{"id":438532,"date":"2025-09-20T12:36:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T12:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/438532\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T12:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T12:36:29","slug":"mistakes-cost-starmer-as-inflation-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/438532\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistakes cost Starmer as inflation looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tLabour MPs\u00a0 are upset and frustration about the Government\u2019s stupid, unforced errors\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

As Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> enjoyed watercress panna cotta and organic Norfolk chicken ballotine at the state banquet on Wednesday evening, he could have done worse than asking for some leadership advice from the woman seated next to him.<\/p>\n

As a former professional cheerleader, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s wife Jeanette would no doubt have some helpful tips on how to motivate and inspire a large crowd.<\/p>\n

And judging by the mood of the Labour party ahead of this month\u2019s crunch conference in Liverpool, Starmer needs the advice.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister may have avoided any disasters during Donald Trump\u2019s state visit this week \u2013 with a feeling of jubilation across government that the occasion was a success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Doubts over No 10\u2019s ability to reach voters<\/p>\n

But there are lingering doubts about the Government\u2019s domestic agenda and the ability of Downing Street to get a positive message out to voters as Labour remains behind Reform in the polls.<\/p>\n

And while Starmer was holding court with Trump on the world stage, the metrics of the Government\u2019s Plan for Change were all looking shaky: NHS waiting lists are up for the second month in a row, inflation remains stubbornly high at 3.8 per cent overall \u2013 and at a whopping 5.1 per cent for food \u2013 and despite the first flights of migrants returning to France under the one-in-one-out deal, the issue of borders is still seen as a weakness for Reform to exploit.<\/p>\n

\"Britain'sKeir Starmer attends the state banquet at Windsor Castle on Wednesday (Photo: Evan Vucci\/Pool\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n

One Labour backbencher said they were happy the state visit had gone well but added: \u201cWe need to hear more about what the Government is doing for families and the cost of living, the price of food and so on. That is a huge issue for voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

MP Rachael Maskell, who lost the Labour whip earlier this year for rebelling over welfare cuts, said: \u201cThis week has placed on display the culture by which the powerful inhabit and now all eyes must turn to challenges the people endure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs conference looms, people will not be looking at ceremony but certainty for the \u2018change\u2019 they voted for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018International diplomacy doesn\u2019t win votes\u2019<\/p>\n

Labour MP Luke Akehurst was more upbeat, saying: \u201cThe success of the state visit is a timely reminder of just how impressive Keir is on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cNow he needs to use Labour\u2019s annual conference to inspire the party and the country with a positive message about wider economic and social change and a clear programme for tackling policy crises like illegal immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Hopkins, political research director of pollsters Savanta, said: \u201cInternational diplomacy doesn\u2019t win votes, but might lose them, and Starmer will be relieved to come out of a potentially hazardous state visit from Trump unscathed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will do little to distract from his domestic challenges though, and with his showpiece party conference approaching, Starmer will be hoping that he can go into that with some more positive momentum than he currently has, otherwise it risks further entrenching already negative perceptions held towards Starmer and Labour from large swathes of the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Angela Rayner was forced to resign after failing to pay the correct amount of stamp duty
(Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz\/Future Publishing via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Given the recent turbulence over how the departures of Angela Rayner and Peter Mandelson were handled, with the Prime Minister offering both his full confidence before they were forced out, some in the party want the No10 operation to be sharper at communication.<\/p>\n

There has been a rejig inside Downing Street, with ex-Tony Blair adviser Tim Allan joining as head of communications just before Rayner\u2019s resignation over her property portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need someone like Alastair Campbell\u2019<\/p>\n

But some MPs are calling for an Alastair Campbell figure, with a background in journalism, to take charge of communications and create an overarching narrative message that can appeal to voters who are fleeing to Reform on the right and the Greens on the left.<\/p>\n

A backbench Labour MP from a Red Wall seat said: \u201cI don\u2019t think our poll position was inevitable\u2026 I think we\u2019ve made missteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019m kind of upset with my own side on mistakes like the winter fuel allowance, which I think was a stupid mistake to make, I\u2019m actually feeling a bit frustrated with just how difficult it is to get the right messages across\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you speak to most Labour MPs, the honest ones would tell you that, yes, they feel a bit disillusioned. I think there\u2019s been a failure over 12 months to make us feel like a team. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just met with my whip and that was my message to him: to try to include us a bit more and make it easier for us to lobby ministers for things in our constituencies.<\/p>\n

\"\"Today\u2019s Labour MPs are yearning for someone like Tony Blair\u2019s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell to step in (Photo: PA Wire)<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with the media printing the truth. It\u2019s the fact that there is absolutely no coverage of every positive thing that we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need an Alastair Campbell-type person to help us get more on top of the narrative. I\u2019ve seen a slight improvement lately. I think our attack against Reform is improving. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut then it\u2019s the own goals that worry me. They couldn\u2019t see what an own goal the winter fuel allowance stuff was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillipson v Powell<\/p>\n

There is also the question of Labour\u2019s deputy leadership contest, between Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and newly backbenched Lucy Powell, running in the background.<\/p>\n

Powell has rejected as sexist talk that her run is a proxy for Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, as she is standing on her own terms.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, as Labour conference approaches, the battle between government loyalist Phillipson and soft left Powell is expected to intensify the party\u2019s debate over its future under Starmer.<\/p>\n

\"\"The deputy leadership election is a face-off between Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell (Photos: Carlos Jasso\/AFP; Ian Forsyth\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The backbench Red Wall MP said there was some unhappiness in Labour ranks that the recent reshuffle did not promote enough \u201cminister-quality people who aren\u2019t ministers\u201d, adding: \u201cInevitably, you get frustration, and you get people who feel like their political careers are going to be short and unhappy because they face the prospect of losing their seat before they\u2019ve ever had any chance to really climb up and make their mark on the world\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians are idealists who want to make a difference\u2026 So, you end up with quite an unhappy PLP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Success of the Trump state visit<\/p>\n

Despite the Government\u2019s troubles on the domestic front, it felt it had plenty to shout about after Trump\u2019s state visit.<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s intervention on Ukraine\u2013 when he used his state banquet speech to urge Trump to stand up to the \u201ctyranny\u201d of Putin \u2013 is being seen in government as crucial to the president\u2019s toughening of language at the press conference in Chequers the next day, when he said the Russian president had \u201creally let me down\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"KingTrump and his wife Melania enjoyed his dinner with the King and Queen (Photo: Aaron Chown\/PA).<\/p>\n

But Trump stopped short of threatening fresh action like sanctions against Putin after bringing up the issue of some European countries still buying oil from Russia.<\/p>\n

During a briefing with journalists on Air Force One en route back to the US, Trump claimed Starmer was \u201cembarrassed\u201d at this revelation.<\/p>\n

Yet diplomatic insiders believe that Trump\u2019s tougher language represented progress that could be built on.<\/p>\n

\u2018A relationship other leaders would be envious of\u2019<\/p>\n

Luke Sullivan, a former aide to Starmer, said the PM had demonstrated the \u201cunique rapport\u201d he had managed to build with Trump \u2013 \u201ca relationship that every other world leader will be envious of\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will seek to use this to draw a line under a turbulent past few weeks and will roll into conference with the intention of showing his party and the country the direction he wants his government to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately his pitch to the party and public is this is a government delivering and whilst there are noises off, he is determined to show by doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrimeTrump and Starmer announced their agreements during a press conference at Chequers (Photo: Leon Neal\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

However, a senior Labour MP warned that Starmer would have to distance himself from Trump if he was to keep hold of the progressive vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the midterms are done in the US, he needs to pivot away from Trump and start to shift closer to [Gavin] Newsom if he wants to have any hope of winning the next election,\u201d the MP said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople understand the need to keep close to Trump, but there gets to a point that you have to show that we are different to them, that we have Labour, progressive values that are closer to that of the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Labour aide described Thursday \u2013 when the US-UK tech prosperity deal was signed and Trump praised the \u201cunbreakable bond\u201d between their two nations \u2013 as Starmer\u2019s best day \u201csince the Oval Office\u201d.<\/p>\n

The aide added: \u201cNew strategy \u2013 call a Trump summit and presser everytime it\u2019s looking bad for us: \u2018A historic eleventh state visit has taken place\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said it was \u201chilarious\u201d that Nigel Farage had not been given a seat at the state banquet, despite his closeness to Trump, and described the infighting in Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s new party as a \u201cgift\u201d.<\/p>\n

But they warned \u201cwait for conference\u201d before deciding whether Starmer is really out of the woods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour MPs\u00a0 are upset and frustration about the Government\u2019s stupid, unforced errors As Sir Keir Starmer enjoyed watercress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,32,1700,476,807,8414,7570,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-438532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-inflation","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-labour","14":"tag-politics-long-read","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115236660235019663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}