Steve Rowcroft

Keir Starmer promised “change.” He delivered decline. Pensioners lost their winter fuel payments in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Small businesses were hammered with tax rises. Farmers were punished. Net zero damaged economic and energy security. Welfare reforms targeted the disabled and vulnerable while the Labour government raised taxes and watched growth limp along. Starmer talked about fixing the NHS - yet waiting lists stayed high. The economy sputtered, government borrowing increased and ordinary families felt poorer, not better. On illegal migration, Starmer failed completely. Small boats kept arriving. Over 50,000 a year. He had no vision. No story. No sense of direction. Just a lawyer’s skill at muddying the water dressed up as statesmanship. More in thrall to the Davos clique rather the connecting with the public mood. Endless U-turns. Wooden, uninspiring, po-faced communication. Scandals over appointing Mandelson, his indulgence in freebies and donor influence that shattered the “transparent government” illusion he sold. He governed like a man terrified of his own shadow — risk-averse, reactive, and utterly lacking the political antenna or leadership presence to unite a fractured country. His approval ratings had collapsed to historic lows — net favourability around -46, among the worst for any modern Prime Minister. Local elections were a disaster for Labour. Cabinet ministers resigned. His own MPs openly plotted against him. He went from a landslide victory (in terms of parliamentary seats) to one of the most despised figures in recent British politics faster than almost anyone in living memory. Starmer didn’t just underperform. He confirmed the worst fears of those who never trusted him: a blank, directionless technocrat who wanted power more than he knew what to do with it. He betrayed the mandate, broke umpteen manifesto pledges, betrayed the vulnerable, and left Britain more disillusioned than when he arrived. That is his woeful record. And that is why there should be absolutely no sympathy for his resignation today.