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Keir Starmer entered Downing Street in 2024 with a majority that should have heralded a new era of political stability.
Instead, just a year into his premiership, Labour’s polling has plummeted to historic lows, and the mood in the country is sour.
How did it unravel so quickly?
The answer lies not with the Tories or external shocks, but with Starmer himself.
A hollow mandate
Labour’s 2024 victory looked spectacular on the surface: a towering parliamentary majority.
But the reality beneath was sobering. Starmer secured just 9.7 million votes — fewer than Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 (10.3 million), and more than 3 million fewer than in 2017 (12.8 million).
The only reason Labour gained so many seats was the implosion of the Conservative vote, which halved from 14 million in 2019 to just 6.8 million in 2024.
Starmer’s government was built not on a popular surge but on Tory collapse and a flawed, disproportionate electoral system.
Rather than acknowledge this, he behaved as though he had an unassailable public mandate — and that arrogance was his first mistake.
An ideological purge
One of Starmer’s first major acts as Prime Minister was to expel seven Labour MPs who voted against his decision to maintain the cruel and widely reviled two-child benefit cap.
These MPs had stood up for their constituents.
Starmer punished them for it.
This set the tone for a government more interested in internal party purges than public service.
The treatment of Diane Abbott exemplifies this: suspended for more than a year over a letter for which she immediately apologised, only to be humiliated repeatedly by vague statements and shifting justifications.
The Labour leadership even lied about offering her the chance to stand, with Abbott herself having to correct the record.
The punishment of principled dissenters continued. After public backlash forced Starmer to water down his economic sanctions on pensioners and disabled people, he responded not by listening — but by lashing out.
Four MPs were sacked from the party, and three others were removed from trade envoy roles, all for opposing policies the public overwhelmingly rejected.
The message was clear: fall in line or face expulsion.
But the public was watching — and they did not like what they saw.
Unpopular policies, even more unpopular hypocrisy
Starmer’s agenda has proven toxic to voters.
He doubled down on Tory-style austerity.
He planned benefit cuts that would hurt the disabled and the elderly.
He failed to act on rampant corporate profiteering.
He refused to commit to free broadband, water nationalisation, or affordable housing.
Even symbolic measures backfired. Labour MPs were instructed to vote down a proposal to make 10 Premier League games per year available on free-to-air TV.
Meanwhile, Starmer accepted lavish hospitality from wealthy donors to watch Arsenal matches from luxury boxes.
The hypocrisy was too much for many to stomach: Starmer gets free football; you get nothing.
Obsession with erasing Corbyn
Another thread tying this government together is what critics have dubbed “Corbyn Derangement Syndrome.”
Policies seem to be driven less by strategy or principle and more by doing the opposite of what Jeremy Corbyn would have done:
- Corbyn wanted investment? Starmer keeps austerity.
- Corbyn opposed war crimes? Starmer endorses Israel’s military actions.
- Corbyn fought for the poor? Starmer punishes them.
This anti-Corbyn fixation has shaped Labour’s entire agenda, despite Corbyn no longer even being in the party.
As a result, policies with mass appeal — like nationalisation, wealth taxes, and climate investment — have been dumped in favour of pro-corporate pandering and performative cruelty.
Starmer’s Labour isn’t just uninspiring; it’s actively hostile to the values many Labour voters thought they were supporting.
Record-breaking unpopularity
The consequences of this misrule have come swiftly.
Labour’s net approval rating recently hit -54, lower than the Tories during the Partygate scandal.
Some polls suggest Labour could lose over 250 seats at the next election.
One recent survey had Labour and the emerging left-wing Corbyn-Sultana party tied at 15 per cent each.
There is now serious discussion of Labour falling to fourth or even fifth place in terms of parliamentary seats if the SNP regains momentum in Scotland.
Far from stabilising Britain, Starmer may be engineering the most spectacular political collapse in modern UK history.
A pyrrhic victory
Starmer’s short-term objective — crushing the Labour left and seizing control of the party — has been achieved.
But in doing so, he may have fatally alienated the very electorate Labour needs to survive.
The sacking of MPs for voting against cruelty, the broken pledges, the public contempt, and the defensive authoritarianism of his administration have created a political vacuum on the left.
Into that space may step a broad left-green coalition that could redraw the electoral map.
Unless Labour changes course, which seems unlikely under Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the British public may soon deliver a punishment beating of their own.
And this time, it will be Starmer who gets the sack.
The Decline and Fall of Keir Starmer: advantages squandered by hubris and revenge
Share this post:
Keir Starmer entered Downing Street in 2024 with a majority that should have heralded a new era of political stability.
Instead, just a year into his premiership, Labour’s polling has plummeted to historic lows, and the mood in the country is sour.
How did it unravel so quickly?
The answer lies not with the Tories or external shocks, but with Starmer himself.
A hollow mandate
Labour’s 2024 victory looked spectacular on the surface: a towering parliamentary majority.
But the reality beneath was sobering. Starmer secured just 9.7 million votes — fewer than Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 (10.3 million), and more than 3 million fewer than in 2017 (12.8 million).
The only reason Labour gained so many seats was the implosion of the Conservative vote, which halved from 14 million in 2019 to just 6.8 million in 2024.
Starmer’s government was built not on a popular surge but on Tory collapse and a flawed, disproportionate electoral system.
Rather than acknowledge this, he behaved as though he had an unassailable public mandate — and that arrogance was his first mistake.
An ideological purge
One of Starmer’s first major acts as Prime Minister was to expel seven Labour MPs who voted against his decision to maintain the cruel and widely reviled two-child benefit cap.
These MPs had stood up for their constituents.
Starmer punished them for it.
This set the tone for a government more interested in internal party purges than public service.
The treatment of Diane Abbott exemplifies this: suspended for more than a year over a letter for which she immediately apologised, only to be humiliated repeatedly by vague statements and shifting justifications.
The Labour leadership even lied about offering her the chance to stand, with Abbott herself having to correct the record.
The punishment of principled dissenters continued. After public backlash forced Starmer to water down his economic sanctions on pensioners and disabled people, he responded not by listening — but by lashing out.
Four MPs were sacked from the party, and three others were removed from trade envoy roles, all for opposing policies the public overwhelmingly rejected.
The message was clear: fall in line or face expulsion.
But the public was watching — and they did not like what they saw.
Unpopular policies, even more unpopular hypocrisy
Starmer’s agenda has proven toxic to voters.
He doubled down on Tory-style austerity.
He planned benefit cuts that would hurt the disabled and the elderly.
He failed to act on rampant corporate profiteering.
He refused to commit to free broadband, water nationalisation, or affordable housing.
Even symbolic measures backfired. Labour MPs were instructed to vote down a proposal to make 10 Premier League games per year available on free-to-air TV.
Meanwhile, Starmer accepted lavish hospitality from wealthy donors to watch Arsenal matches from luxury boxes.
The hypocrisy was too much for many to stomach: Starmer gets free football; you get nothing.
Obsession with erasing Corbyn
Another thread tying this government together is what critics have dubbed “Corbyn Derangement Syndrome.”
Policies seem to be driven less by strategy or principle and more by doing the opposite of what Jeremy Corbyn would have done:
This anti-Corbyn fixation has shaped Labour’s entire agenda, despite Corbyn no longer even being in the party.
As a result, policies with mass appeal — like nationalisation, wealth taxes, and climate investment — have been dumped in favour of pro-corporate pandering and performative cruelty.
Starmer’s Labour isn’t just uninspiring; it’s actively hostile to the values many Labour voters thought they were supporting.
Record-breaking unpopularity
The consequences of this misrule have come swiftly.
Labour’s net approval rating recently hit -54, lower than the Tories during the Partygate scandal.
Some polls suggest Labour could lose over 250 seats at the next election.
One recent survey had Labour and the emerging left-wing Corbyn-Sultana party tied at 15 per cent each.
There is now serious discussion of Labour falling to fourth or even fifth place in terms of parliamentary seats if the SNP regains momentum in Scotland.
Far from stabilising Britain, Starmer may be engineering the most spectacular political collapse in modern UK history.
A pyrrhic victory
Starmer’s short-term objective — crushing the Labour left and seizing control of the party — has been achieved.
But in doing so, he may have fatally alienated the very electorate Labour needs to survive.
The sacking of MPs for voting against cruelty, the broken pledges, the public contempt, and the defensive authoritarianism of his administration have created a political vacuum on the left.
Into that space may step a broad left-green coalition that could redraw the electoral map.
Unless Labour changes course, which seems unlikely under Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the British public may soon deliver a punishment beating of their own.
And this time, it will be Starmer who gets the sack.
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