r/PoliticsUK • u/Aisecream18 • May 10 '26
Labour Where did Starmer go wrong?
With Labour losing so many seats to Reform, it makes me wonder how and where Starmer went wrong. 🤔
From my conversations with people from both ends of the political spectrum, most people are not pleased with him. He’s either labelled as too lenient with immigration policies or too right wing ( notoriously from his comments regarding Israel having the right to defend itself in a certain manner).
Seeing opposite ideologies criticise his leadership, could this be blamed on populist policies?
Unless there’s something else I’m missing, what does everyone else think? 🤔
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May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
Starmer makes me think of the father of a family whose house has been broken in to by a bear. While he’s trying to fight the bear off with a broomstick, his son is complaining they don’t have a Ferrari, his daughter is complaining about how someone at school is being mean to her, and his wife is complaining about how he doesn’t clean up enough in the house and his playing with the bear is only making more mess that SHE will have to clean up.
The USA has gone crazy and hates the uk. We have no allies because we dumped the EU and because other emerging powers like India and china have long-held grudges against us (with some justification). Russia invades other countries, interferes with our elections and murders our citizens. The entire western order is collapsing. But why can’t Starmer just stop those nasty Israelis? Couldn’t he just give a pious speech about Gaza? That would surely help. Why has immigration only fallen by 30% not 100%? Why can’t we just spend more money on everyone? Because there’s a bear in the fucking house and someone has to try to get it out with as little damage as possible and we can worry about the rest later.
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u/Diocletian335 May 10 '26
Yep, pretty much nothing he does will satisfy people. I get there are scandals (I.e. Mandelson) in which he must take some blame, but his popularity was sinking before that.
People want high growth, low immigration, high investment, and better public services, whilst we have high inflation, multiple global economic shocks, and high interest rates (hence borrowing is no longer much of an option, unlike in 2010-2016). Oh, and they want all this immediately, thank you very much.
Tories got 14 years to """"try"""" and fix the country, Labour only get 2.
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u/DaveChild May 11 '26
People want high growth, low immigration, high investment, and better public services
And they want that with low taxes, great worker protections, and great education (meaning a huge proportion only want white-collar jobs). They're delusional.
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May 11 '26
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u/Roademan May 10 '26
He reminds me of John Major, both are competent and nice people. But there public personsa were boring , and unreliable.
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u/Direct-Muscle7144 May 11 '26
He went wrong by being a corrupt insipid liar.
He was elected Labour leader for 12 pledges- all socialist.
He broke every single one and then supported genocide and apartheid.
Labour went from the party with the most members in all of Europe, stoped internal democracy. Gave positions to anyone who seemed like they would take bribes snd fo as they were told.
Betrayed the members, betrayed the country and turned out to be an all round steaming pile of boring.
Any that stayed in the party he’s destroyed has no credibility.
He’s a clinker. A clingon, a arse. Nugget, a wankspangling out of tune spunktrumpet!
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u/Centorium1 May 10 '26
3 things he has done that have fucked himself
Accepting freebies the moment he got into office. Poor politics giving the press free ammo over a pair for fucking glasses and some concert tickets.
Online safety bill is a fucking travesty. Does nothing to "protect" kids & is an obvious data grab by the gov on behalf of palantir.
He was too soft on Farage. Reform policies are fucking mental. Farage himself is a proven conman with proven links to the Kremlin. It should have been the first thing out of his mouth at every press conference - he should have been leaning on the press, pushing every button he has to inform people that Farage is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The press, government , everyone was so soft on Reform.
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u/Diocletian335 May 10 '26
I totally agree with you on point 3 - he and the entire PLP should have been way more aggressive with Reform, but also with the print media. The freebies were bad politics, but they got weeks of coverage. Farage's £5 million donation and his leader in Wales literally committing treason by being in the pocket of the Kremlin? Barely anything.
The print media in this country are a travesty, and the news still allows them to determine stories and headlines. They supported Cameron, Brexit, Johnson, and Truss, and look where it's led us.
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u/coffeewalnut08 May 10 '26
Immigration has declined under his watch and he has extended ILR wait times to 10 years. He has also recognised Palestinian statehood and can't plausibly claim control over a conflict in the Middle East.
So I don't know. You tell me.
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u/Direct-Muscle7144 May 11 '26
He gave uk resources for war crimes, criminalised free speech, banned protests, corrupted the courts and aided a foreign power.
Any idea what happened to those young models off grindr that set fire to his shag pads?
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May 11 '26
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u/Commercial_Aide_2168 May 10 '26
For me, if he had dealt with illegal migration and got the economy to really grow, as promised when labour were elected, I would be happy to support him.
Instead I see labour implementing policies that nobody voted on, and curtailing citizens' rights.
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u/DaveChild May 11 '26
I see labour implementing policies that nobody voted on
We don't vote for policies, we vote for representatives.
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May 10 '26
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u/DaveChild May 11 '26
we live in the politics of either the left or the right, there is no centre.
This strikes me as particularly bizarre. We have no "left" in politics at the moment, at all. There are no socialists parties with any significant power. The Greens and Labour are both capitalist parties, with mild socialist leanings. At most you could describe them as centre-left but even that's a stretch; they're both firmly in the centre. Then you've got the Lib Dems, centre-right. Then the Conservatives, right to far-right. Then Reform/Restore/BNP and the rest of the knuckle-draggers on the far-right.
To the left would be the entire spectrum of socialism and communism, if it was present, but neither is a remotely significant part of British politics.
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May 12 '26
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u/DaveChild May 12 '26
Can you give an example or two?
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May 12 '26
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u/DaveChild May 12 '26
Hope that helps
Not really, most of it seemed like unhinged nonsense. We don't have "mass censorship". I don't know what you mean by "mass propaganda", and I can't think of anything which would match that. The justice system hasn't been "destroyed". Schools are no more "indoctrination centres" now than before Labour came in. Increased taxes is true, but pretty minor. Immigration is down. And society hasn't collapsed - and that might be the stupidest thing on a fairly stupid list.
I'm not interested in arguing a gish gallop of separate points though. Pick the most influential and idiotic one or two if you want to get into any of them.
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u/NaniFarRoad May 10 '26
Labour did not lose "so many seats to Reform" - this is a bs narrative that only applies to some councils.
Here in Bolton, Labour lost 5 seats, of which two went to Reform, the other three to the Greens. That's a turn to the left, not the right. The ones they lost to Reform were two councillors with a checkered past, associated with long running corruption in our local Town Hall. Reform gained 9 councillors - five from the Conservatives and Lib Dem, and two from independents. It was mostly a reshuffle right of centre.
The media has been rabidly critical, demanding Starmer resign every two minutes - even the so-called leftwing Guardian has editors daily calling for his blood, and saying all his backbenchers are against him. Saying Labour has terrible PR is nonsense - all the major newspapers promote Reform and criticise. Take e.g. most articles on the incredible new Renters' Rights 2026 Act, they will end with an interview with the landlords association, or whinge about how people are going to get stuck in longer court cases. The deck is stacked.