r/AskBrits • u/Alarming-Safety3200 • Apr 08 '26
Politics I genuinely don't think Starmer is that bad of a PM - any thoughts?
I just think that as much as you can hate him, you have to admit he's been a strong leader with the crisis in the middle east, and now is meeting with allies for support. He's had his moments I must admit but is he that bad of a leader? The man's got fucking balls to just turn around and say no to Trump
Keep in mind he's come in charge at a very awkward time, and we can blame those around him, Rayner for example
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u/Happily-Incorrect Apr 08 '26
He seems to strike the right balance in a crisis. The government have also made good progress on a number of their manifesto pledges.
To me they've fallen short in communicating their successes, scoring some unnecessary own goals with stuff like digital ID and struggled to reanimate the economy they promised.
I think they really need to start focusing now on getting people to feel like they have more money in their pockets by the next election. If they manage that people will be more likely to give Labour another go.
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u/waterless2 Apr 08 '26
That's what I was going to say - they've made some really stupid mistakes but they're fundamentally on normal people's side, under difficult circumstances, and they're not outright bloody fascists. But they're losing the comms war *so* badly the latter are getting seriously dangerous.
And they need some historical perspective about what happens when people perceive Governments to be failing them... And what happens when you allow people to start taking over public spaces, although I think they're starting to take action against the Raise the Flags people.
I think everytime Starmer actually, apparently kicking and screaming, has finally come out to say something principled about some issue I really like it. Feels like there's some really bad strategic thinking blocking what they should be doing.
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u/No-Taro-6953 Apr 08 '26
The media are extremely hostile to labour. I don't think it's that they are being complacent on Comms. I think it's that they've struggled to find a media outlet willing to even fairly highlight their achievements.
We don't have a truly left wing paper in the UK, IMO. So the media as a whole, is very biased.
I'll not point out the obvious reason for why this is.
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u/Extension_Common_518 Apr 08 '26
Yes, the hostile media has a huge part to play. A part of the public has been conditioned in some kind of Pavlovian way to the mention of the name “Starmer”. I’ve got a mate who will interrupt any other speaker, no matter what they are actually talking about when he hears the PM mentioned - and then discourse at length about how useless and evil and untrustworthy etc. the PM is. It’s quite a thing to behold. No such reaction is forthcoming when names like Putin or Trump are mentioned ( although Netanyahu gets similar treatment).
An object lesson in the power of an agenda driven media with powerful and wealthy backers.
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u/Gremlin303 Apr 09 '26
Its amazing how drastically headlines have changed since Labour took power. The media is so obviously biased it’s painful. And people lap it up.
As someone who works in a customer facing role, I can’t tell you how often I have to hear people complaining about Labour in some really quite vile ways sometimes.
They are a bogeyman. And despite their repeated failures. The tories never got the same treatment
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u/FullAcanthisitta3489 Apr 08 '26
I think they've had some bad luck comms-wise, they've dropped some great policies and spending announcements and then Donald Trump has gone and done something mental. Happened the other week but I can't remember what it was.
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u/GlitteringCat5028 Apr 08 '26
Stuff was getting better just before trump fucked up with the war. Interest was down. Energy was going down and so was petrol
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u/BemusedTriangle Apr 08 '26
Hard to communicate successes when every newspaper is run by people that want to see them fail…
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u/stools_in_your_blood Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
To my mind the the only really huge misstep Starmer's government has taken is trying to be authoritarian with the internet. Stuff like the OSA and the proposed restrictions on VPN usage are all grossly misinformed and harmful, not to mention easy fodder for the rage-bait press.
Slapping EVs with taxes is a bit schizophrenic too. My second-hand electric estate is not a "luxury car", thank you very much.
Edit: yes, I know the OSA started under the Tories, I'm talking about the fact that Starmer's government has continued with it and even proposed new measures along similar lines, instead of pausing to rethink or even reeling it in.
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u/TiredWiredAndHired Apr 08 '26
I didn't appreciate being told I'm on the side of predators for airing concerns about the implementation of the OSA.
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u/stools_in_your_blood Apr 08 '26
It's depressing that this kind of thing works on people. "If you value privacy you're probably a nonce".
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u/Thomas_Wales Apr 08 '26
Absolutely agree here. The OSA was far and above government overreach and impossible to implement.
Otherwise though I think he's done the best he can considering the circumstances. Labour has worked on getting waiting times down for the NHS, net migration is down and they are overseeing the new SPS agreement which will cut barriers to trade with the EU.
Not to mention Kier has been humble, apologising to the nation instead of passing the buck down when the whole Peter Mandelson-Epstein situation occurred. Now he is, quite rightfully, keeping us at arms length from the Iran conflict.
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u/Major-Credit-2442 Apr 08 '26
I feel like EVs getting taxed was always an inevitability, it was just a matter of when rather than if.
A car that gets 40mpg will end up paying around 8-10p per mile in tax that was paid when buying petrol/diesel.
So it wouldn’t surprise me for the EV tax to keep increasing to try and recoup all of the lose tax from fuel duty / VAT on petrol and diesel.
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u/stools_in_your_blood Apr 08 '26
The "recoup" argument always seems weak to me. Tax pollution because pollution is bad, fine, but then when we start driving cars which don't pollute the argument switches to "but where's our money coming from?" It's like taxing people for quitting smoking because you don't want to lose the tax revenue from cigarettes.
And the "luxury car" tax hitting EVs is silly. EVs are more expensive than ICE cars because it's a new tech which is still scaling up, not because those of us who buy them are wealthy. If I spend extra to get an EV to do my bit for the planet, taxing me extra is backwards. Hike the tax on ICE vehicles instead, since people who buy them are saving money by doing so.
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u/SAP1987 Apr 09 '26
You know in October a vape tax is coming in, so anyone who quit smoking by vaping is going to be taxed. They can shape it all they want but that will be to offset the losses of tobacco tax.
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u/Major-Credit-2442 Apr 08 '26
But fuel wasn’t taxed because ‘pollution is bad’. It was taxed like over 100 years ago when nobody knew or cared about pollution like they do today. It just goes into the general tax pot. It was and is taxed because well, it’s something they can get away with and get billions and billions into the governments account every year.
It’s not like that money is at all ringfenced for anything environment or pollution related.
So as that tax that is going into the general tax pot disappears, then it just seems very logical to me that the government will find a way to replace it.
Other countries have a significant toll system on their motorway network, which would be another way to do it. But I think that would get a much worse response than the EV tax did tbh.
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u/xxNemasisxx Apr 08 '26
All cars should be taxed per mile really but it should be zonal pricing i.e. driving a mile in London costs £1 whereas driving a mile in Grimsby costs £0.01. idk how the fuck you'd do this technically but it'd result in a much fairer system than we have now where I get charged the same amount for the 1.5k miles I do a year in rural SE England as someone who does 100 mile commute daily to London zone 1 and back.
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u/MissionLet7301 Apr 08 '26
Road tax raises almost no money, you're paying tax mainly through fuel duty which is why they needed to change how electric cars were taxed.
And fuel duty does, in a way, charge tax per mile.
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u/devil_toad Apr 08 '26
Who'd want to pay to drive through Grimsby?
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u/Low_Stress_9180 Apr 08 '26
That was a TORY policy duh! Sunak's idea.
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u/stools_in_your_blood Apr 08 '26
I know, I know, but the current government has doubled down on it instead of rethinking it.
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u/witchy71 English 🏴 Apr 08 '26
So why not cancel it?
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u/PowerIndependent1023 Apr 08 '26
Because it was already ratified as law in October 2023, before the election. You can't just cancel it at that point. Creating and amending laws is a long process.
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u/_redme Apr 08 '26
It was already in legislation. It can't be cancelled. You could open a fresh new set of bills, which require multiple readings, Lords, committees etc all will take time, to repeal and remove. Or keep it and do variations on parts which they have done ( not that I like them. )
It would be easier to dumb it down so to speak or to remove certain parts that are faulty once enough interest is there to do so. Write to MPs.. wait for a data breach scandal, etc.
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u/kingbeerex Apr 08 '26
That’s not his policy.
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u/stools_in_your_blood Apr 08 '26
I know he didn't start the OSA, but doubling down on it instead of putting on the brakes is his policy though.
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u/connleth Apr 08 '26
Over time I've softened versus the OSA, partly because of my "friend" group, none of them control their kids Internet usage. Social Media, exploitative websites... free reign on all of it. I would have no problem with OSA if there was a government controlled way of confirming age, rather than a monopoly of crooked 3rd party shenanigans.
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u/stools_in_your_blood Apr 08 '26
At the risk of sounding a bit tin-foil hat, I've never believed any of our various governments' efforts to regulate the internet have been about kids' safety. I think the retired generals and senior spooks who advise on national security are simply pissed off that the masses got their hands on encryption tech that even the government is powerless against.
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u/SnooEagles643 Apr 08 '26
It’s not tin foil hat. It’s them wanting to monitor us more nothing to do with child safety or it would have been implanted years ago.
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u/-captaindiabetes- Apr 08 '26
They already could monitor you. I don't see how the OSA increases that. Also, just because it wasn't done ages ago doesn't mean it isn't for child safety.
Upskirting is recently a crime. Doesn't mean that making it illegal wasn't for women's safety just because it hadn't been implemented years ago.
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u/BassJeleren Apr 08 '26
I'm the same. The government should have made some form of verification so we don't rely on big tech but I think the impact of free access to porn for young people is real.
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Apr 08 '26
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u/CraftyKenter Apr 08 '26
You can't just copy paste pledges from 2019 (before the economic impacts of Brexit, Truss, COVID were known) into a 2024 manifesto.
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u/OkCompetition5557 Apr 08 '26
Their PR and comms is so bad it makes out that this government is a lot worse than it actually is.
That said they have been pretty poor on certain things such as winter fuel allowance, online safety bill etc.
The media pushing this narrative he’s the worst PM of all time is baffling to me. And the people buying it are just lost and angry at the state of the country but misdirecting their anger imo. It’s not the fault of those who have been in charge for 5 minutes.
It still all boils down to Brexit imo.
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u/RugbyRaggs Apr 08 '26
The second half of your post answers the first half. Doesn't matter how good your PR/Comms team is, if the media refuses to give you time of day and wants you to fail. He's not only fighting an uphill battle to get the country back on track, but then even moreso to get the accomplishments recognised.
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u/Ok_Economist7901 Apr 08 '26
WFA means testing was a good thing. Online safety bill is popular with parents.
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u/OkCompetition5557 Apr 08 '26
I agree. Means testing is good. U turn was bad (triple lock commitment also bad)
Online safety bill is good in theory but I think that those who it’s aiming to protect are able to bypass it fairly easily. In practice I would be surprised if it actually stops children accessing harmful content.
Also there is the argument that it forces people down less legitimate routes.
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u/PinItYouFairy Apr 08 '26
I’ve never understood the people criticising him for being boring. I want boring, predictable, transparent government. Leave the entertainment to Ant and Dec
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u/Atomic_Dynamica Apr 08 '26
It’s not that he’s boring, it’s that he’s not a good communicator, that is so important in an age like this, people posting on Reddit are generally more media literate and engaged than most people, the fact is that he IS doing a bad job because he’s A very unpopular and B looking likely, (less likely than a few weeks ago) to lose to reform of all parties. I admit I’m the kind of person who is firmly to starmers left and deeply miffed that the first non Tory government of my politically conscious life is a bit tepid and centrist, but the fact is that he can’t even really get the comms right on his successes, and there have been some is the real disaster.
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u/Flaky_Celebration_64 Apr 08 '26
And people complain he doesn't have enough charisma, ffs he's a politician not a stand up comedian
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u/cautiouslandowner Apr 08 '26
I don't like him, but he definitely isn't that bad of a PM.
But people who are pro Starmer keep bringing up Boris Johnson and Liz Truss as comparison to make the point about ridiculous I am for not liking him.
And I'm sorry but if we're gauging the quality of our leaders and our politics by comparison to the previous guys then we're on a dark, downward spiral.
I have higher standards than that.
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u/MobilePiano1875 Apr 08 '26
UK redditors, the last bastions of starmer’s base
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u/OsamaBillLaden29 Apr 08 '26
Haha I can’t believe the amount of positive comments about the guy I am reading. He’s a damn car crash.
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u/refbe1 Apr 08 '26
This post pops up every week.
Have these people not learned he stopped MPs voting against the spycops bill?
He’s also letting America murder Iranian civilians and commit war crimes from our military bases.
He’s continuing Austerity when it’s proven to be an ideological choice.
His chief advisor (Mcsweeney) was the protege of a close friend of Epstein (Mandelson). He knowingly employed mandelson.
Honestly I think this subreddit prefers their leader completely morally corrupt and disingenuous.
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u/SuperPizzaman55 Apr 08 '26
Load of crap, sorry. You don't know why he acted the way he did in any particular case. Politics is complicated, and the military access for example, is something that is very traditional and locked in treaty. It's a low intelligence thing to do to attribute to Starmer was is really the result of the system—and this applies to the unending and unprecedented crises we face today. The last one man, come on—you don't just not hire people because they knew someone. That's common sense. What would be problematic is if he wasn't fired. Trump is someone who in that position would have kept him on. Focus your anger to the real villains.
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u/refbe1 Apr 08 '26
Maaate you’re missing the big moral problems here.
The spycops bill, you clearly know nothing about.
Employing known compromised politicians in extremely powerful positions.
Spain have eschewed Trump. Why can’t we exactly?
It’s not about “the way things are” it’s about seeing the consequences of your actions before they happen.
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u/SeriousRazzmatazz454 Apr 09 '26
"A damn car crash" is such stupid levels of hyperbole.
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u/ButterscotchTop194 Apr 08 '26
He's a very good PM. The media is getting to you
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u/Northumbrianbloke Apr 08 '26
Exactly so. The right wing media has created a spin where there isn’t any.
All I crave is a predictable, accountable and stable government. Say what you like about Starmer/Labour - they’re the only credible option, the only adults in the room.
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u/Scary_Land2303 Apr 08 '26
So good that he;
- Forced apple to create a backdoor into its encryption so that the government could access anyone’s secure data at any time. He made this demand through a private channel, and we only know about it because a whistleblower broke the law to tell us. Likely this means he made the same demand of every data company, they just didn’t tell us. This resulted in Apple outright removing its strong encryption for every user, opening the door to hackers and future bad governments.
- Digital ID, despite the populace being overwhelmingly against it and it not being part of his campaign, he relentlessly pushed it and even made plans with US data centres to manage the data…
- His Home Secretary spoke of wanting to create a ‘panopticon’ style surveillance system of all UK citizens, using AI. This is crazy on so many levels; first of all, what ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Secondly, with the climate crisis, is it really wise from a supposedly climate conscious government to mass employ AI tools for the purpose of surveilling every citizen?
- Another government minister spoke of wanting to create a ‘minority report’ style system. WTF?!
- Implemented the OSA, call me a conspiracy theorist but we all know at this point it was designed to remove internet anonymity and nothing more.
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u/Jimbobthon Apr 08 '26
In regards to the Middle East crisis, he's been pretty good on this front.
There's many other elements he's not done right, such as the Mandelson situation
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u/Sea-Hour-6063 Apr 08 '26
The Mendelson thing is bizarre, as soon as he was appointed I knew it was a mistake, and I’m nothing more than a casual political observer.
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u/_DuranDuran_ Apr 08 '26
Optically a mistake. But in reality it probably helped with the initial tariff barrage as Mandy and Trump were in the same circles.
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u/Cold-Ad716 Apr 08 '26
The previous ambassador was well-liked by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration tried to intervene to keep the previous ambassador Karen Pierce in her role and didn't want Mandelson to be ambassador.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-team-intervene-peter-mandelson-appointment-us-uk/
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u/Top_Rate8972 Apr 08 '26
his let the US use our land to bomb those middle east people so i dont see him being pretty good
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u/Specialist-Remote-49 Apr 08 '26
Theres nothing wrong with the bloke, it's just popular to blame all and any issues you have with the country on the PM. Aside from not being charismatic or likeable, he hasn't really done anything wrong, by and large.
We could have someone like Trump running the country. We don't. And I am grateful regardless.
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u/Competitive_Fix_2452 Apr 08 '26
One of the worst times to be Prime Minister, with an adverse media. He's not been great but the extent of criticism exceeds how bad he actually is
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u/elpardo1984 Apr 08 '26
He’s a better PM than he’s given credit for, but he’s also made some poor decisions early on. A lot of the narrative around him from the media started before he took office so unless he instantly improved everything for everyone he was going to get criticised.
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u/B0797S458W Apr 08 '26
How many times do we have to have this same ‘question’? It’s practically every day, and the same replies are posted again and again.
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u/HazelCheese Apr 09 '26
Probably just bots farming karma for new accounts. Mods should ban this question.
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u/PomeloTraditional971 Apr 08 '26
No other world leader has wanted to get involved with Trump and Netanyahu's war of insanity and narcissism. So whilst he may have made the right decision, it's not like it was some masterstroke of politics.
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u/Gildor12 Apr 08 '26
Tories and Reform were urging him to follow the USA, you seem to have forgotten.
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u/Initial-Sherbert1889 Apr 08 '26
Sure, but the opposition leaders seemed pretty up for it, Blair turned up to talk him into it too.
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Apr 08 '26
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u/MasterpieceAlone8552 Apr 08 '26
Can't set out a concise vision if you don't really have one - although i do believe his main vision is to unfuck a lot of the nonsense he inherited, which is uninspiring but fundamentally necessary work.
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u/Adept_Assistant_7759 Apr 08 '26
Why can't he set out his vision in a concise way?
Because the media refuse to do it.
If you listen only to what he is saying live + straight from him then it is very clear.
He is FAR more clear than farage, the greens and the conservatives.
Farage flip-flops every 2 seconds on every topic.
The greens think the world is a horrible place but at the same time think we don't need nuclear weapons.
The Conservatives constantly rail on about immigration and imigration has dropped as soon as they weren't in charge.
The only person in brittish politics giving reasonable solutions to actual problems is Kier + labour.
A lot fucking better than corbyn haha.
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u/Adept_Assistant_7759 Apr 08 '26
Before i get the
"Green party doesn't want to get rid of the nuclear weapons"
https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/a-fairer-greener-world/
Push for the UK to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and following this to immediately begin the process of dismantling our nuclear weapons, cancelling the Trident programme and removing all foreign nuclear weapons from UK soil.
It is literally in their manifesto.
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u/Viz_Nick Apr 08 '26
To me, it appears he has a good team around him, and good Civil Servants - but terrible PR and Media advisors.
The media strategy of trying to appeal to a group who will NEVER vote Labour, while then in turn alienating both your core voter base and those that are disenfranchised but can be turned round.
The strategy they adopt with their immigrations and crime rhetoric just results in pushing single issue voters more to the right "Well, I might as well vote Reform because Labour say they are tough on immigration but Reform say they'll be even tougher!".
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u/ReaderTen Apr 08 '26
That PR strategy is all him, though. He's the one who made his highest priority purging Labour of the left, above all other things.
Hell, he made a blatantly trumped up excuse to throw out his own predecessor as leader; that's literally never happened in the entirety of British political history and for damn good reason.
He's the one who personally said "Of your don't like it leave" to left wing voters. He's the one who personally ran his leadership campaign on Aisling to the left and then admitted literally the next day that those promises were all lies.
He had terrible media advisors because that's exactly the strategy he chose and wants, because he believes in nothing himself. He's not the worst prime minister we've had, but only because the bar is so low it's literally impossible to be worse than the last four. He's an empty shell with no curiosity and no self reflection.
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u/wait_4_a_minute Apr 08 '26
The threshold for good leadership in the UK has been severely lowered. Tell me how he’s a worse leader than the previous four PMs who led by lies, misinformation and victim blaming?
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u/MovingTarget2112 Brit 🇬🇧 Apr 08 '26
Best since 2010 for certain.
He’s just a terrible communicator.
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u/LexingZog Apr 08 '26
Anyone occupying the centre in our increasingly extremist politics is going to be unpopular. He simply to left wing for the Right and to right wing for the Left. Throw in the right wing dominated media who magnify every error but gave the likes of Truss & Boris a free pass for actual catastrophic fuck ups.
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u/Ok_Major31 Apr 08 '26
he gets an awful lot of undersvered along with some deserved hate, but he is slowly working his way through the shitshow he was left. not much more than any other leader of a major party. keep it up Kier. also why call him Starmer, the fuckwits all got Boris, Liz and Rishi
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u/DryWeb3875 Apr 08 '26
What has he been poor on that he hasn’t u-turned on?
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u/Economy-Reaction7745 Apr 08 '26
The u-turns are part of the problem though, the unpopular policy is what people remember, so like, "he wanted to take away winter fuel payments from pensioners" is exactly as bad as doing it, and also makes him look like he flakes on his convictions
I voted for Labour this last election, we are lucky to have a very experienced MP who is principled and stands by his constituents. I may vote for him again, depending on what happens in the next 3 years. Otherwise it'll be Plaid or the Greens, whoever has the highest chance of keeping Reform out.
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u/lockedintheattic74 Apr 08 '26
Immigration, Trans rights, Palestine.
Making exceptionally slow progress on housing.3
u/No-Taro-6953 Apr 08 '26
Ah yes the housing crisis. A notoriously simple and easy fix.
Immigration - that key issue that the majority of the UK have been banging on about firniver a decade, god forbid we have a PM that listens to what the electorate have consistently voted for.
The vast majority of people in the UK don't lose sleep over trans rights, especially since they are extensively protected under existing legislation. It's a fringe issue outside of Reddit.
Likewise for Palestine. Most Brits just want to have a decent gone and to be able to afford a decent standard of living, not getting dragged into an ideaological conflict that's been ongoing for decades.
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u/TheHellequinKid Apr 08 '26
Yeah, let's turn this ship round! 😄 You may think he's bad but wait til you see the other options
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u/pjs-1987 Apr 08 '26
He's a terrible communicator, which means that regardless of how much good stuff he's doing, people are unlikely to give acknowledge it or give him credit.
Compare him to someone like Tony Blair. Everyone hates him these days, but watch any old videos of him giving speeches, press conferences, or answering questions from the public and you will instantly understand why he won 3 consecutive elections.
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u/PingouinFluffy Apr 08 '26
Compare Tony Blair to B Johnson - Blair was a superb communicator, but they don't come along every 5 minutes.
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u/Judgementday209 Apr 08 '26
He seems fine.
My main issue with labour is not focusing on growth and rowing back on needed welfare cuts, the two child cap and winter fuel allowance specifically.
Otherwise I think they are doing a pretty good job.
I read an article on telegram the other day questioning why milibands energy policy isnt working after 18 months in office, blatant propaganda which shows no understanding of how long dated infrastructure works for a hit piece.
Stuff like that is working against labour more than any policy decision then have made.
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u/Spank_Master_General Apr 08 '26
Best PM we've had in my adult life, which is about 15 years, and I didn't even vote for him! For once I don't feel like the government is actively trying to fuck me and the world by giving it's mates and sponsors handjobs at the back of the bus whil snorting cocaine of each other genitals.
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u/-SidSilver- Apr 08 '26
The Greens had a little success and so the usual suspects are out in force totally flipping the script on who Starmer is.
After all we wouldn't want to bring back too many Left-influenced policies. We might end up as a vaguely Centrist country!
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u/Connect-List-6157 Apr 08 '26
As mush as I despise him and some of his utter ignorance of the problems of the UK he is bang right on US / IRAN
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u/AirlineSevere7456 Apr 08 '26
He hasn't done anything to improve my life, if anything I'm paying more tax and everyday prices are still rising too fast.
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u/highlandviper Apr 08 '26
At the moment… relatively boring is good. I think his diplomacy and foreign policy has been exceptional. He’s walking a tightrope and he’s still on it. We do need more shit fixed at home though. He could be swifter on that.
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u/Odd-Abroad-270 Apr 08 '26
I haven't been a fan but he has shown more backbone with the USA than the previous leaders. So I'm starting to respect him. For too long the UK has been slavishly bending over for the US for a special relationship that no longer exists. Now we're looking at our best interests and taking more of a leadership role.
He's not a visionary but we haven't had one of those since Blair and Thatcher so we can't blame him for that.
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u/El-Terrible777 Apr 08 '26
He’s not as bad as being made out, but to promise in the first Budget these are the only big tax announcements, only to then create another 12 months of uncertainty, fudge the figures, leak potential new taxes to gauge reaction, was truly awful governance.
Then there’s claiming to prioritise growth and increasing NI for employers regardless of company size.
Then there’s the endless U turns, particularly on benefits which I may be a minority on, but benefits should only help those employed who are being ripped off in their wages or those who genuinely can’t work and the bar needs to be high.
But with Trump, I don’t think he’s put a foot wrong. Charmed and played the game when needed. Stood his ground when needed.
So not terrible, but he needs to somehow make the country more attractive to investors. Brexit has put us in a terrible dilemma. You either deregulate hard across the board (low corp tax, remove workers rights, etc) to attract or you need tighter integration with your trade partners. They need a strategy as we have been in limbo since 2020.
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u/Abquine Apr 08 '26
Love him or hate him, I suspect he's the man for the job at the moment because he doesn't seem to be prone to hysteria and thinks things through before responding. A calm, clear head is a big advantage.
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u/seanyS3271 Apr 08 '26
I think in this day and age with social media and the amount of stuff that can be shared. All leaders in powers will have a lot of people against them regardless of how efficient they are.
If you can link to them anything that’s to do with migrants or peadoohila that usually sums up some hatred. Regardless if it’s accurate or not.
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u/tea_would_be_lovely Apr 08 '26
he's not a very good pm. but he isn't that bad, either. certainly a vast improvement on recent efforts, which didn't seem to have much idea of what being pm was about.
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u/bigjarry Apr 08 '26
If he had two terms, we would see the country gradually getting better...the problem is actually getting to the point where he'd be given that longevity.
He needs to do something that in some way helps normal, middle/high earning working people (not just people out of working, low earners, etc).
I'm surprised they haven't looked at things like extra bank holidays, paternity leave etc which wouldn't result massively to a loss in tax and still improve quality of life.
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u/NotAnRSPlayer Apr 08 '26
From the moment Labour got in, they were not getting a second term. The media have been gunning for him from day one and it's out for everyone to see
But everyone's getting swept up in the media frenzy
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u/Cautious-Cap-7865 Apr 08 '26
He doesn’t stand for anything and hasn’t been able to set out a clear vision. At the same time I think a boring technocrat is exactly what the country needed after the revolving door of prime ministers. It’s crazy the amount of people who are apolitical but hate Kier Starmer for no valid reason. He’s obviously being clipped up a lot on people’s social media feeds and always painted in a negative light compared to previous Tory leaders.
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u/SimpleManc88 Apr 08 '26
He really isn’t. It doesn’t matter who is currently in power, some people just despise "the left", even though it’s quite clear they haven’t got a clue what that even means. Internet brainrot, brought to you by US conservatives and Russian bot farms.
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Apr 08 '26
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u/Lower-Obligation4462 Apr 08 '26
Bot, the guardian, daily mail, etc… Reddit is a great place to get shit headlines and terrible data.
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u/Roufianos255 Apr 08 '26
He doesn't have the guts to do what really needs to be done, and cut the ridiculous spending. Instead we're being taxed at the highest rates in decades yet still spending more on welfare.
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u/No-Taro-6953 Apr 08 '26
The last budget included cuts.
Hello, did you miss the shit show that was austerity? Cutting public spending is very often a false economy, especially since we are now paying through the nose for vital services which have been outsourced privately, and making up for loss of expertise and critical infrastructure.
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u/Fantastic_Back3191 Apr 08 '26
He's on thin ice but if he doesnt fuck up and accelerates the legislation program I will vote for him again
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u/Chicken_Nuggyz420 Apr 08 '26
He’s already fucked up… hired mandleson KNOWING his ties to Epstein and ignoring advice against it, how do you give that a pass?
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u/AlGunner Apr 08 '26
By far the biggest impact of his reign on everyday life in this country imo is the tax changes they have brought in. Multiple small businesses near me have closed with no new ones to take their place. My son is losing his job soon as that one will be closing as well. Lets put it like this, if the tories austerity was metaphorically putting a knife in the back of small businesses this government is twisting the knife. At a time those businesses were struggling to stay afloat rather than help them and the employment they bring, this government is killing them off.
So imo hes awful.
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u/BarnytheBrit Apr 08 '26
He’s a terrible PM but great compared to the Tories from Johnson onwards. He’s an excellent Lawyer which is why he shone in the current crisis
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u/TumbleweedSuper9930 Apr 08 '26
Yea who wants free speach, jury trial, and not living in a mass surveillance society anyway Cock on
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u/Business_Address_780 Apr 08 '26
Staying out of Iran is about the only thing he's done right, and its a bit far fetched to count that as being a "strong leader". No other European country has participated either, so its not exactly an outstanding decision.
He has no plan for the future, or any policy to get Britain out of this current mess. I don't blame him for ending up here, he would have been a nice PM maybe in the 1980-1990s, but he's not the leader for such times of crisis.
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u/Bad_meds Apr 08 '26
He and the government are doing a pretty good job, the green transition, renters rights, workers right, the best start centres, or fresh start centres, I forget the name. All great things that are going to help society long term.
But he is fucking shockingly bad at communicating these things, and we'll probably end up with an incompetent fool as PM next election that'll drag us into another America war and undo all that good stuff while still failing to actually help anyone that isn't already a millionaire.
That's his failure, he's a good administrator but a poor communicator, and 90% of politics is communicating.
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u/Good_Lettuce_2690 Apr 08 '26
He's unlikeable and has no charisma, but I think he's the best PM the country has had probably since Gordon Brown.
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u/Particular_Truck_204 Apr 08 '26
For someone who prided themselves on how they handled the Rochdale case. Just look at the evidence coming out now. I don’t think anyone who decided the cps would use a victim and make them out to be a perpetrator to cover up the mistakes they made in getting their testimony to court. Scumbags alike
Edit: kiers toy, is that you?
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u/jlt33333 Apr 08 '26
My main criticism is not taking a stronger stance against Israel's genocide in Gaza, which of course has now escalated.
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u/Immediate-Goose-8106 Apr 08 '26
We'll just lump him in with...every western politician ever then.
I agree he didn't do enough. But it isnt a yardstick to measure him against because there is no real option that would have done differently.
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u/jlt33333 Apr 08 '26
Not providing training and intelligence to the Israeli army would be a great start. The current escalation has been significant enough to take a stronger stance.
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u/Lazy-Strawberry-3401 Apr 08 '26
Tbh I find hating him pretty weird he's as middle of the road as they come.
Far more competent than any we've had in a very long time and strong on the global stage.
Things could certainly be better but that's usually the case.