Notes

Magliabechi’s: The Starmer Project. This month, the British press has been taking stock of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership to mark his first 100 days in office. The reviews have not been overwhelmingly positive. But Starmer’s camp may be troubled less by the views of British newspaper columnists than by those of the British people—among whom Starmer’s popularity has plummeted. He’s now even less liked than the Reform Party leader, Nigel Farage.

Yet Starmer won the election in a landslide. What’s happened since?

A number of explanations are already in circulation:

• Despite the landslide, Starmer was never popular. After fourteen years in power, voters were simply tired of having a Tory in 10 Downing Street, and Rishi Sunak ran his campaign as though he too were tired of it.
• The right-wing vote was split by the Reform Party, meaning Labour got only one-third of the votes but two-thirds of the seats—making it the highest seat-to-vote ratio of any Labour victory ever.
• Starmer has taken several hits since winning. He had to force the Downing Street chief of staff to resign following internal squabbles. The press revealed that his backers had given him more than £100,000 in freebies, including expensive suits. He suspended a few arms export licenses to Israel, irritating its supporters without satisfying its critics. And this summer, racist rioters looking to beat up immigrants overran several British towns: The police charged several hundreds of them, but Britain’s prisons were so overcrowded that Starmer then had to release prisoners early to clear space. Whatever the merits of that decision, it wasn’t the PR Starmer wanted.

Beneath all of this, however, is the reality Starmer has never endeared himself to the left wing of the Labour Party. It’s a reality Oliver Eagleton explores in The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right. Published in 2022, the book makes the case that Starmer’s once-professed leftist convictions had always been more for public consumption than sincere. And the early days of his premiership may back the argument up.

In his first speech as prime minister, Starmer said the U.K. had “voted decisively for change.” Yet he’s retained the Conservatives’ cap on welfare payments to families with more than two children. He’s restricted winter fuel payments, leaving only the very poorest pensioners still eligible for the benefit. And last week, the Financial Times reported that Labour is looking to keep the Tories’ plan to slash £1.3 billion worth of sickness benefits. That’s a lot of continuity.

—Gustav Jönsson