The 19pc prime minister: The rise of fall and fall of UK’s Keir Starmer

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer stands in front of former prime ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in central London on November 9, 2025. — AFP pic

LONDON, May 12 — UK leader Keir Starmer swept to power promising to end years of chaos in British politics, but numerous policy U-turns, controversies and rock-bottom poll ratings see him teetering on the precipice.

In his first speech as prime minister on July 5, 2024, Starmer promised a government of “service” that would “tread more lightly” on people’s lives following 14 years of Conservative rule dominated by Brexit and infighting.

He sought to make a virtue of his more measured approach, contrasting what he saw as his pragmatic managerialism with the ideological bombast of previous Tory prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

“There’s no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be,” the man himself is said to have told colleagues, according to “Get In”, a book about his leadership of the Labour party written by journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund.

But soon after entering Downing Street, he struggled to be the safe pair of hands he had portrayed, while his lack of ideology and charisma has left him struggling to sell a story of where he is taking the country.

He insisted on Monday that he will prove his “doubters” wrong, vowing that his ruling Labour party would be “better” and bolder as he tries to quell a groundswell of calls from some of Labour’s approximately 400 MPs to step down or face a leadership challenge.

Successful career

Starmer, born on September 2, 1962, was raised in a cramped, semi-detached house on the outskirts of London by a seriously ill mother and an emotionally distant father who loved animals and rescued donkeys.

After university, he enjoyed a successful career as a human rights lawyer and chief state prosecutor which led to him being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Workers clean the street outside the door to 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in central London on May 9, 2026. — AFP pic

A keen flautist and Arsenal fan, Starmer became an MP in 2015, succeeding left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader five years later, following the party’s worst general election defeat since 1935.

He showed his ruthless side by purging Corbyn, rooting out antisemitism and moving the party back to the more electable centre ground, delivering Labour’s biggest election victory in over two decades.

On becoming UK leader, Starmer pledged to “fix” Britain after years of sluggish growth, a cost-of-living crisis and public services hollowed out by Tory austerity measures.

But he cautioned that the road to recovery would be “long and difficult”.

Troubles

His premiership got off to a bad start when his government announced a hugely unpopular policy to remove winter fuel payments from millions of elderly people, which had not been in Labour’s election manifesto. He later backtracked.

Starmer was also forced into a humiliating climbdown on reforming welfare benefits, backed down in a row with farmers over inheritance tax and angered businesses for increasing a payroll tax and the minimum wage.

The early months were also dominated by anger over a free gifts row, while in September 2025, Angela Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister for underpaying a property tax.

That same month, Starmer sacked Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to Washington over the depth of the envoy’s friendship with late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The appointment, which Starmer has apologised for, led to the departure of two of his closest aides and the most senior civil servant in the foreign ministry.

Starmer himself has refused to quit, but the scandal still haunts him, contributing to a series of humiliating local election results for Labour last week that renewed calls for his departure.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage reacts during a visit to St Helens, north west England on May 8, 2026. — AFP pic

Reform threat

While Starmer has been praised for standing up to US President Donald Trump over the Iran war and maintaining European support for Ukraine, he has struggled to fend off growing support at home for the hard-right Reform UK party, led by firebrand Nigel Farage.

And he has one of the lowest popularity ratings ever among prime ministers at just 19 per cent, according to a YouGov poll.

Labour is also shedding support to the left-wing Greens, led by self-described “eco-populist” Zack Polanski.

On Monday, Starmer vowed not to walk away as leader, insisting he was engaged in a “battle for the soul” of the UK, warning that if Labour failed, the country would head down “a very dark path”. — AFP