Sir Keir Starmer will not be having a party to mark his first year as prime minister after Britain’s top pollster said he was off to the worst start in history.
Downing Street confirmed there were “no plans for a party” to mark the occasion, but stressed that Sir Keir had reflected on Labour’s progress so far in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
“He is marking the year by briefly reflecting on it in cabinet, but looking forward his focus is on delivering for the British people,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said.
It came after polling guru Sir John Curtice said Sir Keir had “the worst start for any newly elected prime minister, Labour or Conservative”.
Sir John said that voters “still don’t know what (Starmer) stands for”, and that he “must paint a picture of the country he wants to create”.
He said Labour’s landslide victory last summer had masked vulnerabilities in the party’s support and its policies.
“Labour only won 35 per cent of the vote – the lowest share ever for a majority government. Keir Starmer was never especially popular, and the public still don’t know what he stands for,” he told Times Radio.
“The only vision he’s really presented is: ‘We’ll fix the problems the Conservatives left us.’ But it’s not clear how he wants to change the country.”
It came as Sir Keir used a series of interviews to discuss the trials of his first year running the country, expressing his regrets and describing the challenges he has faced.
The prime minister told The Sunday Times that a focus on international affairs meant he had not appreciated the feeling of MPs over welfare reforms until last week.
He also admitted in an interview with The Observer that he regretted using the term “island of strangers” in a speech this year on immigration. His comments hit the headlines after they were likened to claims by Enoch Powell that the UK’s white population would find themselves “strangers in their own land” if immigration were not restricted.
A readout of Sir Keir’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday said the prime minister told his top team they can “all rightly look back with a real sense of pride and achievement”.
He pointed to trade deals with the EU, US and India, as well as four interest rate cuts, falling NHS waiting lists, transport and infrastructure investment and the government’s spending review.
