Attlee's bold premiership has key lessons for Starmer

On the first anniversary of Keir Starmer's general election win, there will no doubt be much comment about what his government has achieved in its first year - and, more likely, where it has fallen short of expectations.

- ALUN EVANS

The general feeling appears to be one of disappointment, with Starmer's net approval rating at a record low, after the first double-digit decline in public support since a general election since John Major’s Conservative administration in the 1990s.

Starmer’s first year as prime minister has been characterised by a series of U-turns, following rebellion within his own ranks. But it is today that will mark a far more consequential anniversary: the general election of 1945, which - after a count lasting several weeks - made Clement Attlee the first Labour prime minister with a majority government.

Eighty years on, it seems fitting to revisit that government - its style and achievements, as well as the qualities of Attlee - who was to lead the nation in succession to the great war leader, Winston Churchill. What, if anything, can Starmer and his team learn from that postwar administration?

Although many people were surprised by Labour’s success in July 1945, the writing had already been on the wall for Churchill’s Tories. The monthly Gallup opinion poll which, while not scrutinised in the forensic way that polls are today, had consistently pointed to a strong Labour showing throughout the war years. And ideas of how to build a better postwar nation in areas such as health, welfare and education, dominated thinking and debate - not least among servicemen and women overseas.

Attlee’s Labour campaign offered a clear blueprint based on their manifesto, Let Us Face the Future, and the people voted for it. By contrast, in 2024, while nearly everyone expected Starmer’s Labour Party to win last year, it was far less clear what Labour might be offering in government, except the rather nebulous concept of “change”.