How Will History Remember Starmer?
Tyler Kay, Ryan Sheppard, and Rhys Binet
26/06/26
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STARMER OUTSIDE DOWNING STREET, IMAGE: NUMBER 10
A Damning Verdict
Contributor
Previous Labour Prime Ministers demonstrated profound visions of change, with lasting consequences for Britain. Attlee created the modern welfare state; Wilson’s Premiership was marked by liberalising social reforms, and Blair rolled out his “New Deal” and devolution agenda. Instead, Starmer is a man devoid of principles and lacking a decisive vision, having broken all ten pledges upon which he became Leader of the Labour Party and making 13 major U-turns in 18 months in government. This comes at a time when acute domestic and international crises require steadfast leadership. Starmer’s dishonesty was exemplified when he broke his manifesto tax pledges via stealth taxes, precisely mirroring the criticism he levelled at Johnson and Sunak as Leader of the Opposition. Promises of ‘change’ plastered all over Labour’s 2024 election campaign have now appeared to ring very hollow indeed.
His duplicitous record has been marked by scandals and a worrying lack of moral conviction in exercising the Office of Prime Minister. The Lord Alli controversy saw major scrutiny of Starmer and top Labour politicians, as did the resignation of his homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, for evicting tenants and re-letting her property at a substantially higher rent (before the Government’s own Renters’ Rights Act could outlaw this practice). Most notorious was the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador despite his ties with the child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, exhibiting a substantial lack of judgement from the Prime Minister.
Moreover, Starmer promised the WASPI women compensation, only to subsequently deny it, and committed to abolishing the House of Lords, but then appointed failed Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire to the upper chamber after she lost her seat in the 2024 General Election. He stands accused of betraying campaigners by watering down the Hillsborough Law and writing for The Sun, despite pledging not to. He sought to “put human rights at the heart of foreign policy”, yet has continued to sell weapons to Israel and Saudi Arabia, in spite of major violations of international law and the UN’s devastating conclusion that genocide has been committed against the Palestinians. Arrogantly, Starmer recently stated that the removal of the two-child benefit cap to lift 450,000 children out of poverty was his proudest achievement, even though he expelled seven MPs for supporting this same policy measure only the previous year.
Thus, it is no surprise that Starmer is the most unpopular Prime Minister on record and will not be judged kindly by history. With Andy Burnham’s return to Parliament, it is demonstrably clear that Starmer’s tenure is rapidly drawing to a close – the question now is whether Burnham can redefine Labour and unite the country around an inclusive patriotism, or risk handing the country to hard-right populists and ethnonationalists in Reform UK and Restore Britain.
Can it Get Worse?
Contributor
Keir Starmer will go down in history as one of the most inept, uninspiring, divisive, and grossly unpopular Prime Ministers this country has ever had. He had been afforded the opportunity, through a total accident of the system, to be one of the most consequential Prime Ministers in the history of post-war Britain.
Despite receiving fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn did in 2019, Labour’s worst election performance since 1935, he had a parliamentary majority comparable to that of Tony Blair’s landslide in 1997. However, his legacy will be of deceit, incompetence, and leaving unpopular policies to run before pulling a screeching U-turn when the damage, particularly to his backbenchers, had already been done. Winter fuel payment cuts, the so-called family farm tax, National Insurance rises, and the push for digital ID cards, to name but a few. For a man who promised to clean up politics, his legacy will also be tarnished by sleaze, most infamously the appalling decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as our Ambassador in Washington, obstinately dismissing the advice given to him.
Perhaps Starmer’s final legacy will be that he handed the country over to Reform, handing a blank cheque to populism and all the damage that will do to our system and its proud practices as a beacon for liberal democracy.
STARMER DELIVERS A SPEECH ON STATE REFORMS, IMAGE: NUMBER 10
A Plagued Premiership
Editorial Director
Sunak, during his ministry, faced heavy scrutiny, panned by the failings and social discontent of the Conservative government. Now, people remember him in a light which doesn’t burn through. People find “he wasn’t so bad”, and he wasn’t. Will Starmer be thought of this way? Only within the Labour Party will he have such a legacy, if Labour are successful in playing some domineering role in future general elections.
He will ultimately be known for halting 24 years of Tory governing. Individually, as a Prime Minister, he will be remembered with apathy. Internationally, Starmer’s approach to Palestine and Trump overrides any form of diplomatic success, despite the numerous crises which could have played to his favour. Domestically, Mandelson, Reeves as chancellor, Unite the Kingdom rallies, and so forth, generated political football for other parties to play, allowed by Starmer’s lack of communication. Despite the passing of huge social bills (e.g., The Renters Rights and The Assisted Dying Bill), recognition won’t exist in the boring premiership of Starmer; the selectivity of politics persists, but it shows that communication alone creates politics.
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