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I didn’t realise Starmer was viewed so badly ,,

325 replies

aurpod1980 · 21/06/2026 00:01

He came into government at a challenging time - I didn’t realise his confidence score was so so The fatal flaw that brought Keir Starmer crashing down to earth

https://www.thetimes.com/article/8e98de80-1d48-4d1a-8408-ff4d48e1957c?shareToken=44bb913634621653058dd12f864e3eff

The fatal flaw that brought Keir Starmer crashing down to earth

How did a prime minister who won a landslide become the most unpopular in modern times?

https://www.thetimes.com/article/8e98de80-1d48-4d1a-8408-ff4d48e1957c?shareToken=44bb913634621653058dd12f864e3eff

OP posts:
LuckyHazelFox · 21/06/2026 20:14

BIossomtoes · 21/06/2026 20:09

Birmingham City Council did nothing of the sort. It was compelled to comply with equal pay legislation.

They went about it the wrong way as having generous early clocking out schemes for the bin men. The same bin men who didn't empty bins for weeks on end. Greed and money wastage galore.

Pluto46 · 21/06/2026 20:18

LuckyHazelFox · 21/06/2026 19:30

We already pay for public services. They are just very badly managed. Bankrupt councils? What kind of idiots are running them into the ground?

Idiots on 200k a year and a nice fat pension if ours is anything to go by

Clavinova · 21/06/2026 20:18

unistress · 21/06/2026 11:54

I'll put money on it that pretty much all the people chanting that could not give one coherent, fact-based reason why they think so. It's like all the Brexit supporters who were so desperate to leave the EU but could not name one law they disliked that was enforced by it or one tangible thing they would be able to do afterwards that membership prevented. It was either made up bullshit like Johnson's bendy bananas, or nebulous bullshit like take back control.

Keir Starmer hasn't been perfect and I don't agree with everything he has done, but broadly speaking he was on the right lines. God knows what will happen now.

It was either made up bullshit like Johnson's bendy bananas

I don't think the bendy bananas stuff actually was nonsense when first reported. Similar complaints here in the Guardian 2008;

Outraged Sainsbury's drops plan to sell wonky vegetables because staff could be prosecuted.

A leading supermarket has been forced to ditch a healthy eating campaign at the eleventh hour after discovering its staff could be individually prosecuted under EU regulations...

The retailer has written to the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn expressing its concerns over 'bonkers' regulations and has launched an online poll for customers to join the fight for 'wonky' fruit and veg.

Strict EU regulations dictate the shape, size and appearance of 36 fruits and vegetables. For example, it is illegal for supermarkets to sell a cauliflower less than 11cm in diameter, carrots that are forked (with more than one root) or onions with less than two-thirds covered in skin.

The regulations mean that an estimated 20 per cent of British farmers' produce goes to waste.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/nov/02/sainsbury-supermarkets-eu-regulation-halloween

EstoyRobandoSuCasa · 21/06/2026 20:45

LuckyHazelFox · 21/06/2026 19:30

We already pay for public services. They are just very badly managed. Bankrupt councils? What kind of idiots are running them into the ground?

Higher tier authorities (county and unitary councils) have to provide social care by law, regardless of the size and complexity of local demand. The way they provide it is tightly regulated, so not much scope for efficiency savings. Due to an ageing population and other reasons (including profiteering by private residential care providers, which saw prices increase by as much as 100% in a single year), the cost of providing social care has rocketed, so that it now takes up as much as 70% of some councils' budgets. That doesn't leave much budget for the other statutory services (which must be provided, by law) or for discretionary services.

Councils have limited ways of raising more money to cover the shortfall. They can raise council tax, but only by less than 5% per year unless they get special permission from the government, and that would only be for a limited time. They can sell off assets, but once they're gone, they're gone. They used to be allowed to make commercial investments, but as not all of these were successful, I believe the government has put a stop to this policy.

Councils can make efficiency savings in other departments, but the trouble is, most of these were already made in previous years. Many councils now have an issue with skills shortages, especially in the areas of social services and planning, and sometimes within housing/homelessness services. It is hard for them to attract applicants with the right skills and qualifications due to the low salaries on offer.

Of course, some areas are faring better than others. If you live in a wealthy area in which the council tax base has always been above average and the demand for social care is lower than average, your council might be doing OK. But less fortunate councils have no way of making the sums add up in the long-term.

WitchesCauldron · 21/06/2026 20:57

aurpod1980 · 21/06/2026 00:01

He came into government at a challenging time - I didn’t realise his confidence score was so so The fatal flaw that brought Keir Starmer crashing down to earth

https://www.thetimes.com/article/8e98de80-1d48-4d1a-8408-ff4d48e1957c?shareToken=44bb913634621653058dd12f864e3eff

I find it incredible that he is viewed as the most unpopular PM when we've previously had the lettuce and Boris the buffoon. The facts are that this government is making progress, it is the right wing press that has gone after Starmer from the start. We are ditching a decent moral PM for some northern bloke with a massive sense of entitlement who has stabbed him in back. Nothing will change. This plays right into Reform's hands. Disgusted with the Labour MPs who are just looking to save their own skin.

Violinorbanjo · 21/06/2026 21:08

whoever comes will have to keep house migrants, feed them, give out benefits and so on

Cloudconfusion · 21/06/2026 21:12

WitchesCauldron · 21/06/2026 20:57

I find it incredible that he is viewed as the most unpopular PM when we've previously had the lettuce and Boris the buffoon. The facts are that this government is making progress, it is the right wing press that has gone after Starmer from the start. We are ditching a decent moral PM for some northern bloke with a massive sense of entitlement who has stabbed him in back. Nothing will change. This plays right into Reform's hands. Disgusted with the Labour MPs who are just looking to save their own skin.

I agree with you on the latter half of your statement, it’s Labour MPs trying to save their own skin, and changing the pm won’t fix anything, they need to fix their policies. Thays the issue, not the pm. The list of shocking and damaging policies is endless, from the increased taxes, the removal of the child benefit cap, the ridiculous green policies and the resulting decimation of the North Sea, to employers national insurance raise, causing redundancies and the increase in minimum wage for young people, seeing record numbers unemployed, it is Impacting us all. It goes on and on.

The damage they have inflicted is huge. Even unite is reducing their contributions and considering parting ways due to the damage they have inflicted on the working person. It will take years to get back to where we were two years ago.

on Boris, Boris was dishonest. And arguably depending on where you sit, Europe exit was either a negative or a positive. But the rest of boris’s three years, were nothing, nothing like the utter catastrophic policies the Labour Party have reeked on the British public.

and there is more to come. Burnham is hard left. He’s raynor in a suit. So unless he is smart enough to understand how bad it is, and how to fix it, and be able to take on his own party, it’s going to get a lot worse for us as working people. A lot worse. Our standards of living will keep dropping as we pay more and more on benefits, as we pay more and more for our energy, with more and more becoming unemployed, our children struggling to find employment.

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 21:19

unistress · 21/06/2026 18:34

The NHS in Wales is a devolved matter and the article makes no mention of immigration as a cause. I fact, it talks about patient care being compromised by an overall shortage of nurses, which does not imply the posts are being filled by immigrants, it implies they aren't being filled at all.

NHS is devolved in Wales but why do you think thousands of nurses can’t get jobs anywhere in the UK?

unistress · 21/06/2026 21:24

@Soontobesleeping From what I have read, there aren't. There are lots of unfilled vacancies though. You posted a link for Wales - do you have one for England?

TheHateIsNotGood · 21/06/2026 21:31

I could never understand why the Labour Party elected KS as their leader; and never will. Despite his 'son of a toolmaker and a nurse' credentials the guy is just too South Eastern and London-based to ever grasp the post-Thatcher 'situation' in many parts of the country.

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 21:34

Badbadbunny · 21/06/2026 19:56

Corbyn got 10m votes in 2019, Boris got 14m. 32% compared with 44%

In 2024

Starmer got 10m votes, Rishi got 7m votes. 34% compared with 24%

So Labour's votes held pretty steady, whereas Tory votes crashed and burned.

Some convenient rounding there.
Corbyn 10,295,907
Starmer 9,708,716
A loss of 587,191 votes or 6%, nothing like the Tories loss but still a significant drop.

If everyone who voted Reform had voted Conservative then it would likely have been a hung parliament.

caringcarer · 21/06/2026 21:38

AnneLovesGilbert · 21/06/2026 08:11

I read that piece earlier and it’s brilliant. If you follow politics it’s been clear for a long time how unpopular he is and the reasons why. There outlined well in the article. When football stadiums ring out with “Keir Starmer’s a wanker” it’s over.

Agreed.

caringcarer · 21/06/2026 21:40

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 21:34

Some convenient rounding there.
Corbyn 10,295,907
Starmer 9,708,716
A loss of 587,191 votes or 6%, nothing like the Tories loss but still a significant drop.

If everyone who voted Reform had voted Conservative then it would likely have been a hung parliament.

Many people were so disalusioned with selection of MP's available they didn't even turn out to vote.

EasternStandard · 21/06/2026 21:43

TheHateIsNotGood · 21/06/2026 21:31

I could never understand why the Labour Party elected KS as their leader; and never will. Despite his 'son of a toolmaker and a nurse' credentials the guy is just too South Eastern and London-based to ever grasp the post-Thatcher 'situation' in many parts of the country.

It was all that McSweeney, Mandelson Labour crowd. They were happy to push forward the toolmaker line and KS, but it’s tanked.

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 21:46

unistress · 21/06/2026 21:24

@Soontobesleeping From what I have read, there aren't. There are lots of unfilled vacancies though. You posted a link for Wales - do you have one for England?

You know Welsh students don’t need a visa to work in England?

However, Google is your friend if you want articles from elsewhere.

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 21:49

caringcarer · 21/06/2026 21:40

Many people were so disalusioned with selection of MP's available they didn't even turn out to vote.

Indeed. As PP mentioned earlier - the large number of Labour MPs does not mean the electorate support them.

unistress · 21/06/2026 21:56

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 21:46

You know Welsh students don’t need a visa to work in England?

However, Google is your friend if you want articles from elsewhere.

I've used Google thanks and everything I've found contradicts what you're saying.

I can't speak for Welsh nurses and why they aren't choosing to move to England to take up the thousands of nursing vacancies that exist, but it isn't because immigrants have taken the posts because, um, they haven't, hence the, you know, vacancies.

38thparallel · 21/06/2026 22:04

@ElizaMulvil
NO they won't leave. They like it here and 70% actually want to pay more tax.

Where does the claim come from that 70% of billionaires in Britain want to pay more?
There’s nothing stopping them from paying more tax if they want to.

Soontobesleeping · 21/06/2026 22:25

unistress · 21/06/2026 21:56

I've used Google thanks and everything I've found contradicts what you're saying.

I can't speak for Welsh nurses and why they aren't choosing to move to England to take up the thousands of nursing vacancies that exist, but it isn't because immigrants have taken the posts because, um, they haven't, hence the, you know, vacancies.

https://www.nursingtimes.net/newly-registered-nurses/student-nurses-protest-over-job-shortages-for-newly-qualifieds-20-05-2026/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2488mn4r4po

“Students in England and Scotland also described how they feared there would be no jobs for them at the end of their degrees, with one woman describing how her heart breaks for her son, who is working in Starbucks and considering moving to Canada so he can use his physiotherapy degree.”

https://rcni.com/nursing-standard/newsroom/news/no-jobs-for-new-nurses-final-year-nursing-students-stage-protest-

midwives:

https://lowdownnhs.info/hospitals/newly-qualifying-nurses-and-midwives-fearful-they-wont-find-jobs/

going back a couple of years

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1203000167868980&id=100044770244640

physiotherapy;

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nhs-physiotherapist-jobs-england-posts-b2777379.html

Student nurses protest over job shortages for newly qualifieds

Students have rallied outside the RCN’s annual conference to protest again a nation-wide shortage of job opportunities for new nurses.

https://www.nursingtimes.net/newly-registered-nurses/student-nurses-protest-over-job-shortages-for-newly-qualifieds-20-05-2026/

unistress · 21/06/2026 22:43

@Soontobesleeping The top article was behind a paywall and the Facebook one I can't access as I'm not on it but you say it's old anyway. The others were about Wales again or specifically about newly qualified nurses not being recruited because they are too expensive to supervise. None of them give any indication that immigration is causing these issues - there was one in which a nurse from Sierra Leonne said her dream of working in the UK was shattered due to a recruitment freeze. Did you read them? Others were specifically about physiotherapy and didn't mention immigration - I don't think physiotherapy is a field with a particularly high number of immigrants working in it.

Stop trying to blame everything on immigration while conveniently ignoring the fact that Labour under Keir Starmer has done an awful lot to reduce it further.

LovingTelescopes · 21/06/2026 23:33

I think a year in to Andy Burnham's tenure and many people will be wishing Starmer back again, as he will have gormless Angela Raynor as Foreign Secretary and zealot Milliband as Chancellor. All three are self serving, far left, back stabbers.

He may have more charisma than Starmer-not a high bar-but he is a manipulating man who thinks we can do without the bond markets, is a big supporter of trans women (men) wants open borders and all topped off with tax and spend.

He has affirmed or denied all these things depending on his audience.

Dreadful little prick.

EstoyRobandoSuCasa · 22/06/2026 00:16

Badbadbunny · 21/06/2026 20:00

But there's no money. We can't keep borowing. National debt is already 3 TRILLION and the interest alone is 100 BILLION each year.

Something BIG has to give.

And no, taxing billionaires won't cut it - it's another sixth form level policy like vat on private school fees and the IHT changes and employers NIC which will cause more damage than good, but sound good for the hard of thinking!

If our politicians were halfway competent, they'd impose policies for economic growth and employment based on business growth, rather than "punish" successful people and businesses!

We can't tax our way out of it. So we either have to create significant economic growth or cut costs. No other viable options.

I agree that we can't keep borrowing. I don't agree that we can carry on cutting services which have already been slashed to the bone. The NHS and some councils already spend far too much on agency staff to plug staff shortages and skills gaps, when what they really need for an efficient, sustainable service is a sufficient number of permanent staff. Cuts to social care have also made the NHS less efficient. This is for several reasons, but one of the most obvious is due to delayed discharges i.e. bed-blocking.

As for the Ministry of Justice, the Tories made massive austerity cuts to its budget during the last government, which ultimately resulted in the closure of eight crown court centres and more than 160 magistrates courts by 2022. The government also slashed Legal Aid in 2013, meaning that fewer barristers now take criminal cases. Thanks to this combination, the courts couldn't clear the backlog caused mainly by the Covid pandemic and it has now increased to 79,600 cases. According to the MoJ, this number is expected to rise to 100,000 by 2028 (reported by the BBC).

David Lammy has proposed easing this backlog by restricting the right to trial by jury, which has been extremely controversial, but to be fair to him, he's having to try to solve a problem which is not of his making.

We can't keep on cutting. Beyond a certain point it becomes a false economy which ultimately costs us more than it saves. We're all going to have to pay more in taxes one way or the other.

OonaStubbs · 22/06/2026 00:51

What will Starmer do next? Will he remain as an MP? Will he be prepared to serve in Burnham's cabinet?

QuintadosMalvados · 22/06/2026 06:40

I cant stand him.
Grey, overreaching, soulless, charmless, convictionless, interfering, clueless twat.

That time he didn't know what a woman was. Arsehole twunt.

Lawyers should not be Prime Ministers.

Schadenfreude. Ha ha ha. Fuck off Starmer.

caringcarer · 22/06/2026 06:44

unistress · 21/06/2026 22:43

@Soontobesleeping The top article was behind a paywall and the Facebook one I can't access as I'm not on it but you say it's old anyway. The others were about Wales again or specifically about newly qualified nurses not being recruited because they are too expensive to supervise. None of them give any indication that immigration is causing these issues - there was one in which a nurse from Sierra Leonne said her dream of working in the UK was shattered due to a recruitment freeze. Did you read them? Others were specifically about physiotherapy and didn't mention immigration - I don't think physiotherapy is a field with a particularly high number of immigrants working in it.

Stop trying to blame everything on immigration while conveniently ignoring the fact that Labour under Keir Starmer has done an awful lot to reduce it further.

Labour are paying people who come over on dingies £10k each to withdraw their asylum claims. They are paying up to £40k per family of 4. They withdraw their claims and take the £10k each go back and give to their families where they previously lived and within 5 months are back on the dingie claiming asylum again. That's why assulum numbers appear to have reduced. Labour are bankrupting the UK.