Starmer under pressure after rocky start for Labour

On July 4 last year, Sir Keir Starmer took the Labour Party back into Downing Street after more than a decade under the Conservatives. It hasn't been the year he would have wished for, as Helen Corbett reports

- HELEN CORBETT

SIR KEIR Starmer has had a rocky start in his first year as Prime Minister and faces plummeting polls for Labour and struggles inside his party as he enters the second stage of his plans for a "decade of renewal".

Labour swept back into Downing Street with more than 400 MPs on July 4 last year - clinching a majority just short of Tony Blair's landslide in 1997.

A year later, polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice is calling it "the worst start for any newly elected prime minister".

Mr Starmer was accused of setting a gloomy tone at the outset, telling the public that "things will get worse before they get better" and warning of "tough choices" and a "black hole" left in the finances by his predecessors.

Soon after, a plan was unveiled to cut back winter fuel payments for pensioners, but an enduring backlash saw Mr Starmer's Government U-turn and widen eligibility months later.

This and the recent climbdown over plans for welfare cuts to stave off a backbench rebellion have raised the prospect of further tax rises in the autumn Budget as the Chancellor seeks to balance the books.

It has also raised the prospect of rebellious MPs being emboldened to continue pushing back on future policy, putting Mr Starmer's plans at risk.

When it comes to whether voters like him, Mr Curtice has argued that the UK Government has a "lack of direction", Mr Starmer was "never especially popular" and "the public still don’t know what he stands for".