Labour Supporters - Do you think it would help if KS was replaced?

[Mrsmunchofmunchington]

I am a life long labour voter. Like many I am incredibly disappointed, in fact I’m devastated by the direction of the current government.

Something needs to change in a pretty radical way or we are opening the door to Deform.

I’m torn between thinking the last thing we need is another revolving door at no 10 but I have lost any confidence that KS is able to lead us out of the mess the tories left us in.

Would it be a good thing to change leaders if this was possible and if so who should it be?

I agree, he's working class and gay ... that should count for something?

I think Wes Streeting would be good to take over towards the end of this Parliament, before the next GE. He’s wiling to shake things up, still dances on a pinhead on the women’s rights v trans issue but does seem to learn from talking to people. He’s making great efforts in his dept and may have some successes to show for it by 2029. He’s a much better communicator than Starmer and hopefully has a number of MPs behind him. I’m in the north, and a woman-I’d rather have a competent effective southern man than a box ticking exercise.

He’s also in a seat with a wafer thin majority. It would be absolute madness to elect a leader who could easily lose their seat.

They could move him to a safer seat though.

They could. It would be terminally stupid though.

Why?

It really doesn’t matter whether Labour force Starmer out or not, or whether he’s replaced by Burnham or Streeting or Mahmood or Uncle Tom Cobley. The simple truth is that they lied their way into office, have shown they’re as unprincipled with power as all the rest, and have no idea what to do. Most of all. the economy is in the toilet because of Labour.

I cannot vote Reform. I think Reform’s a dodgy outfit. But I fully understand why so many people have turned against Labour. Starmer’s just the present lightning rod. Any replacement for him would become the next one.

Just to add to my KS criticism, he didn’t attend the women’s rugby World Cup-you could bet he’d attend a men’s football World Cup. I do think he needs to take representation within the UK as well as on the world stage seriously

I agree @RobinStrike . He could have gone along with Mark Carney and Anthony Albanese to Twickenham yesterday afternoon, and still have made it to Liverpool in time for dinner. Not doing so implies that he's not behind women's sports and that he thinks rugby is for toffs. Which is hardly a recipe for national unity.

Wasn't it the first day of the Labour Party conference though? Surely one of the Royals should have gone.

Do politicians go to rugby matches? That private school game? Don’t think they have made a habit of this. Plus it’s seen as a jolly. Royal family maybe. They attend far more - as they should. Politicians - no.

What lies do you believe they told to get into office?

I'm not saying they didn't, I'm just curious. They said they would be responsible and avoid recklessness like the Liz Truss debacle, which regardless of what they might have done better they basically have. They said they wouldn't raise taxes on "working people" and haven't raised income tax, VAT or employees' NI, although they have raise employers' NI contributions so that's maybe a grey area.

I don't honestly remember them saying anything much else - people just voted for them because they weren't the Tories, not because of any particular promises.

Let's replace him with AI

They said they would prioritise growing the economy and that they would "end the chaos" of the Tories 🤣🤣 they said both things repeatedly throughout the manifesto.

They also said they would apply VAT to private school fees in their manifesto and they have done that.

Don’t worry there’s the VAT policy ;

I voted Labour, tactically, but I’m a LibDem member. No, it’s ridiculous the way the press are hounding Labour, and that Kuennsberg woman should be sacked after yesterday’s interview.

She should have been sacked long ago. She clearly knows where a lot of bodies are buried.

Why should she be sacked?

Why what did she do that you didn’t like?

In terms of manifesto pledges, they’ve been found to have achieved or made progress on two thirds:
https://fullfact.org/politics/tracker-blog-september-2025/

Obviously, still plenty of things that they have got wrong and are still yet to address, but not the levels of incompetence people would have you believe, particularly with the legacy left by Brexit and the Tories.

In particular, Starmer has done well internationally in terms from diplomacy and re-setting a lot of our relationships with EU countries. But I agree, there’s something that isn’t connecting with the public and with domestic politics…yet(?). Lots of possible reasons for this - maybe it’s Starmer, maybe it’s his comms approach, maybe it’s the press/social media, maybe we’re too impatient, maybe politics is broken, maybe it’s a combination of factors. What is definite though, is that if he is replaced (and I don’t think he should be right now), whoever takes over leadership of a Labour government will be targeted in exactly the same way he has been. I saw an online poll today in which 28% thought Starmer was responsible for Brexit - I mean, that’s mind-blowingly ridiculous, but also an absolute prime example of how much of a target he is and how wildly ill-informed perspectives on him can be.

@Sherbs12 Have you considered the possibility that Starmer may be unpopular due to the things Labour have done that they didn't put in their manifesto? WFA, Farmer IHT, business tax etc. Nobody voted for those and the consequences have been damaging for many.

Changing the leader won't change the reality that the financial markets are about to throw them under the bus, if anything, changing the leader to someone further left it will probably make it happen sooner.

At least RR and KS vaguely understand this.

Yes, of course - I understand that. Similarly, he’s alienated a lot of core Labour voters with their failure to lift the 2 child benefit cap, failure to follow through on promises re WASPI, approach to Israel/Palestine. And people will get to vote his party out at next General Election based on these ‘unpopular’ decisions should they choose; I just don’t think replacing him just over a year into office is the right plan, in my opinion. Also, both things can be true at the same time: he has made unpopular decisions that weren’t in the manifesto AND the targeting he gets via the MSM/social media is particularly vicious.

The lies were endless. The biggest one was supposed Tory Covid PPE contracts corruption - an accusation strangely dropped by Labour once in office. That was the biggest political lie in at least a hundred years.

The hypocrisy of Labour attacking the Tories for considering WFA cuts, which never happened, and then introducing those cuts within days of being in power, also counts as a massive lie, as a further example.

Bur why didn’t you ask me about Labour’s lack of principles in power, or their utterly shit stewardship of the economy?