4 months past Since the election to the British Parliament in July and the national polls are already showing the downslide in the populanity of the Labour Party. If in July it was 34% of the votes in favour of the party, nowadays due to the polls on October 24, 2024, it’s only 29% of the popularity.
So, what are the reasons for such a quick downfall?
Keir Starmer has already relived several scandals during his first 4 months in office. Firstly, several parliamentarians left him due to their disagreement with the new cut in subsidies for the senior citizens of the country, later Keir Starmer needed to change the govermental apparatus due to disagreements among his advisors. However, the biggest skandal happened with the main sponsor of the Labour Party, Lord Vaheed Ali, who bought Starmer several costumes and glases on the sum of almost £20,000. The scandal with the “gifts” only strengthens the public in the opinion that nothing has changed, and trust in politicians continues to fall.
As a result, the popularity of Starmer fell down. Labour leaders are already languishing on an approval rating of -38.1 To the end of September more than half of the Brits considered Starmer unsuccessfully fulfill his responsibilities as a Prime Minister, more than 20% stated that they were disappointed in the new government.
At that moment the attitude to the new government will get worse due to the latest statement of the British Prime Minister on October 28, 2024: “The tough stuff is coming in this budget”- prime minister said following a speech in Birmingham on Monday, setting out the context for Rachel Reeves pivotal fiscal statement this week. The Chancellor of the Exchequer would “embrace the harsh light of fiscal reality,” he said.
“If people want to criticise the path we choose, that’s prerogative – but let them then spell out a different direction,”- Starmer said calling on both the Tories and his critics in the media to detail how else they’d fund public services amid a bleak fiscal picture. “Nobody wants higher taxes, nobody wants public spending cuts, but we have to be realistic about where we are as a county.”2
The government is hoping to win the election in five year’ time by stabilizing Britain’s public finances now through as much as £40 billion ($68,6 billion) of tax raises and spending cuts –including payroll taxes for business, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax – combined with an investment ramp up funded by more borrowing. The problem with this decision is that the Labour Party before taking office in July 2024 promised in its political programme not to raise taxes, but right now they are doing exactly the opposite.
However, the incompleteness of the Labour Party can be forgiven by the citizens only in two cases: if everything is done appropriately and the level of life will increase rapidly. Brits are tired of empty promises from the government and want real actions. The main reason why the Labourists won the elections in July 2024 was that the Labor Party was the biggest after Rishi Sunak’s party and they simply voted against the Conservatives.
Today, the same way as several months ago, there are two main problems to solve internally: the downfall in the level of life and the crisis of the British health care system. However, in order to do at least something with these, there is a bigger issue: the budget deficit that enables the government to make decisive steps in the realization of their political promises. Consequently, if the financial plan brings its expected positive effect, everything will be forgiven for the Laborists.
Another positive side of the new government that needs to be mentioned is that Starmer’s government in comparison to his predecessors has appointed office-people with authority in their branches, which slightly differs from the methods of the Tories in the past, where ministers were appointed not due to their competence, but due to their loyalty to the party and to the pro-Brexit ideology. Furthermore, Starmer, unlike Sunak or Truss, started his Foreign Policy by easing relations with the European Union and support for Ukraine, which is perceived positively by the vast majority of British citizens.
At the same time, it is important to remember that 4 months is quite a short term for conclusions about the competence or incompetence of the new government. The main events are ahead: at the end of October, the new government will present the first annual budget, and at the beginning of next year, a multi-year financial plan. “Only then will the new government be able to say, here’s our plan, here’s what we’re doing, here’s our priorities, and here’s the money for all this,”3– said Sam Friedman of the Institute for Government.
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