To think Starmer has shot himself in the foot.

The pp mentioned one thing the huge cost of borrowing which has gone up. Also the NI policies which are causing business confidence to plummet.

Yes, why recruit a graduate British doctor when you can get a much more experienced Indian doctor happy to work for the lower grade for their visa. No jobs for the Brits despite spending thousands on fees and training.

He doesn't really need to appeal to anyone at the moment. He needs to be in a position where in three years time he has a proposition people will vote for.

Sorry, making what worse? The financial mess? I’m thinking about him looking at cutting PIP and the winter fuel allowance. Both of which are unpopular but must surely be helping from a finance/economy pov?

I do agree that this country is in a financial mess and something needs doing drastically to stop this. We are overspending and I do genuinely worry about the risk of the country going bankrupt in 20/30 years time. Something needs to change.

are you saying the WFA and PIP isn’t enough? Because then I suppose we’re at the point of thinking well what would make a bigger difference and I suppose the obvious answer is drastically cutting immigration. So stop the boats. And then I feel sad because I sound like Farage.

Reform worry me for a lot of reasons. Their total inexperience. Theeir seemingly one policy campaigning. What about education, economy, etc. people say Farage wants to sell off the NHS. I don’t trust Farage, I think he’s totally out for himself. A lot of Reform candidates seem genuinely thick or 19yo or a combination of both. The fact people say the boats can’t be stopped due to some UN policy were signed up for which means we can’t return people. Farage must know this! So how is he going to stop them? There’s no details. Is he going to ignore the United Nations? Pull us out of the UN?

He’s massively fucked up. Both his Comms team and Strategy/Advisory team are useless. And he’s a poor leader so can’t tell they are useless, and doesn’t have principles so his key messages are all over the place.

The reason he’ll fail is because he doesn’t understand the root cause of why many voters are against immigration, and many of them don’t understand why they dislike it either.

It’s because our standard of living has dropped, cost of living has increased, wages are static or going backwards, high streets are half boarded up, pot holes etc. People are tired and angry and they need someone to blame. The billionaires and their enablers in the media have made an easy scapegoat but how comes every year the net worth of the richest keeps increasing yet everything around me is looking more shitty?

Starmer and teams 100% laser focus should be increasing wealth and raising living standards in every region. They have years to do this and if they do, they will get back in.

However, instead he’s doing ‘rivers of blood’ tribute act in 2025. Pathetic and poor strategy. Stop chasing this Red Wall. They yelled us into Brexit, made us far poorer, they wrecked the Conservative Party. Farage will pied piper us into a completely wipe out of the middle class where it will be rich people and desperate poor people only. We shouldn’t pander to low information voters who are demanding this result.

Starmer is pathetic and as a swing voter who votes either Labour or Tory, he will never get my vote again. I will also never vote Reform because I don’t want to live in USA red state V2.

Who is he trying to appeal to?

Is Kier Starmer a racist or just dressing up as one?

I guess us immigrants who also vote dont matter to him.

i voted Labour in my home country (ie the left of central party) and voted Labour ever since i came to the uk 25 years ago. The changes in PIP were already enough for me to not vote for them again if they manage to push them through but that speech has made me sure i'll never vote for them again while he's in charge.

Previously i would have held my nose and voted Labour to stop reform but if thats what this country wants in power good luck to them.

You cant appease these right wing racists, even if you had zero percent immigration they just don't want to see different people at all. Thats why they tell people who were born here or whose parents where born here to go back to "their own country"

The irony of him prioritising English speakers. I guess that gives advantages to places like my country NZ, and Australia ,which we are owed as the only reason we speak english is because the British made the indigenous populations a minority and actively worked to stop them speaking their own languages. And he wants to talk about a country full of strangers... I guess its only ok when the British do it.

I’m waiting to see how they reform the system. Huge numbers of young people are now unable to work. The country’s finances cannot support rapidly increasing numbers of pensioners and people who aren’t economically productive. The economy will collapse, it’s simply unsustainable. I’m not sure what the solution is, let’s hope they’ll pour funding into helping people become employable, whether that be through training, mental health support, better employment rights to enable people to actually work within their limits.

Nail on the head.

I think he’s getting the unpalatable stuff out the way early possibly? There won’t be another election for years. The Enoch Powell rhetoric is fucking disgusting. He’s putting this life long Labour supporter off massively. But I can totally see who he’s trying to appeal to.

So true.

They’re not helping that either though, rather making it worse with policies.

They are skilled worker and will still be recruited in if needed.

However, there are many British born newly qualifed nurses and doctors who cannot get jobs as so many oversea medical staff were shipped in, yes seems unbelievable but look it up.

Yes, I’ve thought this for years. Problem is I think he genuinely cares too much about Manchester to dump and run back to Westminster.

starmer could be a Tory for how he’s acting. I wonder what Angela Rayner thinks of it all?

I’m torn on the whole issue - has he genuinely no choice due to financial mess we’re in which isn’t of his doing.

He's very much a populist, posing an exaggerated threat (island of strangers, benefit "cheats) and placing himself as the one of can rescue the "working person" from that threat.

Small point, but I hate all the "an island..." rhetoric because it feels like it needlessly excludes, separates, and possibly alienates Northern Ireland.

I don't love or particularly trust Starmer or the current version of UK Labour, but overall I still dislike and distrust the government that preceded him appreciably more.

I did say that immigration needs to be controlled in some way. It’s right there in my post.

However, non British born doctors and midwives have delivered my babies and taken care of them, this last birth was a tough one and they saved this baby’s life. All of my family have been taken care of by non British born medics their whole lives. An excellent non British born GP noticed my husband’s test results pointed towards MS and sent him for more tests which were largely carried out by nurses who were not born here.

eta I don’t need to visit Rochdale or Oldham to “view immigrants”. I live in a very multicultural area already and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Unlikely. Reform may well have hit its peak soon, also it's unprecedented for such a new "party" (company) to become a major political force in a few short years to the extent it forms government. Also Farage doesn't want the responsibility of being PM, he wants to cause shock and awe on the sidelines.

More likely we'll get a hung parliament or some horribly queasy coalition that will fall apart very quickly and our political stability will be dust.

A less dogmatic and intransigent Starmer would seriously look at electoral reform right now to ward off the threat of far right dominance. Little chance of that happening though.

I seem to be living in a parallel universe.
Costs of the NHS and/ or social sercives and benefit payments are going to be beyond our income - the cost of interest on money borrowed by governments to cover all this ''generosity'' are higher than the country earns - we are in deep deficit. And have huge interest payments we cannot afford.

But when a Gov comes in and says it might do stuff to reduce our unaffordable debts - everyone whinges and says the incumbent party are awful and we need to get in someone else - someone else who will borrow more and increase our debts so that it guarantees our children and grandchildren are truly skint their whole lives just paying the debts, let alone anything else to improve their lives.

Unbelievable - and we wonder why (no we wonder who to blame) for the shit pile we are in at the moment - hi folks, - it's all thanks to you and your demands for more and more and more

I personally know of many people who don’t usually vote as didn’t see the point who went and voted because they were desperate for change and were worried about what the Conservatives might do to vulnerable groups. Here we are though and their fears are being realised by a Labour government and people
didn’t see that coming - what they are doing with disability benefits is nothing short of cruel .

Many people are politically homeless. Most people who supported either the Tories under Cameron or Labour under pre-Blair governments.

As for Keir Starmer, his government will be judged on the economy, how much taxes are, and the level of net migration.

I’m not sure Left vs Right explains U.K. politics anymore. I live in a suburb and I know many university educated people / people in professional roles etc. I also appear to have one of those faces where people are happy to chat away to me!

From my (many) discussions most people said they voted for Reform a handful voted Green at the locals. All the Reform voters were initially sheepish. But when they know you won’t ostracise them they are very happy to discuss. Immigration, safety and reducing numbers is key. Most want mass deportations Rapes of women are a huge concern. Terrorism is another. They can see their kids being priced out of the housing market. They can see rising crime and have read European reports on crime and Nationality. And Nationality and economic contribution..Bombs in Sweden (30 plus in Jan). And they can see not all people who move here want to integrate. Some are here to commit rape and crime. Shoplifting is rife. Two tier policing and criminal justice. But also they are watching the same issues unfold in Europe and the predictable ‘Far Right’ label is now found to be comical. But the level of knowledge, stats, facts etc is impressive. They clearly did their research.

When your PM pops to a garden party while girls are fighting for their lives and he calls concerned people Far Right it was clear he was a wrong un. And people watched and listened and are disgusted by his actions.

So I don’t think it’s Left vs Right as many of these people are pro benefits for the disabled. Many ‘right wing’ are against elderly fuel allowance cuts. Most recognise farmers are asset rich and cash poor. But they recognise we cannot afford a welfare state that supports immigrants who don’t work. And while paying for Net Zero. And hotels for economic migrants and benefits for legal migrants who don’t work. And foreign aid. Some are silently boycotting takeaways and uber as they worry about the black economy and what that funds. Barbers shops springing up with council approval. Others are silently writing to MPs. Something has to give we cannot afford it all. I know this is anecdotal but I can see the change in the last 6-12 months and I speak to a vast amount of people.

I believe Starmer was prioritising supporting immigration and foreign aid and Net Zero over the disabled and elderly and our own food security. He’s being pushed to change his stance on immigration. I’m not sure he will succeed, it’s likely just to be another ‘smash the gangs’ headline. All talk and no action.

In my lovely leafy 4 bed detached middle class street I know all my neighbours. I can run alone each morning. But I’m not naive enough to know this is not the case for a large percentage of the population. People don’t feel safe, because crime is rising. I no longer choose to visit London or Birmingham, I avoid it. I’m sure some tourists feel the same. It’s not pleasant anymore so I spend my money elsewhere and save myself the stress of being mugged, harrassed etc. I can’t be the only one and I believe money from tourism will dry up unless the gov get a grip it.

We don’t even know if Iran or Russia are sending in terrorists? Yet we let undocumented illegal immigrants leave the hotels and wander around the local communities! Some seem to prefer to import men with no ID rather than risk being called a racist (my none British friends think we are bonkers). Thousands of young men arriving each week who presumably still expect/demand/want sex in a country where rapists are rarely jailed - can’t see an issue there…

I agree with what they are doing to reduce legal immigration however, the speech was too harsh and will upset the lefties.

I am actually okay with what Labour has done so far, it seems they are getting blamed for the Tories mess and are not been given a fair chance to change the country.

The government is planning to make it much more difficult to successfully apply for PIP with the aim of drastically cutting the numbers who are eligible.

Yes, proposals which aren't being consulted on and which MPs are being forced to vote on before any impact assessment is available. Starmer has a huge majority and a habit of removing the whip from those who disagree with him. I genuinely hope these cuts don't go through because the effect on disabled and carer poverty is unthinkable. But I wouldn't put money on a U-turn.