To wonder what could Starmer do, to turn things around?

[B0xes]

He was elected on fewer votes than Corbyn with very lukewarm support, the Tories lost that election, Labour did not sweep in on a tide of public approval, they just benefitted from peoples anger at the Conservatives. Since then, Starmers approval rating has tanked. He seems to have gone from one ill judged move to the next and seems totally tone deaf in speeches. Can he turn it around? What would he need to do?

Cut taxes and reduce spending other than NHS and education.

I’m happy with Labour’s course so far and prefer it to the Conservatives headship. You need to realise that this is your opinion. In my opinion the vast majority of the country’s economic issues are due to Brexit now reaping its consequences (and we know who to blame for that), and its social issues due to poor recovery from Covid – which is poor due to the economic downfall.

Join the Single Market.

Reform benefits. Tighten up the criteria and look at other countries and their systems. Folk shouldn't be raking in large amounts of tax free benefits IMHO.

I don't think he can improve his popularity now no matter what he does. He's pissed off the pensioners, WASPI women and everyone he's called far right to name a few. His tone on X isn't doing him any favours with his 'my government' phrase he uses on nearly every post. It also doesn't help that he's got Musk and Farage scrutinising his every move. If he really values his party it could be time to step aside and let someone else have a go and maybe they could salvage something from the mess they are in. The YouGov poll conducted in December gave labour the lowest score to date so they need to do something.

In my opinion, the service based economy we have only really works if there's loads of disposable income floating around and people are happy to spend and waste. I think times are changing not just in terms of disposable income but in mindset shifts.

I would like to see:

-higher taxes on companies like Amazon. The environmental cost of these companies is out of hand- all the shipping from China, then deliveries across the country it's madness.

-public ownership of water and energy companies (disgusting how water company shareholders are profiting from destroying our water)

-public ownership of train companies

-free training and incentives for nurses, mental health workers, therapists

Sorry, but who's 'raking in' large sums of tax free benefits? Sounds like a Daily Mail headline

What about any type of benefit can be described as raking it in?

ITA. What a ludicrous post. From what I have seen, though, this poster often spouts ill judged nonsense so I'm not surprised.

Reverse as much of Brexit as he can.

Universal credit for a single person over the age of 25 is £393.45 a month so I don't think that people are raking it in.

He should agree to the reciprocal freedom of movement for young people within the EU that was on the table. I just don’t know what he was thinking on that.

Resign and call an election. Labour are not fit for government.

I think he is finding his feet he is coming across strongly in PQT. Re join single market a rise in NI to put it where it’s drastically needed.

There isn’t much he can do, I don’t think there’s much any prime minister can do. Politics is in 5 year cycles but the economy is in much longer cycles, decisions made in the past effect it now. The global economic situation has a huge effect on our economy and there isn’t much we can do to change that. And then there’s the markets.
If we made goods other countries wanted to buy we would be in a stronger position but we are service based with large companies taking huge amounts of money from both the government and individuals. Water companies, Royal Mail, energy companies owned by other countries or individuals based in other countries

This. I just rolled my eyes at that pathetic comment.

I want to see if they get the planning reforms through - I don't think it will turbo charge the economy the way Labour seems to hope but it would be good first step at reversing the stagnation.

I think I'd like to see them be bolder in tackling and laying the pathway for the inevitable pension reforms that are going to need to happen one day. With the working age population shrinking and people living longer I do think the state pension will become untenable. Coupled with millennials receive the largest wealth transfer ever through inheritances, I don't think the triple lock or pensions as a universal benefit will be justifiable. I'm not saying they need to snatch pensions away this second but I do think they need to start chipping away at this idea, as it will not be popular.

Fire Reeves.

Absolutely this.

He hasn’t pissed off this WASPI pensioner. Musk and Farage are disrupters who will be a thorn in the side of any PM. Five months in polls are meaningless - look at what happened to the Tories’ poll ratings in five years.

Its actually laughable the amount of criticism labour are getting. After 14 years of tories using this country as a personal gravy train , labour are trying to pick up the pieces and start doing what they can. It won't be pretty, the country was left in a total mess by the tories. Yet all i read is how badly starmer is doing, how unpopular he is...its like the right wing media are desperate for him to fail.
As for pissing off the pensioners, people who need help get it through benefits and if you dont need those benefits you dont get the heating allowance, thats it. And waspi women im afraid most had notice of the changes and could prepare and if you didn't prepare you will just have to work longer like the rest of us.

Its all older people complaining whilst the young ones will never see the quality of life these older people had. Never see the early retirement ages, the great pensions, or the low cost housing or council housing options that older people had.

And im nearly 60 before someone jumps on me crying ageist.

Life is harder for young people so hearing older people complaining is annoying.

If labour can do anything i hope they introduce something to help the nhs get back on its feet and also help the housing crisis that sees so many young families and young people that didn't benefit from inheritances, stuck renting forever.

I think it's still very early days and they need to be given time to get on with the job and not have people constantly wanting to throw the baby out with the bath water.

He doesn’t seem to have a political instinct.

On the other hand, if he goes then people like Angela Rayner will take over and it will go from bad to worse.

Prioritise social care reform - until that happens there will never be the necessary improvements in the NHS due to them having to meet the needs of elderly people who then have no care to go to, so they can't be discharged in a safe, humane and timely manner.

Stop giving excessive funds to countries abroad - e.g. his latest ambitions with Ukraine. Prioritise our own people for a change.

Start modernising the education system - start asking the question - is it still appropriate for the 21st century?

Start the conversation on energy security and how that can be achieved - spend the £20bn plus earmarked for Milliband's carbon capture on more tangible improvements e.g. increased storage.

Make it mandatory for gas and electricity companies to invest in improvements in their infrastructure - we suffered a long power cut this week due to problems with both underground and over-ground systems. This negatively affected three businesses in our village, the pub, post office and fish and chip shop who all had to close. They could obviously have done without losing their revenue for nearly a whole day. Likewise mandate the water companies and local government regarding maintaining drainage and other systems.

I think they need to bring all the cannabis farms into the economy. It can be taxed, regulated and instead of modern day slavery, (which might reduce people traffickIng) they can be real jobs.

He needs to do something to fix the new NI stuff for businesses. We need businesses to prosper - or the jobs market will contract. He should tax their profitability, not just slam them all so they stop hiring / make redundancies. So increase corporation tax.

i also think income tax should go up across the board but with the tax free threshold increasing. So up to £15k a year tax free and then 1% on all the tax bands. Or 2%. Whatever makes enough to mean he can change the employers’ NI.

The budget is the thing that has shown inexperience the most. That can be improved so I’m happy to wait to see if they learn from their mistakes. It’s a pity they’ve demonstrated their dislike of pensioners, farmers and business owners. But I suppose they think they never would have got their votes anyway so sling them under the bus. Bit class warfare-y.