Keir Starmer's first year: a catalogue of errors

The Prime Minister cuts a dash on the international stage, but at home seems detached from his own administration

Keir Starmer leaving his plane as he arrives for a two-day Nato summit in The Hague
'The PM is less a conviction politician than a shape-shifting pragmatist. With each U-turn his authority ebbs away'
(Image credit: Ben Stansall / AFP / Getty Images)

It is a year ago this week that Keir Starmer stormed to electoral victory, with a massive 174-seat majority and a promise that "change begins now". Back then, senior Labour officials spoke of treating their first term "as an extended [election] campaign for the second that would almost inevitably follow in 2029", said Patrick Maguire in The Times.

But just 12 months on, all that optimism has evaporated: "nobody dares sound so presumptuous now". Even before this week's debacle, the opinion polls did not make happy reading, said James Frayne in The Daily Telegraph. As things stand, Labour is heading for a "devastating defeat" in 2029. Indeed, it is only because the Right is split that Labour is "even vaguely in contention with Nigel Farage's Reform, which comfortably tops the polls". As for Starmer's personal ratings, they are so "awful" that some Labour MPs are wondering if he'll survive until the next election.

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