AIBU - Keir Starmer's ok - getting rid of him wouldn't help Labour

I like Andy Burnham too but the idea he did well was because of his own talent isn’t the full story - Manchester had a ton of money thrown at it by the EU - and has. It benefited from comfortably off professionals moving to cheaper areas and plenty of developers following suit . Some of the success was luck in timing -

I think charisma is overrated where politicians are concerned. Tony Blair had charisma and we ended up in an unnecessary war. Also Hitler had massive charisma!

But he’s not conviction led. Thats his big problem. He flails changing his position depending on what he thinks is most popular. He says women have penises ( which no one will have thought he truly believes), until he thinks that’s not popular now when he trumpets in parliament that labour protects single sex spaces, before going quiet again when there is more backlash than he expected. He’s managed to piss off both sides of opinion on the ME by his contrary positioning. he cuts welfare, then doesn’t. He is weak and without conviction. Who knows what he actually believes on anything.

People actually respect clear ,strong leaders who take positions they genuinely believe are in the best interests of the country, even when those positions will cause them to be unpopular with some major groups. KS is not that conviction politician.

‘Up north’ where exactly? Labour lost a lot of seats in Manchester but they’ve held the majority in most councils.

It’s not as simple as that, if someone takes office within 12 months of receiving a monetary gift they’re supposed to declare it under parliamentary rules, the electoral commission is still deciding whether to investigate further.

One of the problems with trying to get Burnham into parliament is that there is no longer any such thing as a Labour safe seat.

For example, Clive Lewis offered Burnham Norwich but Norwich now has a Green council. Up North, the safe seats are going to Reform and down south, they are going Green.

Why are there no Labour safe seats? Because they mean nothing to anyone.

He also blames (and sacks) everyone else for his own stupid misjudgements.

I think they should’ve allowed the enquiry into what actually happened there to go through, blocking it was a bad look.

Farage was gifted the £5million before he became an mp. Gifts to a private citizen are no-one else's business.

TBH I was aghast when ‘Prince of Darkness’, sleazy Mandelson was appointed US ambassador, and still think Starmer’s judgement - regardless of what he was or wasn’t told - was woeful.

And he comes across, I’m afraid to say, as weak and totally uninspiring.

Labour’s has much bigger problems than its leader!

It’s a party that got caught between the conflicting lives, experiences. priorities and values of its working class base and the university educated progressives. Labour chose to listen to the progressives. However, their beliefs are deeply out of step with most of the country, especially the working classes. The working classes now have a long memory of being ignored and insulted by the left who are more obsessed with correcting pronoun usage and micro aggressions than working people’s concerns. Furthermore, it’s hard for a mainstream party to be progressive enough for progressives, so defection to a frankly increasingly insane party like the Greens was always on the cards

So yes the cost of living etc won’t have helped, but Labour has a deep rooted issue of not really knowing who it is or who it’s for, and it’s the fact it never resolved that which has birthed its current problems.

So what is?
So far, one person has said he’s a grifter, qualified by agreeing that so are Johnson and Farage.
We understand why some/a lot of people don’t agree with Labour policies but what is the problem with Starmer in particular?
I agree with OP, I would really like to understand.

Completely agree with this

Exactly this. Whoever was drafted in to replace him would face exactly the same deep-rooted problems, would have the same lack of wriggle room to sort them out, and would also be hung drawn and quartered by the media when they failed to sort everything out in a couple of years. The idea that Andy Burnham or whoever is going to dramatically revive Labour's fortunes just because he's got a twinkle in his eye is for the birds.

That’s not his main problem. If it was just that he’d not have the results he did.

@Twiglets1 couldn’t agree more - all that will happen is it gives the right wing press fresh meat to be out their raking up any dirt on someone and they won’t stop- he is dealing with huge world events and a buffoon on the White House changing rules like the wind and creating world instability . The local issues are issues throughout most of UK and are long standing - and trying to improve on shirt buttons after Tory lack of long term planning isa tough call -Farage isn’t the answer but maybe it has to happen for people to realise that - Labour get tough on people taking the piss and the further left are out there with the all should have cake nonsense and get tough the other way on tax and all those who’ve been avoiding it for years with trusts and passing off assets or overseas money and the express/tekegraph / mail up in arms -whilst still expecting decent services. I have mentioned endlessly German state health insurance is 380 euros a month each and yes pensioners pay in full

To those of you saying but Johnson took x amount and Farage took x amount (in response to my post) - absolutely true and I hope you are sharing this data because you too hate lying, deceiving grifters who are on the make from being in public office. The figures I quoted point to the fact that no other Labour MP has taken so much free stuff and left so much of it undeclared.

Starmer is not the respectable quiet man in a suit you think he is. Not only is he a grifter and a liar, he throws people under buses when his personal decisions are challenged (the appointment of his pal Mandelson as an example).

He is cut from the same cloth as Farage and Johnson. Truly appalling to have such people in office.

Let's hope there are some decent public serving MPs waiting to oust him. That definitely excludes Wes 'sell off the NHS to his American lobby friends' Streeting.
I'd back Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, personally. The NHS would be safe in her leadership.

One of the reasons he was voted in as Prime Minister is that he came across as a man of integrity. However the Mandelson scandal has highlighted that his judgement is skewed. How can anyone have thought it was a good idea to bring Mandelson into the role as US Ambassador?!

Starmer's judgement on other matters has been questionable as well.

Both sides criticise him, so he does nothing or u-turns. That's the problem right there. He needs to grow a pair and get on with it. Criticism goes with the territory.

Agreed (with you both) 100x. That's why I voted Labour at the GE