To think Starmer has shot himself in the foot.

[TheQuickRobin]

This isn’t about my own opinion but political strategy.

So he does this Island of strangers thing wanting to appeal to Labour heartlands who have gone to Reform. But.

I just think Reform voters won’t believe him?

Tories hate him becaus he’s Labour.

Middle class Labour lefties will be put off by the message.

Who does he think he’s winning over?

Anyone on here had their opinion of him changed?

IABU - I thought he was a prat now I think he’s on my team

IANBU - EITHER I thought he was a prat, still think he’s a prat OR I liked him now think he’s a prat.

Very unscientific poll here!

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.

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.

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

So true.

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.

Nail on the head.

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.

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.

Who is he trying to appeal to?

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Maybe we do all need to accept we’ve been living a champagne lifestyle on a prosecco budget for decades and go back to a 1970s lifestyle. Less new clothes, less Starbucks, less holidays, less meals out. We didn’t used to be able to afford that sort of stuff, even if you were middle class. Not to the extent people expect it now. Problem is we’re a service economy and if that collapses we have nothing left.

It's funny isn't it, because the people he is trying to appeal to will see this u turn as inauthentic. And Labour supporters may forgive Starmer his island of strangers speech as a unfortunate solution to settle down a restless population only because they don't think he actually believes it. The unifying opinion of these radically different groups of people is that Starmer is lying.

He is thinking about who to appeal to now. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gone all island of strangers after the local elections and Reform

Between now and then there are rounds and rounds of council elections, the Senedd elections and Scottish Parliamentary elections - you can't think that Labour will do well in the next g.e if they are rejected throughout the term?

He could have more than easily delivered a thoughtful speech and strategy on immigration signalling that the numbers are high, have been increasing and that he has listened to sections of voters and has a strategy to reduce numbers.

Aligned to this he could have set out a case for why immigration is still needed and how he will work to make it beneficial.

Instead he went for a Sun headline and everything else he said has been lost. He’s pathetic as are his team. I’m so pissed off with him and am a fool for ever thinking that because of his background he was smart and was a safe pair of hands during a difficult time. Instead he’s a different flavour of bumbling Boris. Unlike Boris he’s across the detail but like Boris he still makes a bad decision.

Again, that’s where controlling immigration comes in. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that non British born medics can be and are, an asset to our health service. Not to mention other services: education, social care, hospitality. Some of my favourite places to eat are owned and staffed by people who brought their food and culture over here to share with us. And thank god they did.

“An island of strangers” invokes an aura of fear and distrust between people. It’s a bit Nazi Germany imo. But then thanks to the Tory government circa 2010 and fucking Farage this country has been teetering into that territory anyway. Just didn’t expect Labour to join in.

Well that's the government's line anyway....

Conveniently forgetting that PIP is not an out of work benefit and in fact keeps many people in work. Pretending that people can shake off their disability like raindrops and become "normal".

If Starmer wanted to get people off disability benefits and/or into work he'd think about putting universal credit up to a level that people can actually live on. That way people would have the energy and strength to look for work, a better chance of maintaining health and not feel so desperately poor that they need to find extra money to meet their needs via disability benefits.

I know this is an unpopular idea but it would be effective. The majority of people want to do some kind of meaningful activity but too many are hamstring by poverty and its accompanying ill health.

The NI policy is certainly a disaster for businesses and affecting job opportunities.

the student visa debacle is shafting the university sector further when it’s already in crisis.

How can any MP possibly vote next month without that information? But they're expected to, and to vote with the government.

1. He will win my respect when he taxes wealth. At the moment he's just rearranging deckchairs on the titanic.

2. I think he is due to say more on illegal immigration later this week. So may appeal to reform voters yet. Very sensibly he didn't announce earlier as legally coming here to work, and illegal immigration and asylum are separate issues and should not be lumped together.