... not to understand the loathing of Keir Starmer?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

So many people who haven't voted Labour, whether they used to or not, say they haven't voted Labour in yesterday's elections because of Keir Starmer. Is that shorthand for 'the current state of the Labour Party' or is it genuinely a real dislike of the man himself? He seems very bland and inoffensive to me, and in some ways is doing an OK job - e.g. in keeping us out of Trump's war without rupturing relations with the US. Maybe his blandness is the problem. Can anyone explain why people have this reaction to Starmer?

I don't like or dislike him, he's just a bit...bland, and his personality doesn't really come across when he talks. If he was a colour he would be grey. If you contrast him to Kemi ( who's growing on me although I've never voted conservative) she is on point, has good come backs and is just generally easier to watch.

I find this strange. On one hand people accuse him of supporting genocide in Palestine. On the other, people accuse him of being anti-semitic and an "Islamist" (what ever is meant by that).

Seriously? The man who met a KGB officer having slipped his security? The man who elevated a Russian oligarch to the HoL? The man who failed his security clearance as Foreign Secretary?

I don't get it either, especially when you see the calibre of PMs (plural) that came before him over the last 5 years ....

Is it me or is Chris Mason on the BBC obsessed with trying to get him out?! Just heard it again now 'will he still be here next week, so far there have been no calls for him to go'. No Chris, literally nobody has called for him to go, and he already said he's not going anywhere, give it a rest.

Go and ask Farage about that £5mil...

Self sufficient how? We haven’t been self sufficient for food in hundreds of years. What have you got in mind? And in what way (if it’s not that) do you think we aren’t?

I'm genuinely curious - tackle the country's debts how? What should he be doing?

I was alive long labour supporter but I loath him due to his support of Israel, I wouldn't vote labour now and would never have voted Tory or reform. I am more aligned with the green party

I’ve never voted Labour but, my God, this thread is depressing. “He lies”, “he hasn’t got a plan” etc.

Please can we have some actual, fact-based examples? What plan would PPs recommend: magicking up an extra few billion and unilaterally making all of the world’s problems vanish?

John Major was called grey. I’d never vote Tory but he was a good PM.

I’ve no doubt that most of the press and most of the news political pundits what him out. I’m not a fan at all , but it’s clear the media just seem to want the drama of a leadership challenge.
I’m not sure who can take over though?

Agree he does appear at face value to be a decent guy, but think he seems to have pissed off different groups for different reasons. It does sound like he masqueraded his way into being leader of the Labour Party by making promises along traditional Labour Party economic lines, then promptly ditched them and went on a purge of people who aligned that way. He is a charisma free zone with a prissy nasally voice that seems to render people not wanting to hear what he's saying no matter how right or important it is. Plus his lack of actual conviction politics, has led to u-turns which have made him appear wishy washy and not in control.

I don’t care what plan he has. My problem is that I don’t think he has one. I want consistency and delivering on the manifesto they were elected on.

he also shows poor judgement - how bright did you have to be to realise Peter Mandelson wasn’t a good choice?

Exactly, surely that's what we want in lolitical leadership? Let the flamboyant unstable charismatic destructive people become rockstars, tv presenters or drug dealers

He’s admitted being wrong over Mandelson. Rayner didn’t cheat her taxes - HMRC have pretty much said so. And she is a decent person…
Which things are the ‘any number of things’? Just one example.

I don't vote Labour but I don't mind him. I used to think he was a bit of a U Turning idiot but then my friend from a troubled country said "maybe he just listens to experts and opinions of others, and then chooses another way. Isn't that democracy?"

Anyway, cheers to not living in a dictatorship. (For now?) 🥂

I remember watching “Spitting Image” and John Major was cast as a grey puppet.

We will not increase national insurance.

Great! Because they are really delivering on that manifesto!
Did you miss it because the press dont bother reporting it?
pledgeprogress.co.uk

Nope. It was ‘we won’t increase NI for workers’

I honestly think he's ok, verging on good. I'm not generally a Labour voter (did once form tactical reasons), but I really don't think he's that bad at all.

No. I’m a lifelong labour voter and trade union official and i think he’s forgotten what it’s like for the working class.

whether or not hes said he was wrong about Epstein’s mate he still appointed him.

he doesn’t have the sharp political brain I expected him to have at all. I’m so disappointed.

Not n the manifesto it wasn’t.

I Agee 100% with you OP.

Unfortunately people get blinded by clowns like Boris or snake oil salesmen like Farage.

This is what works in third world countries, I never thought I’d see it in the UK, but there we go! I am very sad today.

Yes it’s his blandness. God the man is dull. Also he sounds like he talks out of his nose.

I don’t like KS, it’s not hate it’s just irritation and frustration about the stuff I feel that he’s fucked up. I don’t get the actual hatred at all and don’t want him to step down- that’s the last thing we need right now. If Boris Johnson had done all the stuff that KS has done to make people hate him those same people wouldn’t even tense a muscle let alone demand his head on a silver platter or his resignation.

I voted for Plaid in the Senned btw. Nothing really to do with KS and more Labour as a whole- life long Labour voter up until now. They just so happened to be the party I find my views aligned with usually.