It’s little over five months since the Labour Party won the election. Yet a majority of the UK public are now opting for Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister, according to YouGov. 40% of respondents think he should resign, while 36% think he should remain and 24% don’t know.
Further, Starmer has a net favourability rating of -38. But many who are sick of the two party status quo see Nigel Farage’s Reform as a viable alternative, partly through years of corporate media boosting his profile. In a recent poll for YouGov on voting intention, Farage’s Reform was just one point behind Labour. It had Starmer’s Labour on 26%, Reform on 25% and the Conservatives trailing on 22%.
The surge of Reform underscores the need for the progressive left to unite, potentially under an umbrella group to defeat the far right. In France, the New Popular Front – a broad alliance of the left, centre left, communists and Greens – received the most votes in the 2024 parliamentary election. Starmer indicated what he would prefer in the general election, where he gifted Farage his seat on a platter through essentially withdrawing the Labour candidate for Clacton.
Little wonder Starmer is very unpopular
Starmer abandoned every pledge he made to become Labour leader and through that dropped many policies that are immensely popular with the people. These include public ownership of water, energy and healthcare.
2024 polling shows that 82% want water in public ownership, 71% for energy and 87% for the NHS. Yet Starmer lied about carrying out water nationalisation even as monopoly firms have paid out £72.8bn in dividends over the years, along with eye watering salaries and bonuses for corporate bosses.
He lied about nationalising energy and what’s particularly embarrassing is that Britons don’t even own the national grid itself, which alone has paid out £28bn in dividends since privatisation. And instead of ‘ending outsourcing’ in the NHS as promised, Starmer is expanding private provision of NHS services by 20%, instead of properly investing in healthcare.
On foreign policy, Starmer has failed to stand up to Israel with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn showing what leadership on the issue looks like. 56% want the government to ban arms sales to Israel, compared to 17% who don’t. Yet Starmer has only blocked a woeful 8.5% of licenses.
As well as these policies, Starmer has raised bus fares by 50%, cut the winter fuel payment for some of the least well off pensioners and announced cuts of 5% to each government department. Starmer’s mantra of positive ‘change’ looks like anything but. Hence, the Tory/ Labour double act continues and provides ample fuel for an alternative.
Featured image via the Canary
