“We are now, what, four and a half years before the next election,” Starmer said, sitting at a table for dinner in a traditional Ukrainian restaurant in Kyiv. “I remind myself that four and a half years ago, Boris Johnson was prime minister with very high ratings and most commentators were saying he’s going to be prime minister for the next 10 years. So I am a great believer in taking each step as it comes, facing each challenge as it comes, keeping my eye on the long term and not getting distracted by the noises off.”
Those noises have been deafening at times during Labour’s first six months.
A chaotic start saw Starmer’s government overwhelmed by internal divisions, a scandal over his decision to accept thousands of pounds of free gifts, and a tax-raising budget that dismayed the business world and hit pensioners with higher costs.
With the economy sluggish and bond markets rocky, a poll this week put Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party just one point below Labour. Some of Starmer’s colleagues are privately thinking about who could replace him if ratings do not improve.
10-year Keir
Starmer says Labour needs 10 years to put Britain back on track. But given everything that has come his way, is he personally committed to serving out a full two terms as prime minister? “Yes. We want a decade of national renewal. I always said this will take time,” he replied. “We will see material change in the first term of a Labour government but we are talking about a decade of national renewal and I intend to lead from the front.”
By the end of a second five-year stretch in office, Starmer will be 71. The approach he and his top finance minister Rachel Reeves have taken is to frontload all the misery — tax rises, spending cuts — at the start of their time in power. They hope voters forgive them or forget when the next election eventually comes and some of Labour’s promises have been delivered.
