecasts, millions calling for an early general election and even a parody song closing in on the festive Top 10, he could be forgiven for thinking the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future are visiting him all at once.
"Clearly it's a pretty grim time to be prime minister at the mo," said Sam Blewett in Politico's London Playbook, but "Starmer's hardly the first" British PM to "have a less-than-merry Christmas".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What did the commentators say?
In past years, there have been "wars, invasions, natural disasters, international plots and dramatic resignations", all helping "to spoil prime-ministerial Christmasses", said Sue Cameron at Prospect.
Having refused to give Downing Street staff a week off over Christmas in 1941, Winston Churchill had to practise "what he'd preached" in 1944 and, following a community uprising in Athens, fly to Greece at 1am on Christmas morning, to negotiate a settlement.
In 1956, Anthony Eden, Churchill's successor as Tory leader, "had one of the most miserable Christmasses of any Number 10 incumbent", as the Suez crisis became "mired in deceit and failure".
And Labour PM Jim Callaghan returned from a Christmas Caribbean summit in 1979 to find the Winter of Discontent raging, sparking the famous "Crisis? What crisis?" headline, from which he never politically recovered.
Modern PMs have fared little better. In 1997, Tony Blair may have been basking in approval ratings Starmer can only dream of, but that did not stop protestors, angry at changes to disability benefits, derailing his first Christmas in Downing Street by throwing red paint over the gates and writing "Blair’s blood" on the ground.
Having finally made it to Number 10, Gordon Brown had a torrid series of Christmasses, facing fears of a recession in 2007, dealing with the collapse of the global financial system in 2008, and culminating in a 2009 end-of-year plot to oust him that splashed on the front page of the Daily Mail.
And the list goes on. Theresa May was "dealt a nightmare before Christmas" back in 2016, said Blewett in Politico. MPs voted for the government's Brexit plan to be published before the UK invoked Article 50, leaving Parliament "irate", voters "restless", and even Queen Elizabeth "reportedly miffed".
But few had it as bad as Boris Johnson, who spent Christmas 2020 holed up in Downing Street ordering mass lockdowns as the Covid pandemic raged. His nadir came at Christmas 2021, when the fun-loving PM "got a series of nasty surprises, all of them worse than a lump of coal", The New Yorker reported at the time. These included the leaking of the now infamous clip of Downing Street staff joking about a lockdown-busting Christmas party – revelations that would, eventually, lead to Johnson's downfall.
What next?
Downing Street has confirmed that Starmer will spend Christmas Day at the PM's country retreat, Chequers, before heading off abroad for his first family holiday since the summer's election.
Having cancelled his last planned getaway in August to deal with the fallout from the Southport riots, he will be praying that the curse of Callaghan does not create another crisis that calls him back early – and ultimately dooms his premiership.
Having wished for a "better, brighter future" in his festive message to the nation, the PM "better have left one hell of a large inducement behind to encourage a miracle down one of Downing Street's chimneys" because the papers are currently teeming with "reasons why the hard months gone by may give way to even harder ones to come", said Politico.
Merry Christmas, indeed.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Kremlin seeks to quell Assad divorce reports
Speed Read Media reports suggest that British citizen Asma al-Assad wants to leave the deposed Syrian dictator and return to London as a British citizen
By Hollie Clemence, The Week UK Published
-
Are pig-organ transplants becoming a reality?
The Explainer US woman has gene-edited pig-kidney transplant, and scientists hope experimental surgery could save thousands of lives
By Abby Wilson Published
-
Blake Lively's 'bombshell' legal action
In the spotlight It Ends With Us actor files 'astonishing' court filing against co-star and director Justin Baldoni
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Elon Musk about to disrupt British politics?
Today's big question Mar-a-Lago talks between billionaire and Nigel Farage prompt calls for change on how political parties are funded
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Starmer's Brexit reset work?
Today's Big Question PM will have to tread a fine line to keep Leavers on side as leaks suggest EU's 'tough red lines' in trade talks next year
By The Week UK Published
-
'All this is to be expected'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Labour's plans to redefine the green belt
The Explainer Angela Rayner's planning reforms turn green-belt areas into 'grey belt' house-building zones, and campaigners are voicing concerns
By Abby Wilson Published
-
Labour's plan for change: is Keir Starmer pulling a Rishi Sunak?
Today's Big Question New 'Plan for Change' calls to mind former PM's much maligned 'five priorities'
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
'Drug epidemics are often cyclical'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published