Be yourself' PM urged to unite party and focus on UK after hard first year

In a stiflingly hot room at a health centre in east London, Keir Starmer announced the government's 10-year plan for the NHS on Thursday - and was confronted with a brutal assessment of his first year in power.

- Pippa Crerar Jessica Elgot

In a stiflingly hot room at a health centre in east London, Keir Starmer announced the government's 10-year plan for the NHS on Thursday and was confronted with a brutal assessment of his first year in power.

"You've U-turned on your reforms, your MPs don't trust you, and markets worry that you've lost resolve on fiscal discipline. It's the epitome, isn't it, of sticking-plaster politics and chaos that you promised voters you would end?" asked a television journalist.

Initially, Starmer avoided answering the question, but eventually addressed the fallout from his government's chaotic handling of its flagship welfare bill.

"I'm not going to pretend the last few days have been easy; they've been tough," he said.

"I'm the sort of person that then wants to reflect on that, to ask myself what do we need to ensure we don't get into a situation like that again, and we will go through that process. But I also know... that we will come through it stronger."

The jubilant crowds of flag-waving supporters that greeted the prime minister as he arrived in Downing Street on 5 July 2024, daring to hope for a brighter future after 14 long years under the Conservative party, felt like a very long time ago.

Senior members of Starmer's inner circle openly admit that their first year in power has not gone as expected. "I always knew it would be hard, but I think I was probably quite naive about just how hard it would be," one said. A cabinet minister added: "We had a difficult fiscal inheritance and there was this sense in the country that everything was broken. We promised change but people aren't feeling it yet. And they're not in any mood to give us the benefit of the doubt."